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.
Tag: al-Qaeda
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.
Greater Middle East
Syria: Kurdish-FSA conflict cleaves resistance
Fierce fighting between Kurdish-led YPG forces and Arab factions aligned with the Free Syrian Army is deepening a split within the Syrian resistance to both ISIS and Assad.
North Africa
Libya sees explosive growth of ISIS
ISIS forces in Libya have doubled over the past year, now reaching up to 6,000 fighters, according to Gen. David M. Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command.
Greater Middle East
US strikes AQAP training camp in Yemen
The US killed "dozens" of AQAP fighters in an air-strike on a training camp, but claims of denying the group "safe haven" ring hollow as its zones of control grow in Yemen.
Africa
AQIM claims Ivory Coast terror attack
Gunmen from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast that killed 14 civilians and two soldiers.
Iraq
Turkey inciting genocide against Kurds
Amid reports of jihadist chemical attacks on Kurds in both Syria and Iraq, Turkey is reviving the same propaganda against Kurds that was used during the Armenian genocide.
Syria
Slain ISIS ‘war minister’ trained by US in Georgia?
“Omar the Chechen,” a top-ranking ISIS commander apparently killed in a US air-strike in Syria, is said to have been trained by the Pentagon when he fought the Russians in Georgia. (Photo via Levant Report)
Africa
Somalia: US air-strikes on Shabaab camp
US drones and warplanes killed more than 150 al-Shabab militants in Somalia, with the Pentagon citing an "imminent threat" to US and African Union forces.
Greater Middle East
Turkey releases journalists charged with espionage
A Turkish court released two journalists who were arrested last year after reporting that the Ankara government was running a smuggling operation to arm Islamist factions in Syria.
Watching the Shadows
Obama delivers Gitmo closure plan to Congress
President Obama delivered his plan to close Guantánamo Bay to Congress—to be immediately met by Republican opposition, with Ted Cruz calling for the facility's expansion.
Greater Middle East
Syria: whose side is Israel on?
The Israeli security establishment and its neocon allies are divided between those who would destabilize Assad and those who would prop him with up as the Devil they know.