'The entire US ecosystem built over decades at the bases in the Gulf region, especially the UAE, costing trillions of dollars have been decimated, dealing a mortal blow to the US Central Command's war capability,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a joint operation with the US against Iran, citing the threat posed by its nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism.
'Without ground troops the US will not be able to oust the Iranian Islamic regime. Political change does not happen just by using bombs or planes.'
When everyone has footage and no one can verify it, the loudest voice wins, notes Prem Panicker who begins a daily blog on the War in the Middle East.
'The war against ISIS is what earned the Kurds global recognition of being some of the best fighters that overshadowed regular armies,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
In a major departure from its long-standing policy of not exporting arms to a conflict region, Germany on Wednesday decided to supply weapons to Kurdish forces battling the "barbaric" Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants in northern Iraq.
UEFA opened an investigation into a "wolf salute" goal celebration by Turkey centre back Merih Demiral which Germany condemned as racist due to its far right associations.
Reliance Industries, the country's largest private oil company, is seeking oil and gas fields in Kurdistan.
Seven countries, including Italy, France and the United Kingdom, have joined the American effort to arm the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist outfit that has gained control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Hundreds of protesters, mostly women, took to the streets following the death of Mahsa Amini -- a Kurd native, chanting anti-government slogans that target the core of the Islamic regime and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It marked the first major meeting between the two countries since President Trump pulled US armed forces out of northern Syria.
Last month, Trump had ordered withdrawal of troops from Syria. The then Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned in protest.
Free from the Islamic State, Syria's Kobani now lies in ruins.
Syrian Kurds have been struggling for weeks against better-armed IS fighters, with US-led air strikes helping the former avoid defeat.
US President Trump said the IS leader spent his last moments "whimpering and crying and screaming" in a dead-end tunnel before he blew himself up, killing also his three children.
Continuing their tough stance against activists and lawyers, Pakistani authorities on Friday blocked all major highways leading to Islamabad to prevent a protest march demanding reinstatement of sacked judges, from reaching the capital. Police and paramilitary forces today blocked another group of activists marching from Balochistan's capital Quetta to Sukkur in Sindh and arrested the Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Ahmed Kurd along with some others.
Toll rises to 44 in bomb attack in Syrian Kurdish city.
Sunnis have voted against the constitution.
Ram Pal, serving in the army and a native of Khadia Kurd village, and Neena Kumari of the same village were in love for the past one year, they said.
'No society becomes democratic merely by holding an election,' says T N Seshan.
Squabbles over Islamic law and Kurd autonomy delayed the drafting of the interim constitution.
Meanwhile, in what has become an almost daily routine over the past few week, a suicide car bomb attack in southern Baghdad killed two Iraqi police officers and two civilians on Monday
He also warned the Islamic State that America would hit them hard from nearby military bases if the terror outfit regains momentum.
Trump defended his decision saying that the United States has done its part and now it is the time for other regional players to play their part.
'Manmohan Singh's fond hope of avoiding conflict over territory by 'making borders irrelevant' is increasingly difficult to realise in a world where institutional restraints on aggression are weakening and the new game in town is unalloyed power play,' notes T N Ninan.
The boys are seen shooting dead five men identified as captured Kurdish fighters who are kneeling.
In is 24-minute long message, he also called on Saudi citizens -- the second biggest contributor to IS - to "rise up" against their government as he dismissed the kingdom's newly formed Muslim coalition against the caliphate.
'Should the new ISIS leadership opt for a consolidation, the Afghan-Pakistan border would be an attractive place,' warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The Al Qaeda, the Islamic State or Daesh, as it is also called, will continue to exploit the fault lines and the many contradictions in the approaches of different countries, says Hardeep Puri.
The US and its allies must evolve a more comprehensive long-term plan to defeat the new danger that the caliphate poses to the world order. And India too must do its bit for course correction, says strategic expert Gurmeet Kanwal.
'It's pretty likely that Kissinger, Rice et al came bearing gifts (read Trojan Horses) from McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Grumman, Northrop, and all the other Military Industrial Complex stalwarts,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
A leading Turkish soccer club have banned their players from growing beards after their chairman said they looked like students of Islamic vocational schools and set a bad example.
The order gives the state and treasury departments authority to consider and impose sanctions on individuals, entities or associates of the Turkish government involved in actions that endanger civilians or lead to the further deterioration of peace, security and stability in northeast Syria.
'Will the new government, largely of the BJP, whose manifesto proclaimed "India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to seek refuge here" and whose patrons never tire of the glories of our civilisation in antiquity, stand up for these long-lost cousins, the Yazidis in Iraq?'
Al-Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border, poses a "legitimate threat" to the capital city of Baghdad, a top Pentagon official has said.
The New York Film Festival served an amazing plate of films. Aseem Chhabra picks the best ones.
'A top Russian diplomat, Ambassador Alexander Aksenyonok told me in Sochi, Moscow is keen on a political settlement in Syria "as early as possible -- which is also our exit strategy",' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Islamist terror groups have never been challenged ideologically. As long as their ideology survives, like cancer, these groups will sprout somewhere else, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Here's a glimpse at what happened around the world last week
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