DefenceTalkUS Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Sunday that operations to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group were key to defeating the jihadist group. “This is a decisive moment in the campaign to deliver ISIL a lasting defeat,” Carter said in a statement. “We are confident our Iraqi partners will […]https://www.defencetalk.com/mosul-offensive-a-decisive-moment-in-anti-is-campaign-us-defense-secretary-68392/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon was preparing for possible new strikes in Yemen on Thursday after US missiles hit Huthi rebel targets, but officials stressed America wants to avoid getting embroiled in yet another war. The US Navy earlier launched five Tomahawk cruise missiles at three mobile radar sites in Huthi-controlled territory on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, after […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-prepares-for-possible-new-strikes-in-yemen-68387/

DefenceTalkA remote-controlled ISIS hobby plane rigged with hidden explosives killed two Kurdish fighters and injured two French special operations troops near Mosul, French and US sources confirmed Wednesday. While the Pentagon has previously said the Islamic State group uses simple, commercially available drones to conduct surveillance and carry small explosives, this was the first known […]https://www.defencetalk.com/isis-drone-kills-kurdish-fighters-hurts-french-troops-68379/

DefenceTalkEight Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack on a security post on Sunday blamed on Kurdish militants in the restive southeast, local media reported, quoting the armed forces. Five soldiers were also injured in the attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari close to the border with Iraq and Iran, CNN-Turk broadcaster […]https://www.defencetalk.com/eight-turkish-soldiers-killed-in-car-bombing-report-68347/

DefenceTalkUnited Nations: More than 140 people were killed and more than 525 injured Saturday when air strikes hit a funeral ceremony in Yemen, a United Nations official said, with Huthi rebels blaming the attack on the Saudi-led coalition. The UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said aid workers were “shocked and outraged” by the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/more-than-140-killed-in-air-strikes-on-yemen-funeral-un-68332/

DefenceTalkCanada called Sunday for a prompt investigation into the air strikes that killed more than 140 people and wounded hundreds of others at a funeral ceremony in Yemen’s capital. The Iran-backed Huthi rebels blamed the Saudi-led coalition for Saturday’s attack, one of the deadliest since it launched a military campaign against the Shiite insurgents in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/canada-demands-probe-of-yemen-funeral-air-strike-68327/

DefenceTalkExplosions echoed across Kunduz as Afghan commandos drove back a Taliban assault on Monday, forcing residents to shelter in their homes, a year after militants briefly seized the strategic provincial capital. Government helicopters were targeting gunmen from the air in a bid to repel the attack, which came a day before President Ashraf Ghani was […]https://www.defencetalk.com/afghan-forces-repel-taliban-assault-on-kunduz-city-68286/

DefenceTalkSyrian regime forces advanced Sunday in Aleppo after Russia unleashed dozens of air strikes, as the UN’s top aid official decried the “living hell” suffered by residents in the city’s rebel-held east. The devastating five-year war in Syria has ravaged second city Aleppo, once the country’s economic hub but now torn apart by fighting between […]https://www.defencetalk.com/syria-army-advances-as-un-decries-aleppos-living-hell-68269/

DefenceTalkA regional administration in Somalia said rival forces deliberately misled the US into launching an air strike that killed 13 of its troops and wounded seven others. The US confirmed conducting the strike on Wednesday morning near the town of Galkayo, but said it targeted the Shabaab, an al-Qaeda group. “During a Somali-led counterterrorism operation […]https://www.defencetalk.com/somali-force-duped-us-into-bombing-rival-official-68261/

DefenceTalkNumerous doctors and nurses and medical facilities have been hit or targeted by missiles or air strikes since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011. The latest case came when an air strike and artillery fire hit the two largest hospitals in rebel-held parts of Syria’s Aleppo overnight, in what rights groups […]https://www.defencetalk.com/health-workers-hospitals-targeted-in-syria-war-68247/