Greater Middle East
Yemen: war comes to capital
A suicide attack on the defense ministry thrust Yemen briefly into the news—as an invisible sectarian war rages across much of the countryside.
Tag: sectarian war
Greater Middle East
Lebanon: army seizes strife-torn Tripoli
Lebanon's government has ordered the coastal city of Tripoli placed under army control amid growing sectarian clashes pitting Sunni residents against Alawites.
Africa
French troops to Central African Republic
France is escalating its military mission in the Central African Republic, airlifting troops and equipment to the capital Bangui ahead of an anticipated UN-backed intervention.
South Asia
Pakistan: sectarian strife mars Ashura
Celebrations of Muharram, the Shi’ite holy month highlighted by the Ashura festival, saw sectarian violence that left several dead across Pakistan.
Greater Middle East
Syria war portends Middle East ‘balkanization’?
Elements of Washington wonkdom are calling for the break-up of Syria into ethno-sectarian mini-states, and see the separatist contagion spreading to the rest of the Middle East.
Greater Middle East
Syria: civil wars in the civil war
As the Free Syrian Army now battles jihadist rebels as well as the regime, the two biggest jihadist factions are fighting each other for control over oilfields in Syria’s north.
Greater Middle East
Assad to The Hague? Don’t bet on it…
Syria does not recognize the International Criminal Court, so an ICC case against Bashar Assad can only be launched by the Security Council—where Russia holds a veto.
Greater Middle East
Syria’s Christians become propaganda pawns
Syria’s Christians are becoming propaganda fodder in an international war of perceptions, with atrocities carried out by the jihadist Nusra Front being attributed to the FSA.
Greater Middle East
Syria: minority peoples face cleansing
Armenians, Circassians, Mandaeans and other small ethnicities in Syria are being uprooted by jihadist terror, and increasingly see the Assad regime as the lesser evil.
Greater Middle East
Syria: Nusra Front attack Christian village
Jihadist forces of the Nusra Front launched an assault on the ancient Christian village of Maaloula, which is on the UNESCO tentative list of world heritage sites.
Iraq
Iraq: death squads target Mujahedeen Khalq?
At least 47 are dead following an Iraqi military assault on Camp Ashraf, a refugee settlement inhabited by exiled members of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq.
Greater Middle East
Are you ready for World War 5?
The fearful synergy of regional sectarian war and Great Power rivalries holds the menace of the looming Syria intervention setting off a new global conflagration.