UN experts: Libya’s security threatened by foreign fighters

Libya faces a serious security threat from foreign fighters and private military companies, especially Russia’s Wagner Group which has violated international law, U.N. experts said in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

The experts also accused seven Libyan armed groups of systematically using unlawful detention to punish perceived opponents, ignoring international and domestic civil rights laws, including laws prohibiting torture.

History Can Be a Guide for Thinking About the Post-Ukraine Global Order

How should one think about the future of the global order and international organizations against the backdrop of Russia’s war on Ukraine? The war has highlighted the limitations of multilateral security institutions at both the global and European levels, as Moscow has blocked or ignored calls from the United Nations and other bodies to cease the hostilities.

2 Kosovar men held in detention on terror suspicions

A Kosovo court decided Monday to continue detaining two Albanian men who allegedly joined extremist groups in Syria.

The Pristina court decided in separate cases in favor of prosecutors’ requests to leave the suspects in detention for a month.

EU sanctions al-Qaida-linked group, two leaders

The member states of the European Union on Monday agreed to impose terrorism-related sanctions against an al-Qaida-affiliated armed insurgent group and two of its leaders.

The European Council, which oversees the 27-member bloc’s political direction, identified Hurras al-Din, a Syria-based al-Qaida affiliate, its leader, Faruq al-Suri, and its religious leader, Sami al-Aridi, for asset freezes and travel bans.

Why the Russian Despot Can Neither Mobilize Nor Retreat

Russian President Vladimir Putin has landed in an unenviable position. His country has the resources to inflict damage on Ukraine in perpetuity. But because the first phase of the war has been so costly for Russia and because Ukraine’s military is mounting such stiff resistance, Russia faces serious difficulty achieving anything meaningful on the battlefield without committing much more manpower than it currently has available.

Iraq: Stabilising the Contested District of Sinjar

What’s new? In October 2020, Baghdad and Erbil signed an agreement intended to build stability in Iraq’s Sinjar district through a new administration and security structure that would let displaced people return. The deal is only partly fulfilled, however. Turkey is intensifying bombardment of the PKK and its affiliates in the area.

The Road to Megiddo

We were handcuffed, and a bandage was placed over our eyes so we could not see anything. Then the buses moved towards Palestine. Next to me was sitting an Egyptian named Gamal. He had nothing on his eyes, perhaps being Egyptian and a kind of courtesy to Egypt, which had signed a peace treaty with the Zionist state in 1979.

War as Terrorism

Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures — those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t accessible on TV screens or in video games like Call of Duty, war in children’s play took place only between soldiers. No civilians were caught up in it as “collateral damage.”