Syria

Conviction in Syrian regime war crime —at last

For the first time, after six years of war and escalating atrocities, a member of the Syrian regime’s military has been convicted of a war crime—a low-level soldier now in Sweden as a refugee, and tried in that country’s courts. Yet there have been several convictions of Syrian rebel and ISIS fighters in European courts. This gross imbalance in convictions persists despite the fact that Assad has killed far more Syrians than ISIS or any other “terrorist” outfit in the country.

Afghanistan

US military death toll in Afghanistan hits 2,000

A checkpoint shooting in eastern Afghanistan’s Wardak province brought the US military’s death toll in the war past 2,000. About as many Afghan civilians are killed each year.