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Friday, 7 May, 2021 - 05:30 Buildings are seen during a press tour inside al-Asad military airbase in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, Jan. 13, 2020. (AFP) Baghdad – Asharq Al-Awsat US contractors evacuated Iraq’s Balad Airbase where they were supporting Iraq’s F-16 program, US Stars and Stripes daily military newspaper reported. The US government withdrew the military personnel following a number of rocket attacks that targeted the airbase. "Without the Americans, the Iraqis cannot perform the full range of maintenanc...

By CHAD GARLAND | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 5, 2021 Increased threats and attacks by Iran-backed militias forced American contractors to evacuate Iraq’s Balad Air Base in March, where they were supporting Iraq’s F-16 program, a U.S. government report said this week. Without the Americans, the Iraqis cannot perform the full range of maintenance tasks on the country’s fleet of F-16s, which are key in the fight against the Islamic State group. Thirty-two of the 36 F-16 fighter jets Iraq received from 2014 to 2017 were inventoried at Balad last summer, and 75% were either fully or...

April 13, 2021 There is no good way that the U.S. can withdraw from Afghanistan. It cannot claim victory, and it cannot wait indefinitely for some cosmetic form of peace. It is all too clear from the reports to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and the Lead Inspector General (LIG) for Operation Freedom Sentinel that it will take years to bring Afghan security forces to the point where they can stand on their own if peace fails. It is equally clear from these official sources as well as from media reporting and reporting by Transparency International a...

By J.P. LAWRENCE AND ZUBAIR BABAKARKHAIL | STARS AND STRIPES Published: April 1, 2021 KABUL, Afghanistan — A viral tweet by a former U.S. military adviser in Afghanistan helped a pilot who had been injured in combat get specialized medical treatment that wasn’t available in the country. Helicopter pilot and military affairs writer Jack McCain tweeted Tuesday that one of his former students, Gulrahman Qubadi, had suffered serious injuries when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was downed by a Taliban rocket in southern Afghanistan last July. McCain, a Navy reservist and son of the late Se...

By J.P. LAWRENCE AND ZUBAIR BABAKARKHAIL | STARS AND STRIPES Published: April 1, 2021 KABUL, Afghanistan — A viral tweet by a former U.S. military adviser in Afghanistan helped a pilot who had been injured in combat get specialized medical treatment that wasn’t available in the country. Helicopter pilot and military affairs writer Jack McCain tweeted Tuesday that one of his former students, Gulrahman Qubadi, had suffered serious injuries when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was downed by a Taliban rocket in southern Afghanistan last July. McCain, a Navy reservist and son of the late Se...