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Carlo Muñoz

cmunoz@washingtontimes.com

Carlo Muñoz is a former military correspondent for The Washington Times.

Latest Podcast Episodes for Inheriting Chaos

Articles by Carlo Muñoz

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, says goodbye to Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, after their meeting in Putin's residence in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. The presidents of Russia and Turkey held talks on the situation in Syria and also the restoration of full economic ties between their two countries. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Turkey threatens to strike U.S. forces partnered with Kurdish militias in Syria

The war of words between Washington and Ankara over the U.S. military's partnership with Kurdish paramilitaries in Syria escalated Wednesday, when a senior aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested American troops could be targeted alongside their Kurdish allies in the country's ongoing air war against the militias.

May 3, 2017
The flow of battle-hardened jihadis fleeing the black banners of the Islamic State in the face of the coalition onslaught in Syria and Iraq, seeking to rejoin their brothers in arms in al Qaeda, is already underway, a top national security analyst said. (Associated Press/File)

ISIS, al Qaeda in talks for terror merger

The Islamic State group and al Qaeda, long rivals for supremacy in the jihadi struggle, are feeling more pressure to combine as the Islamic State loses its territorial base in Syria and Iraq and the still-potent terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden prepares to welcome legions of foreign fighters fleeing the advancing U.S.-backed coalition, analysts and officials in the region say.

April 26, 2017
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis speaks with reporters after his arrival in Tel Aviv Wednesday, April 20, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)

James Mattis defends use of ‘mother of all bombs’ in Afghanistan

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday the decision to drop the "mother of all bombs" on Islamic State targets in eastern Afghanistan was a deafening signal to American enemies and allies alike that Washington will pull no punches against the international terror group.

April 20, 2017
U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division fire artillery in support of Iraqi forces fighting Islamic State militants from their base east of Mosul on Monday. (Associated Press)

ISIS foreign fighters to bring terror home

With the Islamic State's strongholds in Mosul and Raqqa under siege, the U.S. and its allies soon will face a different problem: how to track and contain the thousands of foreign fighters who have flocked to the jihadi movement and threaten to scatter to the winds to create mayhem back home.

April 18, 2017
This Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006, file photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows an F-15C Eagle from the 12th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, flying next to a Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bomber, right, during a Russian exercise which brought the bomber near the west coast of Alaska. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force) ** FILE **

U.S. intercepts 2 Russian bombers off Alaska’s coast

U.S. military officials said a pair of American fighter jets intercepted and escorted two Russian bombers away from Alaska's coastline during a high-stakes encounter in international airspace Monday.

April 18, 2017
U.S. troops are assisting Iraqi soldiers during a brutal battle in western Mosul. Although Defense Secretary James Mattis' official agenda does not list visits to Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan, the former U.S. Central Command chief has regularly made unannounced stops to visit American and coalition forces stationed there. (Associated Press)

James Mattis to visit allies in Mideast, North Africa

Defense Secretary James Mattis is en route to the Middle East and North Africa for a series of meetings with key allies during a weeklong trip that comes as an American-backed offensive against the Islamic State group in Syria heats up and Iraqi forces battling for control of the group's stronghold in Mosul have bogged down into brutal street-by-street fighting in the city's ancient district.

April 17, 2017
This photo provided by Eglin Air Force Base shows the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb. The Pentagon says U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped the military's largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan. A Pentagon spokesman said it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he said contains 11 tons of explosives. The Air Force calls it the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb. Based on the acronym, it has been nicknamed the "Mother Of All Bombs." (Eglin Air Force Base via AP)

Pentagon: U.S. dropped the MOAB, the largest non-nuclear bomb, in Afghanistan

The deployment of one of the largest non-nuclear bombs in the U.S. arsenal on an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan Thursday marks a new and dramatic step for U.S. forces in the country, sending a message likely to resonate far beyond the battlefields of the 16-year war there.

April 13, 2017