Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian air strikes in Syria are coming closer and closer to the Turkish border in Latakia in the northwest, and there are rumors that Russia is looking at establishing an airbase at Qamishli in the largely Kurdish northeast of Syria. Turkey risks having Russia as a […]

Arab Spring

5 Years after Tahrir Square, Egyptian Government in Crackdown on Dissent ahead of Jan. 25 Anniversary

contributors

Global Voices Advocacy’s Netizen Report | (Globalvoices.org) | – – Activists online and on the ground in Egypt have faced heightened scrutiny and legal threats from government authorities since early January, as the country approaches the fifth anniversary of the mass protest movement that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. In addition to multiple arrests of […]

Foreign Policy

The Collapsed Iraqi Army: How to Succeed at Failing, Pentagon-Style

contributors

By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – There’s good news coming out of Iraq… again. The efforts of a 65-nation coalition and punishing U.S. airstrikes have helped local ground forces roll back gains by the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS). Government forces and Shiite militias, for example, recaptured the city of Tikrit, while […]

Chaldeans

UNESCO: “Deepest Concerns” for Mideast Christianity after Daesh/ISIL Razes oldest Iraqi Monastery

contributors

UNESCO | (Media Services) | – – “I express my deepest concerns after the destruction of the Monastery of St Elijah. It was the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq and an invaluable testimony to the rich cultural and religious diversity of the country. For 1,400 years the monastery stood as a place of worship and […]

Arms Sales

US Response to Saudi Wars & Human Rights Violations? $49 Bn. in new Arms Sales

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The West continues its strong political and military support to one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia –- despite withering criticism of the kingdom’s battlefield excesses in the ongoing war in neighbouring Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition […]

Featured

Daesh/ ISIL carries off 400 Women & Children from Deir al-Zor to a fate worse than Death

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Sunday attacked an isolated outpost of the Syrian Arab Army in a few neighborhoods in the north of the city of Deir al-Zor, which are surrounded by Daesh from every side. The SAA also still controls a military airfield just north of […]

Iraq

Iraq: Ethnic Fighting endangers Civilians; now it’s Kurds and Shiites

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Kurdish and Shia Turkmen armed groups have repeatedly harmed and endangered civilians in clashes in Iraq’s Tuz Khurmatu district, in Salah al-Din province, since October 2015. The armed groups have killed, wounded, and abducted civilians and destroyed scores, if not hundreds, of homes and shops. “Some of […]

Arab Spring

Five years on, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution continues from the ground up

contributors

By Adnan Saif | (The Conversation) | – – Tunisians are marking five years since the culmination of their “Jasmine Revolution”. Since its longtime authoritarian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of office in January 2011, Tunisia has been embarking on a long transition to constitutional democracy – a transation that, although […]