US president has insisted he wants to pull troops out, but appears hamstrung by regional instabilities and his own ill-defined goals
Donald Trump remains determined to take US troops out of Syria “as rapidly as possible” despite his decision last week to launch air strikes against government targets, a senior Republican senator has said.
Amnesty International calls for full public inquiry into the UK’s ‘shadowy role’ in US drone programme
The UK risks violating international law through its support of lethal US drone strikes around the world, including sharing intelligence to help identify targets and the use of RAF bases, according to a report by Amnesty International.
Problematic proposal is backed by national security adviser John Bolton but could worsen conflict
The Trump administration is renewing an effort to replace US troops in Syria with an Arab force, but the proposal faces substantial obstacles and could potentially exacerbate the conflict.
ACLU to challenge ‘forcible rendering’ of unnamed US citizen, held by US military in Iraq for seven months after capture by Syrian rebels
An American citizen who has been held without charge in Iraq since last September by the US military now faces being moved to an unidentified foreign country under government plans that his lawyers are scrambling to challenge.
Arms control experts have signed a statement warning international constraints will expire in 2021 unless a new nuclear deal is reached
The US and Russian nuclear arsenals could soon be unconstrained by any binding arms control agreements for the first time since 1972, triggering an expensive and dangerous new arms race, a group of former officials and experts from the US, Europe and Russia has warned.
The bombing of Syrian bases was compromised by competing goals and instability in the White House
Questions over what impact the mission will have on the wider war remain unanswered
The US, British and French jets that took off from the British base in Akrotiri in Cyprus, France, the Mediterranean and perhaps other bases in the Middle East never came close to the Russian or Syrian air defence systems.
Syria and Russia say significant number of missiles destroyed and damage minimal
• Syrian military strikes: latest news and reaction
The US, UK and France have disputed claims made by Syria and Russia that a significant number of the incoming missiles had been intercepted and shot down and that the damage inflicted by the raid had been minimal.
President orders armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with chemical weapons in the wake of gas attack on Douma
This from Associated Press Middle East correspondent Bassem Mroue.
Despite Iraq the left has mounted no serious opposition to Syrian involvement – so why is the right now filling those shoes?
In 2002 and 2003, millions of left-leaning demonstrators crowded cities around the world to protest against the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. All the while, conservative media, along with large segments of the liberal press, beat the war drums, encouraging the Bush administration in its project of regime change.
