Michael R. Gordon
Monday, August 28, 2017 - 06:58
KIEV, Ukraine — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis vowed on Thursday to help Ukraine stand up to Russian violations of its sovereignty and signaled that the Trump administration was considering providing defensive weapons to the Ukrainian military.
President Barack Obama had resisted such a step, fearing it would be seen as a provocation by Russia. In the first visit to Ukraine by an American defense secretary in nearly a decade, Mr. Mattis seemed to be anticipating that argument.
Monday, July 17, 2017 - 12:33
This article discusses the implications of the Trump administrations consultation with private security companies to devise a plan in Afghanistan. A Washington Post article discusses why private military contractors aren’t going to do a better job in Afghanistan.
Monday, October 24, 2016 - 06:50
A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - 06:40
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter arrived here on Wednesday to confer with Iraq’s top leadership on steps to speed the American-led campaign against the Islamic State, including the Pentagon’s offer to support Iraqi forces with Apache helicopters.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - 06:29
In Sinjar, Iraq, fighters from the Islamic State carved a network of tunnels. To defend Hawija, Iraq, they erected a 10-foot sand wall. And virtually everywhere they have surrounded their positions with dense minefields of I.E.D.s, backed by machine guns, mortars and suicide bombers.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 - 06:36
Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said.
Friday, November 13, 2015 - 06:20
The United States and its allies have sharply increased their airstrikes against the sprawling oil fields that the Islamic State controls in eastern Syria in an effort to disrupt one of the terrorist group’s main sources of revenue, American officials said this week.
Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 06:10
Kurdish forces aided by thousands of lightly armed Yazidi fighters began a long-awaited offensive early Thursday to reclaim Mount Sinjar and an accompanying town from the Islamic State, which seized the northern Iraqi territory last year and murdered, raped and enslaved thousands of Yazidis.
Monday, November 9, 2015 - 06:28
As the United States prepares to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, the Arab allies who with great fanfare sent warplanes on the initial missions there a year ago have largely vanished from the campaign.
Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 06:21
American and Kurdish commandos raided an Islamic State outpost near the northern Iraqi town of Hawija, freeing prisoners there and capturing some of the militants themselves, Iraqi officials said on Thursday.