US Pentagon

Photo: BIRN.

As the giant digital clock strikes 9 p.m., bursts of water surge from the fountains, lit up in colour and dancing to the music of Johann Strauss, Pharrell Williams and sprightly Romanian songs.

In what is seen as a response to an ongoing annual exercise by the Hellenic Navy in the Aegean, Turkish jets violated Greek national airspace 99 times on Tuesday, according to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA).

Forty-six of those violations were conducted by fighter jets and the other 53 by CN-235 surveillance aircraft.

Greece will consider the possibility of acquiring the US-made F-35 fighter jets as part of its efforts to upgrade its Air Force fleet, Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis said on Friday, following remarks by a US official on expanding the sales of the aircraft.

Greece could be granted up to a decade to pay the US for the upgrading of the Hellenic Air Force fleet of F-16 fighter jets, it emerged on Thursday. 

Diplomatic sources said that US President Donald Trump himself paved the way by informing the US Pentagon to facilitate Greece in its repayment for the upgrade. 

Turkey's strategic importance is being openly challenged. Leaders and analysts from both sides of the Atlantic believe that Turkey has embarked on a path which is impossible to interpret even at the best of times. Turkey continues, of course, to be a very big country in a crucial geostrategic location, with important business operations.

According to American journalist and author Annie Jacobsen, US soldiers had been ‘chipped’ after completing their rounds in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

According to newspaper New York Times, nearly 30,000 from 100 different countries have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq since 2011. Over 250 American citizens have traveled to the middle East, of which 150 joined the terrorist group, over the past 12 months.

The Russian Embassy in Damascus, Syria has come under mortar fire, stated the Russian Foreign Ministry Monday. The Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack on the diplomatic mission, while it called on the international community to take a clear standpoint on ‘this terrorist act.

Iraq's leader pleaded June 2 for more global support in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as he outlined plans to claw back territory from the jihadists in crunch talks with his allies in Paris.

ISIS fighters claimed that they conquered Ramadi in Iraq, yesterday, managing the biggest blow to the Iraqi government since last summer.

In their announcement, ISIS stated that it captured armored vehicles and killed tens of “apostates” (Iraqi security forces personnel).