Operations to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group have begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced early Monday on state television.

"The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started," he said in an address broadcast by the Iraqiya channel.

"Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh (IS)," he said, addressing residents of the Mosul region.

US envoy to coalition against Islamic State Brett McGurk tweeted: "We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation"

Abadi vowed that only army and police forces would enter Mosul. "The force leading liberation operations is the brave Iraqi army with the national police and they are the ones that will enter Mosul, not others," he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put a sectarian and nationalist edge on this demand when he said Oct. 2, “After liberating Mosul from [IS], only Sunni Arabs, Turkmens and Sunni Kurds should stay there.”

Turkish claim to Mosul has both nationalist and Islamist origins. “The reason why nationalist Turks are overly sensitive about Mosul is that the 'Turkish National Pact,' as defined by those prosecuting the war of liberation during 1919-1922, included Mosul within Turkey’s borders. They believe Turkey was cheated out of Mosul by Britain at the time and have cast the United States in Britain’s role today.

Erdogan has formally rejected Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s warning for Turkish forces to stay out of the Mosul campaign.

Turkish president took a condescending tone toward Abadi, saying that “the Turkish army has not lost so much prestige as to take its orders from you,” and that “you are not my interlocutor, you are not at my level, your quality is not at my level,”

The Iraqi parliament has labeled the Turkish troops as occupiers and has called for their withdrawal. The United States has backed Abadi in this confrontation, arguing that it is the Iraqi government’s decision on which troops are involved in the Mosul operation.

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The Brazilian army got a new rifle in September 2015. The 5.56-by-45-millimeter weapon is part of the IA2 family of weapons developed by Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil — a.k.a. IMBEL. The 5.56-millimeter IA2 is replacing the army’s old M964 and MD97 rifles.

And in mid-October, Brazil announced its intentions to also test the 7.62-by-51-millimeter version of the IA2. The army has requested five prototypes for evaluation.


It seems likely that the government will give the army permission to adopt this new, larger-caliber rifle alongside its smaller-caliber cousin. The Brazilian army has long been a dual-caliber force, issuing rifles in both 5.56-millimeter and 7.62-millimeter to various units, depending on the unit’s role.

The 7.62-by-51-millimeter IA2 uses the FN FAL’s gas-operated, tilting-block system, but is significantly more modern than Brazil’s license-built FALs. The select-fire IA2 should offer superior ergonomics, a full-length picatinny top rail and side and bottom rails on the foregrip.

The IA2 feeds from standard FAL magazines and has a fully-adjustable folding stock. The new weapon features a 17.2-inch-long barrel and, unloaded, weighs 8.9 pounds. That’s 1.7 ounces lighter than the FAL.

Despite external similarities, the 5.56-millimeter and 7.62-millimeter IA2s are actually two distinct weapons. While the 7.62-millimeter rifle retains the FAL’s tilting bolt, the 5.56-millimeter version already entering service uses the rotating bolt found in the AR15 and M16.

The Islamic State (IS) group are setting fire to oil wells in Mosul, reportedly to obscure the vision of coailtion airplanes as the extremist group makes its retreat.

The images have evoked memories of the first Gulf War for many Iraqis, some of whom see IS' use of similar tactics to those of Saddam Hussein in 1991 as further evidence of the Baathist presence within the militant group.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is willing to hold military exercises with China but not longtime ally the United States, Chinese media quoted him Monday as saying on the eve of a state visit.

Duterte heads to Beijing on Tuesday for a four-day trip that appears set to cement his dramatic foreign policy tilt away from United States, which he has railed against for criticising his deadly war on crime.

"It's only China (that) can help us," China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Duterte as saying in an interview ahead of his visit.

Duterte also told Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television he was willing to hold joint military exercises with China and Russia.

"Yes, I will. I have given enough time for the Americans to play with the Filipino soldiers," Duterte said when asked if he was open to war games with those two nations, as he reiterated he would no longer hold any more with the United States.

"This will be the last. It has been programmed. I do not want my soldiers to be humiliated," Duterte said, in reference to one set of war games in the Philippines that ended last week.

Duterte has sought to reshape his nation's foreign relations since taking office on June 30 by pivoting towards China and Russia while moving away from the United States, the Philippines' former colonial ruler and mutual defence ally.

Duterte has repeatedly expressed anger over American criticism of his war on crime, which has claimed more than 3,700 lives and raised fears of mass extrajudicial killings.

He has branded US President Barack Obama a "son of a whore" and told him to "go to hell".

British warplanes played a key role in the battle for Mosul today, with fleets of Typhoon jets targeting Islamic State positions in a bid to cripple the terror group's last major stronghold in Iraq.

RAF heroes supported the Iraqi army during the major attack which has already inflicted 'heavy losses of life and equipment' on ISIS southeast of the city, according to military chiefs.

More than 40,000 Iraqi and Kurd troops are leading the offensive, backed by air and ground support from a 60-nation US-led coalition, in what is expected to be a difficult assault that could take weeks or even months.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said with UK help, Iraqi forces 'will prevail' as ISIS is on the 'back foot'.

"Since the Western intervention into Libya, Russia has renewed its interest in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Now no day passes without some symbolic or diplomatic success of the Kremlin in the Mediterranean region (the latest being the reconciliation with Turkey),"

Apart from pursuing its "orthodox geopolitics," one should not forget that Russia is also a Muslim power (it has been granted a status of observer the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Islam is the religion of many ethnic minorities in Russia, he says. There are nearly 10,000 mosques in Russia. It is home to the largest mosque in Europe, which was opened in 2015 in Moscow. Islam has been practiced for nearly 1,300 years in regions such as the North Caucasus, the Urals and the Volga region.

Muslims are now the largest minority in Russia (nearly 15% of the Russian population is Muslim, which is approximately between 20-22 million of the total population of roughly 150 million).

It has therefore developed a "sovereign policy of cultivation of its own Islam" and this is one of the reasons why, since the early 1990s, foreign imams have been expelled from the country and all outside funding as well as any other outside influence, particularly from the Gulf countries has been prohibited. Indeed, Wahhabism, Salafism and the Muslim Brotherhood are banned in Russia

Meanwhile within Russia imams, muftis, theologians, scholars and other religious leaders try to curb religious extremism and rediscover traditional Islam.

Thanks to this policy, Russians, unlike Europeans, are aware that the authorities, including religious, are doing everything possible to protect them. This means that there is no overall rejection of Islam on the part of the Russian population, as can be currently observed in Europe.

Ultimately, the country has a nearly 2,500 km border with Islam and the Kremlin is concerned over possible changes in the self-consciousness and self-identity of Russian Muslims. Hence the main challenge for Moscow in the coming decades will be to avoid social fragmentation and preserve peace in one of the oldest multi-cultural societies in the world.

Thus, Russia's clear message to the states of the region can be put like this.

"Manage your country as you like but we do not want Islamists," moderate "or not, in power in Russia. In exchange and if needed, you can always count on our loyalty and support."

Syria, he says, is a clear example of that promise. In addition to demonstrating its strength and showcasing its weapons (wars are also used to sell weapons), the historian notes that Moscow has been supporting diplomatically and militarily President Assad for five years.

Lombardi also notes that Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan are lining up to sign contracts with Russia. Israel has always maintained good relations with Moscow.

"Thanks to its clear and consistent policy in the region, certainly Russia is doing well (even with Saudi Arabia)… Russia may emerge as the only true justice in the Middle East. The question is what the new American options for the region will be after January 2017 and will Moscow succeed where other Western powers have always failed," he finally said.

Are the U.S. Army's Stryker combat vehicles strong enough to beat Russian tanks? That's the question the Colorado Springs Gazette asked yesterday, because as Russia steps up its aggression and intimidation campaigns, the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division based at nearby Fort Collins might be called upon to reinforce Europe.

Stryker Brigades occupy the middle ground between heavy armor forces and light infantry. They compromise firepower and protection for strategic mobility—the ability to send them anywhere on short notice. Stryker Brigades field a number of variants on the Stryker wheeled armored personnel carrier. There are anti-tank versions equipped with TOW missiles, a Mobile Gun System armed with a 105-millimeter gun, mortar vehicles, ambulances, and command and control vehicles.

A typical Stryker Brigade has 300 Stryker vehicles of all types, the vast majority of which are armored personnel carriers armed with only a .50 caliber machine gun or 40-millimeter grenade launcher. Both weapons are useless against Russian tanks. Nine are armed with TOW-II anti-tank guided missiles, which can destroy any tank out to a range of 4,593 yards. A further 27 are armed with a 105-millimeter gun that likely cannot penetrate the frontal armor of the Russian T-90 tank. (This version of the Stryker, the Mobile Gun System, is considered unreliable and disliked by troops in the field.)

The bulk of the Stryker Brigade's anti-tank firepower actually rests in the troops it carries. Each Stryker armored personnel carrier carries a squad of nine infantrymen, and each squad is equipped with a Javelin shoulder-fired anti-tank guided missile. The Javelin is a very good missile, capable of penetrating up to 800 millimeters of tank armor at ranges of up to 2,734 yards. A further advantage of Javelin is its ability to attack tanks from above, firing a devastating shaped charge warhead into a tank's thin overhead armor.

A Stryker brigade has 81 Javelin missile launchers. So, altogether, a Stryker Brigade has 90 weapons that can reliably kill tanks.

Russian tank division has approximately 310 T-90 main battle tanks, 300 BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and 142 artillery pieces. The division will also be backed by even more artillery, attack helicopters, and fixed-wing jets.

In our scenario, we'll assume that a Stryker Brigade is defending against the Russian tank division. The initial comparison looks favorable to the Americans—assuming each American anti-tank weapon can destroy two Russian tanks or armored vehicles, that would reduce the tank division to about 60 percent of original strength—likely enough to halt the attack.

The problem is that most of the Stryker Brigade's anti-tank weapons are carried by infantrymen, and the Russians will know this. Russian forces would bombard the American front lines artillery fire, not to kill the Strykers—most of whom will be irrelevant in the fight—but to kill the Javelin teams. If the Russians can neutralize at least a third of the Javelin teams, they would likely be victorious.

The Stryker Brigade is just a piece of the overall defensive plan. Ideally, it will operate in conjunction with Apache AH-64E Guardian attack helicopters and the Brigade's own M777 155-millimeter howitzers. The Stryker Brigade can also count on American air support, from A-10 Warthog tank killers all the way up to B-52 bombers. The Strykers and the infantry that man them are still necessary to actually hold the ground and deny it to the enemy.

While the battlefield over a Russian tank division is probably too dangerous for the A-10 Warthog, it could still use standoff weapons such as the the laser-guided Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System to kill enemy armor at distance.

The Mer Group’s evolution from cutting metal to electronic snooping reflects a larger shift in the Israeli economy. Technology is one of the main sectors in Israeli industry. And Israeli firms with ties to intelligence, like the Mer Group, are using their expertise to market themselves internationally. The company’s CEO, Nir Lempert, is a 22-year veteran of Unit 8200, the Israeli intelligence unit often compared to the National Security Agency, and is chairman of the unit’s alumni association. The Mer Group’s ties to Unit 8200 are hardly unique in Israel, where the cyber sector has become an integral aspect of the Israeli economy, exporting $6 billion worth of products and services in 2014.

When drafted into the army, Israel’s smartest youth are steered toward the intelligence unit and taught how to spy, hack, and create offensive cyberweapons. Unit 8200 and the National Security Agency reportedly developed the cyberweapon that attacked Iranian computers running the country’s nuclear program, and Unit 8200 engages in mass surveillance in the occupied Palestinian territories

Increasingly, the skills developed by spying and waging cyberwarfare don’t stay in the military. Unit 8200 is a feeder school to the private surveillance industry in Israel, the self-proclaimed “startup nation” — and the products those intelligence veterans create are sold to governments around the world to spy on people.

In August, Privacy International, a watchdog group that investigates government surveillance, released a report on the global surveillance industry. The group identified 27 Israeli surveillance companies — the highest number per capita of any country in the world. (The United States leads the world in sheer number of surveillance companies: 122.) Unit 8200 veterans either founded or occupy high-level positions in at least eight of the Israeli surveillance companies named by Privacy International

Israeli veterans of Unit 8200 but is now owned by Boeing, the American defense contractor. (Privacy International categorized Narus as an American company because it’s headquartered in California.) Narus technology helped AT&T collect internet traffic and billions of emails and forward that information to the National Security Agency

Unit 8200 is a “brand name” in Israel, a celebrated institution that allows members easy access to tech companies after their service, said Meyer. Sometimes technology companies approach alumni of the unit; other times alumni recommend one another. There’s a secret Facebook group for alumni filled with job offers at tech companies, Meyer said. “In many cases you just put Unit 8200 in your CV, and magic happens,”

Mer Security is one of the companies exporting spy products. It is well-known in the country’s security circles; it won an Israeli police contract in 1999 to establish “Mabat 2000,” which set up hundreds of cameras in Jerusalem’s Old City, a flashpoint of tensions in the occupied area. In an interview with the Israel Gateway magazine, a trade publication, Haim Mer, chairman of the company’s board and also a Unit 8200 veteran, explained that “the police needed a system in which ‘Big Brother’ would control and would allow for an overall view of events in the Old City area.”

Mer Group’s clients are in Israel and abroad. The company does “joint development” work with Unit 8200, according to Raz, and they recruit veterans from the unit to work for the company. Other clients are scattered around the world, including in Europe, though Raz refused to divulge specifics. But publicly available information shows, for instance, that in 2011 Mer inked a $42 million contract with Buenos Aires to set up a “Safe City” system, complete with 1,200 surveillance cameras, including license plate recognition technology.

Unit 8200’s ties to the Israeli surveillance industry attracted widespread attention in late August, when digital security researchers at the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab released a report detailing the provenance of a specific type of malware. They said it was likely that the United Arab Emirates had targeted Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights activist, with sophisticated spyware that had the ability to turn his iPhone into a mobile surveillance device that could track his movement, record his phone calls, and control his phone camera and microphone.

On its face, an Israeli surveillance company selling spyware to an Arab nation is striking. The United Arab Emirates and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations, and like in other parts of the Arab world, many Emiratis detest Israel’s decadeslong occupation of Arab lands. But NSO Group’s sale to the UAE is an indication of the growing ties between Israel and the Gulf state, which has a growing appetite for surveillance gear.

In February 2015, the Middle East Eye writer Rori Donaghy reported that the UAE had signed a contract with Asia Global Technologies, a Swiss-registered company owned by an Israeli and reportedly staffed by former Israeli intelligence agents, to set up a surveillance system featuring thousands of cameras.

Donaghy, who is also the founder of the Emirates Centre for Human Rights, said the UAE has quietly bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of security products from Israel in recent years. The UAE turns to Israel, he said, because it believes Israelis are “simply the best in this market, the most intrusive, the most secretive.”

LONDON — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group just sent a powerful message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. As of December 12 this year, all British bank accounts belonging to Russia Today— that pro-Kremlin information agency posing as the news channel RT—will be frozen.

The shills of despotism claim to see no difference between the BBC and RT. Really? Lest we forget, it was the BBC that exposed Tony Blair’s claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

They claim mainstream television networks are tools of government and corporate interests. But it was CBS 60 Minutes that broke the story about American abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war in Abu Ghraib.

RT breaks nothing but praise for Putin.

RT is a state broadcaster. This means that it is owned, financed, controlled, and directed by the Russian regime. The difference between this and our mainstream platforms is so significant that only misanthropes suffering from first world problems could possibly fail to see it. Yet many do.

Putin spokesman named Dmitry Peskov explained “Russia Needs More Propaganda.” He continued, "The tool of propaganda is an integral part of any state. It is everywhere. And Russia should use it as well. Propaganda in the good sense of the word.”

RIA Novosti channel, which had in turn directly succeeded the Cold war era Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo). Both were to be replaced with a major global news agency called Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today— now known as RT.

RT was so important to Putin’s propaganda wars that when his finance ministry sought to reduce its annual budget of more than $340 million, the Russian president directly vetoed the cut, going on to encourage RT to “break the monopoly of Anglo-Saxon media on the world”s news.”

With such an impeccable character at its head, RT went on to regularly give a platform to European Neo-Nazis, holocaust deniers, and self-invented slavery justifying Muslim social media “community leaders.” In short, anyone who was anti-West.

Aside from the continuing potential for a humanitarian catastrophe, challenges among the anti-ISIS coalition and other residents outside of Mosul continue to mount. Without Kurdish Peshmerga attacking Mosul from the east, Iraqi forces would have little chance of defeating ISIS. Yet Kurdish leaders have not been shy about declaring that whatever territory they liberate from ISIS in and around Mosul will remain part of Kurdistan. In response Abadi warned the Kurds against such ambitions.

Also necessary for coalition success are the many Shiite militia, generally known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). Many PMU leaders, however, have publicly warned that not only will they not work with the American military, some outright advocated killing US troops.

There was a dustup between the governments of Turkey and Iraq on October 1st when the Turkish parliament voted to extend their troops’ stay in Iraq.  The Iraqi parliament immediately condemned the vote, accusing Turkish troops of being occupation forces. Abadi demanded Ankara withdraw its troops.  Turkish President Recep Erdogan refused. He insulted the Iraqi leader in the process, declaring Abadi is “not on my level.”  Turkey is also demanding a role in the liberation of Mosul.  Abadi has said no. He warned that if Turkey doesn’t withdraw they risk “regional war.”  On Monday, however, statements by Erdogan served to increase the potential for a clash between two American allies.

Ebil-based news agency Kurdistan24 reported that the Turkish President, “invoked on Monday an early 20th-century irredentist document that claimed the Iraqi city of Mosul as Turkish soil.” The document Erdogan referred to, Kurdistan24 explained, “referred to an Ottoman Parliament-sealed, 1920 pact that designates Kirkuk and Mosul as parts of Turkey… ‘They say Turkey should not enter Mosul,’” Erdogan was quoted as saying, “‘Come on! How do I not enter?”

These threats should not be casually dismissed. A look at a map of the region reflecting the 1920 document to which Erdogan referred shows most of northern Iraq – including not only Mosul but also Erbil – as lying with Turkish territory. Last Sunday Turkey’s Minister of Defense, Fikri Işık, said Ankara was going to push their military control of northern Syria, currently 20 kilometers (km) deep along a 90 km of the border, “even further, by 45 kilometers. We will create a security zone in northern Syria, and thus we will eliminate the threat to our territory.”  How much territorial ambition Ankara has beyond their expanding positions within Syria and Iraq is as yet unknown.

The bottom line is that the United States is presently basing its hopes on ending the war in Iraq against ISIS on:

· an Iraqi military partially rebuilt after its destruction in 2014;

· Kurdish Peshmerga that intends on keeping any territory they win;

· Shiite militias that hate the Sunni militias and civilians and has threatened to kill Americans;

· Sunni militias that have still unresolved issues with the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad;

· and a NATO ally that has occupied territory in two neighboring states and is threatening to crash the Mosul-liberation party while the Iraqi PM threatens war against Turkey.

The Indian Navy has commissioned the country’s first domestically developed and built ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN), the INS Arihant, in complete secrecy in August, according to local media reports. India’s Ministry of Defense has neither officially confirmed nor denied the commissioning of the sub.

“There will soon be an opportunity to talk about it,” GS Pabby, Indian Navy Vice-Admiral and Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition, told reporters this week. An unnamed defense official reportedly confirmed the commissioning to The Hindu. “It (INS Arihant) has gone through severe sea trials and was finally inducted in the Navy in August and has been operational since then,” he said.

With the commissioning of the Arihant, India has joined the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China in operating SSBNs. However, it is premature to call India a nuclear triad power just yet. The INS Arihant is primarily a technological demonstrator, based on the Russian Project 971 Akula I-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, rather than a fully operational SSBN. (It will also serve as a training platform for future submarine crews.)

Also, India has a nuclear warfare policy centered on a No First-Use (NFU) doctrine. “As a result, New Delhi needs to field a credible second-strike capability. Yet, as of now, India keeps its nuclear warheads de-mated from the actual missiles. However, in order for the new sub class to fulfill its role as the sea leg of India’s nuclear triad, SLBMs with mounted nuclear warheads will need to be deployed on the boomers,” I explained in February.

The INS Arihant is slated to be armed with the K-4, an intermediate-range nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), currently being development by India’s Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO). The K-4 has an estimated range of up to 3,500 kilometers. The sub will also be able to accommodate the K-15 Sagarika SLBM with a 700-750 kilometers range.

The sub has four vertical launch tubes, which can be armed with either four K-4 missiles or 12 — three per launch tube — K-15 missiles. (Other possible weapon system to be fitted aboard the INS Arihant is the 1,000 km-range subsonic tactical cruise missile Nirbhay as well as the submarine-launched variant of the BrahMos short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile.) The various missiles have undergone extensive trials including a number of test launches, as The Diplomat has reported in 2016 (See here and here).

The Canadian military plans to open up one of its principal bases to help a major defence contractor validate design changes and quality assurance on light armoured vehicles destined for Saudi Arabia

The engineering validations are being conducted on the mammoth LAV VI, an updated and more lethal version of the LAV III, which was the Canadian Army's principal fighting vehicle during the Afghan war.