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The U.S. Needs to Rethink Its Anti-ISIS Approach in Syria | TIME - 0 views

time.com/...u-s-anti-isis-campaign-syria ISIS syria politics US strategy
shared by fcastro2 on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • As a result, morale among nationalist fighters in northern Syria has plummeted
  • ISIS remains essentially unchallenged in its heartland in northern Syria, despite repeated U.S. air strikes
  • In the south, nationalists have fared better at keeping ISIS out and Jabhat al Nusra in check, partly due to a coherent, rational U.S.-led support program operating covertly out of Jordan
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • A strategy to beat the jihadists and make sure they stay beaten must be locally-driven, led by nationalist forces supported by the Sunni population that forms the insurgency’s social base.
  • The U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has scored some points in Syria, weakening ISIS’s oil infrastructure and revenues and keeping the group out of Kobane
  • the promised U.S. train-and-equip program is unlikely to reverse the nationalists’ losses or jihadists’ gains in northern Syria
  • air strikes alone, and treating nationalist groups as agents rather than partners, violates this principle
  • , the U.S. has helped nationalists in the south avoid the fragmentation, infighting, and lawlessness that weakened them and benefited the jihadists in northern Syria
  • ISIS offers conquered populations the choice between submission – which brings a sense of order and some protection from regime violence – or futile resistance and death
  • Jabhat al Nusra has driven nationalist forces out of much of their core territory in northern Syria, and ISIS continues to threaten those that remain
  • Even if the coalition wants to avoid confronting regime forces, it can and should concentrate air strikes closer to ISIS’s front lines with the nationalist insurgency, helping the latter block ISIS advances in cooperation with local Kurdish forces when possible
  • the United States has excluded them from the coalition military effort
  • , U.S. interests would be better served by a two-pronged approach in northern and southern Syria, helping nationalist rebels contain ISIS and compete with Jabhat al Nusra for control of the insurgency.
  • U.S. airstrikes on jihadists have spared the regime’s forces and inadvertently killed Syrian civilians
  • that Sunni Muslims are under siege by oppressive regional minorities, Iran, and even the United States itself
  • Ironically, the coalition campaign has contributed to the near-collapse of nationalist forces in northern Syria who, despite their imperfections, were ISIS’s most effective rivals and competed with Jabhat al Nusra for leadership of the insurgency
  • campaign has had serious local side effects that have undermined the broader, long-term objective of degrading and destroying ISIS in Syria and preventing the Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al Nusra, from replacing or thriving alongside ISIS
  • fcastro2 on 09 Mar 15
     
    The U.S. should no long really solely on air-strikes to bring down the ISIS group in Syria but it needs other strategic plans. They need to work with the people in Syria and gain their support and trust in order to defeat ISIS.
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Car Bombs Explode Near Egyptian and U.A.E. Embassies in Libya - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...nd-uae-embassies-in-libya.html UN militias armed groups war middle east proxy car embassies nytimes
shared by allieggg on 14 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Car bombs exploded outside the embassies of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in Tripoli, Libya, early on Thursday, apparently in a backlash against the two countries for their role in a regional proxy war playing out in Libya.
  • The side that controls Tripoli includes hard-line and more moderate Islamists, as well as non-Islamist regional or tribal groups who all say they are fighting against a return to Qaddafi-style authoritarianism. The other side, based in Tobruk and Baida, includes former soldiers loyal to Colonel Qaddafi and tribal groups who say they are fighting Islamist extremists.
  • Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have backed the anti-Islamist faction. Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and their ally, Saudi Arabia, all see Libya as a central front in a broader regional war against the forces of political Islam — a fight that began to intensify when the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi last year.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The United Arab Emirates launched a series of airstrikes from Egyptian bases against Islamist-allied militias fighting in Tripoli over the summer. And Egyptian forces have actively aided anti-Islamist military units fighting around Benghazi in eastern Libya.
  • Western diplomats familiar with intelligence reports say that Egyptian special forces have participated in raids near the airport in Benghazi, Libya, as well as at a camp near the Libyan stronghold of Derna, with mixed results.
  • Each side in Libya’s conflict now claims its own government — one in Tripoli and the other in Tobruk. The anti-Islamist government in Tobruk includes the headquarters of a recently elected Parliament, although it operates with little visibility and the number of lawmakers attending its sessions has been difficult to assess.
  • The Islamist-allied government in Tripoli contends that a recent Supreme Court decision invalidated the election of the Parliament in Tobruk. The government in Tobruk argues that the court was intimidated by the threat of militias in Tripoli.
  • allieggg on 14 Nov 14
     
    Any doubts that Libya has pivoted to a proxy war have been eliminated with the recent bombings outside UAE and Egyptian embassies as a backlash against their role in the regional "tug of war" on Thursday. Each side of the conflict has its own government as well as city headquarters. Islamists have occupied Tripoli and Haftar's forces Tobruk. The actions of regional players are escalating the civil war to the utmost extent.
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How a German doctor became a PKK hero - 0 views

www.al-monitor.com/...k-pyd-legend-doctor-medya.html PKK Kurds Turkey
shared by cbrock5654 on 18 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • cbrock5654 on 18 Nov 14
     
    In this article for Al Monitor, a news site launched during the Arab Spring which brands itself as "the pulse of the Middle East", a physician from Hamburg talks about her more than 20 years in the Kurdistan Workers Party in a rare interview.
  • cbrock5654 on 18 Nov 14
     
    In this article for Al Monitor, a news site launched during the Arab Spring which brands itself as "the pulse of the Middle East", a physician from Hamburg talks about her more than 20 years in the Kurdistan Workers Party in a rare interview.
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UNFPA Egypt - National Legislation, Decrees and Statements Banning FGM/C - 0 views

egypt.unfpa.org/...nd_Statements_banning_fgm.aspx egypt syria politics legislation fgm
shared by diamond03 on 08 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • National Legislation, Decrees and Statements Banning FGM/C
  • June of 2008
  • criminalize FGM/C in the Penal Code,
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • minimum custodial sentence of three months and a maximum of two years, or an alternative minimum penalty of 1,000 Egyptian pounds (LE) and a maximum of 5,000 LE.
  • new Child Law included the formation of Child Protection Committees (CPC
  • ncluding girls at risk of circumcision
  • Egypt hosted in 2008 a regional meeting entitled 'Cairo Declaration+5'.
  • 'The Cairo Declaration for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation'
  • international campaign aimed at rekindling world-wide attention on FGM/C.
  • Egyptian Ministry of Health (MoH) issued in 2007 a ministerial decree (271) closing a loophole in the previous 1996 decre
  • In 2007
  • FGM/C has no basis in the core Islamic Sharia or any of its partial provisions.
  • diamond03 on 08 Nov 14
     
    The Egyptian parliament decided to criminalize FGM. The Child Protection Committee is now in charge of helping girls who are at risk of FGM. 
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The Future of the Brotherhood - 1 views

m.ceip.org/...hsej egypt revolution Brotherhood
shared by zackellogg on 22 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • zackellogg on 11 Nov 14
     
    This article looks at the possible scenarios that Egypt might see itself in after the revolution. One interesting scenario that this article proposes is that the Brotherhood will split into two main groups, with one group being more lax about policies than the other. This article also discusses the challenges that the Brotherhood will face as a result of a Brother being elected
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Understanding The Kurds' Different Roles In Different Conflicts - 1 views

www.npr.org/...their-role-in-mideast-politics
shared by nfyffe on 22 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • nfyffe on 22 Oct 14
     
    The Kurds are involved in several Middle East dramas at the moment. Yet they live in multiple countries across the region and are playing different roles in different places. In Iraq, Kurdish fighters are working closely with the U.S. to battle the Islamic State.
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Turkish forces raise flag on Syrian territory - Daily News Egypt - 0 views

www.dailynewsegypt.com/...es-raise-flag-syrian-territory turkish forces flag ISIS syria politics war
shared by fcastro2 on 23 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • urkish forces entered Syrian territories and advanced to the outskirts of Aleppo Saturday to transport the buried remains of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Suleyman Shah.
  • Ashma village, on which the forces planted Turkish flag and claimed authority
  • was threatened in March 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) as the radical militant organisation demanded that Turkey lowers its flag and withdraws troops guarding the site.
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  • A soldier was killed in the operation, as far as the international coalition to combat ISIS knows, although it didn’t see clashes,
  • After the Turkish forces transported the remains, they destroyed all the buildings in the site to “prevent abuse of the site
  • fcastro2 on 23 Feb 15
     
    After the retrieval of the historical tomb, Turkish forces raised the Turkish flag in the village the tomb was transferred to. Syrian forces felt this as a bit of a threat and so relations between the two governments remain tense. 
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G.O.P. Senators' Letter to Iran About Nuclear Deal Angers White House - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-letter-to-irans-leaders.html Republican Party Iran nuclear deal WhiteHouse
shared by jordanbrown16 on 12 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • jordanbrown16 on 12 Apr 15
     
    Open letter sent from Republican members of congress to Islamic Republic of Iran about nuclear deal said to be "an unprecedented violation of the tradition of leaving politics at the water's edge." Republicans said that by styling it as an "open letter," it was related to a statement, not an overt intervention in the talks.
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Is there a diplomatic solution to ISIS - 0 views

www.democracynow.org/..._a_diplomatic_solution_to_isil ISIS Syria politics
shared by kdancer on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kdancer on 13 Apr 15
     
    An international summit on combating militants from the Islamic State has opened in France, bringing together around 30 countries from a U.S.-led coalition. The Obama administration says several Arab League countries have signed on for airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but no sustained campaign is imminent.
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Strife in Libya Could Presage Long Civil War - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...libyan-unrest.html
shared by wmulnea on 21 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Salah Badi, an ultraconservative Islamist and former lawmaker from the coastal city of Misurata.
  • Mr. Badi’s assault on Libya’s main international airport has now drawn the country’s fractious militias, tribes and towns into a single national conflagration that threatens to become a prolonged civil war. Both sides see the fight as part of a larger regional struggle, fraught with the risks of a return to repressive authoritarianism or a slide toward Islamist extremism.
  • the violence threatens to turn Libya into a pocket of chaos destabilizing North Africa for years to come.
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  • Ansar al-Shariah, the hard-line Islamist group involved in the assault on the American diplomatic Mission in Benghazi in 2012
  • Their opponents, including the militias stocked with former Qaddafi soldiers
  • The ideological differences are blurry at best: both sides publicly profess a similar conservative but democratic vision.
  • an escalating war among its patchwork of rival cities and tribes.
  • Motorists wait in lines stretching more than three miles at shuttered gas stations, waiting for them to open. Food prices are soaring, uncollected garbage is piling up in the streets and bicycles, once unheard-of, are increasingly common.
  • Tripoli, the capital and the main prize, has become a battleground
  • The fighting has destroyed the airport
  • Constant shelling between rival militias has leveled blocks
  • Storage tanks holding about 25 million gallons of fuel have burned unchecked for a month
  • with daily blackouts sometimes lasting more than 12 hours.
  • many Libyans despaired of any resolution
  • In Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, the fighting has closed both its airport and seaport, strangling the city.
  • the rush toward war is also lifting the fortunes of the Islamist extremists of Ansar al-Shariah, the Benghazi militant group.
  • The United Nations, the United States and the other Western powers have withdrawn their diplomats and closed their missions
  • “We cannot care more than you do,” the British ambassador, Michael Aron, wrote
  • Until now, a rough balance of power among local brigades had preserved a kind of equilibrium, if not stability
  • the transitional government scarcely existed outside of the luxury hotels where its officials gathered, no other force was strong enough to dominate. No single interest divided the competing cities and factions.
  • But that semblance of unity is now in tatters, and with it the hope that nonviolent negotiations might settle the competition for power and, implicitly, Libya’s oil.
  • In May, a renegade former general, Khalifa Hifter, declared that he would seize power by force to purge Libya of Islamists, beginning in Benghazi. He vowed to eradicate the hard-line Islamists of Ansar al-Shariah, blamed for a long series of bombings and assassinations.
  • General Hifter also pledged to close the Parliament and arrest moderate Islamist members
  • he has mustered a small fleet of helicopters and warplanes that have bombed rival bases around Benghazi, a steep escalation of the violence.
  • moderate Islamists and other brigades who had distanced themselves from Ansar al-Shariah began closing ranks, welcoming the group into a newly formed council of “revolutionary” militias
  • a broad alliance of Benghazi militias that now includes Ansar al-Shariah issued a defiant statement denouncing relative moderates like the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood. “We will not accept the project of democracy, secular parties, nor the parties that falsely claim the Islamic cause,”
  • the general’s blitz has now stalled, it polarized the country, drawing alarms from some cities and tribes but applause from others.
  • the loudest applause came from the western mountain town of Zintan, where local militia leaders had recruited hundreds of former Qaddafi soldiers into special brigades
  • the rival coastal city of Misurata, where militias have allied with the Islamists in political battles and jostled with the Zintanis for influence in the capital
  • the Misurata and Islamist militias developed a reputation for besieging government buildings and kidnapping high officials to try to pressure the Parliament. But in recent months the Zintanis and their anti-Islamist allies have stormed the Parliament and kidnapped senior lawmakers as well.
  • the newly elected Parliament, led at first, on a seniority basis, by a member supportive of Mr. Hifter, announced plans to convene in Tobruk, an eastern city under the general’s control.
  • About 30 members, most of them Islamists or Misuratans, refused to attend,
  • Tripoli’s backup airport, under the control of an Islamist militia, has cut off flights to Tobruk, even blocking a trip by the prime minister.
  • a spokesman for the old disbanded Parliament, favored by the Islamists and Misuratans, declared that it would reconvene in Tripoli
  • In Tobruk, a spokesman for the new Parliament declared that the Islamist- and Misuratan-allied militias were terrorists, suggesting that Libya might soon have two legislatures with competing armies
  • Each side has the support of competing satellite television networks financed and, often, broadcast from abroad, typically from Qatar for the Islamists and from the United Arab Emirates for their foes.
  • Hassan Tatanaki, a Libyan-born business mogul who owns one of the anti-Islamist satellite networks, speaking in an interview from an office in the Emirates. “We are in a state of war and this is no time for compromise.”
  • Fighters and tribes who fought one another during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi are now coming together on the same side of the new fight, especially with the Zintanis against the Islamists. Some former Qaddafi officers who had fled Libya are even coming back to take up arms again.
  • “It is not pro- or anti-Qaddafi any more — it is about Libya,” said a former Qaddafi officer in a military uniform
  • Beneath the battle against “extremists,” he said, was an even deeper, ethnic struggle: the tribes of Arab descent, like the Zintanis, against those of Berber, Circassian or Turkish ancestry, like the Misuratis. “The victory will be for the Arab tribes,”
  • andrea_hoertz on 21 Sep 14
     
    Article explains the civil war that is erupting in Libya. Islamist extremists are trying to take over the country and towns and tribes of Libya are choosing sides. Tripoli has been the biggest battle ground and its airport was destroyed.
  • wmulnea on 11 Apr 15
     
    This NYT article gives an excellent outline of the prominent factions fighting in Libya, and the purpose and goals of those factions as of Aug, 2014.
  • wmulnea on 11 Apr 15
     
    This NYT article gives an excellent outline of the prominent factions fighting in Libya, and the purpose and goals of those factions as of Aug, 2014.
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U.S. and Iran Both Attack ISIS, but Try Not to Look Like Allies - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...hit-islamic-state-in-iraq.html Iran ISIS politics allies
shared by jordanbrown16 on 12 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • jordanbrown16 on 12 Apr 15
     
    ISIS is not only a threat to Iran, but a threat to the United States as well. Here the NY Times discusses more about why the two nations should work together against ISIS.
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The UN has Proven Ties between ISIS and Israel - 0 views

yournewswire.com/n-ties-between-isis-and-israel ISIS israel politics UN
shared by kdancer on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kdancer on 13 Apr 15
     
    In a new report from the UN, it is revealed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were maintaining regular contact with members of the so-called Islamic State since May of 2013. - See more at: http://yournewswire.com/un-proven-ties-between-isis-and-israel/#sthash.DF57aXWd.dpuf
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ISIS Rounds up ex-Baathists - 1 views

in.news.yahoo.com/otential-rivals-122547485.html ISIS politics war revolution
shared by cramos8 on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • cramos8 on 13 Apr 15
     
    ISIS is eliminating all threats.
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Egypt overturns death sentences for 149 Islamists - Al Arabiya English - 0 views

english.alarabiya.net/...ces-for-149-pro-Islamists.html egypt death sentences Islam
shared by mcooka on 04 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • An Egyptian court has decided on Wednesday to overturn death sentences for 149 pro-Islamists, according to an official source and reported by AFP.
  • he court ordered a retrial for the defendants over the attack, which killed 13 policemen near Cairo on August 14, 2013, the day police shot dead hundreds of Islamist demonstrators in the capital.
  • he court had also sentenced 37 people to death in absentia,
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • even people have been executed for political violence since Mohamed Mursi's ouster, including six who were convicted of belonging to an Islamist militant group.
  • Hundreds of Islamists have been sentenced to death since the military toppled Islamist president Mursi in 2013.
    • mcooka
      mcooka on 04 Feb 16
       
      There's this turn around of hatred towards muslims because of Mursi's short reign. Lots of backlash 
  • mcooka on 04 Feb 16
     
    While a short article, it tells of much to come in the future. Egypt overruled 149 death sentences for Islamist. These were the results of mass trails which were made in February 2015.
  • mcooka on 04 Feb 16
     
    While a short article, it tells of much to come in the future. Egypt overruled 149 death sentences for Islamist. These were the results of mass trails which were made in February 2015.
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U.S. Broadens Fight Against ISIS With Attacks in Afghanistan - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...th-attacks-in-afghanistan.html ISIS Afghanistan
shared by blantonjack on 02 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • blantonjack on 02 Feb 16
     
    The United States has carried out at least a dozen operations - including commando raids and airstrikes - in the past three weeks against militants in Afghanistan aligned with the Islamic State, expanding the Obama administration's military campaign against the terrorist group beyond Iraq and Syria.
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U.S. Commandos Expand Anti-ISIS War into Libya - 1 views

www.usnews.com/...xpand-anti-isis-war-into-libya Libya politics war America ISIS
shared by blantonjack on 24 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • blantonjack on 24 Feb 16
     
    U.S Commandos have long known that Libya will be a key element in the battle against ISIS. That is why members have been on the ground training militia and the Libyan government, so that they are able to better combat ISIS.The extremist network has established footholds around the world but none more important than in Libya, where over the last year it has found a source of income and supplies and a lifeboat if its hub in the Middle East collapses.It is crucial at this point that Libya get a democracy in order to firmly establish laws against the Islamic state, then Libyans may have a chance to keep hold of their country away from terrorist threat.
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Iraq divisions undermine battle against IS - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-35492067 iraq war crossfire politics suni
shared by mcooka on 24 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • More than in any other country, Iraq's future is intimately bound up with the fate of self-styled Islamic State (IS).
  • Territory that was lost in a day or two is taking many months to claw painfully back.
  • But even if initially successful, such an ambitious project, indeed, any further moves to oust IS, could go badly wrong if the foundations are not sound
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • The IS fighters were able to lodge so easily in the Sunni Arab heartlands because the people there had been largely alienated by the sectarian policies and practices of the Shia Arab-dominated Baghdad government under Nouri al-Maliki, who was finally prised out of the prime minister's office in August 2014.
  • gislation to empower the Sunnis by devolving security and financial responsibilities to the provinces has not happened.
  • Nor have measures to reverse the persecution of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, or the random arrests, detentions, and to assuage other Sunni grievances.
  • he US, who have about 3,500 military personnel training and advising Iraqi government forces on the ground, also seems to be aware that military muscle is not enough.
  • If that process continues and the militants are defeated, the way Iraq fits together - if it does - will be decided by who pushes them out, and how the resulting vacuum is filled.
  • osul is an almost wholly Sunni city with a population of about two million.
  • Some residents may still see IS - about 85% of whose fighters in Iraq are believed to be Iraqi - as their protectors against an Iranian-backed, Shia-dominated Baghdad government.
  • When the Iraqi army collapsed like a house of cards in the face of the IS eruption in June 2014, it was a motley array of hastily-assembled Shia irregulars, loosely banded into the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) that prevented the militants reaching Baghda
  • Ramadi gave a boost to the embattled Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi.He has scant support even from his own Shia Daawa party, and is seen across the board by Sunni, Shia and Kurdish politicians as weak, hesitant, lacking in leadership and unable to stand up to the militias.But there was a down-side to the Ramadi victory too: heavy destruction, and the displacement of the entire population.
  • Nor can the formula that finally and slowly worked in Ramadi simply be applied at Mosul. It took government forces with coalition backing seven months to regain Ramadi. Mosul is 10 times bigger.
  • He omitted to mention coalition air support, which would also clearly be crucial to the campaign.Some Iraqi analysts believe outside ground forces would also be needed. US military leaders, while reticent, clearly want to up the pace and have not ruled out more boots on the ground. In the absence of serious moves towards national reconciliation, one senior government figure also saw a campaign to retake Mosul as a vital way of forging national unity.
  • mcooka on 24 Feb 16
     
    This article is about the Iraq divisions which undermine the Iraqi purpose of war. This is a result of an unstable foundation to build plans off of. They are trying to find foundation because they do not want to fall back into an IS state five years down the line. 
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How serious is the ISIL threat in Libya? - 1 views

www.aljazeera.com/...eat-libya-160222081244640.html ISIS Libya war Al Qaeda
shared by blantonjack on 24 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • blantonjack on 24 Feb 16
     
    The recent US air strike on a building in the western Libyan city of Sabrata, which killed more than 40 suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, highlights the growing expansion and danger of the group in Libya. Both ISIL and Gaddafi loyalists share the belief that the new political leaders in Libya are "agents of the West" brought to power by NATO. Sirte has become the first stronghold that ISIL totally controls outside of Iraq and Syria, and it is reportedly home to the group's strongest presence within Libya. For the Western powers to combat this, means many military airstrikes as well as working with Libyan forces to provide intelligence of the whereabouts of the ISIL powers
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'5 horrible years': Libya marks 5th anniversary of Western-backed uprising to oust Gaddafi - 1 views

www.rt.com/...332741-libya-five-years-unrest Libya ISIS war revolution
shared by cthomase on 18 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • cthomase on 18 Feb 16
     
    Libya's popular uprising officially began on February 17, 2011, resulting in the toppling of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, the oil-rich nation has been plunged into political chaos amid the growing threat of Islamic State.
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