Tag: ISIS

Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan: troop surge or drone war?

Trump was expected to announce a troop surge for Afghanistan n his address from Fort Myer in Arlington, Va. Gen. John Nicholson, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, had been requesting another 4,000 troops, on top of the current 8,500. Instead, Trump was heavy on get-tough rhetoric and light on actual specifics. But as he spoke, a US drone struck presumed ISIS targets in Nangarhar province—the latest in a growing trend toward automated warfare in Afghanistan.

North America

Charlottesville and Barcelona: fearful symmetry

Trump's disparate reactions to the similar attacks in Charlottesville and Barcelona provide a study not only in double standards, but (worse) the president's actual embrace of racist terror. While saying there were "good people" on the side that was flying the Nazi flag and committed an act of terror in Virginia, he used the attack in Spain as an opportunity to unabashedly call for war crimes against Muslims.

North Africa

Libya: videos capture summary executions

Forces of the Libyan National Army, loyal to the country's unrecognized eastern government, appear to have executed captured fighters in Benghazi and desecrated corpses, Human Rights Watch charges. Videos posted online seem to show LNA fighters carrying out summary executions of "extremists," who are seen blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs in orange jumpsuits. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the commander of the unit.

Syria

Who is behind attack on White Helmets?

Seven volunteers of the White Helmets civil defense organization were killed by a gang that raided their headquarters in Sarmin, Idlib province, in northwest Syria. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it came as Idlib province is being rocked by clashes between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, aligned with al-Qaeda) and the rival Ahrar al-Sham. Sarmin is controlled by HTS, which recently warned that it had uncovered ISIS sleeper cells in Idlib province.

Southeast Asia

US broaches air-strikes on ISIS in Philippines

On the heels of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's Manila meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, NBC News reports that the Pentagon is considering a plan for the US military to conduct air-strikes on ISIS targets in the archipelago nation. The account quotes two unnamed defense officials who told the network that "authority to strike ISIS targets…could be granted as part of an official military operation" likely to be named in the coming days. The strikes would probably be conducted by armed drones.

Southeast Asia

Philippines: youth protest drug war ‘dictatorship’

A thousands-strong defiant youth-led protest was held outside the Philippines' House of Representatives as ultra-hardline President Rodrigo Duterte gave his second State of the Nation Address—in which he pledged to keep pursuing his bloody drug war that has left some 8,000 dead in his first year in office. Duterte offered drug dealers and users a choice of "jail or hell."

Syria

US tilt to Assad: now it’s official

Washington has now made it official that its enemy in Syria is just ISIS and al-Qaeda—and explicitly not the Bashar Assad dictatorship. A US Army representative told CNN that the Coalition has issued a directive to rebel forces operating out if its base in southern Syria that they must be exclusively focused on fighting ISIS and not the Damascus regime. One rebel faction, Shohada al-Quartyan, has refused to accept this ultimatum, and left the base.

North Africa

Tunisian revolutionaries betray Syrian revolution?

The democratic transition in Tunisia since the 2011 uprising has been the one real success story of the Arab Revolution—and the Tunisian revolution was also the first that served to spark the subsequent wave. So Tunisia’s pro-democracy forces have international responsibilities, seen as keepers of the flame. It is distressing to learn that the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), a pillar of the country’s pro-democracy movement, sent a delegation to Damascus to meet with dictator Bashar Assad and express solidarity with his “war against terrorism.”

Syria

Raqqa endgame heightens Kurdish contradictions

Among international volunteer brigades drawn by the anarchist-influenced politics of the Rojava Kurds is now the first explicitly LGBT military unit in the Syrian war—the Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA). But these international brigades are attached to the Kurdish militia force being backed by the Pentagon to take Raqqa from ISIS. Mounting civilian casualties of US air-strikes on Raqqa, as well as charges of abuses by the advancing Kurdish forces, raise grim questions about northern Syria’s future after the eventual defeat of ISIS.

Syria

Syria: new popular uprising against al-Qaeda

Residents of Saraqeb town in Syria’s Idlib province rose up and drove off fighters of the local al-Qaeda affiliate after jihadists fired on protesters. The incident began when Saraqeb residents held self-organized elections for the town council, and raised the Free Syria flag from the radio tower in celebration. Tahrir al-Sham fighters responded by tearing down the flag, trampling it, and firing in the air in a display of defiance. This sparked a general uprising against the group’s presence in Saraqeb.

Iraq

Carnage in anti-ISIS campaign jumps under Trump

Civilian casualties from the US-led war against ISIS are set to double under President Trump, according to the AirWars website that has been monitoring the toll of the conflict. At least 2,300 civilians were killed in Coalition strikes overseen by the Obama White House in Iraq and Syria. As of July, more than 2,200 additional civilians appear to have been killed in Coalition raids since Trump was inaugurated.

Southeast Asia

Philippine strongman’s bloody drug war: year one

One year after Rodrigo Duterte took office on a pledge to expunge the  "virulent social disease" of drug abuse, the civilian death toll in his crackdown may be as high as 8,000. Among the upwards of 80,000 arrested under Duterte's rule are some, including opposition politicians, who have been clearly framed for speaking out against him. And in the restive southern island of Mindanao, he has made good on his threats to instate martial law.