The US military is preparing for possible renewed strikes against Iran as fighting intensifies across the Middle East, with Syria considering military support for Saudi Arabia and fresh threats to vital oil shipping routes. The Pentagon has instructed US Central Command to prepare for renewed military operations against Iran, Axios reported on Thursday. President Donald Trump has not made a final decision, but military action could take place before the US midterm elections in November. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Hamas could launch attacks to influence Israel’s October 27 election. Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday,…

Israel is marking three years since the October 07 attacks, as the country remembers those killed in the Hamas-led attack that triggered a war which has since spread across the Middle East. Around 1,200 people were killed after Hamas and other armed groups breached the border from Gaza on October 07, 2023, attacking communities, military positions and the Nova music festival. Another 251 people were taken hostage. At 06:29am on Wednesday, marking the time the Hamas-led attack began three years ago, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog lit a memorial candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Across…

By Harry Fullerton. Harry Fullerton is the founder of SixFigureGrid. This article was originally published by SixFigureGrid. On 30 January 2022, SixFigureGrid published an article titled ‘Gathering Storm Clouds – Ukraine Crisis 2022 – A Lesson from History’. It looked at how Russia was building up to an invasion of Ukraine and how this potential conflict might resonate with a previous war in the same region: the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856. It also explained how that war began amid a religious dispute in the Holy Land over responsibility for Christian sites in the then Ottoman-controlled region of Palestine.…

Wearable counter-drone technology is being deployed by Ukrainian and Israeli forces and tested by the US Army as militaries adapt to the growing threat from autonomous weapons. General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned that American forces should expect to be “hunted by autonomous systems, jammed across the spectrum, and tracked in real time”. The warning comes as militaries are increasingly looking to equip individual soldiers with protection against drones on the battlefield. Autonomous Guard’s wearable counter-UAS technology has been used by Ukrainian troops and Israeli forces operating in Gaza, while the US Army…

Germany’s intelligence chiefs have warned that Russia’s “shadow war” against Europe is entering a more dangerous phase. Martin Jäger, president of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, said: “No other country currently poses such a direct, comprehensive, and concrete threat to Germany.” He added: “Germany is in danger of becoming embroiled in a violent conflict with Russia.” The warnings came at the annual public hearing of the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Control Committee, where the heads of Germany’s intelligence agencies gave an unusually open assessment of the threat posed by Moscow. Sinan Selen, president of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office…

The United States urgently withdrew 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford after intelligence warned that Iran was planning a drone attack intended to destroy American aircraft and kill their crews. The bombers were flown back to the United States over the weekend after US officials received warnings of a possible attack involving short-range weaponised drones launched from close to the Gloucestershire airbase. American and European officials said the alleged plan involved targeting both the B-1B Lancer bomber fleet and US personnel stationed at Fairford, which has been used to launch American operations against Iran. The intelligence raised fears of an…

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces have launched a major counter-offensive against the Houthis after weeks of gains made by the Iran-backed group. The renewed fighting has added another risk to global oil markets as Iran reiterates that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until its conditions for reopening the waterway are met. Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said: “Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.” He said government forces would continue fighting “until…

The US has withdrawn all of its bombers deployed to RAF Fairford, the UK military base at the centre of an incident being investigated by counter-terror police. A Pentagon official confirmed that the US had removed all 12 B-1 bombers from the base and returned them to their home stations in America. The US did not give a reason for the withdrawal, but it follows a major incident on 27 September when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near the airbase. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences near the base and subsequently released on bail.…

By Ben Farmer Ethiopian government forces have recaptured the capital of a rebel stronghold, less than a fortnight after the country tipped back into a conflict many fear heralds a wider war in the Horn of Africa. Leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) withdrew from the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle over the weekend, saying they wanted to spare it bombardment by approaching government forces. The recapture represented a significant blow to the TPLF and six other rebel groups, which last month formed a Coalition of Survival vowing to oust Ethiopia’s Nobel Prize-winning leader, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The…

A British-Iranian man has been arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts in connection with the security incident near RAF Fairford. The 27-year-old was detained in Westminster on Thursday as counter-terrorism police investigate possible foreign state involvement in the incident, which led to five British men being arrested near the US-used airbase on Sunday. A second man, a 26-year-old British national, has been questioned under caution but has not been arrested. Police have also searched two properties in Westminster. The British-Iranian suspect was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006. The…

A new Ukrainian dataset maps Russia’s sabotage, drone and cyber campaign against Europe since 2022. The numbers are rising, the attacks are getting more dangerous, and the pattern points to preparation for a next phase of military aggression. By André Pienaar Russia is at war in Europe and with NATO, although much of the European public does not know it. That is the finding of the most comprehensive open-source record yet compiled of Russia’s campaign against the continent, by the Kyiv-based Sahaidachnyi Security Center. The Center’s tracker, “The Everywhere War”, has now logged 522 incidents since 24 February 2022 that…

A New York judge has drawn a line- helping a terrorist sponsor evade sanctions is no longer just a compliance failure; it can make a company liable for the terrorist attacks that follow. The cases brought by more than 500 families of American soldiers against South African telecom company, MTN, under the US Anti-terrorism Act continues. On 25 September, Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York refused MTN Group’s request to reconsider her earlier rulings in Zobay v. MTN Group, and declined to let the company take the case to the…