Africa
US sea raid on Somali rebel stronghold
US forces launched a night raid on a rebel-held town in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region from the sea—apparently an effort to kill the leader of the Shabaab.
Tag: drones
Palestine
Egypt: Israeli drone strike on Sinai peninsula?
Egyptian militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed that a strike that killed four of its fighters in the Sinai peninsula was carried out by an Israeli drone.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: US terror alert enflaming conflict?
The closing of the US embassy in Yemen has coinicided with drone strikes and clashes in Marib province, and a gun-battle between rival factions in the capital Sanaa.
Watching the Shadows
Barbara Lee: repeal AUMF to stop ‘perpetual war’
Rep. Barbara Lee called for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force to be repealed, warning that the alternative could be a “state of perpetual war forever.”
Inner Asia
China-India border face-off amid Tibet unrest
India is protesting what it calls an incursion by some 30 Chinese troops from across the Line of Control in the Himalayas, while Tibetans charge stepped up repression.
Greater Middle East
US pledges $100 million in aid to Syrian rebels
As the Friends of Syria summit opened in Istanbul, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced $100 million in new “non-lethal” aid to the Syrian opposition.
Afghanistan
Islamabad condemns drone attack in Waziristan
Pakistan strongly condemned a US drone attack in North Waziristan region that killed four. The US promptly responded with a new drone strike on a village in South Waziristan.
Africa
UN approves Congo ‘intervention brigade’
The UN Security Council unanimously approved the first-ever “offensive” UN peacekeeping brigade to battle rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Southeast Asia
China: drug lord’s execution sparks dissent
Chinese TV broadcast images of a Burmese drug lord and his accomplices on their way to a death chamber in Yunnan, prompting online protests from rights activists in Beijing.
North Africa
France faces Mali insurgency; US troops to Niger
Some 100 US troops have been mobilized to Niger to establish a drone base, while across the border in northern Mali French-led forces face growing jihadist resistance.
Watching the Shadows
Press was prone on drones, but cover blown
The media are abuzz with reports that the CIA has a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia—but the New York Times and Washington Post admit they sat on the information for two years.
North Africa
US drone base for Niger: report
The US military is preparing to establish a drone base in Niger along the eastern border of Mali, where French forces are currently waging a campaign against jihadist rebels.