War

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has said that the increase in NATO’s military presence near Russia’s borders will not go unanswered. “The Russian side has repeatedly stated that the buildup of the NATO military presence near Russian borders violates the spirit of the basic Russia-NATO pact and cannot be left unanswered by our country,” Aleksey Meshkovan told an international conference in Moscow. RT reports: The comments came soon after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke at Warsaw University, where he said that the bloc planned to station even more military forces in Europe.

We have it on highest authority: the recent killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan marks “an important milestone.” So the president of the United States has declared, with that claim duly echoed and implicitly endorsed by media commentary—the New York Times reporting, for example, that Mansour’s death leaves the Taliban leadership “shocked” and “shaken.”

But a question remains: A milestone toward what exactly?

A maze of terror tunnels excavated by ISIS have been discovered by Iraqi security forces in the city of Fallujah. The tunnels were dug under streets and between houses to provide cover for Islamic State militants. Fars News reports: The tunnels were over 1 kilometer long and the ISIL had cultivated plants on the roof and entrance of the tunnels in order to camouflage them against Iraqi airstrikes. The discovered tunnels were connected to each other and were used by the Takfiri terrorists to gain access to different parts of the city.

The Russian Foreign Minister has slammed the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil as “unacceptable,” and has called on Ankara to pull out from the Arab country. “We demand that Turkey withdraw its troops from the Iraqi territory where they are located to strengthen the sovereignty of Iraq, according to ex-Prime Minister [Ahmet] Davutoglu,” Sergei Lavrov said. Press TV reports: Last December, Turkey deployed some 150 soldiers, equipped with heavy weapons and backed by 20 to 25 tanks, to the outskirts of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced an upcoming “landmark summit” in Warsaw in early July which will enhance the alliance’s defensive and deterrent presence in Poland and and the rest of Eastern Europe. He said that several battalions will be deployed in Poland, the Baltic States and elsewhere in the region that will guarantee an increase in the presence of ground troops and equipment.