Units of the Syrian army have surrounded the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo, marking the latest escalation after a series of clashes between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control 30 percent of Syrian territory, and the Asayish, the SDF-affiliated internal …

The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) publish the Iran Update, which provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities that undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. CTP-ISW publishes the Iran Update daily. add notetweetClick here …

Russia’s apparent fast-tracking of plans to establish a military hub in Libya could worsen that country’s protracted conflict. For Russia, as for Iran, last month’s fall of the 54-year-old Assad dynasty in Syria was a major geo-strategic setback. Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s sudden defeat threatened Russia’s important military presence …