INTERNACIONAL
ISIS exploiting Syria’s chaos as US strikes expose growing threat
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U.S. and partner forces killed or captured nearly 25 Islamic State operatives in Syria in the days following a large-scale U.S.-led strike on Dec. 19, according to a new statement from U.S. Central Command, underscoring Washington’s assessment that ISIS remains an active and persistent threat inside the country.
CENTCOM said those forces conducted 11 follow-on missions between Dec. 20 and Dec. 29, killing at least seven ISIS members, capturing the remainder, and eliminating four ISIS weapons caches. The operations followed Operation Hawkeye Strike, when U.S. and Jordanian forces hit more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria using over 100 precision munitions, destroying infrastructure and weapons sites linked to the group.
«We will not relent,» CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said, adding that U.S. forces remain «steadfast» in working with regional partners to dismantle ISIS networks that pose a threat to U.S. and regional security.
The scope of the follow-on raids highlights a reality U.S. commanders and analysts have been warning about for months: ISIS no longer controls large swaths of territory, but it retains the ability to organize, strike and regenerate inside Syria’s fragmented security landscape.
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U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria. U.S. forces, part of Task Force WARCLUB operate from combat outposts in the area, coordinating with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in combatting residual ISIS extremists and deterring pro-Iranian militia. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Syria remains divided among competing forces, militias and foreign-backed armed groups, with no single authority exercising full control over large parts of the country. Analysts say that vacuum continues to provide space for ISIS cells to operate quietly, recruit and exploit overstretched local forces.
Analysts note that Syria’s security environment remains shaped by former jihadist networks that were never fully demobilized after the war. The country’s transitional leadership, including President Ahmed al-Sharaa, emerged from armed Islamist factions that relied heavily on foreign fighters and militias, according to regional security assessments. While those groups are not synonymous with ISIS, experts say the incomplete dismantling of extremist networks has left gaps that ISIS cells continue to exploit.
«ISIS today doesn’t need a caliphate to be dangerous,» said Bill Roggio, told Fox News Digital. «We’ve always been quick to declare terrorist organizations defeated and insignificant, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.»
Roggio said the group has adapted rather than disappeared, shifting away from holding territory toward smaller, more covert cells capable of carrying out lethal attacks. He pointed to ongoing ISIS activity not only in Syria and Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and other regions, citing United Nations reporting that estimates roughly 2,000 ISIS fighters remain active in Afghanistan alone.
«That’s not what a defeated group looks like,» Roggio said, noting that ISIS continues to recruit, indoctrinate and inspire attacks even without the visibility it once had.
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ISIS terrorists in Syria. (Reuters)
One of the most sensitive vulnerabilities remains the network of detention facilities in northeastern Syria holding thousands of ISIS terrorists and supporters. Those prisons are guarded primarily by Kurdish-led forces backed by a small U.S. military presence, estimated at roughly 1,000 troops, according to Reuters.
U.S. and coalition officials have repeatedly warned that any major disruption to prison security could allow hardened ISIS operatives to escape and reconstitute networks across Syria and beyond. Kurdish officials have also raised concerns about funding shortages, manpower strain and pressure from rival militias operating nearby.
While U.S. officials have not publicly linked the recent strikes to prison-related threats, analysts say the broader environment of fragmented control increases the risk of coordinated attacks, insider assistance or prison unrest.
The danger is not theoretical. ISIS has previously staged mass prison break operations in Syria and Iraq, including a 2022 assault on the al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah that required days of fighting to contain.
The U.S. strikes also come amid continued instability inside Syria, where multiple armed actors operate with overlapping authority. Analysts note that clashes among militias, sectarian violence and unresolved command structures have weakened overall security and diverted attention from counterterrorism efforts.
US, SYRIAN TROOPS COME UNDER FIRE WHILE ON PATROL: REPORT
U.S. soldiers attached to the Iowa National Guard sign GBU-31 munitions systems in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Dec. 18, 2025 as the U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on U.S. personnel, U.S. officials said. (Air Force Photo/Handout via Reuters)
Bombings in neighborhoods of Damascus, including Mezzeh, and unrest in minority areas have further illustrated the gaps ISIS and other extremist groups can exploit, according to regional security assessments and open-source reporting.
«Syria’s chaos is the accelerant,» Roggio said. «ISIS thrives where no one is fully in charge.»
U.S. officials and analysts stress that ISIS activity in Syria is part of a wider pattern rather than an isolated flare-up.
Sources in the Israeli Mossad told Fox News Digital of continued ISIS-linked activity across multiple theaters, including recruitment networks and small-scale attacks designed to test security responses and maintain operational relevance.
In Turkey, security forces recently clashed with Islamic State militants during counterterrorism operations, wounding several officers, according to Reuters on Monday. Turkish authorities said the raids targeted ISIS cells suspected of planning attacks inside the country.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
Security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government ride in the back of a vehicle moving along a road in Syria’s western city of Latakia on March 9, 2025. Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on March 9, amid growing international backlash following the killing of civilians along the country’s coast in the worst violence since the overthrow of former president Bashar al-Assad. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
«These are signals, not spikes,» Roggio said. «ISIS operates across regions, adapting to pressure and exploiting weak governance wherever it finds it.»
The renewed U.S. military action raises difficult questions for policymakers about how long the current containment strategy can hold.
While U.S. officials say the Dec. 19 strikes delivered a significant blow to ISIS infrastructure, they have also acknowledged that counterterrorism operations alone cannot eliminate the underlying conditions that allow the group to persist.
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People wave guns in the air as they gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on Dec. 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
«Just because we want to declare the war against terror over doesn’t mean it’s over,» Roggio said. «The enemy gets a vote.»
syria,isis,wars,middle east,national security
INTERNACIONAL
Trump administration puts key Biden-era immigration policy on notice: ‘Unsustainable cycle’
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The Trump administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to terminate the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants living in the U.S.
It’s the latest effort by the administration to unwind Biden-era protections of hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. as part of the president’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court Wednesday to immediately intervene and overturn a lower court order that blocked the administration’s effort to immediately revoke the temporary protected status designation for some 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S.
A majority of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end the program, citing the «substantial» and «well-documented harms» the migrants would likely face as a result, clearing the way for the administration to appeal the case to the high court.
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The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
In his filing Wednesday, Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review more broadly the issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S.
«Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,» Sauer said Wednesday. «This court should break that cycle.»
The TPS program in question allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other «extraordinary and temporary conditions.»
Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.5 million in the country homeless.
The protections were extended several times, including under the Biden administration in 2021 after the July assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s last democratically elected president.
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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem speaks from a podium as assembled DHS staff watch. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in November that the U.S. would be ending TPS protections for Haitians in the U.S., prompting a group of individuals living in the U.S. with protected status to file suit.
The Trump administration’s Supreme Court filing marks the second time this year the administration has asked the high court to immediately intervene and allow it to strip TPS protections for certain migrants.
Lawyers for the Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court last month to allow it to revoke TPS designations for Syrian migrants in the U.S., though the high court has yet to rule on that request.
The appeal comes just weeks after U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Department of Homeland Security from immediately revoking the TPS designations for Haitians in the U.S.
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D. John Sauer, nominee to be solicitor general, testifies during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building Feb. 26, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Reyes described the administration’s effort to abruptly wind down the designation as «arbitrary and capricious» and accused DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of failing to consider the «overwhelming evidence of present danger» in Haiti, which she noted had prompted the Biden administration to extend TPS protections for Haitians in the first place.
«The government cannot name a single concrete harm from maintaining the status quo,» Reyes said. «And so instead it argues that the court’s decision is ‘an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the government.’»
The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents.
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Trump officials have also taken aim at lower courts that have sought to block or pause their efforts to wind down TPS protections, accusing the lower court judges of exceeding their authority and unlawfully intruding on the executive branch’s authority on immigration policy.
donald trump,supreme court,federal courts,politics,national security,immigration
INTERNACIONAL
Guerra en Medio Oriente: más de 30 países liberan 400 millones de barriles de petróleo para contener la suba de precios
Más de 30 países acordaron por unanimidad liberar 400 millones de barriles de petróleo, que tenían en sus reservas, en un intento por frenar la escalada de precios originada por la guerra en Medio Oriente.
Así lo decidieron los 32 países miembros de la Agencia Internacional de la Energía (AIE), en lo que la entidad catalogó como el mayor desbloqueo de reservas de emergencia en su historia.
Este miércoles, el precio del petróleo Brent subía 4,7% y se acercaba a los US$92 por barril. Horas atrás de la medida de la AIE, Irán amenazó que el valor del crudo internacional rondaría los US$200.
Leé también: Irán se adjudicó el ataque a los barcos comerciales en el estrecho de Ormuz y envió otra advertencia: “Esperen un barril de petróleo a 200 dólares”
“Los países de la AIE pondrán 400 millones de barriles de petróleo (…) a disposición del mercado para compensar la pérdida de suministro por el cierre efectivo del estrecho de Ormuz”, anunció el director ejecutivo de la agencia, Fatih Birol.
“Se trata de una acción de gran envergadura que tiene como objetivo mitigar los efectos inmediatos de la perturbación de los mercados. Pero, para que quede claro, lo más importante para el retorno a unos flujos estables de petróleo y gas es la reanudación del tránsito por el estrecho de Ormuz”, afirmó el directivo.
Según Birol, las reservas de emergencia se pondrán a disposición del mercado según un calendario adaptado a la situación de cada país miembro y se complementarán con medidas de emergencia adicionales en algunas naciones. Nuevos recortes en la producción mundial de crudo (Foto: Reuters)
La guerra en Oriente Medio, que comenzó el 28 de febrero, afecta el comercio de petróleo a través del estrecho de Ormuz, un punto de paso crucial por el que transitan cada día 15 millones de barriles de petróleo y otros 5 millones de barriles diarios de productos petrolíferos, lo que representa aproximadamente el 25% del transporte mundial de petróleo por vía marítima.
Los miembros de la AIE poseen más de 1200 millones de barriles en sus reservas de emergencia, a los que se suman 600 millones de barriles de reservas en manos de la industria en virtud de obligaciones gubernamentales.
El anuncio de la AIE llegó mientras los líderes del G7, de las economías más avanzadas del mundo, estudian medidas para frenar las consecuencias económicas de la guerra entre Estados Unidos e Israel con Irán.
Leé también: Pese a la advertencia de Trump, Irán atacó barcos comerciales en el estrecho de Ormuz y crece la tensión
Los dirigentes del G7 tienen previsto reunirse por videoconferencia este miércoles para “tratar seguramente” el tema de las reservas energéticas, según el ministro francés de Economía, Roland Lescure.
En ese marco, Japón -cuyas reservas estratégicas de petróleo se encuentran entre las mayores del mundo- y Alemania afirmaron que también recurrirían a sus reservas de crudo.
La liberación coordinada de reservas de la AIE es la sexta en la historia de la institución, creada en 1974.
En 1991, antes de la guerra del Golfo, ya se llevaron a cabo acciones colectivas similares, así como en 2005, tras los huracanes Katrina y Rita, en 2011, con motivo de la guerra civil libia, y en dos ocasiones tras la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Rusia en 2022.
Nueva advertencia de Irán: “Esperen un barril de petróleo a US$200”
Irán advirtió este miércoles que no será posible bajar el precio del petróleo mediante “medidas artificiales” y que se puede esperar, por la presión que han impuesto en el estrecho de Ormuz, que el precio del barril suba a 200 dólares. Hoy, el barril Brent se ubicaba por encima de US$90.
“Deben saber que no podrán bajar el precio del petróleo y de la energía mediante medidas artificiales. Con la expansión de la guerra en la región, ya advertimos que pueden esperar un barril de petróleo de 200 dólares, porque el precio del petróleo depende de la seguridad en la región, y ustedes son la fuente de esa inseguridad», afirmó el portavoz del Cuartel General Central de Jatam al-Anbia, Ebrahim Zolfagari.
Petróleo, g7, Guerra en Medio Oriente
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After deliberating and assessing the global oil market situation in the face of Middle Eastern conflicts stemming from the United States’ attack on Iran, a cohort of 32 different developed nations agreed to make an «unprecedented» move to help address «oil market challenges.»
The International Energy Agency (IEA) held an emergency meeting at its Paris headquarters Tuesday, with energy representatives from the cohort of G7 countries, to «assess market conditions,» which IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol says «have been significantly affected by the conflict in the Middle East.»
Following that meeting on Thursday, the 32 member countries of the IEA unanimously agreed to collectively release the largest quantity of emergency oil reserves they ever have as a coalition, amounting to 400 million barrels.
«The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore, I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,» Birol said following the announcement about the release of the emergency oil reserves. «Oil markets are global, so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too.»
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International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol in Paris on March 10, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump touted the IEA agreement during remarks in Kentucky Wednesday afternoon, saying the move «will substantially reduce oil prices.»
Before the outbreak of war with Iran, oil was trading in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel, but prices soared after the conflict began, with crude oil futures reaching upward of $115 a barrel on Monday – the highest level since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. However, some experts suggest that the market is correcting itself already from an initial scare that the conflict in the Middle East would have a major impact on oil prices.
«The market realized that maybe things aren’t that bad – the U.S. is having incredible military victories, President Trump is saying, ‘Hey, you know what, the war is probably not going to be going on that long.’ And even some signals that the world doesn’t have to just sit and stand and take it,» said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and a FOX Business contributor.
The members of the IEA hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, and a further 600 million barrels of oil industry stocks. This coordinated release of an unprecedented amount of oil will be the sixth in its roughly half-century history. Previous collective action was taken in 1991, 2005, 2011 and twice in 2022.
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The previous record for the largest collective action was the latest release of emergency oil stocks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In combination, the two actions, which took place in March and April 2022, respectively, amounted to a release of 182.7 million barrels, according to the IEA.
House Republicans are pushing the U.S. to keep a close eye on Russian oil giant Lukoil’s international divestments as the conflict in Iran drives up U.S. gas prices. Russia and Iran are close allies. (Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images; Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
President Trump said repeatedly this week during remarks to the press that the war in Iran would be over shortly, but stopped short of providing an exact timeline.
In his comments to the press Wednesday, President Trump quipped that «We don’t want to leave early, do we?»
«We gotta finish the job, right? Over the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran,» Trump said. «It’s a tough country.»
Iran’s ongoing retaliatory attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime choke point for oil transportation, has led to questions about what they will do to prices at the pump. Trump Cabinet official, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, scoffed this week at claims that the Trump administration was caught off guard by how much Trump’s military actions have impacted the oil market and responded to questions about the impact of attacks on the Strait of Hormuz.
A screenshot of a marine traffic terminal showing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on March 4, 2026. (Kpler/Marine Traffic)
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«As you know better than anybody else, it’s a global market, so we could be producing more, or other countries could be producing more, but it all goes into one vat where we get the prices from,» said Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade. «So if the Strait of Hormuz presents a challenge, how could you circumvent that challenge?»
In response, Burgum slammed Iran for «holding the entire world hostage economically by threatening to close the strait.»
«President Trump has made it very clear the consequences if they try to do that,» he continued. «There’s a lot of options between ourselves and our allies in the region, including our Arab friends in the region, to make sure that those straits remain open and energy keeps flowing through the global economy.»
Fox Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
war with iran,middle east,middle east foreign policy,g8 global economy,economy,energy,energy in america
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