The Institute for Economics and Peace this week published the Global Peace Index 2018, which ranks major nations around the world by how safe, or unsafe, they are.

The report ranked 163 countries based on how peaceful they are. The ranking is determined by 23 factors, which include murder rate, political terror, and deaths from internal conflict.

While the safest countries tend to be highly developed nations in the west and in eastern Asia, the most dangerous places are concentrated in Africa and the Middle East — where poverty and war create a highly unstable mix.

Syria, a country plagued by a brutal seven-year-long civil war, ranks as the most dangerous country on the planet, closely followed by other war ravaged nations like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Peace Index ranks countries from high to low, so the higher the number, the less safe the country. Check out the list of the world's most dangerous countries below.

SEE ALSO: The 31 safest countries in the world

28. India — 2.504

27. Philippines — 2.512

26. Eritrea — 2.522

• A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.
• About 150 Marines and soldiers appear to be stationed at the base, in addition to Iraqi forces.
• Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight.

A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment artillery unit have been operating alongside Iraqi artillery units at a temporary fire support base in northwest Iraq near the Syrian border for the past several weeks, according to a recent Defense Department news release.

U.S. soldiers, Marines and sailors helped Iraqi forces build the camp by as part of Operation Inherent Resolve's support of Operation Roundup, a major offensive by Syrian Democratic Forces aimed at clearing the middle Euphrates River Valley of entrenched, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters.

The U.S. military previously made use of rapidly built fire bases to insert artillery power earlier in the campaign against ISIS. In 2016, a detachment of Marines departed the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group to establish such a location, Fire Base Bell, in northern Iraq. The position, which was later renamed and manned by Army forces, helped U.S. troops intensify the assault on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

It would come under enemy attack soon after its establishment, resulting in the death of Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, the first Marine to die in combat against ISIS.

Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight. But NPR published a brief report Monday about a "remote outpost" on the border of Iraq and Syria that seems to be the one described in the recent Defense Department release.

Some 150 Marines and soldiers are stationed there, NPR reported, in addition to Iraqi forces.

In the release, troops stationed at the fire base described the satisfaction of working side-by-side with Iraqi units.

"The most satisfying moment in the mission, so far, was when all three artillery units, two Iraqi and one U.S., executed simultaneous fires on a single target location," said Maj. Kurt Cheeseman, Task Force Steel operations officer and ground force commander at the fire support base, in the release.

Language barriers forced U.S. and Iraqi artillery units to develop a common technical language to coordinate fire missions that involved both American and Iraqi artillery pieces.

"This mission required the use of multiple communications systems and the translation of fire commands, at the firing point, directing the Iraqi Army guns to prepare for the mission, load and report, and ultimately fire," 1st Lt. Andrea Ortiz Chevres, Task Force Steel fire direction officer, said in the release.

The Iraqi howitzer unit used different procedures to calculate the firing data needed to determine the correct flight path to put rounds on target.

"In order to execute coalition fire missions, we had to develop a calculation process to translate their firing data into our mission data to validate fires prior to execution," Cheeseman said in the release.

Sgt. 1st Class Isaac Hawthorne, Task Force Steel master gunner, added that Iraqi forces are "eager to work with the American M777 howitzer and fire direction crews and share artillery knowledge and procedures," according to the release.

It’s not clear from the release when the base was created or how long it has been active. With little infrastructure and no permanent buildings, troops face temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert.

"They are enduring harsh weather conditions and a lack of luxuries but, unlike previous deployments for many, each element is performing their core function in a combat environment," Cheeseman said in the release. "The fire support base is a perfect example of joint and coalition execution that capitalizes on the strengths of each organization to deliver lethal fires, protect our force and sustain operations across an extended operational reach."

Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force units provided planners, personnel and equipment to create the austere base, built on a bare patch of desert and raised by hand. Coalition partners from several different nations participated in the planning and coordination of the complex movement of supplies.

"Supplies were delivered from both air and ground by the Army, Air Force and Marines, and include delivery platforms such as medium tactical vehicles, UH-60 Black Hawks, CH-47 Chinooks, CV-22 Ospreys, C-130 Hercules and a C-17 Globemaster," 1st Lt. Ashton Woodard, a troop executive officer in Task Force Longknife, said in the release. "We receive resupply air drops that include food, water, fuel, and general supplies."

One of the most vital missions involved setting up a security perimeter to provide stand-off and protection for the U.S. and Iraqi artillery units.

"Following 10 days of around-the-clock labor in intense environmental conditions, the most satisfying moment was seeing the completion of the physical security perimeter," said one Marine working security at the fire base, according to the release.

SEE ALSO: This is the huge M777 howitzer that US Marines burned out while fighting ISIS in Syria

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NOW WATCH: Trump pitched peace to Kim Jong Un with this Hollywood-style video starring Kim as the leading man

• A large delegation of Republican lawmakers met with Kremlin officials this week for an opaque series of meetings in Moscow.
• The lack of transparency gave Russia an opportunity to drive its own narrative of the visit.
• President Donald Trump's tendency to capitulate to the Russian leader and side with Moscow over the US intelligence community furthered Russia's goals.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here»

A large group of Republican lawmakers spent the Fourth of July with Kremlin officials in Moscow for series of rather opaque meetings.

The lack of transparency afforded Russia the critical opportunity it needed to drive home its own narrative of the visit.

Russian state media celebrated the fact that the trip was the first time since the annexation of Crimea that US lawmakers visited Moscow. Russian officials boasted that the Americans had come all the way to Moscow to meet them while they offered few concessions.

Russian media also indicated that the seven US senators and one US representative went out of their way to avoid reporters and members of the press while in Moscow.

The state media outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets noted the meetings "were surrounded by a veil of secrecy — journalists were allowed to observe only welcoming words and afterwords, briefly and devoid of specifics."

The murky details — or lack thereof — allowed Russia to tout its own talking points. That goal was likely bolstered by delegation leader Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who struck a conciliatory tone toward Russia during the trip.

Shelby said this week that while Russia and the US are competitors, "we don't necessarily need to be adversaries."

"I'm not here today to accuse Russia of this or that or so forth," Shelby told Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. "I'm saying that we should all strive for a better relationship."

Meanwhile, another member of the delegation, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, said in an earlier statement to Business Insider that he wanted to "try to establish some rapport, talk about common interests and discuss common problems" with Russian government officials.

In addition to learning more about the Russian economy, Kennedy said he intended to "talk frankly" about Russia's election meddling in the US, France, and Germany, and its interference in the 2016 Brexit vote.

Kennedy later told the Washington Post that the meetings with Russian officials were "damn frank, very, very, very frank, no holds barred."

"I asked our friends in Russia not to interfere in our elections this year," Kennedy said. "I asked them to exit Ukraine and allow Ukraine to self-determine. I asked for the same thing in Crimea. I asked for their help in bringing peace to Syria. And I asked them not to allow Iran to gain a foothold in Syria."

NPR reported that US lawmakers said they brought up Russia's election meddling in every meeting they held with the Russians.

Russia puts its own spin on things — with help from Trump

But Russian officials presented a different overview.

Vyacheslav Nikonov, another member of the Duma who has met with US lawmakers before, told the Post that this meeting "was one of the easiest ones in my life." He added that the question of Russia's election interference was resolved quickly because it "was raised in general form."

"One shouldn't interfere in elections — well, we don't interfere," Nikonov said.

Nikonov's remarks echoed Trump's from just days earlier, when the president deviated again from the US intelligence community and backed Russia on its claim that it did not meddle in the 2016 race.

Andrei Klimov, the deputy chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the upper house of parliament, also told Moskovsky Komsomolets that US lawmakers didn't raise the topic of Crimea during their meetings.

Klimov's comment also came after Trump, in a stunning break from longstanding US policy, indicated that he is open to recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"We will have to see what happens," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed reported that Trump told G7 leaders last month that Crimea is part of Russia because people in the territory speak Russian — a major acknowledgement of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's main foreign policy goals.

News of Trump's reported remarks immediately prompted Russian state media to celebrate, with one host declaring, "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!"

Republican congressmen met with several familiar faces during their visit this week, including Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Kislyak, the former Russian ambassador to the US who is now a member of the upper house of parliament.

US intelligence has frequently described Kislyak as a top Russian spy. His name made headlines last year when it surfaced that he met or communicated with several prominent members of the Trump campaign while he was ambassador.

Those conversations make up key portions of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 race in Trump's favor.

Kislyak said after his meeting with US lawmakers this week that he already knew many of them from his time in Washington. He also downplayed the opaque nature of the visit.

This week's trip took place after US national security adviser John Bolton visited Moscow to meet with Putin last week. Bolton's meeting was a precursor to a highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit on July 16.

NATO allies are worried that Trump will capitulate to the Russian leader and make significant concessions on issues like Ukraine and Syria.

SEE ALSO: The US is pulling out all the stops ahead of a highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit, but Putin may eat Trump's lunch anyway

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About a mile from the Iraqi-Syrian border is a US military fire base where approximately 150 Marines and soldiers are still hammering ISIS in Syria with artillery. 

"To get to the firebase, you fly by helicopter over Mosul," NPR's Jane Arraf reported on Monday.

"And then just a little more than a mile from the Syrian border, there's a collection of tents and armored vehicles in the desert," Arraf said, adding that the US troops have been at the remote, temporary base for about a month.

In early June, the US Army released a dozen photos showing the base and the troops firing M777 howitzers and M109 Paladins to support the Syrian Democratic Forces clearing ISIS from the Euphrates River Valley.

Then a few weeks later, the Army released photos of the troops playing an improvised game of baseball as dusk sets in and smoke clouds billow in the background. 

Check them out below:

SEE ALSO: This is the huge M777 howitzer that US Marines burned out while fighting ISIS in Syria

Here's part of the base, which appears to be surrounded by a sand barrier for protection.

It's about 100 degrees at the camp, and is crawling with scorpions and biting spiders, NPR reported. 

And US troops are firing M777 howitzers.

Read more about the M777 here. 

As well as M109 Paladins.

Read more about the Paladin here, and watch a demo video of it firing from inside here. 

• The terrorist group ISIS has lost most of its territory and has few fighters left in Iraq and Syria, but it remains a threat in the region. 
• A new report warns that ISIS is attempting to make a comeback by resorting to a tactic it employed back in 2013 when it was still known as Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) — the targeted assassinations of Iraqi security personnel. 
• ISIS also continues to wage an effective propaganda campaign online, which helps it maintain a global footprint even as its presence in Iraq and Syria has become more faint. 

Roughly four years ago, ISIS shocked the world when it took over a large swath of territory across Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of a new Islamic caliphate in the process. 

Fast forward to 2018 and the terrorist group is a shadow of what it was even a year ago. It has lost the vast majority of the territory it previously held and the number of fighters it counted among its ranks has dwindled exponentially to below 3,000.

Nevertheless, ISIS remains a threat in the Middle East, and a new report from the Soufan Center warns it's attempting to make a comeback by resorting to a tactic it employed back in 2013 when it was still known as Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) — the targeted assassinations of Iraqi security personnel. 

"To get back to its heyday of 2014, the Islamic State first needs to get back to 2013, a year in which the terrorist group concluded one very successful campaign to free thousands of its detained members from Iraqi jails and started another campaign to assassinate and intimidate Iraqi security personnel, particularly local police officers," the report stated. 

In late June, Iraq executed 12 ISIS members, which the Soufan Center says was in response to the "high-profile assassination" of eight Iraqi security personnel. 

'A weakened Islamic State is now trying to recreate that past'

With fewer numbers, ISIS will be less inclined to focus on regaining territory and more likely to ramp up attacks on Iraqi police to sow the same brand of chaos it did back in 2013, according to the Soufan Center. 

"A weakened Islamic State is now trying to recreate that past," the report noted."Targeted attacks on police and government officials have risen in several provinces as the group has stopped its military collapse and refocused on what is possible for the group now."

The report added, "Assassinations require few people and are perfectly suited as a force multiplier for a group that has seen its forces decimated."

'The social fabric of Iraq remains severely frayed'

Peter Mandaville, a professor of international affairs at George Mason University who previously served as a top adviser to the State Department on ISIS, backed up the Soufan Center report. 

"I think it would be difficult for ISIS to retake significant territory given the ongoing presence and vigilance of [US-led] coalition forces," Mandaville told Business Insider, adding, "They certainly have the capacity to engage in an extended insurgency campaign using the kinds of tactics highlighted in the Soufan Center report."

Mandaville said the situation on the ground in Iraq — that led to the rise of ISIS in the first place — has not changed significantly even though ISIS has more or less been defeated militarily. 

"The social fabric of Iraq remains severely frayed, with high levels of political polarization," Mandaville said. "Until the central government succeeds in advancing key political and security reforms, many areas of Iraq will continue to provide a permissive environment for low intensity ISIS operations."

David Sterman of the New America Foundation, an expert on terrorism and violent extremism, expressed similar sentiments. 

Sterman told Business Insider that the threat of ISIS returning to the strategy of breeding chaos on the local level by targeting Iraq security personal is "very serious." 

"ISIS continues to show capability to conduct attacks in liberated areas, an issue seen also during the surge," Sterman added. "Bombings in Baghdad in January illustrate this as well as the assassinations and smaller attacks discussed" in the Soufan Center report. 

In short, ISIS is still in a position to create havoc, albeit in a more limited capacity, in an already troubled country that really hasn't even begun to recover from years of conflict. 

ISIS continues to operate underground across the world

From a broader standpoint, this does not necessarily mean ISIS poses a significant threat to the US. 

"Even at its height, ISIS did not demonstrate a capability to direct a strike on the US homeland (as opposed to Europe)," Sterman said. "So the threat [in the US] predominantly remains homegrown and inspired. Of course that doesn't mean the US should take its eye off of what is happening in Iraq and Syria. ISIS's bursting onto the global scene is proof of that."

ISIS continues to wage an effective propaganda campaign online, which helps it maintain a global footprint even as its presence in Iraq and Syria has become more faint. 

Moreover, ISIS is also turning to Bitcoin and encrypted communications as a means of rallying its followers worldwide.

"If you look across the globe, the cohesive nature of the enterprise for ISIS has been maintained," Russell Travers, the acting head of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently told The New York Times. "The message continues to resonate with way too many people."

The Trump administration says there's 'still hard fighting ahead' against ISIS

Speaking with reporters in late June, Defense Secretary James Mattis lauded the success the US-led coalition has had against ISIS in Iraq and Syria but added that "there's still hard fighting ahead."

"Bear with us; there's still hard fighting ahead," Mattis said. "It's been hard fighting, and again, we win every time our forces go up against them. We've lost no terrain to them once it's been taken."

Meanwhile, US troops stationed near the Iraq-Syria border have been hammering ISIS in Syria with artillery in recent weeks.  

SEE ALSO: These photos of US troops hammering ISIS in Syria and then playing baseball are straight outta 'Apocalypse Now'

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• Russia's new Uran-9 robot tank apparently had a terrible debut in Syria. 
• The unmanned tank couldn't operate as far away from its controllers as expected, had problems firing its 30mm gun, and couldn't fire while moving.
• The robot tank also could only acquire targets up to about 1.24 miles away, as opposed to four miles as was expected.

Russia's new Uran-9 robot tank apparently had a terrible debut in Syria.

The unmanned tank couldn't operate as far away from its controllers as expected, had problems firing its 30mm gun, and couldn't fire while moving, amid other problems, according to Popular Mechanics, citing the Defence Blog. 

Unveiled in September 2016 and deployed to Syria in May, the Uran-9 is an unmanned tank that was supposed to be capable of operating up to 1.8 miles away from its controller.

But in Syria, it could only be operated from about 984 to 1,640 feet from its operators around high-rise buildings, the Defence Blog reported, citing reports from the 10th all-Russian scientific conference "Actual problems of protection and security" in St. Petersburg. 

The robot tank's controller also randomly lost control of it 17 times for up to one minute and two times for up to an hour and a half, Defence Blog reported. 

The Uran-9 is heavily armed with four 9M120-1 Ataka anti-tank guided missile launchers, six 93 millimeter-caliber rocket-propelled Shmel-M reactive flamethrowers, one 30-millimeter 2A72 automatic cannon, and one 7.62-millimeter coaxial machine gun.

But its 30-millimeter 2A72 automatic cannon delayed six times and even failed once, Defence Blog reported, and it could only acquire targets up to about 1.24 miles away, as opposed to the expected four miles.

Apparently the tank's optical station was seeing "multiple interferences on the ground and in the airspace in the surveillance sector," Defence Blog reported.

The unmanned tank even had issues with its chassis and suspension system, and required repairs in the field, Defence Blog reported.

"The Uran-9 seems to have proven to be more about novelty than capability, but that doesn't mean these tests are without value," SOFREP reported. "In time (and with funding) a successor to the Uran-9 may one day be a battlefield force to be reckoned with."

SEE ALSO: Russia says it has deployed its Uran-9 robotic tank to Syria — here's what it can do

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• The Trump administration's plan to bring US troops in Syria back home is being complicated by renewed attacks from the terrorist group ISIS, according to The Wall Street Journal. 
• Prior to retreating from its strongholds in cities like Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq, ISIS reportedly dug tunnels and set up sleeper cells in the desert that stretches across Iraq and Syria. 
• In late June, Defense Secretary James Mattis warned there would still be "hard fighting ahead" against ISIS. 
• There are roughly 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria. 

The Trump administration's plan to bring US troops in Syria back home is being complicated by renewed attacks from the terrorist group ISIS, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

ISIS has lost the vast majority of its territory and fighters over the past year or so, but many of the fighters who remained fled to the desert and are using stashed weapons and ammunition to stage attacks in both Iraq and Syria. 

Prior to retreating from its strongholds in cities like Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq, ISIS reportedly dug tunnels and set up sleeper cells in the desert that stretches across Iraq and Syria. 

According to the report, this is a sign ISIS was more prepared for a military collapse than the US may have anticipated. It also means US troops in Syria might have to stay longer than the Trump administration previously thought because removing them could create a big window of opportunity for ISIS. 

As Defense Secretary James Mattis said in late in June, "Some of you are questioning whether ISIS was completely taken down. ... Just bear with us; there's still hard fighting ahead."

Mattis added, "It's been hard fighting, and again, we win every time our forces go up against them. We've lost no terrain to them once it's been taken."

The situation in Iraq and Syria is exceptionally convoluted as an array of players with competing interests, including Russia and Iran in addition to the US, fail to find common ground in terms of what should be prioritized moving forward.

Moreover, the conflicting goals of foreign forces in Iraq in Syria often clash with the priorities of local forces, further compounding the already complex circumstances on the ground. 

ISIS has seemingly taken advantage of the confusion by staging attacks on an "array of adversaries," according to The Journal, including US allies. 

In early July, for example, ISIS staged its first attack in its former de facto capital, Raqqa, since it was driven from the city in October 2017. The group reportedly targeted US-backed Kurdish forces near a mosque in this attack.

Meanwhile, a recent Soufan Center report warned ISIS is looking to make a comeback by targeting Iraqi law enforcement, a tactic it embraced in 2013 before it rose to power and established a caliphate. 

The Iraqi government recently executed 12 ISIS members, which was reportedly in response to the "high-profile assassination" of eight Iraqi security personnel. 

Accordingly, it seems the roughly 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria will not be leaving anytime soon. 

SEE ALSO: ISIS is trying to make a comeback by creating chaos with assassinations — the same tactic it employed before it rose to power 5 years ago

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• A North Korean diplomat reportedly told an Israeli diplomat in 1999 that Pyongyang would provide ballistic missile technology to Iran unless it paid $1 billion.
• North Korea has nuclear weapons, but it's deterred from using them because it would be nuked right back in a more massive response.
• But if North Korea sells nuclear weapons and related technology, another rogue state or terror organization may feel less restrained to actually use them.
• Even if North Korea doesn't sell weapons, it can still blackmail countries like Israel with its nuclear leverage. 

A North Korean diplomat reportedly told an Israeli diplomat in 1999 that Pyongyang would provide ballistic missile technology to Iran, a state sworn to destroy Israel, unless it paid up to the tune of $1 billion.

North Korea has a long and well documented history of providing weapons technology, including chemical and nuclear weapon infrastructure, to countries like Iran and Syria. 

While Pyongyang commands a few dozen operational nuclear warheads, according to intelligence reports, its real threat to the world lies not in starting an outright nuclear war, but in selling nuclear weapons to states, or terrorists, that may use them.

It's unclear if Israel ever paid North Korea's blackmail, though Israel would later destroy an Iranian nuclear reactor that North Korea was suspected of helping build.

North Korea selling nukes is a bigger threat than just building them

If North Korea launched a nuclear attack, it would swiftly find itself on the receiving end of more powerful, more precise nuclear weapons. North Korea's nuclear weapons serve mainly to deter attacks.

But because of North Korea's decision to defy international law by testing and developing nuclear weapons, it finds itself under heavy sanctions and impoverished. 

This leaves North Korea as a cash-hungry state with an excess of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology. A terror group or fellow rogue state, seeing the legitimacy and national power nuclear weapons have bestowed upon North Korea, might seek to buy nuclear technology off Pyongyang.

While many experts generally expect North Korea to maintain the status quo with its nuclear weapons by using them mainly to deter enemies, it's less clear that Iran, Syria, or especially a terror network would show such restraint. 

“Depending on the demand, we certainly cannot exclude the possibility that North Korea will sell its nuclear weapons for cash,” said Nam Sung-wook, a former South Korean intelligence official told the Wall Street Journal, who first reported on North Korea's attempted blackmail. 

The UN has concluded that North Korea has a long history of weapons cooperation with Iran and Syria, the US's two foremost nation-state enemies in the Middle East. Iran's stated goal is to destroy Israel, and while their conventional military offers them little hope of achieving that, nuclear weapons actually could do the job. 

Trump isn't doing anything about this

The US under President Donald Trump has lowered the threat of outright nuclear war with North Korea following talks and a summit with Kim Jong Un, but no work towards denuclearization appears to have actually taken place. 

North Korea has not shared with the US any details of its nuclear program, and the US has no specifics from the Kim regime on how many weapons it has or where it keeps them.

So despite Trump's insistence that North Korea isn't a threat anymore, there's absolutely no way of knowing if Kim would provide nuclear weapons to aggressive states, or use that leverage to blackmail countries for fear of nuclear war. 

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• Russian President Vladimir Putin deflected questions about Russia's involvement in Syria's civil war where, it's estimated, at least half a million people have been killed.
• During an interview with with Fox News, Putin said victims are "inevitable."

Russian President Vladimir deflected questions about Russia's involvement in Syria's civil war, in which at least half a million people are estimated to have been killed.

During an interview with with Fox News Channel host Chris Wallace, Putin was asked about whether he had any "qualms" about civilians being killed in Russian bombings in both Aleppo and Ghouta.

"You know, when there is a warfare going on — and this is the worst thing that can happen for the humankind —victims are inevitable," Putin told Wallace.

"And there will always be a question of who’s to blame," he added, before shifting responsibility to terror groups in the region, like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, for "destabilizing" the country's political situation.

Russia has supported the Assad regime in Syria since it formally entered the country's civil war in 2015.

Putin also tried to deflect the issue of casualties by talking about the Syrian city of Raqqa, where Amnesty International says US-led coalition airstrikes killed and injured thousands of civilians last year and left the city in ruins. 

On Monday, President Donald Trump met with Putin in Helsinki and discussed a number of issues including the humanitarian situation in Syria.

"Cooperation between our two countries has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives," Trump said.

SEE ALSO: Putin laughs and waves aside Mueller's indictment of Russian intelligence officers during Fox News interview

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ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) - Russian paramilitary units providing security for the soccer World Cup included among their members Cossack fighters who took part in clandestine campaigns in Ukraine and Syria that Kiev and Washington condemn as backed by Moscow.

More than 800 members of at least six local Cossack organizations will patrol the streets, fan zones and team bases during the five-week tournament starting on Thursday, according to Cossack leaders and regional officials.

In some places in Russia they will also work on match days as stewards or volunteers, the Cossack commanders said.

At least 19 members of these groups have been identified by Reuters as having fought either alongside Moscow-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine or as Kremlin-backed private military contractors in Syria in support of Moscow’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters identified the fighters and confirmed they belonged to the paramilitary groups through relatives, friends and their fellow Cossacks after they died or were captured. The number would likely be much higher if those who are still alive could be included.

The Ukraine government views anyone who fought with the separatists as criminals. The European Union and the United States also treat the separatist uprising as unlawful and have imposed travel bans and financial freezes on dozens of people involved in the fighting or aiding the separatists.

The Kremlin denies providing military support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine. It also says it has nothing to do with Russian private military contractors in Syria. Working as an armed mercenary abroad is illegal under Russian law.

Self-governing and semi-military communities mainly in southern Russia and Ukraine, Cossacks traditionally guarded the borders of the Russian Empire but were repressed in the Soviet era. Today many Cossack militia units are registered and funded by the central government in return for their loyalty. The 19 fighters identified by Reuters were all members of officially-registered Cossack units.

Cossack groups say that any members taking part in armed conflicts do so as private individuals.

But there is evidence that Cossack organizations have been supportive of those deployments. For one thing, they often organize burials with full honors for people killed in combat in Syria and Ukraine, and publish eulogies about them.

Speaking in his office decorated with flags of pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, Cossack leader Alexander Anishchenko told Reuters about 200 members of the Great Don Army Cossack organization will guard areas outside the Rostov stadium during the World Cup matches.

At a time of fierce fighting in early 2015, a commander in the Great Don Army, Svyatoslav Borisov, posted pictures from rebel-held eastern Ukraine on his social network account, including two of him posing in front of a burnt-out tank.

Borisov told Reuters this week he only delivered humanitarian aid to pro-Russian rebels and did not fight.

"Every person decides for himself. If he likes fighting, he fights," Borisov said of Cossacks who have fought in Ukraine. "I am a man of peace."

Roman Zabolotny, a Rostov Cossack who is a member of the Great Don Army, was captured by Islamic State in Syria last year while fighting there as a private military contractor, according to fellow Cossacks.

Fifa's premier event

Russia's organizing committee for the Cup referred questions about the Cossack units' role to the Interior Ministry, saying the ministry was responsible for tournament security. The ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, expressed outrage over their involvement in football's premier tournament.

"The use of Cossack paramilitary groups is, on the one hand, evidence of the inability of the Russian leadership to ensure law and order during the 2018 soccer World Cup using state agencies, and on the other hand, it compromises an official FIFA event," Turchynov said in a statement to Reuters.

"I believe that it is unacceptable on the part of the international community to consent to these actions."

The statutes of FIFA, global football's governing body, state that it "is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights."

"For FIFA, these groups’ involvement represents an outrageous betrayal of the organization’s charter," US Congressman Eliot L. Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters.

"I fear that rather than providing security at a peaceful, multinational gathering, these forces will instead silence government critics, beat protesters, and crack down on anyone who doesn’t conform to (President Vladimir) Putin’s standards," he said in a statement.

Asked about the Cossacks' role, a FIFA spokesperson said the organization has "complete trust in the security arrangements and comprehensive security concept" developed by the Russian authorities and local organizers of the tournament.

Sochi, the Black Sea resort which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, will see the biggest deployment of Cossacks with 538 members of the local Kuban Cossack Army taking part, the group's spokeswoman told Reuters.

Five members of the Kuban Cossack Army have been killed in combat in eastern Ukraine and Syria since 2014, according to local Cossack commanders and people who knew the dead men.

(By Maria Tsvetkova; additional reporting by Anton Chekrygin in Bataisk, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Olesya Astakhova in Rostov and Christian Lowe in Moscow; editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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• The US military denied reports that it carried out recent strikes in eastern Syria. 
• Syrian state media reported Monday that US-led coalition aircraft had bombed “one of our military positions” in al-Harra, southeast of Albu Kamal.
• The US-led coalition is supporting an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State northeast of Albu Kamal.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state media, citing a military source, reported on Monday that U.S.-led coalition aircraft had bombed “one of our military positions” in eastern Syria, leading to deaths and injuries, but the U.S. military denied carrying out strikes in the area.

The strike took place in al-Harra, southeast of Albu Kamal, Syrian state media said. There were no immediate details on casualties.

A commander in the military alliance backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also told Reuters that drones, “probably American,” had bombed positions of Iraqi factions between Albu Kamal and Tanf and Syrian military positions.

“No member of the U.S.-led coalition carried out strikes near Albu Kamal,” Major Josh Jacques, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told Reuters.

The U.S.-led coalition is supporting an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State northeast of Albu Kamal.

The Syrian army, alongside allied Iran-backed militias including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi groups, drove Islamic State from Albu Kamal and its environs last year, but the jihadists have since staged attacks in the area.

U.S. forces are also based in Tanf, southwest of Albu Kamal in the Syrian desert near the borders of Iraq and Jordan.

 Last week, Assad said he regarded the United States as an occupying power in Syria and that the position of his state was to “support any act of resistance, whether against terrorists or against occupying forces, regardless of their nationality.”

Reporting By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall, additonal reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Daniel Wallis

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By Rana Novack, Offering Owner, IBM Refugee & Migration Predictive Analytics

“Do you really think we would do anything differently?”

It’s a question I’m asked repeatedly, and one that I’ve struggled with often as war’s veil of grief and destruction has slowly, cruelly fallen over my family in Syria.

As my relatives have dispersed to whichever corner of the world they could safely reach, I’ve hoped and prayed that people – policy makers, immigration officers, the whole world, sometimes even my relatives themselves – would have done things differently. It’s a question I’ve asked myself in hindsight when I’ve been disappointed, time and time again.

I am a first-generation Syrian American, and since the war began I’ve realized that almost everything I thought I knew about refugees and how the world responds to them was wrong. Here’s what I’ve learned as I’ve had to re-think what it means to be displaced by conflict — and what we can do about it. 

1. It’s not them — it’s us. My first mistake was thinking everything would be fine. Maybe I was just hopeful. When the protests began, I thought the unrest would pass quickly. When it turned violent, I was worried, but I thought, “It’s isolated to a few far away areas.” Then, the violence spread, and it became clear that it wasn’t just going to go away. I also realized that what was happening in Syria, to people I loved, could happen anywhere to anyone. For so long, I had thought of refugees as them. Now, it was us.

2. There’s no place like home. My second mistake was thinking anyone would want to leave. One night, when the violence had been intense near my family’s neighborhood, I was speaking with my aunt in Syria, tearfully pleading with her to leave. I’ll never forget what she said next: that she couldn’t because her daughter had a doctor’s appointment.

I was speechless. Was it worth risking your life for a doctor’s appointment? But then, something shifted, and I understood in a way I hadn’t before: It wasn’t as simple as just getting out. How do you make the choice to take your children and go, not knowing when they would next see a doctor? How do you leave the only place, the only life, you have ever known? There I was, asking her to leave, from the safety of my home without the slightest understanding of what I was suggesting in asking her to leave her own. 

Because there wasn’t a safe way out, in many ways leaving had become a greater risk than staying. And while millions have left, they have done so at great personal risk and sacrifice.  

3. We’re confined by our own constructs. My third mistake was thinking they could go, even if they wanted to. When my relatives did finally make the impossible choice to leave, every visa they applied for was denied. I realized it wasn’t the conflict keeping them confined; it was the rest of the world that had closed their doors. There was no plan, no established pathway to safety  — and people were dying either because of the conflict or on the way out.

Reimagining a refugee crisis

At the time, I was working at IBM and learning about predictive modeling, analytics, and cognitive computing. I began wondering if there might be a way to apply predictive technology to a refugee crisis. What if we had seen this coming? What could we have done differently? 

Clearly, we would have had an opportunity. In a connected, cognitive world, we could analyze trends in data, learn from past migrations, and respond proactively, making policy decisions ahead of time, deploying humanitarian resources early, and establishing safe exit routes.

That vision became the basis of IBM’s Refugee & Migration Predictive Analytics Solution prototype. It’s a tool to determine where people are going and how they are getting there, and to look for trends and correlations in data to help identify the drivers of a migration to empower government agencies and humanitarian organizations with the right information ahead of time. The IBM Foundation is now working with the Danish Refugee Council to refine the solution in support of future humanitarian crises.

I can hear it now: "But even if we had perfect information … do you really think we would do anything differently?”

And my answer is: Of course I do.

Isn’t that what technology is for? It exists to make our world smarter, to help solve tough, complex challenges, to enable insight, and more informed decision making. But building technology-based solutions is only part of the answer. It’s up to us to act on the information and insights they provide. It’s up to us to be responsible, decent, and human. 

In the age of technological disruption, we have the tools to disrupt displacement. We can evolve our measure of success for a refugee crisis response from basic survival and expand our focus to other diaspora-related issues  — pandemics, climate, famine, the global economy — exponentially driving technology to serve humanity. 

In honor of World Refugee Day on June 20, let’s rethink how we support populations in crisis. Let’s commit to making a concerted effort to applying technology responsibly for the more than 65 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, and the millions who may soon follow them. Then, maybe we won’t do anything differently – we’ll do everything differently.

Watch the video below to learn more.

This post is sponsor content from IBM and was created by IBM and Insider Studios.

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• Syrian state news agency SANA said two Israeli missiles hit in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport early Tuesday. 
• Rights groups said the strike targeted "weapons depots and warehouses belonging to non-Syrian militias loyal to the Syrian regime."
• Israel would not comment on the report, as is its policy.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Syrian state news agency SANA said two Israeli missiles hit in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday morning, without giving further details.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian air defense systems failed to intercept the missiles.

The Britain-based war monitor said an explosion heard at 1 a.m. near the airport was caused by missiles fired by Israeli planes from the direction of Golan Heights.

"It targeted weapons depots and warehouses belonging to non-Syrian militias loyal to the (Syrian) regime," the Observatory said, adding it had no information about casualties or damage.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and backs a number of militias, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, fighting in support of Assad.

Israel, concerned that Iran's growing presence in Syria is a threat to its safety, has struck dozens of Iranian and Iran-backed positions in Syria over the course of the seven-year conflict.

Asked about the report, an Israeli military spokesman said: "We do not comment on foreign reports."

(Reporting by Nayera Abdullah in Cairo and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; editing by Diane Craft, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry)

SEE ALSO: Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes on 50 Iranian targets in Syria — a massive escalation that could lead to all-out war

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• National security adviser John Bolton once said Russia's election interference was a "true act of war" against the US, and that a policy based on trusting Russia was "doomed to failure."
• Bolton's tune changed completely after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
• He also said President Donald Trump and Putin will likely discuss Trump's recent calls for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 alliance.
• When confronted by a reporter about his shift on Russia, Bolton said he would not address the discrepancy.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here»

US national security adviser John Bolton once said that Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election was "an act of war" against the US and warned that the US could not trust Russia.

On Wednesday, he told the Russian leader: "We are most appreciative of your courtesy and graciousness."

Bolton's comments came after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a highly anticipated summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump in July.

Citing Kremlin spokesperson Yury Ushakov, the Russian state media outlet TASS reported Putin and Bolton discussed "strategic stability in the world, control over nuclear weapons and, in general, a disarmament dossier." Ushakov said they also discussed the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, North Korea, and the Iran nuclear deal.

Bolton and the Kremlin did not say whether he and Putin discussed Russia's election meddling. The Kremlin said the two men did not broach the subject of sanctions or the diplomatic spat between the US and Russia.

At a press conference held later in Moscow, Bolton said Moscow and Washington would announce the time and place of the Trump-Putin summit on Thursday. The presser was broadcast from the headquarters of the Russian state media outlet Interfax, instead of from the US embassy in Moscow.

A testy exchange over Ukraine and Russian election meddling

One reporter asked Bolton whether he felt it was appropriate for Trump and Putin to meet given that Russia has not changed any of its behavior in the past.

He was also asked whether Trump would broach Russia's election interference and allegations that a Russian missile was responsible for downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.

Bolton responded that "there are a wide range of issues ... where both [Trump and Putin] think they'd like to find constructive solutions. I'd like to hear someone say that's a bad idea."

"You yourself said a national security policy based on faith that regimes like Russia will honor their commitments is doomed to failure," the reporter replied.

Bolton said that he would not address previous statements he had made and reiterated that Trump will "raise the full range of issues" between the US and Russia when the presidents meet in July.

He also said Trump and Putin would likely discuss Trump's recent calls for Russia to be readmitted to the G7.

Trump first brought up his proposal during the annual G7 summit in Canada earlier this month, also reportedly suggesting Crimea was part of Russia because the people there spoke Russian. Russian state media celebrated Trump's reported statements, with one host declaring, "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!"

Bolton pushed back on that notion when The Wall Street Journal's Anatoly Kurmanaev asked whether Trump recognizes Russia's annexation of Crimea — in other words, whether Russia controls Crimea.

"That's not the United States's position," Bolton replied.

A Bloomberg News reporter later asked Bolton whether he was "suspicious" that Putin arrived on time to the meeting and treated Trump's emissary "with more respect" than he gives other world leaders.

"That's the hardest question I've been asked here today," Bolton quipped. "I could either agree with you that he wasn't late, or I could tell you when he actually arrived and be accused of saying that he was late."

As for "the meaning of [this meeting] with respect to ... anyone else that you mentioned, I think I'll just duck the question," Bolton added.

SEE ALSO: The US is pulling out all the stops ahead of a highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit in a 'third country,' but Putin may eat Trump's lunch anyway

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• US and Russian officials announced Thursday that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Helsinki, Finland on July 16.
• The summit will take place during Trump's trip to Europe in July, which will include attending the NATO summit and visiting the UK.
• Trump favors using his personal brand of one-on-one diplomacy when meeting with foreign leaders, but so far, the US has come out with few victories while making major concessions.
• Foreign-policy experts anticipate the same outcome, with potentially massive consequences, when Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.
• Russia may even score a major win related to sanctions following the Trump-Putin meeting.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here»

The US is pulling out all the stops ahead of the highly anticipated summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US and Russian officials announced Thursday that the meeting will take place in Helsinki, Finland on July 16.

National security adviser John Bolton met with Putin and other top Russian officials at the Kremlin in Moscow this week to discuss US-Russia relations and pave the way for the summit.

When Putin greeted Bolton, he said he did not want to escalate tensions with the US and was willing to discuss how to "restore full-fledged relations based on equality and mutual respect."

Bolton said he wanted to discuss "how to improve Russia-US relations and find areas where we can agree and make progress together."

He later told the Russian leader: "We are most appreciative of your courtesy and graciousness."

Last week, secretary of state Mike Pompeo also told MSNBC that the US is "trying to find places where we have overlapping interests [with Russia], but protecting American interests where we do not."

Based on Trump's track record, however, it's unclear how successful he'll be in meeting that goal.

The president has come to rely heavily on his personal brand of one-on-one diplomacy, a technique he employed when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month in Singapore. While the White House applauded the meeting as a historic achievement, foreign-policy veterans noted that outside of bolstering Trump's own self-image, the US gained little from the summit and made significant concessions to North Korea.

Experts say they expect the same outcome, with potentially massive consequences, when Trump meets with Putin in July.

'Trump is ours!'

The topics on the agenda will include Russia's aggression toward Ukraine; Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election; the conflict in Syria, and denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

Mark Simakovsky, a former Department of Defense official who focused on Russia policy, said the timing alone of the Trump-Putin meeting will likely set off alarm bells with US allies.

"There are already questions about Trump's commitment to NATO," Simakovsky said. "The fact that Trump is likely to meet with Putin so close to the NATO summit seems like a purposeful step to signal his displeasure toward the alliance, while showcasing himself as a kingmaker, someone who makes big deals with big leaders, irrespective of the interests of our closest allies."

Trump added to that tension when he appeared to side with Russia in a tweet about it's election interference, which is the subject of a wide-ranging FBI investigation by the special counsel Robert Mueller.

"Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!" Trump tweeted. "Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!"

The US intelligence community concluded that Russia meddled in the race with the specific purpose of elevating Trump's candidacy and denigrating that of his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Tensions between the US and its NATO partners were exacerbated by Trump's calls during the G7 summit this month for Russia to be readmitted to the alliance. Russia was kicked out of the G7 in 2014 after it invaded Ukraine and annexed the territory of Crimea.

BuzzFeed also reported that Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is part of Russia because people in the territory speak Russian — a major acknowledgement of one of Putin's main foreign policy goals.

News of Trump's reported remarks immediately prompted Russian state media to celebrate, with one host declaring, "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!"

A 'green light' for Putin

"Putin has a clear idea of what he wants," said William Pomeranz, the deputy director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center. "He may not be able to get it all, but he has a firmly thought out plan and he's a very disciplined negotiator. One does not get the same impression about President Trump."

On the other hand, experts say Trump's haphazard approach to diplomacy and lack of a clear stated goal raise questions about what commitments the president may be able to get from Putin.

Trump's affinity for Putin, his endorsement of Putin's election victory against the advice of aides, and his willingness to let Russia slide on hot-button issues are also complicating factors.

"If the North Korea summit is any indication, anything Trump and Putin discuss will be portrayed as a personal triumph for Trump at establishing the personal relationship with Putin he's always wanted," said Richard Kauzlarich, a former deputy assistant secretary of state.

Meanwhile, Russian media has floated the theory that Trump and Putin will enter into a "secret verbal agreement" that Trump will look the other way on Ukraine.

In order for Trump to counteract that, he will need to emphasize that "the US will not turn a blind eye to Moscow's malign influence around the globe," said Edward Price, who served as senior director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama.

"Anything less would be taken by Putin to be a green light," he added.

An unraveling of sanctions?

Trump's coziness with Putin could also hand Moscow a victory on its most important issue: sanctions.

Since 2014, the US and the UK have urged the European Union to sanction Russia as a penalty for invading Ukraine.

The EU does significantly more trade with Russia than the US does, and it has more energy interests in the region.

For that reason, European countries often disagree with the US's requests for them to extend sanctions. But so far, they've complied.

The EU's reluctance to punish Moscow has increased since Trump took office, fueled in part by his pro-Russia rhetoric.

Pomeranz highlighted just how sensitive the optics of the Trump-Putin meeting are in light of the EU's concerns.

"All it takes is one [EU] country to decide that they no longer want to extend sanctions, and they'll go away," Pomeranz said. "And if European sanctions unravel, I anticipate President Trump would demand or at least voice strong support for reducing US sanctions on Russia as well."

SEE ALSO: The DOJ has turned over additional FISA records to Republicans, and former intelligence officials say the implications could be 'catastrophic'

DON'T MISS: John Bolton just did a complete 180 on his Russia stance after meeting with Putin

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NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

The battle for Aleppo raged for over five years, coming to an end in December 2016 and marking a major milestone in a bloody civil war that has transformed Syria from a bustling country to a devastating warzone.

The war, which was born out of the 2011 Arab Spring protests, left 6.1 million internally displaced and left 5.6 million people as refugees out of Syria as of April, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Death tolls from the conflict are hard to calculate, but in 2016 the Syrian Center for Policy Research estimated that 470,000 people had been killed.

The city was left a shell of its former self after the bloody war between rebels and government forces. While the Syrian civil war continues, looking at photos of the city of Aleppo before and after the battle took place on its streets serves as a sobering reminder of the catastrophic consequences of the conflict.

This is Aleppo in December 2016, when the battle in the city was declared over. For the previous five years, the Syrian city was the target for conflict and intense shelling from Russian-backed government forces and rebels fighting against President Assad's regime. Airstrikes left ancient mosques and homes under blankets of dust and rubble.

Hundreds of thousands of people were trapped in the besieged city. Hospitals and schools were destroyed.

But life in Aleppo wasn't always this way. The city had spent centuries evolving into the country's largest industrial and commercial hub and is one of the oldest inhabited cities in human history. It was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986.

CENTCOM has just published some interesting photographs of U.S. assets supporting Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve. In particular, the images depict U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III and U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J operating from an austere runway at what the official captions refer to as an “undisclosed location”.

However, the new images, taken between Jun. 20 and 23, 2018 and released by CENTCOM Public Affairs earlier today, were immediately geolocated by the OSINT investigator and famous Twitter user Samir (@obretix).

Therefore, those you can find in this post are, to our knowledge, the very first photographs showing operations at a new U.S./Coalition military base in Syria’s northeastern province of Al-Hasakah whose construction works were exposed by OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) analysis of satellite pictures in 2017 and completion appeared to be imminent or just finished at the end of April 2018:

Here are some of the images:

SEE ALSO: Check out these photos of the US military drills in Europe that have Russia spooked

A U.S. Marine Corps C-130 Hercules departs from an undisclosed location, June 22, 2018.

The C-130 was transporting personnel and supplies to another location in Combined Joint Task Force’s area of operations.

The KC-130J Hercules supports expeditionary operations by providing air-to-air refueling, rapid ground refueling and logistic support to operating forces. Tactical transportation of personnel or cargo includes aerial delivery or austere landing zone operations.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster readies for departure from an undisclosed location, June 23, 2018.

C-17s can airdrop both cargo and personnel, and is able to land on small, austere runways as short as 3,000 feet with a full load.

The Institute for Economics and Peace this week published the Global Peace Index 2018, which ranks major nations around the world by how safe, or unsafe, they are.

The report ranked 163 countries based on how peaceful they are. The ranking is determined by 23 factors, which include murder rate, political terror, and deaths from internal conflict.

While the safest countries tend to be highly developed nations in the west and in eastern Asia, the most dangerous places are concentrated in Africa and the Middle East — where poverty and war create a highly unstable mix.

Syria, a country plagued by a brutal seven-year-long civil war, ranks as the most dangerous country on the planet, closely followed by other war ravaged nations like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Peace Index ranks countries from high to low, so the higher the number, the less safe the country. Check out the list of the world's most dangerous countries below.

SEE ALSO: The 31 safest countries in the world

28. India — 2.504

27. Philippines — 2.512

26. Eritrea — 2.522

• A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.
• About 150 Marines and soldiers appear to be stationed at the base, in addition to Iraqi forces.
• Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight.

A U.S. Army artillery unit is pounding Islamic State fighters inside Syria from a remote desert camp just inside Iraq.

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment artillery unit have been operating alongside Iraqi artillery units at a temporary fire support base in northwest Iraq near the Syrian border for the past several weeks, according to a recent Defense Department news release.

U.S. soldiers, Marines and sailors helped Iraqi forces build the camp by as part of Operation Inherent Resolve's support of Operation Roundup, a major offensive by Syrian Democratic Forces aimed at clearing the middle Euphrates River Valley of entrenched, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters.

The U.S. military previously made use of rapidly built fire bases to insert artillery power earlier in the campaign against ISIS. In 2016, a detachment of Marines departed the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group to establish such a location, Fire Base Bell, in northern Iraq. The position, which was later renamed and manned by Army forces, helped U.S. troops intensify the assault on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

It would come under enemy attack soon after its establishment, resulting in the death of Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, the first Marine to die in combat against ISIS.

Little has been made public in recent months about the U.S. military's use of temporary fire bases to continue the ISIS fight. But NPR published a brief report Monday about a "remote outpost" on the border of Iraq and Syria that seems to be the one described in the recent Defense Department release.

Some 150 Marines and soldiers are stationed there, NPR reported, in addition to Iraqi forces.

In the release, troops stationed at the fire base described the satisfaction of working side-by-side with Iraqi units.

"The most satisfying moment in the mission, so far, was when all three artillery units, two Iraqi and one U.S., executed simultaneous fires on a single target location," said Maj. Kurt Cheeseman, Task Force Steel operations officer and ground force commander at the fire support base, in the release.

Language barriers forced U.S. and Iraqi artillery units to develop a common technical language to coordinate fire missions that involved both American and Iraqi artillery pieces.

"This mission required the use of multiple communications systems and the translation of fire commands, at the firing point, directing the Iraqi Army guns to prepare for the mission, load and report, and ultimately fire," 1st Lt. Andrea Ortiz Chevres, Task Force Steel fire direction officer, said in the release.

The Iraqi howitzer unit used different procedures to calculate the firing data needed to determine the correct flight path to put rounds on target.

"In order to execute coalition fire missions, we had to develop a calculation process to translate their firing data into our mission data to validate fires prior to execution," Cheeseman said in the release.

Sgt. 1st Class Isaac Hawthorne, Task Force Steel master gunner, added that Iraqi forces are "eager to work with the American M777 howitzer and fire direction crews and share artillery knowledge and procedures," according to the release.

It’s not clear from the release when the base was created or how long it has been active. With little infrastructure and no permanent buildings, troops face temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert.

"They are enduring harsh weather conditions and a lack of luxuries but, unlike previous deployments for many, each element is performing their core function in a combat environment," Cheeseman said in the release. "The fire support base is a perfect example of joint and coalition execution that capitalizes on the strengths of each organization to deliver lethal fires, protect our force and sustain operations across an extended operational reach."

Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force units provided planners, personnel and equipment to create the austere base, built on a bare patch of desert and raised by hand. Coalition partners from several different nations participated in the planning and coordination of the complex movement of supplies.

"Supplies were delivered from both air and ground by the Army, Air Force and Marines, and include delivery platforms such as medium tactical vehicles, UH-60 Black Hawks, CH-47 Chinooks, CV-22 Ospreys, C-130 Hercules and a C-17 Globemaster," 1st Lt. Ashton Woodard, a troop executive officer in Task Force Longknife, said in the release. "We receive resupply air drops that include food, water, fuel, and general supplies."

One of the most vital missions involved setting up a security perimeter to provide stand-off and protection for the U.S. and Iraqi artillery units.

"Following 10 days of around-the-clock labor in intense environmental conditions, the most satisfying moment was seeing the completion of the physical security perimeter," said one Marine working security at the fire base, according to the release.

SEE ALSO: This is the huge M777 howitzer that US Marines burned out while fighting ISIS in Syria

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NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

• A large delegation of Republican lawmakers met with Kremlin officials this week for an opaque series of meetings in Moscow.
• The lack of transparency gave Russia an opportunity to drive its own narrative of the visit.
• President Donald Trump's tendency to capitulate to the Russian leader and side with Moscow over the US intelligence community furthered Russia's goals.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here»

A large group of Republican lawmakers spent the Fourth of July with Kremlin officials in Moscow for series of rather opaque meetings, the details of which were largely kept shrouded.

To be sure, NPR reported that the seven US senators and one US representative went out of their way to avoid reporters and members of the press while in Moscow.

The lack of transparency afforded Russia the critical opportunity it needed to drive home its own narrative of the visit.

Russian state media celebrated the fact that the trip was the first time since the annexation of Crimea that US lawmakers visited Moscow. Russian officials also boasted that the Americans had come all the way to Moscow to meet them while they offered few concessions.

The state media outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets noted the meetings "were surrounded by a veil of secrecy — journalists were allowed to observe only welcoming words and afterwords, briefly and devoid of specifics."

The murky details — or lack thereof — allowed Russia to tout its own talking points. That goal was likely bolstered by delegation leader Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who struck a conciliatory tone toward Russia during the trip.

Shelby said this week that while Russia and the US are competitors, "we don't necessarily need to be adversaries."

"I'm not here today to accuse Russia of this or that or so forth," Shelby told Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. "I'm saying that we should all strive for a better relationship."

Meanwhile, another member of the delegation, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, said in an earlier statement to Business Insider that he wanted to "try to establish some rapport, talk about common interests and discuss common problems" with Russian government officials.

In addition to learning more about the Russian economy, Kennedy said he intended to "talk frankly" about Russia's election meddling in the US, France, and Germany, and its interference in the 2016 Brexit vote.

Kennedy later told the Washington Post that the meetings with Russian officials were "damn frank, very, very, very frank, no holds barred."

"I asked our friends in Russia not to interfere in our elections this year," Kennedy said. "I asked them to exit Ukraine and allow Ukraine to self-determine. I asked for the same thing in Crimea. I asked for their help in bringing peace to Syria. And I asked them not to allow Iran to gain a foothold in Syria."

NPR reported that US lawmakers said they brought up Russia's election meddling in every meeting they held with the Russians.

Russia puts its own spin on things — with help from Trump

But Russian officials presented a different overview.

Vyacheslav Nikonov, another member of the Duma who has met with US lawmakers before, told the Post that this meeting "was one of the easiest ones in my life." He added that the question of Russia's election interference was resolved quickly because it "was raised in general form."

"One shouldn't interfere in elections — well, we don't interfere," Nikonov said.

Nikonov's remarks echoed Trump's from just days earlier, when the president deviated again from the US intelligence community and backed Russia on its claim that it did not meddle in the 2016 race.

Andrei Klimov, the deputy chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the upper house of parliament, also told Moskovsky Komsomolets that US lawmakers didn't raise the topic of Crimea during their meetings.

Klimov's comment also came after Trump, in a stunning break from longstanding US policy, indicated that he is open to recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"We will have to see what happens," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed reported that Trump told G7 leaders last month that Crimea is part of Russia because people in the territory speak Russian — a major acknowledgement of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's main foreign policy goals.

News of Trump's reported remarks immediately prompted Russian state media to celebrate, with one host declaring, "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!"

Republican congressmen met with several familiar faces during their visit this week, including Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Kislyak, the former Russian ambassador to the US who is now a member of the upper house of parliament.

US intelligence has frequently described Kislyak as a top Russian spy. His name made headlines last year when it surfaced that he met or communicated with several prominent members of the Trump campaign while he was ambassador.

Those conversations make up key portions of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 race in Trump's favor.

Kislyak said after his meeting with US lawmakers this week that he already knew many of them from his time in Washington. He also downplayed the opaque nature of the visit.

This week's trip took place after US national security adviser John Bolton visited Moscow to meet with Putin last week. Bolton's meeting was a precursor to a highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit on July 16.

The meeting will come on the heels of the annual NATO summit, which is expected to be a highly contentious gathering in light of Trump's recent remarks. European countries that are part of the alliance are worried, in particular, that Trump will capitulate to the Russian leader and make significant concessions on issues like Ukraine and Syria to the detriment of critical NATO allies.

SEE ALSO: The US is pulling out all the stops ahead of a highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit, but Putin may eat Trump's lunch anyway

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