09 Sunday Mar 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/99f970bc-a4c9-11e3-9313-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vWUyFmAo
Ten years ago Christine Spolar reported on the Iraq war. Last month she returned to find her old colleagues and friends living in fear, and a city traumatised by spiralling violence
16 Sunday Feb 2014
Tags
Afghanistan, Burma, Central African Republic, conflict, fast look, Iraq, news, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe
What to say to Pandora: “Don’t open the box! Don’t look!”
The “fast scan” takes about an hour at human speed, ignores specific situations, and gets an “ah hah!” moment when one realizes that for causes that are often neither meaningful nor justifiable by those blowing themselves up, pulling triggers, and waving knives (is that still done?), conflict would seem just another natural cause of death.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, people just plain don’t like other people.
Dress up the hate with poetry or scripture, crude talk, politico talk, lies, or a whole lot of truth, somebody’s got it in for somebody else by clan, class, ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion — no need to get personal: just box it, label it, and tear it apart!
Afghanistan frees suspected Taliban prisoners over U.S. objections – The Washington Post – 2/13/2014.
Afghan forces have proved surprisingly effective – 2/15/2014.
The truth is, as Phuketwan first revealed on October 21, that Thai authorities pretend to deport the Rohingya, taking their names and fingerprints for the record, then actually deliver them into the arms of people traffickers.
Sordid Deception Fails to Hide Truth – Phuket Wan – 2/14/2014.
I don’t know what the sordid truth is out of Burma, but I know it’s bad and should be — now has — a place on the open source conflict overview circuit.
Christian threats force Muslim convoy to turn back in CAR exodus | World news | theguardian.com – 2/14/2014.
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“If you want to disarm the anti-balaka, it is better to first disarm the Seleka,” said resident Ngaro Nadine. “It is the Seleka who have been massacring and killing. Now it is the anti-balaka who are strong.”
Foreign troops round up 10 in crackdown on CAR militias – UPI.com – 2/16/2014.
Brig. Gen. Alaa Mahmoud said 33 tourists from South Korea were on the bus and had visited the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s, in the Sinai Peninsula. The bus was headed to Israel and was waiting in line near a border crossing, he said.
Tourist bus blast kills 4, wounds 14 in Egypt – CNN.com – 2/16/2014.
Taba, Sinai, was the location of the bombing of a Hilton in 2004.
Related: Egypt bomb attack kills four on tourist bus – 1/17/2014.
UN envoy concerned about Fallujah deteriorating situation : Aswat Al Iraq – 2/14/2014.
Iraq PM makes historic visit to Anbar « ASHARQ AL-AWSAT – 2/16/2014.
Clashes over Valentine’s Day celebration in Pakistan leaves 4 injured – Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan News Agency – 2/14/2014.
Militancy and politics in the shadow of a ceasefire – Daily Times – 2/17/2014.
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A faction of the Pakistani Taliban said Sunday that it executed 23 paramilitary soldiers who have been held captive since 2010, even as other elements of the militant group continue preliminary peace talks with the country’s government.
Pakistani Taliban says it executed 23 captured Pakistani soldiers – The Washington Post – 2/16/2014.
“They can’t have it both ways,” the senior official said of the Russians. “They can’t say they’re in favor of negotiations in Geneva and a transitional governing body with full executive authority and humanitarian access and have a happy Olympics, and then be part and parcel of supporting this regime as it kills people in the most brutal way.”
U.S. official takes Russia to task for its role in Syrian conflict – The Washington Post – 2/15/2014.
Can negotiations resolve the Syrian conflict? – Inside Syria – Al Jazeera English – 2/16/2014.
Syrian rebels or international terrorists? – The Hindu – 2/17/2014.
The ministry said a National Guard patrol was sent to investigate reports that a civilian and a prison warden had been shot dead at a roadblock set up by armed men in Jendouba.
“Upon their arrival, terrorist elements opened fire,” killing two policemen and wounding another two, it said.
Ministry: Jihadists kill 4 in Tunisia – Al Arabiya News – 2/16/2014.
Turkey has spent at least $2.5 billion on serving these guests since the war began and hosts around 600,000 Syrian refugees – around a quarter of all Syrian refugees. While many reside in the camps, a little over half have opted to settle in urban settlers and make their own living.
Turkish refugee camp ‘nicest’ in the world | General | Worldbulletin News – 2/14/2014.
Earlier this month, the Turkish army opened fire on a convoy of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) – a jihadist group active in Iraq and Syria. This was in retaliation for a series of cross-border strikes that hit Turkish soil. Turkey has also warned of possible terrorist attacks in Istanbul after receiving intelligence that al-Qaeda-linked jihadists were planning to disrupt the Syrian peace talks.
Why Turkey needs to stand up against al-Qaeda | neurope.eu – 2/16/2014.
Ukraine protesters end two-month occupation – 2/17/2014.
Venezuela split by pro- and anti-Maduro protests — The Tico Times – 2/16/2014.
Venezuela Anti-Government Protests: Security Forces Search For Opposition Leader | Fox News Latino – 2/16/2014.
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RAW VIDEO OUT OF VENEZUELA PROTEST MARCH AND SHOOTING AT PROTESTERS —- 2-16 – YouTube – 2/16/2014.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemen is grappling with a growing threat from one of al Qaeda’s most active wings, which has killed hundreds of people in assaults on state and military facilities in the past two years.
Attack on prison in Yemeni capital kills 11 | Reuters – 2/14/2014.
allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Violence Rocks MDC-T Harare Meeting – 2/15/2014.
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07 Friday Feb 2014
Four years ago, al-Qaeda appeared to have been destroyed in Iraq. Last week, fighters from the group captured Fallujah, a city where hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded in the last decade fighting the jihadists. How did this stunning reversal of fortune happen?
David Ignatius: Iran’s fingerprints in Fallujah – The Washington Post – 1/8/2014.
Don’t think for a moment that the United States isn’t still involved in Iraq. At the moment, the government of Iraq is preparing for what might be called the Third Battle of Falluja.
The Third Battle of Falluja | The Nation – 2/6/2014.
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As long as the Iranian and Saudi Arabian sponsors continue to move around suitcases full of money, more or less, one might expect the tides to shift in the fashion established: extremist or deeply partisan combatants on the battle lines; noncombatant residents between those lines, conceptually, and likely to be punished in the path of whatever machinery might have the upper hand for a few hours, days, weeks, or months.
As in Syria, there seems nothing like an armed central and moderate force in place of opposed tribal alliances, and creating that central-moderate force seems ever as difficult or more difficult than setting the usual hotheads at each other’s throats.
Perhaps that accounts for this week’s slouching toward the “Third Battle of Fallujah” where ends desired in common, such as they may be, may seem doubtful to those who must achieve them.
Related: Fighting continues in Iraq’s Anbar Province as civilians flee, 1 February 2014; IRIN Middle East | As fighting continues in Anbar, displaced numbers soar | Iraq | Conflict | Refugees/IDPs | Security – 2/5/2014.
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05 Wednesday Feb 2014
When the Iraqi Army withdrew from the major cities of Anbar in December in the wake of continued protests against their heavy-handed tactics, ISIS insurgents predictably poured down their familiar rat lines from Syria to join local insurgents in capturing the strategic cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. The horror that al-Qaeda has thrived on in Syria now constitutes its vision for Iraq.
Can Another ‘Anbar Awakening’ Save Iraq? – Defense One – 2/3/2014.
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Analysts say that after a year-long crackdown by Maliki’s forces, tribal leaders in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province have set aside deep-rooted grievances with the Shiite-dominated regime to help Maliki crush the jihadists, possibly because he has promised some political concessions.
Given the increasingly autocratic Maliki’s track record of refusing to give the minority Sunnis a stake in running the country, imprisoning their political leaders or driving them into exile, he’s now asking them to help him to sort out a crisis for which he is at least partly to blame himself.
Maliki Girds for Fallujah Assault, Stakes Are High for Iraq – 2/4/2014.
It appears that while Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may have the reflexes of a dictator, and so expressed those through his manner of using force in the past year, he may not have the want of power, callous and self-aggrandizing, as a dictator would have it. He has perhaps found the weakness in the role of elected official but also discovered the opportunity for greater strength in meaningful and committed coalition.
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(CNN) — At least 25 people were killed and 30 others injured in three bombings that hit the Iraqi capital on Wednesday morning, Baghdad police officials said.
Iraq: Deadly car and suicide bombings rock Baghdad – CNN.com – 2/5/2014.
“While CNN is departing its current brick-and-mortar location in Baghdad, the network continues to maintain an editorial presence in Iraq through a dedicated team of CNN stringers and correspondent assignments as news warrants,” a CNN spokesperson confirms in a statement.
CNN Shutters Baghdad Bureau, the Last U.S. TV News Bureau in Iraq – TVNewser – 5/30/2014.
While I / we — or perhaps just me, it’s hard to tell — wait for news of an Iraqi military assault on ISIS fighters inside Fallujah, one might ask what happened to the “big media” news
CNN pulled it bureau out of Iraq in this still tense sector of the Islamic Small Wars.
That American troops have returned from the war zone might well demote the relevance of coverage to Americans, who in any case may be wondering what’s next now that the Superbowl is over and it’s still a long way to springtime, but the war persists and remains relevant to the world and a now worldwide readership for whom state boundaries may mean a lot less than the ethical, moral, religious, and political fissures that cross-cross our “small blue dot” of a planet.
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In his weekly speech on Wednesday, Maliki said “We do not want to harm the civilians and wish them to come back home soon where the battle with terrorism will end soon” . . . .
Maliki assures end of military operations in Fallujah soon – IraqiNews.com – 2/5/2014.
What battle?
Which is not to say that the al-Maliki’s comforting words need to presage conventional fighting or that the same needs to be seen: arrests may take place quietly; fighters may refuse the fight offered; in fact, the mafia processes — “God mob” tactics — on which such as ISIS rely do “the battle” in minds, not fields, consigning so much state-owned firepower and manpower to at least temporary irrelevance.
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(Baghdad) – The execution-style killing of four members of Iraq’s SWAT forces, apparently by the ISIS armed group, is the latest atrocity in a campaign of widespread and systematic murder that amounts to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today.
Iraq: Execution of SWAT Forces Furthers Crimes Against Humanity – 2/5/2014.
Related: Iraq: Execution of SWAT Forces Furthers Crimes Against Humanity | Human Rights Watch – 2/5/2014
The story dates back to a January 20, 2014 incident near Ramadi. The breaking story appears to be about what Human Rights Watch has to say about it.
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As noted the last time I blogged, as a casual web-based observer, “Fallujah is dark” — not the spy novelist’s phrase for destroyed (e.g., ominously, “Moscow is dark”) but rather a comment about information: we know from common online news coverage that Fallujah has been ringed by state military, that some 35,000 families have been displaced, probably temporarily for once, that war machinery and materiel have been delivered to Iraqi forces, and that some kind of invasion of Fallujah is imminent but, perhaps, also difficult in design and navigation: any irregular at any time may cache his weapons, exchange his costume, and swim as Mao Zedong advised, moving among the people “as a fish swims in the sea.”
So we wait, read about car bombs elsewhere, and watch the grim statistics.
* * *
The most violent blast today took place across the street from the Iraqi foreign ministry, on the edge of the international Green Zone. Soon after, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt at a nearby falafel restaurant, the Associated Press reports. Another car bomb was detonated in Khilani Square in the city’s commercial center. Authorities managed to diffuse the fifth bomb near the oil ministry before it went off, according to the Agence France-Presse. At least 24 people died.
Iraq’s insurgency shows staying power – CSMonitor.com – 2/5/2014.
Reflections on Falluja and the Impermanence of Victory – NYTimes.com – 1/28/2014.
Heavy clashes as Iraq fighting sparks rights worries – Yahoo News – 1/9/2014.
As Iraq battles Al Qaeda in Fallujah, Pentagon takes note. Will Afghanistan? (+video) – CSMonitor.com – 1/7/2014.
Fall of Fallujah reverberates in Washington. But will US help Iraq? (+video) – CSMonitor.com – 1/7/2014.
Hidden memories of Iraq – Correspondent
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23 Thursday Jan 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
07 Tuesday Jan 2014
Posted in Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Politics
▶ Iraqi Troops Battle Against Al Qaida Fighters Near Baghdad – Iraq Actual 2014 – YouTube – 1/7/2014 (AP)
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▶ Iraqi Sunnis flee Anbar turmoil for Shiite Karbala – YouTube – 1/7/2014.
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”The ISIS elements and al-Qaeda terrorists withdrew from Fallujah to the suburbs, specifically towards the international road that links Baghdad to Fallujah.”
Urgent – ISIS withdraws from Fallujah city to suburbs – IraqiNews.com – 1/7/2014.
Related: BBC News – Profile: Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) – 1/6/2014.
Elements of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) appear to move around according to its own pressure inclines. The above BBC links provides a map representing the zones of conflict and control or strength in the affected areas of Syria. It shows Abu Kamal near the Iraq border as an ISIS primary site.
Related: ISIS practicing statehood in Raqqa – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 11/6/2013.
I really don’t like scraping, so will slow down; however, as the hot spots of the Islamic Small Wars move around, the generalist encounters them as comparatively new.
Of course, Iraq suffered all last year with a rising tide of sectarian violence. That combat involving the army should erupt in Fallujah as the fighting in neighboring Syria spills back into Iraq would seem to come as little surprise to closer watching specialists.
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07 Tuesday Jan 2014
▶ US and Iraqi military continue to assault Fallujah – YouTube – 1/7/2014
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“The prime minister appeals to the tribes and people of Fallujah to expel the terrorists from the city in order to spare themselves the risk of armed clashes,” the statement read.
Iraq PM urges Fallujah to expel al-Qaeda – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/7/2014.
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Iraq moves up tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault | Reuters – 1/7/2014.
In Iraq, a Sunni revolt raises specter of civil war – The Washington Post – 1/6/2014.
Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq – The Washington Post – 1/3/2014.
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This is a breaking story with American involvement in field operations.
The pursuit of conventional fighting methods may make for better show-and-tell than real security gains. Whatever elements of the Islamist front may be in Fallujah, and whatever their level of coherence and cohesion, they may hide their weapons, blend in with the population, retreat into the landscape, abandon the cause (temporarily), in short, live the lives of guerrilla fighters while the heavy machinery moves around them and state intelligence and resolve, the same that should have forestalled the Islamist’s drift into town in the first place, fails.
Or not.
We shall see.
One move too far: How Iraq’s Nuri al-Maliki overreached in Anbar – CNN.com – 1/7/2014.
Islamist Militants Hold On In Iraq’s Fallujah, Ramadi – 1/7/2014.
Sunni Fighters in Anbar Defiant as Iraq Readies Attack – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.
Iraq Haunts Obama: Bin Laden Dead, War Over — and Fallujah Back in Play – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.
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03 Friday Jan 2014
Heavy fighting raged between the Iraqi military and Sunni fighters in Anbar province, after gunmen seized control of several police stations there.
Heavy fighting rages in Iraq’s Anbar province – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/2/2014.
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The US government is concerned about al Qaeda gaining strength in Iraq. Now, Washington is sending missiles and drones to help Baghdad in the fight against the terror organization.
US weapons to help Iraq fight al Qaeda | World | DW.DE | 28.12.2013
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Two smugglers were transporting C4 explosives, TNT, armor-piercing explosives, mobile phones and circuit boards, among other supplies, into Bahrain. The boat was als0 carrying “50 Iranian-made hand bombs” and almost 300 commercial detonators stamped “Made in Syria,” Al Hassan said.
Bahrain finds Iranian and Syrian weapons in security raids | GlobalPost – 12/30/2013.
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Security sources say that the porous border region around Ersal is used to smuggle Syrian weapons and fighters involved in the country’s bloody civil war. It was unclear if the Syrians injured in Wednesday’s attack were fighters or civilians.
Ten injured in Syrian air raid over Lebanon | Al Akhbar English – 1/1/2014.
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Turkish security forces have seized a truck laden with weapons bound for Syria and arrested three people including a Syrian, local media reported on Thursday.
Report: Turkey seizes arms in truck bound for Syria – Al Arabiya News – 1/2/2014.
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The missiles being moved include long-range Scud D missiles that can strike deep into Israel, short-range Scud C’s, medium-range Iranian Fateh rockets, Iranian Fajr rockets and anti-aircraft weapons that are fired from the shoulder.
Security analyst: Hezbollah continues transferring arms from Syria to Lebanon | JPost | Israel News – 1/3/2014.
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Ships waiting to remove Syria’s chemical weapons have returned to port in Cyprus because the country has missed a December 31 deadline.
Syria was supposed to have removed part of its chemical weapons arsenal for destruction on Tuesday, but Wael Nader Al Halqi, Syria’s prime minister, said security concerns and bureaucracy had caused delays in transporting the weapons to the Syrian port of Latakia.
Syria misses deadline to remove chemical arms – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/1/2014
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Perhaps the conflict in Syria and whatever’s brewing in Iraq will expand in proportion to the volume of contested and loose weapons “in play” across the multi-state theater.
The powers that be would seem to be contesting their grip on conventional weapons and the reality of their control over WMDs.
While the agenda-poisoned special interest press points its fingers for respective advantage, i.e., PressTV screamed back in September, “US: Al-Qaeda running chemical weapons program“; the day before, The Washington Free Beacon noted, “Report: Hezbollah Armed with Syria’s Chemical Weapons” (9/20/2013), what is known is that multiple actors, from al-Qaeda to Hezbollah, from the Assad regime in cahoots with Iran to unknown quantities with money in Qatar (frequently the target of finger pointers), are challenging the state-based monopoly on violence. Possibly nothing signals the out-of-control good health of a young war quite like the delayed arrivals and disappearance of weapons shipments, armories, and caches.
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From the Benghazi debacle:
“The loss of this military equipment is what pulled the plug on the U.S. operation,” one source with direct knowledge of the events told Fox News. “No one at the State Department wanted to deal with the situation if any more went wrong, so State pulled its support for the training program and then began to try and get the team moved out of the country.”
REPORT: U.S. Special Forces Equipment, Weapons Stolen In Libya – 9/26/2013.
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“I know where those weapons are coming from. They are the weapons left over from the Bosnian war. They are being shipped out in large measure through Croatian ports and airports and I can tell you they are making vast sums for corrupt forces in the Balkans.”
Syria: 3,500 tons of weapons already sent to rebels, says Lord Ashdown – Telegraph – 7/1/2013.
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Saudi Arabia has pledged $3bn for the Lebanese army, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announced, calling it the largest grant ever given to the country’s armed forces.
The pledge comes just as Lebanon held a funeral for Mohamad Chatah, the former finance minister, amid rising tensions over who might have killed him.
Saudi Arabia pledges $3bn to Lebanese army – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 12/29/2013.
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The increasingly familiar scene of shattered glass and twisted metal left little doubt that Lebanon’s slide toward conflict is accelerating as the country becomes embroiled in the broader sectarian rivalries threatening to engulf the region.
Bomb explodes in Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut, killing at least 4 – The Washington Post – 1/2/2014.
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One starts to wonder if its the weapons that have the soul and humans in their vicinity have become the machinery that enables them to express themselves before growing old, unstable, and feeble with corrosion.
It’s an odd grim poetic thought, but the reality oddly supports it: whether involving the Saudi treasury or an al-Nusra ruse, the middle east, with Syria as a hub burning and smoldering with war through the winter, is today crawling with weapons, and some that were watched have disappeared and, probably, are moving to fulfill their purpose.
The upheaval also affirmed the soaring capabilities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the rebranded version of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization that formed a decade ago to confront U.S. troops and expanded into Syria last year while also escalating its activities in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq – The Washington Post – 1/3/2014.
From whence came their firepower?
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