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tdford333

Al Qaeda, Houthis Battle over Army Bases in Yemen - Middle East - News - Arutz Sheva - 2 views

www.israelnationalnews.com/...191331

drone strikes yemen

shared by tdford333 on 15 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Al Qaeda, Houthi Rebels Battle over Army Bases in Yemen
  • The Houthis, who are backed by Iran,
  • loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was president until being deposed in 2012.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • evacuation of the US embassies
  • The battle between Al Qaeda, the Houthis, and Yemeni nationals to secure control of the country has left it on the brink of a civil war,
mjumaia

UAE's first female fighter pilot led airstrike against ISIS - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...uae-female-fighter-pilot

UAE Women Women pilot female fighter pilot ISIS war politics future

shared by mjumaia on 09 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • mjumaia on 09 Feb 15
     
    The first female fighter pilot in the United Arab Emirates, she led a strike mission this week against the terror group ISIS. The UAE took a step forward toward democratize future.
tdford333

Did Obama's Drone War Help Cause Yemen's Collapse? - 1 views

www.slate.com/...lp_cause_yemen_s_collapse.html

shared by tdford333 on 22 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • There’s long been concern that the strikes have been driving sympathy and support for al-Qaida
  • in the time since the drone campaign was launched, al-Qaida has only grown in size, two pro-American governments have been overthrown, and the country is on the brink of splitting in two.  
  • tdford333 on 22 Feb 15
     
    This is a blog article that raises the question of whether the US drone war in Yemen has caused more harm than good. The author notes how the indiscriminate death of innocents in drone attacks creates hatred for the US.
fcastro2

Turkish Military Evacuates Soldiers Guarding Tomb in Syria - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...turky-syria-tomb-isis.html

ISIS syria politics turkey

shared by fcastro2 on 23 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • The Turkish Army sent armored troops deep into Syria late Saturday on a rescue mission, to recover the remains of a major historical figure and to evacuate the guards at his besieged tomb
  • The tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is 20 miles south of the Turkish border, but it has been considered Turkish territory under a 1921 treaty with France
  • there were no clashes during the mission and only one casualty, a soldier who was killed in an accident
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • He said Turkey notified the Syrian government, rebel leaders and the coalition forces fighting the Islamic State about the operation.
  • 572 troops, 39 tanks, 57 armored vehicles and 100 other vehicles were involved
  • Turkish flag was lowered, and the tomb and security station were destroyed to prevent any possible use by extremists.
  • operation was prompted by the chaos and instability in Syria
  • clashes were likely to erupt nearby between forces of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Kurdish troops known as pesh merga, and that the tomb could become a target.
  • “The Suleyman Shah tomb has been a point of vulnerability for Turkey for a long time, and with this operation, such weakness has been eliminated
  • crisis discouraged Turkey from joining the United States-led military coalition conducting strikes against the Islamic State, though Turkey has cooperated with the United States in other ways,
  • in accordance with the 1921 treaty, a new tomb for Suleyman Shah was being established in a part of Syria that is under Kurdish control
  • when conditions in Syria permitted, the tomb would be moved back again to the site that was evacuated, near the village of Karakozak
  • Tensions have mounted around the tomb since March, when the Islamic State took control of the surrounding area and began threatening to destroy the tomb unless guards there lowered the Turkish flag.
  • The militant group raided Turkey’s consulate in Mosul, Iraq, last June and seized 46 Turks and 3 Iraqis as hostages; they were released three months later on terms that were not disclosed
  • “The Islamic State could have used the presence of the tomb as leverage in case of any confrontation with Turkey
  • Turkey has lobbied intensively for international military action in Syria, including no-fly zones and a presence on the ground to strengthen the more moderate Syrian rebel groups who are fighting both the extremists and the Syrian government.
  • Syrian government issued a statement on Sunday calling the military operation a “flagrant aggression” because Turkey did not wait for permission from Damascus to mount i
  • The Kurds were aided by airstrikes and other support from the American-led coalition
  • Mr. Ulgen, the analyst, said the choice of route was a sign of some improvement in relations between the Turkish government in Ankara and the Syrian Kurds, whom the Turks have regarded with deep suspicion.
  • fcastro2 on 23 Feb 15
     
    The Turkish government recently went into an extremist-controlled territory in order to evacuate a tomb of a major historical figure, and the soldiers who guarded it. The safe passage of this mission has shown that the relations between Turkey and Syria have gotten a bit better. 
tdford333

Yemen civilians shudder, bristle under bombing campaign - US News - 0 views

www.usnews.com/...bels-amid-saudi-led-airstrikes

civilian yemen

shared by tdford333 on 03 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • As Saudi-led airstrikes pound Yemen rebels, UN and Red Cross alarmed over civilian casualties
  • The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said that in the past five days, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 wounded in five Yemeni cities engulfed in the violence, including, Sanaa. The overall figures are likely much higher and it was not immediately clear if the casualties cited by Geneva referred to just airstrikes or the strikes and fighting between Yemen's warring factions. The Saudi-led coalition says rebels have set up positions near civilians but that it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties
  • tdford333 on 03 Apr 15
     
    Almost 100 civilians have been killed and 364 injured in Yemen due to the fighting there. The toll is weighing heavy on civilians and causing a humanitarian crisis.
wmulnea

Libya's civil war: That it should come to this | The Economist - 3 views

www.economist.com/...factional-chaos-it-should-come

shared by wmulnea on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • It is split between a government in Beida, in the east of the country, which is aligned with the military; and another in Tripoli, in the west, which is dominated by Islamists and militias from western coastal cities
  • Benghazi is again a battlefield.
  • The black plumes of burning oil terminals stretch out over the Mediterranean.
  • ...69 more annotations...
  • Libya looked like the latest fragile blossoming of the Arab spring
  • Army commanders, mostly of Arab Bedouin origin, refused orders to shoot the protesters
  • the revolutionaries cobbled together a National Transitional Council (NTC) claiming to represent all of Libya
  • Volunteers from students to bank managers took up arms, joining popular militias and only sometimes obeying the orders of defecting army commanders trying to take control
  • In August Western bombing of government bases surrounding Tripoli cleared an avenue for the revolutionaries to take the capital.
  • Recognised abroad, popular at home and enjoying the benefits of healthy oil revenues—97% of the government’s income—the NTC was well placed to lay the foundations for a new Libya
  • he judges, academics and lawyers who filled its ranks worried about their own legitimacy and feared confrontation with the militias which, in toppling Qaddafi, had taken his arsenals for their own.
  • militia leaders were already ensconced in the capital’s prime properties
  • The NTC presided over Libya’s first democratic elections in July 2012, and the smooth subsequent handover of power to the General National Congress (GNC) revived popular support for the revolution.
  • Islamist parties won only 19 of 80 seats assigned to parties in the new legislature, and the process left the militias on the outside
  • The Homeland party, founded by Abdel Hakim Belhad
  • tried to advertise its moderation by putting an unveiled woman at the head of its party list in Benghazi
  • The incumbent prime minister, Abdurrahim al-Keib, a university professor who had spent decades in exile, fretted and dithered
  • He bowed to militia demands for their leaders to be appointed to senior ministries, and failed to revive public-works programmes
  • which might have given militiamen jobs
  • Many received handouts without being required to hand in weapons or disband, an incentive which served to swell their ranks
  • the number of revolutionaries registered with the Warriors Affairs Commission set up by the NTC was about 60,000; a year later there were over 200,000. Of some 500 registered militias, almost half came from one city, Misrata.
  • In May 2013 the militias forced parliament to pass a law barring from office anyone who had held a senior position in Qaddafi’s regime after laying siege to government ministries.
  • In the spring of 2014, Khalifa Haftar, a retired general who had earlier returned from two decades of exile in America, forcibly tried to dissolve the GNC and re-establish himself as the armed forces’ commander-in-chief in an operation he called Dignity
  • The elections which followed were a far cry from the happy experience of 2012. In some parts of the country it was too dangerous to go out and vote
  • Such retrenchment has been particularly noticeable among women. In 2011 they created a flurry of new civil associations; now many are back indoors.
  • Turnout in the June 2014 elections was 18%, down from 60% in 2012, and the Islamists fared even worse than before
  • Dismissing the results, an alliance of Islamist, Misratan and Berber militias called Libya Dawn launched a six-week assault on Tripoli. The newly elected parliament decamped to Tobruk, some 1,300km east
  • Grasping for a figleaf of legitimacy, Libya Dawn reconstituted the pre-election GNC and appointed a new government
  • So today Libya is split between two parliaments—both boycotted by their own oppositions and inquorate—two governments, and two central-bank governors.
  • The army—which has two chiefs of staff—is largely split along ethnic lines, with Arab soldiers in Arab tribes rallying around Dignity and the far fewer Misratan and Berber ones around Libya Dawn.
  • Libya Dawn controls the bulk of the territory and probably has more fighters at its disposal.
  • General Haftar’s Dignity, which has based its government in Beida, has air power and, probably, better weaponry
  • the Dignity movement proclaims itself America’s natural ally in the war on terror and the scourge of jihadist Islam
  • Libya Dawn’s commanders present themselves as standard-bearers of the revolution against Qaddafi now continuing the struggle against his former officers
  • Ministers in the east vow to liberate Tripoli from its “occupation” by Islamists, all of whom they denounce as terrorists
  • threatens to take the war to Egypt if Mr Sisi continues to arm the east. Sleeping cells could strike, he warns, drawn from the 2m tribesmen of Libyan origin in Egypt.
  • Yusuf Dawar
  • The struggle over the Gulf of Sirte area, which holds Libya’s main oil terminals and most of its oil reserves, threatens to devastate the country’s primary asset
  • And in the Sahara, where the largest oilfields are, both sides have enlisted ethnic minorities as proxies
  • ibya Dawn has drafted in the brown-skinned Tuareg, southern cousins of the Berbers; Dignity has recruited the black-skinned Toubou. As a result a fresh brawl is brewing in the Saharan oasis of Ubari, which sits at the gates of the al-Sharara oilfield, largest of them all.
  • Oil production has fallen and become much more volatile
  • oil is worth half as much as it was a year ago
  • The Central Bank is now spending at three times the rate that it is taking in oil money
  • The bank is committed to neutrality, but is based in Tripoli
  • Tripoli may have a little more access to cash, but is in bad shape in other ways
  • Fuel supplies and electricity are petering out
  • Crime is rising; carjacking street gangs post their ransom demands on Twitter
  • In Fashloum
  • residents briefly erected barricades to keep out a brigade of Islamists, the Nuwassi
  • “No to Islamists and the al-Qaeda gang” reads the roadside graffiti
  • Libya’s ungoverned spaces are growing,
  • Each month 10,000 migrants set sail for Europe
  • On January 3rd, IS claimed to have extended its reach to Libya’s Sahara too, killing a dozen soldiers at a checkpoint
  • The conflict is as likely to spread as to burn itself out.
  • the Western powers
  • have since been conspicuous by their absence. Chastened by failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, they have watched from the sidelines
  • Obama washed his hands of Libya after Islamists killed his ambassador
  • Italy, the former colonial power, is the last country to have a functioning embassy in Tripoli.
  • Even under Qaddafi the country did not feel so cut off
  • Dignity is supported not just by Mr Sisi but also by the United Arab Emirates, which has sent its own fighter jets into the fray as well as providing arms
  • The UAE’s Gulf rival, Qatar, and Turkey have backed the Islamists and Misratans in the west
  • If oil revenues were to be put into an escrow account, overseas assets frozen and the arms embargo honoured he thinks it might be possible to deprive fighters of the finance that keeps them fighting and force them to the table
  • Until 1963 Libya was governed as three federal provinces—Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south and Tripolitania in the west
  • The old divisions still matter
  • the marginalised Cyrenaicans harked back to the time when their king split his time between the courts of Tobruk and Beida and when Arabs from the Bedouin tribes of the Green Mountains ran his army
  • Tensions between those tribes and Islamist militias ran high from the start.
  • July 2011 jihadists keen to settle scores with officers who had crushed their revolt in the late 1990s killed the NTC’s commander-in-chief, Abdel Fattah Younis, who came from a powerful Arab tribe in the Green Mountains. In June 2013 the Transitional Council of Barqa (the Arab name for Cyrenaica), a body primarily comprised of Arab tribes, declared the east a separate federal region, and soon after allied tribal militias around the Gulf of Sirte took control of the oilfields.
  • In the west, indigenous Berbers, who make up about a tenth of the population, formed a council of their own and called on larger Berber communities in the Maghreb and Europe for support
  • Port cities started to claim self-government and set up their own border controls.
  • Derna—a small port in the east famed for having sent more jihadists per person to fight in Iraq than anywhere else in the world
  • opposed NATO intervention and insisted that the NTC was a pagan (wadani) not national (watani) council
  • Some in Derna have now declared their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
  • In December the head of America’s Africa command told reporters that IS was training some 200 fighters in the town.
kdancer

Dozens of ISIS fighters killed - 0 views

www.haaretz.com/...1.651314

ISIS syria USA

shared by kdancer on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kdancer on 13 Apr 15
     
    At least two dozen Islamic State fighters have been killed in northeastern Syria in a battle with Kurdish forces supported by U.S.-led air strikes, a Kurdish official and a group monitoring the war said on Saturday.
kdancer

The ISIS Challenge - 0 views

nationalinterest.org/...m-even-tougher-solutions-11081

ISIS Syria Iraq

shared by kdancer on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kdancer on 13 Apr 15
     
    The use of U.S. military force against ISIS is a significant escalation whose long-term significance is elusive. The announced justification for the military strikes combined a humanitarian rationale (the exigent need of the Yazidis stranded on their bleak mountain) with the threat that ISIS posed to American citizens in the Kurdish capital of Erbil.
kdancer

U.S. Air Strikes against ISIS - 0 views

www.cbsnews.com/...u-s-fires-on-isis-in-syria

ISIS Syria US

shared by kdancer on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kdancer on 13 Apr 15
     
    The US in an attempt to weaken the terrorist group of ISIS used Airstrikes on outposts in northern and eastern Syria.
fcastro2

Turkey shuts border crossings as fighting worsens around Syria's Aleppo | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...ndonesia-idUSKBN0M71VT20150311

turkey border fighting syria ISIS war

shared by fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Turkey has closed two border crossings with Syria as a security precaution as fighting around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo intensifies
  • crossings at Oncupinar and Cilvegozu in Turkey's southern Hatay province have been shut to vehicles and individuals crossing from Syria since Monday,
  • "Turkey has some security concerns and it is natural for measures to be taken based on the threat assessment conducted
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Humanitarian aid will not be affected, the government official said. Syrians with passports are still allowed to cross into Syria
  • Turkey has kept its borders open to refugees since the start of Syria's civil war four years ago, but it has come under criticism for doing too little to keep foreign fighters crossing and joining militant groups including Islamic State
  • divided between government forces and insurgent groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad in a conflict estimated to have killed 200,000 people
  • The closure of the Turkish border posts also comes after an air strike on Sunday
  • fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15
     
    After fighting increased in Syria, Turkey decided to close dow two border crossings that lead to Syria as a precaution. Until this point, Turkey has kept its borders open to Syrian refugees and even so it still has been criticized for doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering Syria. 
atownen

As Ramadi falls, Pentagon says it is 'striking at the head of the snake' - 0 views

www.politico.com/...agon-ramadi-iraq-forces-217196

ISIL Ramadi airstrikes pentagon

shared by atownen on 03 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • atownen on 03 Feb 16
     
    In another coalition of airstrikes, President Obama announced one particular ISIL leader who had direct ties to the ringleaders in the Paris attacks has been confirmed dead. Pentagon reports ISIL is losing combat power; Iraqi forces are working to rid Ramadi of ISIL presence. 10 other key leaders of ISIL were taken out as well in December.
sambofoster

Journal of Women and Human Rights in the Middle East - 0 views

bakerinstitute.org/...-Pub-StudentJournal-101613.pdf

MENA women rights social media

shared by sambofoster on 04 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • sambofoster on 04 Feb 16
     
    The world's eyes turned to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region when popular uprisings began to take root and spread through the region. These popular movements, collectively referred to as the "Arab Spring" or the "Arab uprisings," successfully toppled dictatorships in Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries. Perhaps one of the most striking features of the uprisings was the prominent presence of women who participated through protests, demonstrations, and social media
joepouttu

Syria conflict: Major rebel town 'seized' in boost for Assad - BBC News - 1 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-35395328

Syria Russia Airstrikes Rebels Latakia

shared by joepouttu on 25 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • joepouttu on 25 Jan 16
     
    Syrian government forces say they have seized the last major town held by rebels in western Latakia province. Russian air strikes were crucial in the recapture of Rabia.
blantonjack

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
blantonjack

ISIS Says It's Behind Car Bombing in Damascus - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...isis-syria-car-bomb.html

ISIS Syria War

shared by blantonjack on 10 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • blantonjack on 10 Feb 16
     
    A car bomb tore up a vegetable market and a police officers' club in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Tuesday, according to a witness and to regional news reports, striking an area that had been quiet for about two years under a local agreement between the Syrian government and insurgents. Isis has gone on to claim that they were behind the bombins that took place
cthomase

Libya's North African neighbors brace for any Western strikes - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...s-libya-security-idUSKCN0VR202

ISIS war revolution Libya

shared by cthomase on 18 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • cthomase on 18 Feb 16
     
    With increased chatter about Western powers potentially leading an air campaign to rid Libya of ISIS, Libya's neighbors are beginning to brace for a potential influx in Libyan refugees. They are tightening border crossings, sending diplomats out of Libya and warning it's citizens to essentially brace for impact.
eyadalhasan

Saudi beheadings: - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Saudi beheadings Abdulaziz Algasim executions

shared by eyadalhasan on 01 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • eyadalhasan on 01 Mar 16
     
    "Praise God," a Saudi executioner dressed in white tells her. He lifts his long silver sword and strikes her neck -- a gasp, then she falls silent. Twice more the hangman hacks at her neck, before stepping away to carefully wipe the blade.
blantonjack

Why Russia's Syria war is bad news for the U.S. (and why it isn't) - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...ws-for-the-u-s-and-why-it-isnt

Russia U.S.A. ISIS Syria war

shared by blantonjack on 02 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • blantonjack on 02 Mar 16
     
    Russian warplanes are conducting airstrikes now in Syria, according to a slew of news reports. The move follows authorization by a vote in Russian parliament as well as weeks of Kremlin messaging about the importance of bolstering the Syrian regime to combat the Islamic State. These Russian airstrikes, although effective, have put United States in a bit of worry because they are unsure of who is calling in the airstrikes. Russia is known to support Assad so any chance they have they will use the strikes to help strengthen Assad, which is not what the U.S. wants. These actions were not surprising to the United States, who believe Russia is saying that they will attack terrorists when they really just want Assad to stay in power.
natphan

Russia's Plan for the Middle East - 0 views

nationalinterest.org/...ias-plan-the-middle-east-14908

ISIS Syria Russia Middle East

shared by natphan on 09 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • natphan on 09 Mar 16
     
    Moscow's coordinated efforts with regional governments, as well as targeted strikes on key assets of terrorist and rebel groups, accomplished politically important objectives for Moscow. With the rapidly growing threat of ISIL, Russia's actions have convinced Western elites to rethink their opinion of Assad.
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