Author: M Barbu

Discordance in the Iran Threat Network in Iraq: Militia Competition and Rivalry

Abstract: Iran-backed militias have been scrambling to recover after the loss of their patriarchs Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020. Attempts to preserve a top-down, Iran-directed system of command have met resistance, both from independent-minded upstarts like Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and the fragmenting powerbases within Kata’ib Hezbollah. To track these trends in detail and to an evidentiary level, the Militia Spotlight was stood up at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in February 2021. This article lays out the project’s first eight months of findings, drawn from an open-source intelligence effort that fuses intense scrutiny of militia messaging applications with in-depth interviews of officials with a close watching brief of the militias. The key finding is that while the IRGC-QF (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force) still runs Iran’s covert operations inside Iraq, they face growing difficulties in controlling local militant cells. Hardline anti-U.S. militias struggle with the contending needs to de-escalate U.S.-Iran tensions, meet the demands of their base for anti-U.S. operations, and simultaneously evolve non-kinetic political and social wings.

Suspected Turkish drone strike targets three people in Syrian Kurdish town

Turkey’s latest strike comes on the four-year anniversary of the Kurdish fighters’ capture of Raqqa from the Islamic State.

A drone strike believed to have been launched by Turkey struck a vehicle in the Kurdish-controlled town of Kobani in northeast Syria on Wednesday, according to local reports.

Three people in the vehicle were injured, local ANHA News Agency reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring network, said two people were killed in the strike.

Protests break out in Syrian city controlled by jihadist faction

Protests erupted in Idlib against the Syrian Salvation Government, affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, amid high inflation and deteriorating living conditions.

Protests have occurred in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in recent days against the so-called Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), which is affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS controls the province. Protesters are calling on the government to provide basic services to the province and reduce the prices of goods and fuel, namely gas and diesel.

Northeast Syria thanks Catalan Parliament for recognition

There has long been a degree of solidarity between supporters of Kurdish autonomy and Catalan nationalists.

Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria thanked the Catalan Parliament Thursday for recognizing their autonomy.

“We offer sincere thanks to the friends in the Catalonia region and reaffirm our appreciation for their historical position,” the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said in a press release.

US base in Syria hit with suspected drone attack

The remote Tanf outpost has been quiet for years, but Iran’s pinprick provocations may once again be targeting the base, which plays a key role in Washington’s effort to obstruct Tehran’s influence.

A remote US military outpost in the southern Syrian desert was hit by a suspected drone attack on Wednesday evening, according to a US official.

Uzbekistan: Afghanistani Refugees At Risk Of Refoulement – OpEd

Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) are concerned about the fates of a group of Afghan refugees comprised of journalists, human rights defenders, parliamentary deputies, musicians and artists and their families from Afghanistan who face the threat of forcible return from Uzbekistan to their native country, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement under international human rights law. The group of people, over 70 in total, are currently in Uzbekistan on temporary visas, which expire on 11 November 2021, after which they might be sent back to Afghanistan unless they succeed in legalizing their status in Uzbekistan or are resettled to a safe third country prior to this. The group of refugees fled to Uzbekistan in August 2021, as part of a wave of refugees who left Afghanistan for Uzbekistan after the Taliban came to power in their native country.

A Remote Corner of Afghanistan Offers a Peek Into the Future of the Country

In Kamdesh, Nuristan, where U.S. forces withdrew more than a decade ago, the American presence is a distant – and negative – memory for many locals.

In the dead of night on August 30, 2021, the last U.S. forces stepped off the tarmac of Kabul Airport onto a plane and left Afghanistan. It was almost 20 years after the first U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, to go after al-Qaida and topple the Emirate of the Taliban that sheltered them. In a twist that would have been unimaginable back in late 2001, by the time the U.S. left the Taliban again held sway in the capital Kabul and practically in the whole of Afghanistan – a feat that they did not even achieve at the prior height of their power in September 2001.

Ce jour-là : le 20 octobre 2011, la Libye en finit avec Mouammar Kadhafi

Dix ans après sa mort, les théories du complot fleurissent sur l’ancien Guide libyen. Retour sur les derniers jours de celui qui s’était autoproclamé « roi des rois d’Afrique ».

« Kheyr, kheyr. Chnou fi ? » Lorsque des miliciens le tirent d’un tunnel d’évacuation des eaux, quelque part à l’ouest de Syrte, c’est la seule phrase qui vient à Mouammar Kadhafi. « Ca va, ça va, qu’est-ce qu’il y a ? » Comme si un importun voisin était venu frapper à la porte en pleine sieste. Mais il est 11h passés en ce jeudi 20 octobre 2011, et celui qui a dirigé la Libye pendant plus de 40 ans n’a plus que quelques instants à vivre.

Sunnis back party of Iraq’s youngest-ever parliamentary speaker

The large backing by the Sunni community for the current parliamentary speaker’s party despite a tradition of voting along tribal lines may mark a break with the past.

Supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr were already celebrating in the streets the night after the Oct. 10 elections while parties more closely linked to Iran made vague threats about what might happen if they were “cheated” out of votes. A week later, relatively minor protests had begun against alleged voter fraud and some threats of violence had begun to circulate.

Iraqi election shakes up Shiite political old guard

The victory of the coalition led by populist cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, and the rise of independent Shiite politicians, could foreshadow a new chapter in Iraqi politics.

Final results of Iraq’s Oct. 10 elections were announced on Oct. 18. The results are expected to be approved by the federal court in two weeks without a major change.