Global Conflict Reporting

Author: Scott Jackson

  • Explosion in Venezuela linked to CIA.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12.30.2025

    Last week on the night of December 24th, the CIA carried out a covert drone strike on a port facility located on the coast of Venezuela. This report is based off the statements made by the White House,  CNN’s exclusive coverage of the incident and video from the facility that has been online since before the attack was linked to the U.S.

    Tweet with several videos highlighting the aftermath of the explosion.

    The attack targeted an out of the way port in Maracaibo, that the U.S. believed to have been used by Tren de Aragua in the packing and transport of drugs. Drugs were allegedly stored at a warehouse on the port and then later loaded onto boats for smuggling. The building is owned by Primazol, a chemical production company. According to CNN’s source nobody was present at the time of the attack. 

    The CNN report said two of their sources told them that the strike was carried out with the help of US Special Operations Forces. The report goes on to say that this claim was denied. Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for US Special Operations Command said  “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support.”So if they did participate, they aren’t saying, which is kind of the nature of special forces, so no surprise there. We know that the White House last month authorized special forces and the CIA  to carry out  operations in the region. 

    This operation was first revealed by the President himself in a much overlooked comment last week however, he kept most of the details to himself. On Monday the president was asked about the strike by Republican doner, John Catsimatidis who has a radio show, to which the president responded “We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard,”

    Trump was later asked for more details and said “there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs” and that an “implementation area” was “no longer around.”

    One of the sources that CNN is referencing in their article claims that while the strike was successful destroying the building and the boats(as well as the alleged drugs), the source says it’s mostly symbolic because of the amount of similar facilities. 

    The U.S. has launched 30 strikes on boats allegedly loaded with drugs and bound for the states. Targeting the boats is only a temporary fix for a complex problem. Land strikes were always going to be required if the goal of the White House was ending the flow of drugs from Venezuela, which supplies tons and tons of cocaine which when it reaches the US is often turned into crack cocaine, a much more potent and deadly version of the drug. 

    US Intel has long pointed at high ranking members of the Nicolás Maduro regime as the leaders of the Tren de Aragua cartel. With Maduro right at the head.  These strikes and the buildup of military forces are aimed squarely at putting pressure on president Maduro. The question that’s been raised is “to what end?” 

    The U.S. is gathering a large number of forces into the Caribbean, likely to support more ground strikes in the future. The U.S. has also implemented a blockade on all oil products leaving Venezuela having detained at least two ships already. 

  • Images from China show a cargo ship armed with containerized missiles.

    By.Scott Jackson

    12.27.2025

    Several days ago images were released from China showing a glimpse of an idea that was first discussed in World War 2. The images show a standard container ship however on closer inspection it’s revealed that the containers on the ship are housing dozens of vertical launch missile tubes as well as other military equipment turning the ship from a standard hauler into a weapon in disguise.

    Image showing the VLS tubes as well as the decoy launcher and radar.

    The ship’s deck is almost covered with these containerized launchers. After counting I believe it has a total of 60 launchers. From their size I would estimate this is a universal style system capable of launching several types of missiles. Including surface-to-air and land attack. We can also see a bit of what looks like the hydraulic system which can be used to raise the launch tubes out of the containers. 

    The ship is also outfitted with a number of other upgrades like a Type 1130 30mm CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) mounted above a container. This is useful for engaging incoming threats although its short range makes it a last resort. Another container is outfitted with a Type 726 decoy launcher. These decoy launchers can reportedly fire a number of differ types of countermeasures. 

    Image showing the CIWS as well as the decoy launcher and radar.

    The ship comes with several radar systems. One large flat panel AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar (Possibly in the Type 364/ Dragon eye family).

    China isnt the only country to work towards the development of containerized weapons. Iran and the U.S. have both made advancements in this field, although neither has deployed them to my knowledge.

    China has continued to attempt to leverage their civilian maritime tech capabilities for military purposes. This includes converted semi-submersible vessel for launching helicopters, and a ferry to support invasion operations. Weapons hidden in plain sight like this could become a problem in the future as the tech improves, their disguise look more authentic, and their number increase. A fleet of these armed with anti-ship missiles operating in a heavy shipping lane could shut down a country’s trade. Operating as apart of a fleet they could be loaded up with surface-to-air missiles for added fleet air- defense.

    Right now this ship isn’t hard to spot as a military boat. The CIWS isn’t able to be hidden away as it seems to just be bolted to the top of a container. It’s unclear if the radar can be hidden away.

    This is definitely something that’s going to be more of a problem in the future, how close we are to that future, is unclear. Gathering more intel and data on this and other weapons systems remains critical for the U.S. as China pushes towards maritime domination in the pacific and beyond.

  • U.S. Christmas Day strikes in Nigeria.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12.26.2025

    On the 25th of December 2025 US forces launched a wave of strikes on ISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA)  targets in Sokoto State in Northwestern Nigeria. The White House cited attacks on members of the African country’s Christian population as the reason for the strikes.

    The attacks were carried with reportedly more than a dozen BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) launched from the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Paul Ignatius (DDG-117), which its believed the ship was in the Gulf of Guinea at the time. Video was released by AFRICOM on Christmas Day showing the launch of a single TLAM.

    Locals reported explosions in the small town of Jabo about 10 miles from the state’s capital. 

    The attack was carried out with the support of the Nigerian government who in a statement mentioned exchanging intelligence with the U.S.

    While the White House says the strikes are because ISIS-WA are targeting and killing Christians, we lack a specific recent incident that shows this group is specificly killing based on religion. ISIS-WA often targets government and civil defense forces as well as their rival in the region Boko Haram. Religion isn’t usually a factor or at least not the main factor as ISIS-WA, more often than not, kills Muslim and other religions as well as Christians. All that being said Nigeria has had a rash of kidnappings lately and in one instance gunmen abducted hundreds of schoolchildren from a Catholic school woth the aim to get ransom money

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/nigerians-welcome-release-of-130-schoolchildren-and-teachers-kidnapped-from-catholic-school

    These strikes signal an increased interest in the country by the U.S. who have largely withdrawn from Africa during this administration. Earlier this year US president Donald Trump declared Nigeria a “country of concern” which could be a precursor to stronger involvement by the U.S. like sanctions.

  • Violence erupts in Aleppo.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12.24.2025

    On Monday, The SDF (Majority Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces) and Syrian army trade blame for an outbreak in fighting that led to several civilian casualties. Several isolated battles have erupted throughout the city after an altercation at a joint security checkpoint between the two groups led to renewed fighting and a possible end to their turbulent peace. 

    The sounds of sporadic fighting echo through the streets of Aleppo.

    According to the SDF, who deny what Damascus forces are claiming, said that the attack started when factions affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of the Damascus Government opened fire on the joint security checkpoint at the Sheihan Roundabout in Aleppo. The Syrian Army started shelling Kurdish neighborhoods using tanks and MLRS artillery which is shown in the video below. 

    Since the fighting started the Syrian Government has claimed that the SDF had targeted the Al-Razi hospital however nothing has proven that claim. The SDF put out this statement regarding that matter.  

    The Damascus government, through what it calls the Aleppo Council and its official media outlets, deliberately fabricates and promotes a false and fabricated report about an alleged attack on Al-Razi Hospital in the city of Aleppo, in a transparent attempt to mislead and distort the facts.

    We categorically affirm that Al-Razi Hospital was not targeted by any strike, and what has occurred is blatant and systematic incitement aimed at covering up the real crimes, while dozens of documented videos show artillery and tank shelling carried out by Damascus government factions on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Al-Ashrafiyah, and other areas.

    This behavior reveals the authorities’ disregard for the truth and their use of lies as a political tool to justify their assaults.

    Field evidence confirms the falsehood of the regime’s media narrative”

    Statement from the SDF

    The SDF responded to the shelling with fire of its own. Allegedly killing one civilian in the return fire.

    For now a ceasefire has been agreed upon but at least two have been confirmed killed, possibly more.The fighting didn’t last long but it’s possible this is just the prelude for more violence to come.

    Context

    All of this comes as high level talks are being conducted over the integration of the SDF into the Syrian army. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, met with Syrian government officials in Damascus earlier today before fighting broke out. A deal was signed between the SDF and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) back in March for the integration, however the deal was vague and those talks have stalled somewhat before today and likely even more now. 

    The problem here is mostly Turkey as Syria originally wanted to merge  the SDF’s 50,000 fighters into three divisions under partial Syrian control however Turkey wanted to completely dismantle the existing SDF command structure. Turkey believes that the SDF in Syria is just an offshoot of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers party), a Kurdish terror/resistance group working against the Turkish state. While not fully true, there is a lot of crossover in the two groups.

    The flag of the PKK.

    Most have seen this integration and today’s talks as a catalyst for Monday’s fighting. It’s likely large scale fighting will resume. The SDF currently controls a large portion of northern Syria and if a deal isn’t reached they might consider going back to attempting to create a breakaway state, which is what Turkey is hoping to avoid at all cost. 

    According to the FDD, a report out of Turkey claimed that if the SDF failed to integrate into Syria, Damascus would launch an operation with heavy support from Turkey. This would possibly see Syria forced into a downward spiral of violence, the same type which spawned ISIS growth. 

  • U.S. strikes over 70 targets linked to ISIS in Syria.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12/20/2025

    Late yesterday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) at around 4:00 ET launched “Operation Hawkeye” against ISIS forces across Syria. This operation is a response to last Saturday’s attack in the city of Palmyra on US partner forces that led to the death of two U.S. Iowa National Guard soldiers- Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29.

    CENTCOM claims to have launched strikes using artillery, attack helicopter and fighter jets, and along with fighter jets from the Royal Jordanian Air Force struck over 70 targets across Syria.

    F-15E “Strike Eagle” Multirole Strike Fighters and A-10C Thunderbolt II “Warthog” Close-Air Support Attack Aircraft, and AH-64E “Apache” Attack Helicopters launching for strikes in Syria.

    “This operation is critical to preventing ISIS from inspiring terrorist plots and attacks against the U.S. homeland.” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our partners across the region.”

    U.S. soldier writes the names of the two Iowa national Guard who were killed in last week’s ISIS affiliated attack on Saturday.

    CENTCOM says the operation utilized over 100 precision munitions to target know ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites.

    Video showing what is believed to be the launch of US ATACMS
    (Army Tactical Missile System) ballistic missiles.

    Video of some of the strikes was posted by CENTCOM several hours after the strike.

    Locals in a central Syrian town caught a glimpse of an A-10 roaring overhead.

  • Satellite images reveal the aftermath of Ukranian drone attack on Russian port.

    Still frim the video shows the attack on the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12/18/2025

    Satellite images from December 16th show the aftermath of the Ukrainian drone attack on the port at Novorossiysk. 

    On the 15th, Ukrainian forces launched an attack on the port of Novorossiysk. The attack was carried out by elements of the 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the SBU and the Ukrainian Naval Forces. The attack was carried out using a type of unscrewed submersible and appears to have been filmed from somewhere nearby. The video doesn’t show as much as you hope when looking at footage like this and that has led to some debate over the effectiveness of the strike.

    The before and after image show a clear spot of damage to the pier where the explosion happened and it looks like most of the damage is focused away from the submarine. 

    Before the attack.
    After.

    Russia also put out a video showing what they claim to be the sub in the aftermath, however they don’t show any area that would have received more than minimal blast damage. 

    Twitter post with the Russian video showing the aftermath of the attack.

    Analysis

    It’s unclear from any of the photos or videos how much damage was sustained by the Kilo. After speaking with several submariner’s I’ve come to the conclusion that this attack failed at its intended goal. This subs depth rating is somewhere around 300 meters (984ft). At those depths and even half of those depth you have pressure put on the sub to keep it from imploding in on itself. Meaning sub hulls are built to withstand an immense amount of pressure. This explosion, with it not actually detonating on impact with the sub, preferably with some sort of shaped charge to punch through the hull, left the Kilo mostly undamaged. If the sub received any damage at all it’s going to be mostly superficial and able to be quickly repaired.

    One effect this strike had was the closing off of the port in Novorossiysk with barges in an effect to stop Ukraine from attempting the same trick twice. Now that the sub sea drone is operational, I expect more attacks on Russian sub- and surface vessels in the future.

    Novorossiysk port opening closed off with barges.

  • Navy aircraft operate in the Gulf of Venezuela.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12.10.2025

    Two F/A-18’s were seen flying deep into the Gulf of Venezuela on the 9th, staying there for around 40 minutes according to flight tracking data. The Gulf of Venezuela is a fairly small body of water surrounded on three sides by parts of Venezuela. At its widest the Gulf is only around 150 miles wide (West to East) and 75 miles long (North to South) and the opening of the mouth of the area is only 52 miles wide. Venezuela’s border extends out from its coast 12 miles in every direction not leaving much room for the jets to operate. Venezuela actually claims all of the Gulf as an area of importance to them and considers it all their territory, a claim which the US has debated and challenged for decades.

    Image from FlightRadar24 showing the two F/A-18 Super Hornets in the Gulf of Venezuela. Call signs- RHINO11 and RHINO12.

    Working alongside the F/A-18’s were at least two of the EA-18G Growlers Electronic Warfare aircraft which went into an orbit a couple hundred miles north of the Gulf. Grizzly 1 and Grizzly 2 are the call signs.

    Image from FlightRadar24 show the F/A-18 SuperHornets and north of them the EA-18 Growlers.

    The Growler specializes in electronic attack. Using its overpowering Next Generation Jammer pod carried underwing, it can disrupt modern radar systems on air defense or other air units allowing the growler and other allied planes to get in and out of a mission area without being seen in cases where old radar are being used.

    Electronic attack and radar jamming are poorly understood by most people and there is a lot about the NGJ pods (and even the legacy AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System) that is still classified. However these jamming pods work by attacking the connection between a radar and its target and can reflect a distorted signal back to the receiver.A jamming pod can disrupt a radar by flooding the radar with noise (think of looking into a spotlight)—injecting false signals, alter the timing, or deceiving the radar into tracking a “ghost” location. The tactical advantages of this are obvious, making the growler also amazing at anti-radar and anti air defense missions, also known as SEAD/DEAD. Suppression or Destruction of Enemy air defense. The growlers here could have been jamming the radar for the SuperHornets but more likely they were gathering intelligence on the signals that Venezuela was sending out, in case they are needed for a future strike missions. The last of its features I’d like to point out is the growlers APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar which it was probably using here to scan the Venezuelan coastline.

    It’s believed both the Super Hornets as well as the Growlers are operating from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) which arrived in the Caribbean last month.

    The article I’m liking too is more reading for how the growlers jamming actually works and what some lf the systems limitations are. Highly recommend.

    https://theaviationgeekclub.com/us-navy-ea-18g-growler-pilot-explains-why-jamming-pods-dont-turn-a-non-stealth-aircraft-into-a-stealth-aircraft/amp/

    Two KC-46A Aerial Refueling planes.

    Another event that was missed yesterday was a transfer of several aircraft (possibly Growlers) from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State to the Caribbean. Their presence was noted by flight trackers who also often listen to radio comms between aircraft and Air Traffic Control. They were ferried to the Caribbean by two KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling jets.

    An image showcasing the E/A-18 Growler and its multiple Jamming pods.This one is also packing several anti-radiation missiles that can be set to launch automatically when detecting an enemy radar.

    US aircraft have probed Venezuelan air defense in this same area before utilizing at least one Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft along with several other unidentified aircraft. The US has recently been very public with its aircraft operations in the Caribbean, possibly as a sign to the Maduro regime of its willingness and ability to escalate the situation further if President Trump’s demands aren’t met.

    Flightradar24 showing an RC-135 Rivet Joint and several unknown aircraft operating off the coast of Venezuela.

    In response to an email inquiry sent by GCR to USSOUTHCOM we received this statement from a SOUTHCOM Spokesperson. .

    “We conduct routine, lawful operations in international airspace, including over the Gulf of Venezuela. We will continue to fly safely, professionally, and in accordance with international law to protect the homeland, monitor illicit activity, and support stability across the Americas.”