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.
Syria's Rojava Kurds are accused of coordinating with Russian air-strikes to take territory held by Islamist factions—while Turkey warns them against any further advance.
The US aids Syrian Kurds against ISIS even as it acquiesces in Turkey's counterinsurgency against allied Kurdish forces just across the border—undermining anti-ISIS unity.
With Turkey insisting that the Syrian Kurds be barred from upcoming Geneva peace talks, Russia is pressing for their participation—while pursuing its grisly campaign of aerial terror.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb issued a statement saying the Ouagadougou attack was carried out by "mujahideen brothers" of its West African franchise, al-Mourabitoun.
The ISIS-affiliated network that carried out the Jakarta attacks emerged from the sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province.
The last Kuwaiti held at Guantánamo, supposed Osama bin Laden advisor Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari, was repatriated after years of pressure from Kuwait's government.
Two Yemeni men captured in Afghanistan and detained at Guantánamo Bay for 14 years have been released to Ghana, bringing the number held at the facility to 105.
Human Rights Watch called on the US to cancel a pending arms sale to Saudi Arabia in the absence of serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen.
The deadly hotel siege in Mali's capital was apparently ordered by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar—who was twice reported killed in military operations over the past two years.
The last remaining British inmate at Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, was released to the UK, bringing the number detainees at the facility to 112.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint against a high-ranking CIA official for the torture of German citizen Khaled el-Masri.
