PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 20th, 2024: US Eliminates ISIS Leader & Putin Taunts West With Proposed 'Missile Duel'
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This episode is brought to you by Patriot Gold Group. Protect your retirement assets and safeguard your future. Speak with the experts over at Patriot Gold today. Now, they've been the top-rated gold IRA dealer for seven years in a row. That is quite a few years in a row, frankly. So, go to PatriotGoldGroup.com or call 1-888-621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Friday, 20 December. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Okay, it's a little bit of a late afternoon bulletin. It's the travel schedule. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Just some breaking news. A sad story out of Germany where a vehicle drove into a crowd at a Christmas market located approximately two hours west of Berlin.
Details are few at this stage, although there's at least one fatality and upwards of a reported 60 to 80 injuries. According to German authorities, The driver of the vehicle is in custody, and some reports indicate that there were explosives in the vehicle. The German authorities have now described it as a terrorist attack, and this, unfortunately, is reminiscent of a similar terrorist attack on a Berlin Christmas market back in December of 2016 that killed 12. We'll keep an eye on the investigation and report further as details emerge. First, though, coming up in today's afternoon bulletin, an update from Syria, where the U.S. has managed to take out the top leader of ISIS in a precision strike as U.S. diplomats traveled to Damascus for their first in-person meeting with Syria's rebel leaders. Then, Vladimir Putin apparently has a senior moment, or perhaps he's just simply off his meds. as he suggests that Russia and the West engage in an experimental missile duel over Ukraine. But first, our afternoon spotlight.
I want to begin with an update on US activity inside Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime, as the American military steps up assaults on ISIS strongholds, while top US diplomats meet in person with Syria's new leaders for the first time. U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced Friday that their forces had carried out an airstrike in eastern Syria that has killed ISIS leader Abu Yusuf. Officials added that another unnamed ISIS operative was also taken out in the precision strike. That's according to a report from the Jerusalem Post. CENTCOM said the strike was carried out in an area formerly controlled by the Assad regime and the Russians, where ISIS fighters are now working to reconstitute their battered terror army, ambitions, of course, that the U.S. is intent on thwarting. Since Assad's ousting on December 8th, the U.S.
has unleashed a number of strikes across Syria targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in an effort to disrupt and degrade the terror group. In a statement on Friday, CENTCOM said, "...the United States, working with allies and partners in the region, will not allow ISIS to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute. We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria." Now, General Michael Eric Carrillo, the commander of CENTCOM, noted that the threat from ISIS is more pressing than ever since Assad's downfall. He warned that the group is attempting to free some 8,000 ISIS operatives from detention centers across Syria, where they're currently imprisoned. While the death of their leader is certainly a blow to the terror group, significant concerns do remain about what will become of their army of imprisoned fighters.
As we discussed earlier this week on the PDB, the prisons are overseen by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF, and that's a U.S.-backed coalition primarily led by Kurdish groups. But Turkey, which is, as you might recall, a NATO ally, views the Kurdish-led SDF as a threat and has launched repeated attacks on them through Turkish-backed militias, diverting the attention of SDF troops who are guarding the facilities. While there are hopes that Turkey and the SDF can reach a long-term ceasefire, if they continue attacking, U.S.
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