Middle East

  The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines”—while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally.  When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opined earlier this month that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could “consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict …

The U.S. troop withdrawal leaves behind a country embittered by an occupation that's cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. And as U.S. soldiers return home for Christmas, the mood is far from joyful among veterans struggling to deal with the personal aftermath of the war. With soaring suicide rates, it's still too early to estimate the true cost …

  The U.S. assured Iraq Monday that it would sell Iraq a second shipment of 18 F-16 fighter jets. Iraq has indicated it will need a total of 96 F-16s   As the United States withdraws the last of its 50,000 troops after a nearly nine-year military occupation of Iraq, visiting Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki had one final request: billions of …

 Iraqis burned American flags, brandished banners and thronged the streets of the western city of Falluja to celebrate the withdrawal of US troops. Some 3,000 people flooded the mainly Sunni city carrying Iraqi flags, banners with "Falluja: The City of Resistance" printed on them, and photos of Falluja residents killed by US forces after the 2003 US-led invasion. Part of the crowd …

According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of "Al-Mafraq", which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border.   According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to …