Terrorism

By Anne Aly | (The Conversation) | – – Media outlets were quick to note the criminal backgrounds of the perpetrators of last week’s Brussels terror attacks. Drawing comparisons with those who undertook the November 2015 Paris attacks, this analysis suggested the rise of a new generation of terrorist recruits who are not “radical Islamists” […]

Featured

Syrian Ceasefire in Tatters as al-Qaeda & allies attack in South Aleppo

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The London pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reports that the rebel opposition allied with al-Qaeda broke the ceasefire Saturday morning, taking several villages and towns in the southern hinterlands of Aleppo. The attack was launched with suicide car-bombers who detonated their payload, targeting Syrian Arab Army troops and […]

Iraq

Iraq: Shiite Militias issue threats against US Troops going to Iraq to fight Salafi ISIL

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Recently US troops started fighting the [so-called] Islamic State in Iraq [ISIL], with ‘boots on the ground’. But is keeping a distance between the US and some old Shiite enemies hampering the fight? Or is it just good tactics? Iraqis found out that just about […]

Featured

Syria Endgame: Are Russia and US Planning overthrow of ISIL in al-Raqqa?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Russian press had been complaining that the West was ignoring its defeat of terrorism in Syria. But now the Russian press is saying that the US and the Russian Federation are jointly planning to liberate the Syrian city of al-Raqqa, the capital of the phony […]

Belgium

Are Belgian Nuclear Plants vulnerable to Terrorism?

contributors

By Robert J Downes and Daniel Salisbury | (The Conversation) | – – Belgium’s counter-terrorism efforts are once again being called into question following the recent tragedies in Brussels. The attacks were carried out against soft targets – the public check-in area of Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station – but a series of unusual […]

Belgium

Basques, N. Ireland, Muslims: Belgium’s Problems rooted in Europe’s long History of Exclusion

contributors

By Martin Conway | (The Conversation) | – – “What we feared has happened,” remarked Charles Michel, the prime minister of Belgium, in the immediate aftermath of the horrible and violent attacks on Brussels airport and the Maelbeek metro station on March 22. Yes, indeed. Nothing is less surprising than that the vortex of terrorism […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

After Brussels, the Strategy of ISIL/ Daesh

Juan Cole

By Paul Rogers | (OpenDemocracy) | – – Tunisia, Paris, and now Brussels: escalating attacks on western targets reflect a shift of focus by ISIL. The security consultancy IHS Jane’s has just completed an assessment on the risk of an armed attack in Europe. Its report was published a few days before the assaults in […]

Featured

Fall of Palmyra: Syrian regime races to take ISIL’s ‘Berlin’ and forestall ‘Partition’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – That massive Russian air strikes and a determined infantry and armor assault by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the ancient city of Palmyra could dislodge from it a few hundred or at most a couple thousand Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters is not all that surprising. […]

Belgium

What would effective Counter-Terrorism look like after Brussels?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The various nostrums proposed to counter Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorism in Europe and North America by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (armed patrols by police of putative “Muslim neighborhoods”, a Muslim exclusion act, etc.) are of course complete non-starters. So too are killing the children of […]