DefenceTalkAfghanistan on Saturday welcomed the Pentagon’s decision to deploy some 300 US Marines to the volatile province of Helmand, where American forces engaged in heated combat until their mission ended in 2014. The Marines will head to the poppy-growing southern province this spring to assist a NATO-led mission to train Afghan forces, in the latest […]https://www.defencetalk.com/afghanistan-welcomes-return-of-us-marines-to-helmand-68767/

DefenceTalkChina has offered the Philippines guns and equipment worth $14 million to wage its war on drugs and combat terrorism, Manila’s defence minister said Tuesday, as ties improve under President Rodrigo Duterte. Beijing has publicly backed the controversial campaign, which has left 5,300 people dead in less than six months and drawn criticism from the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-offers-guns-worth-14-mn-for-drug-war-philippines-68704/

DefenceTalkThe White House has blocked the transfer of precision munitions to ally Saudi Arabia, amid anger about the civilian death toll from the kingdom’s bombing campaign in Yemen. “We have made clear that US security cooperation is not a blank check,” a senior administration official told AFP, echoing long-standing concerns about how Riyadh is prosecuting […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-cancels-weapons-transfers-to-saudi-over-yemen-campaign-68676/

DefenceTalkNew satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed “significant” defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said Wednesday. Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up from much smaller land protuberances and reefs. Although Beijing has said […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-boosts-defenses-on-s-china-sea-islets-us-experts-68667/

DefenceTalkRussia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that the Syrian army resumed its assault in eastern Aleppo after rebels broke a truce intended to allow them to evacuate. The ministry said that its military monitors in Syria had organised the evacuation of fighters from the city by bus following an agreement between rebel leaders and Damascus, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/syria-army-resumed-aleppo-assault-after-rebels-broke-truce-russia-68664/

DefenceTalkWashington will send another 200 troops to Syria to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seize the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Saturday. They will join 300 US special forces troops already deployed in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance in the drive on the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-chief-announces-200-more-us-troops-for-syria-68659/

DefenceTalkNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un conducted a large-scale artillery drill simulating an attack on the South Korean capital and other targets, as Seoul and Tokyo on Friday unveiled fresh unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program. The military exercise, involving multiple batteries of frontline heavy artillery units, targeted five border islands, as well […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-artillery-drill-targets-south-seoul-unveils-sanctions-68640/

DefenceTalkParis prosecutors have opened a probe into the leaking of a confidential document on planned French air strikes in Syria in 2013, which in the end were never carried out, judicial sources said Monday. The document was obtained by two journalists from the daily Le Monde who recently published a tell-all book based on interviews […]https://www.defencetalk.com/paris-prosecutors-probe-leak-on-french-air-strikes-in-syria-68604/

DefenceTalkThe US-led international coalition battling to defeat the Islamic State group is not backing a drive by Turkish forces and Syrian rebels to retake a jihadist stronghold in northern Syria, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Their offensive on the city of Al-Bab is not being supported by coalition air strikes because it was “independently” launched by […]https://www.defencetalk.com/coalition-not-backing-turkish-move-on-al-bab-us-68594/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon said Wednesday that US air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State group may have killed 119 civilians since 2014, a figure far lower than casualty estimates by monitoring groups. The figures released by Centcom, the US military command in the Middle East, came from a months-long review of reports and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-strikes-may-have-killed-119-civilians-in-iraq-syria-pentagon-68565/