CounterVortex

U.S. ALIEN TERRORISM COURT: CONGRESS LEFT OUT TORTURE SAFEGUARD

Congress gave an extraordinary national-security court the power to order removal of adjudicated “alien terrorists” from the country, but left a dangerous gap in the adjudication of claims under the Convention Against Torture, which bars deportation to countries where the removed individual would face serious risk of torture. In a commentary for JURIST, immigration attorney Richard T. Herman breaks down the problems posed by the Alien Terrorist Removal Court under international law—a critical question now that the Trump administration has sent a case to the secretive body for the first time since Congress created it in 1996.

Africa

South Sudan in border clashes with Ugandan forces

More than 10,000 civilians are reported displaced in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state following clashes between government troops and Ugandan forces. The fighting marks a sharp escalation in a long-running border dispute. Talks are underway at the scene to try to resolve the conflict over the contested area in Kajo-Keji county, along the frontier with Uganda’s West Nile region. (Map via PCL)

Africa

Russian mercs run opioid empire in CAR

Remnants of the Russian mercenary group Wagner apparently not integrated into Moscow’s new Africa Corps have gone rogue in the Central African Republic, financing their operations through narco-trafficking. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the mercenaries are running an opioid empire, supplying tramadol to the national army, local militias, its own forces, and workers in gold mines the group operates. A painkiller in normal doses, tramadol acts as a stimulant in higher doses that can reduce fear, exhaustion, and hunger in users. Proceeds from tramadol distribution, including exports, have helped the Wagner remnants in CAR maintain independence from Moscow. (Photo: Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic. Credit: Corbeau News Centrafrique via Wikimedia Commons)

The Andes

US pushes ‘Donroe Doctrine’ at Cuzco defense summit

Representatives from over 30 countries gathered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco for the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, where top Pentagon official Elbridge Colby used the occasion to defend the “Donroe Doctrine.” As at other regional security summits, including the “Shield of the Americas” conference held in Florida in March, Trump officials cast drug trafficking and irregular migration as threats to US security, urged regional governments to increase military spending, and called for deeper security collaboration with Washington. An increasing number of the right-wing governments in attendance have embraced closer military ties with the United States through joint strikes and new military bases—even as militarized policies fail to curb organized crime and violence in countries like Ecuador, a key testing ground for the administration’s renewed war on “narcoterrorism.” (Photo: Martin St-Amant via Wikimedia Commons)

South Asia

Pakistan launches new offensive on Baloch rebels

Pakistani authorities say that more than 100 insurgents have been killed in Balochistan province over the past week as security forces intensify a large-scale campaign against the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other militant groups. The campaign, dubbed “Operation Shaban,” was launched after a series of attacks on security personnel. The army, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police have been deployed in coordinated aerial and ground assaults across the province. (Map: PCL)

Syria

Syria: ‘Barrel Bomb Mufti’ on trial

The trial of Syria’s former grand mufti, Ahmed Bareddin Hassoun, opened at the Palace of Justice in Damascus. Hassoun led Syria’s official religious establishment under the Bashar Assad dictatorship. He is accused of incitement to murder and abusing his position as mufti to provide religious cover for the crimes of the regime, as well as participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He famously issued fatwas justifying the bombing of civilians and called the regime’s use of indiscriminate barrel bombs “liberation,” winning him the epithet “Barrel Bomb Mufti.” He also issued a fatwa in 2017 authorizing the execution of detainees held at the notorious Sednaya Prison, where the Assad regime killed thousands, many through torture and starvation. (Photo: SANA via Arab News)

Syria

US strikes Uyghur militants in Syria

A suspected US-led coalition strike on a site used by Uyghur militants in Syria’s Idlib province has renewed debate over the future of foreign fighters under the country’s post-Assad government. Sources told The New Arab on that an aircraft targeted a compound used by a faction formerly known as the Turkistan Islamic Party, in al-Zainiya area near Jisr al-Shughourin western Idlib. While no confirmed information has emerged regarding casualties from the strike, preliminary reports suggested that a leader of Hurras al-Din, a former al-Qaeda affiliate which formally dissolved in January, may have been killed. (Map: PCL)

DRONES OVER ROMANIA

Within the span of one week, Romania was struck twice by drones originating from the conflict in Ukraine: first by an aerial drone in the city of Galați on May 29, and then by a maritime drone that exploded in the Port of Constanța on June 5. The Galați strike marked the first time a Russian drone caused physical injury to Romanian civilians in a densely populated area. The two incidents, unprecedented in their proximity and severity, have reignited urgent debates about the legal and security implications of modern drone warfare spilling across international borders. International law scholar Mihai Coca-Constantinescu explores for JURIST.

Iran

Iran: deadly repression in Baluchistan

Iranian security forces violently dispersed protesters in Pashmouki village, Kerman province, within the greater Baluchistan region. Six ethnic Baloch residents, including three women, were detained, and several injured. The protest took place outside a chromite mine in the village, which has been a source of great contention. Iran’s government has been cracking down on unlicensed mines in the region, but residents say they gain no economic benefit from the licensed ones, while they are left to deal with the environmental impacts. Since the mass protests in Iran earlier this year, the Baluchistan region has been flooded with Revolutionary Guard troops. Two Baloch youths in the region were killed by Revolutionary Guards in unclear circumstances within days of the Pashmouki violence. (Map: PCL)

Greater Middle East

Trump urges Syria to intervene against Hezbollah

US President Donald Trump suggested at the G7 summit in France that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could wipe out Hezbollah if Israel was unable to do so without causing heavy civilian casualties. The comment came in spite of repeated statements from Damascus ruling out any military intervention in neighboring Lebanon. Syria’s Interior Ministry emphasized that “Lebanon is a sovereign state and not a backyard, as the former regime viewed it.” (Photo: Ahmad al-Sharaa meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Damascus, May 9. Credit: SANA via Radio Free Syria)

Europe

Russian strike hits historic Kyiv cathedral

The Pechersk Lavra, one of the most important historical and religious sites in Ukraine, was hit in Moscow’s latest barrage of drone and missile attacks on Kyiv, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date.” Images circulating on social media show flames rising above the UNESCO World Heritage site, which contains structures dating from between the 11th and 18th centuries, including the gold-domed Dormition Cathedral. The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius, confirmed that the roof of the cathedral caught fire in the attack, calling the strike another Russian crime “against humanity, against history, against Christianity.” Some 42,000 Kyiv residents spent that night in the capital’s metro stations to escape the aerial assault on the city. (Photo via Wikipedia)

Iran

Fighting breaks out in Iranian Kurdistan

The military wing of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) issued a statement saying that armed clashes broke out between its forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Marivan region of Iran’s Kordistan province. The East Kurdistan Defense Units (YRK) wrote that the IRGC initiated artillery and mortar attacks against their positions. The statement came as PJAK Presidential Council member Siyamend Moini was in Brussels to deliver a speech before a conference at the European Parliament entitled “Weaving a Democratic Iran Together.” In his comments, Moini called for international support for the “reconstruction of a free, democratic, and secular Iran that consistently defends women’s rights, the rights of peoples and minorities, and environmental protection.” (Image: Middle East Forum via Wikimedia Commons)