Month: September 2024

ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in August 2024

ISIS carried out at least 19 confirmed attacks in August in the Homs, Raqqa, and Deir Ez Zor governorates. These attacks killed at least 12 pro-Assad regime soldiers and seven civilians and wounded at least 25 others. There were also six high quality* attacks carried out during the month. The level of ISIS violence therefore increased throughout August, back to a more standard level following a much quieter period in July, but still remained below the high level of violence experienced during the earlier months of 2024. Additionally, civilians were heavily targeted in August, with five documented attacks against shepherds in Homs, Deir Ez Zor, and Raqqa.

CEP – KAS: Sahel Monitoring May 2024

The month of May saw a significant increase in social media output from both the Islamic State as well as JNIM–as was expected given the continuous rise of online activities of both groups in recent months. The number of statements published during the month of May reached their highest point since reporting began in December 2022. 151 statements were released by the Islamic State’s branches and JNIM, al-Qaeda’s representative in the Sahel.

Lebanon PM calls for UN action against Israeli ‘technological war’

Israeli jets and artillery hit multiple targets in southern Lebanon overnight, Israel’s military said on Thursday, amid spiralling tensions following the mass attack on Hezbollah communications devices this week.

The latest series of blasts – targeting pagers and other electronic devices – killed 37 people and wounded 2,931 wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday.

Did Israel’s pager attack on Hezbollah violate international law?

Israel has targeted Hezbollah members with pagers rigged with explosives. The New Arab looks into whether this violated international law?

Israel’s attack against Hezbollah on Tuesday, which saw thousands of rigged pagers explode, resulting in at least 11 deaths and around 4,000 wounded, has seen international condemnation.

AI Capitalism

Despite the global Uber-hype about artificial intelligence (AI), there still is what only “we” have: natural intelligence (NI). NI allows us to deal with reality in terms of abstractions, predictions, data, information, and knowledge.

The “War Of Attrition” Was Improvised & Not Russia’s Plan All Along

People should be mature enough to accept that no country is perfect, not even their favorite one like Russia, and that setbacks are an unavoidable part of every military conflict.

Nobody foresaw in February 2022 that Russia’s special operation would descend into a protracted “war of attrition” that just passed two and a half years last month. This occurred because all sides underestimated each other and there were some shortcomings in hindsight with the campaign’s initial stages, which readers can correspondingly learn more about here and here. Nevertheless, many members of the Alt-Media Community (AMC) remain convinced that this was actually the plan all along.

Lebanon reels as more devices explode, casualties rise

The source of Wednesday’s explosions was not immediately clear, but the blasts came a day after thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah blew up across Lebanon.

New explosions linked to electronic devices killed at least 20 people and injured more than 450 across Lebanon on Wednesday, a day after 12 people were killed and thousands wounded by exploding pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah in a suspected Israeli attack.

Iran Update, September 16, 2024

Israel is refocusing its operations in the Gaza Strip to prioritize “destroying the pillars of Hamas’ civil rule. . . especially the distribution of humanitarian aid,” according to an anonymous Israeli official.[1] The official told Israeli media that controlling aid distribution enables Hamas to project the image that it still controls the Gazan population.[2] Hamas inserts itself into the aid distribution process by forcing humanitarian organizations to coordinate with Hamas affiliates and seizing aid shipments as they enter the strip.[3] Hamas has also aggressively opposed other Gazan factions from adopting a role in aid distribution given that it would jeopardize Hamas’ near monopoly of aid.[4]

A Muslim Aliyah Paralleled The Jewish Aliyah: Part I, To 1948 – Analysis

Famously, Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, called aliyah, is centuries old and took on an organized form in 1882. Described as “the central goal of the State of Israel” (in the words of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon), it provides the demographic basis on which the entire Zionist enterprise rests. Both very public and highly controversial, it has inspired millions of Jews to move to territories now under Israeli control.