( Al-Monitor )- A State Department review that faulted the agency for failing to comply with its own policies for overseeing bomb disposal grants in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan won’t impact ongoing efforts to remove improvised explosive devices left behind by the Islamic State (IS),...

U.S.-backed Syrian fighters advancing from eastern and western parts of the northern city of Raqqa have linked up for the first time in weeks after launching their offensive against Daesh (ISIS) militants there. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces launched a wide offensive to capture...

( The Guardian )- Concerns are mounting over the civilian cost of the US-led coalition’s campaign to reclaim Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, with reports of airstrikes killing and wounding hundreds of Syrians.  The reports, which cannot be definitively confirmed but are...

As nuclear-armed North Korea's missile stand-off with the U.S. escalates, calls are mounting in the South for Seoul to build nuclear weapons of its own to defend itself - which would complicate the situation even further. The South, which hosts U.S. 28,500 troops on its soil to defend it...