Watching the Shadows

DoD transfers Gitmo detainee to Saudi Arabia

The US Department of Defense  announced the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainee Abdul Shalabi to Saudi Arabia, brining the population of the prison camp to 114.

Iraq

Sectarian massacres continue in Syria and Iraq

The Nusra Front fired hundreds of missiles into beseiged Alwaite villages in Syria, while ISIS claimed responsibility for suicide blasts that targeted Shi'ite areas of Baghdad.

Watching the Shadows

Guantánamo prisoner released to Morocco

Moroccan-born Younis Abdurrahman Chekkouri, who spent 13 years in the Guantánamo Bay prison, was released to his home country—where authorities prompty detained him.

North Africa

ISIS complains about jihadist rivals in Libya

The latest edition of the English-language ISIS magazine Dabiq includes a tirade against Qaeda-aligned forces in Libya, amid an internecine war of jihadist factions.

New York City

9-11 at fourteen: spectacle commodified

9-11 still provides an occasion for jingoism and war propaganda. But the day's commodification and transformation into an empty spectacle is now even more disturbing.

Greater Middle East

Turkey slips toward internal war

As Turkey continues to bomb Kurdish anti-ISIS fighters in Iraq, violence is quickly spreading within Turkey itself—with bombings and armed clashes from Istanbul to the Kurdish east.

Greater Middle East

Pentagon claims kill of ‘Khorasan Group’ leader

The Pentagon announced that Muhsin al-Fadhli, a longtime al-Qaeda operative from Kuwait, was killed in an air-strike in Syria, where he was leading the so-called "Khorasan Group."

Greater Middle East

Israel denies backing Nusra after Golan lynching

Druze villagers in the Golan killed a wounded Syrian fighter seized from an IDF ambulance—in mistaken belief he was from Nusra Front, which has massacred Syrian Druze.