WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2020) The US Department of Defense has in the past year deterred aggressive activities by North Korea, Iran, Russia and China, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a Message to the Force on Accomplishments in Implementation of the National Defense Strategy.
"Over the past year, the Department conducted or supported international counterterrorism operations that removed dozens of key terrorists from the battlefield; maintained our leadership role in the Defeat-ISIS [Islamic State terrorist organization, banned in Russia] coalition, whose work resulted in the destruction of ISIS's physical caliphate in Iraq and Syria," Esper said.
The department also "preserved the freedom of navigation and commerce in contested waters, from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea; and deterred aggressive activities perpetrated by rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, as well as near-peers such as Russia and China," he said.
