The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the use of mustard gas, a powerful chemical agent, during a battle in the northern Syrian city of Marea on August 21, the BBC reported Friday. The OPCW report has not yet been published, but journalists who have had access...

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The global financial giant Deutsche Bank was fined $258 million for violating American sanctions against Iran, Syria, and other nations, The New York Times reported Thursday. It is the latest in a string of settlements over sanctions violations as regulators take aim at banks for doing business with blacklisted countries. Still, criminal investigations...

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U.S. officials believe that the increasing number of hacking attacks carried out this past month by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against American government personnel may be linked to the arrests of American-Iranian citizens by the regime, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Thursday. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,...

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In a move to expand its air campaign, Russia carried out airstrikes in Syria’s southern province of Daraa Wednesday night, reportedly striking villages only 15 kilometers from the Israeli Golan Heights, according to reports. It’s the closest that Russian aircraft have been to the Israeli border. According to The Jerusalem...

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The deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) admitted on state television that Iran has suffered growing losses as it has sent more “military advisers” to Syria, the Associated Press reported today. Agence France-Presse provided more details of the losses suffered by Iranian forces. In Tehran, where war dead are revered...

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Using Russian airstrikes as protection, Iran has moved hundreds of troops into Syria, the Associated Press reported today. It is the first time Iran has openly deployed soldiers from its army into Syria’s four-year-old civil war, though it has previously sent armed forces “advisers,” as well as members of its Islamic...

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Iran tested a new precision-guided ballistic missile in violation of an existing United Nations Security Council resolution, Reuters reported Sunday. Iran tested a new precision-guided ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of a United Nations ban, signaling an apparent advance in Iranian attempts to improve the accuracy of its missile...

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In the wake of Russian airstrikes in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has come within one mile of the northern border of Aleppo, Reuters reported today. Islamic State is now within 2 km (1 mile) of government-held territory on the northern edge of Aleppo which has...

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A top Iranian general responsible for shoring up the support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was killed in a battle with anti-Assad forces outside the Syrian city of Aleppo, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) today. Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani died at the hands of “Daesh terrorists” on Thursday while conducting advisory...

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Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is further distancing herself from the foreign policy of the administration she served by calling for the removal of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and imposing a no-fly zone over that country. On the campaign trail yesterday, Clinton said of Syria,...

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