Islamic State

U.S. Carrier in Middle East Focused on Missions Over Afghanistan, Maritime Security

Sailors huddle to communicate as an F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) in the Arabian Sea on Dec. 18, 2018. US Navy Photo

Afghanistan – not Syria – has been the primary focus of the air wing embarked aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) since the carrier strike group entered U.S. 5th Fleet in early December, USNI News has learned.

As of Thursday morning, the Stennis Carrier Strike...

https://news.usni.org/2018/12/20/u-s-carrier-in-middle-east-focused-on-missions-over-afghanistan-maritime-security

Panel: National Defense Strategy Doesn’t Meet Challenge of Countering China, Russia

Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin greet participants of Joint Sea-2014 exercise at Wusong naval port in Shanghai, east China, May 20, 2014. Xinhua Photo

Without predictable funding and realistic concepts of operations, the National Defense Strategy doesn’t meet the challenges of a rising China expanding in the Indo-Pacific and an aggressive Russia in Eastern Europe, the co-chairmen of the panel reviewing the document warned the Senate Armed Services Committee on...

https://news.usni.org/2018/11/28/panel-national-defense-strategy-doesnt-meet-challenge-of-rising-china-russia

French Ambassador Says Washington Could Do More to Help Shape Syria’s Future


The Bashar al Assad regime’s ever-tightening circle on Syrian resistance fighters could send a million or more refugees into Turkey and scatter thousands of Islamic extremists around the region, France’s ambassador to Washington warned Monday.

Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., he added, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met over the weekend in Istanbul to discuss...

https://news.usni.org/2018/10/30/french-ambassador-says-washington-help-shape-syrias-future

Report to Congress on Armed Conflict in Syria

The following is the Sept. 21, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response.

From the report

The Syria conflict, now in its eighth year, remains a significant policy challenge for the United States. U.S. policy toward Syria in the past several years has given highest priority to counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL/ISIS), but also has included nonlethal assistance to opposition-held communities, support...

https://news.usni.org/2018/09/24/36780

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