Syrian rebels advanced into an Islamic State-held town at the border with Iraq on Wednesday, a rebel commander told Reuters, in a new U.S.-backed offensive aimed at cutting the jihadists' self-declared caliphate in two.

• June 29, 2016

Crushing Islamist militants in the Philippines will take precedence over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the incoming defense minister said on Wednesday, and spending on military hardware would reflect that.

• June 29, 2016

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday a U.S. destroyer had approached dangerously close to a Russian warship in the Mediterranean Sea on June 17, and protested at what it said was a flagrant U.S. violation of rules to avoid collisions at sea.

• June 28, 2016

Britain's departure from the European Union risks undermining Europe's new defense strategy, days before NATO and EU governments sign a landmark pact to confront a range of threats from Russia to the Mediterranean, officials say.

• June 27, 2016

Russia is likely to deploy advanced nuclear-capable missiles in its European exclave of Kaliningrad by 2019, casting the move as a reply to a U.S.-backed missile shield, and may one day put them in Crimea too, sources close to its military predict.

• June 23, 2016

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, monitoring a fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, has called on Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists to do more to investigate violations of the agreement.

• June 22, 2016

Russia must boost its combat readiness in response to NATO's "aggressive actions" near Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

• June 22, 2016

The Islamic State group launched a counter attack against fighters trying to capture the Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, inflicting heavy casualties on the U.S.-backed forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the militants said.

• June 20, 2016