Africa
Kenya’s Shabaab amnesty: ‘loaded gun’?
Shabaab militants are disappearing after turning themselves in under Kenya's amnesty program. Are the security forces responsible or jihadist hit squads?
Tag: al-Qaeda
North Africa
Jihadists wooing Tuareg movement again?
With the Tuareg movement divided on whether to accept an autonomy offer from Mali's government, jihadist insurgents seek to rebuild an alliance with the intransigent factions.
Watching the Shadows
Conviction of bin Laden assistant upheld
A US appeals court upheld the conviction of Ali Hamza Bahlul, former personal assistant to Osama bin Laden, finding that conspiracy cases can be tried by military tribunals.
North Africa
US builds regional drone base in Niger
The US is investing at least $50 million in a military air base in Niger that will be capable of deploying drones to police the greater Sahara and Sahel regions.
New York City
NYC: Chelsea bombing suspect charged
The suspect in the Chelsea bombings apparently expressed admiration for al-Qaeda and ISIS in his personal journal—which will be exploited by the media and ISIS alike.
Greater Middle East
Syria: genocidal regime troops’ lives matter
With over a quarter million dead in Syria, the UN Security Council finally called an emergency meeting after the US for the first time bombed Assad regime forces—by accident.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: Saudis bomb anti-bombing demonstration
Saudi fighter jets carried out air-strikes on a peaceful rally in Yemen's capital Sanaa that had been called to protest Saudi air-strikes, leaving several dead.
Greater Middle East
Syria and moral double standards
By maintaining silence on Assad regime and Russian aerial terror in Syria—or even seeking to justify it—the Western left squanders its credibility to protest US war crimes.
Greater Middle East
Syria: jihadist factions accused in war crimes
Armed groups in Aleppo and surrounding areas in Syria's north have carried out a "chilling wave" of abductions, torture and summary killings, Amnesty International charges.
Iraq
Syria: Kurdish feminist leads anti-ISIS offensive
Rojda Felat, a Kurdish revolutionary feminist, is leading the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' offensive on Raqqa, capital of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate.
Greater Middle East
Aleppo and Cizre: fearful symmetry
Supposed antagonists Assad and Erdogan are both in the process of reducing cities to rubble: Aleppo and Cizre, both with the connivance of the Great Powers.
Afghanistan
Mullah Mansour death: blow to Pakistan?
The killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike actually took place in Pakistan—without consent of Islamabad, signaling a break between the two allies.