Aaron Y Zelin and Michael T Franken write: Over the past several years, Libya's influx of foreign fighters has become the fourth-largest mobilization in jihadist history, behind only the Syria war, the Afghan jihad of the 1980s, and the 2003 Iraq war. - Washington Institute Libya’s Revolution Seven Years On: As Good As It Gets? Today marks the seventh anniversary of the Benghazi rallies that spread across the nation, when Libyans took to the streets to protest the arrest of a human rights lawyer. Fueled by the success of demonstrators in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, the crowds also demanded the release of political prisoners and an end to Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year rule. Norm Roule, former senior CIA official covering the Middle East, offers takeaways on what went right, and what went wrong with international intervention.
Libya Faces Crossroads Seven Years after Revolution
by Emily Estelle Libyans commemorated the seventh anniversary of the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi on February 17. Libya appears increasingly stable on the surface, with oil production rising and embassies returning to Tripoli. Negative trends will likely shatter this apparent progress in the coming year. The current stalemate in Libya will escalate to renewed conflict in 2018, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis, worsening regional instability, and empowering U.S. enemies and adversaries. Libya is in a period of superficial calm that obscures condition-setting for a renewed struggle over power and resources. The 2014 civil war between eastern and western coalitions has evolved, not ended. Coalitions are fragmenting and realigning. The strengthening of independent militias is increasing tensions and worsening social divisions in key localities that will determine Libya’s broader stability. Militants are reactivating an insurgency in Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, as would-be strongman Khalifa Haftar struggles to control a fractiouscoalition that is alienating parts of the population. Tribal conflict resumed in Sebha, the regional capital of the southwest, as coastal powers extend their influence inland. Moderate and hardline forces are jockeying for control in Misrata, a military and economic center in the northwest. Tripoli, Libya’s capital, is subject to a competing web of militias and criminal organizations that wield influence over the anemic UN-backed government in the west. Citizens are protesting poor living conditions in multiple cities, and the number of Libyan migrants attempting to reach Europe is growing. The UN is pursuing elections as a panacea for the Libyan political crisis even as UN experts acknowledge that a peaceful solution is unlikely. Election preparations have already led to violence and repression. Libya lacks a constitutional framework for elections, a minimum requirement to prevent the post-election power struggles the country has seen before. Recent progress towards a constitutional referendum does not neutralize the multiple spoilers that are capable of preventing elections or delegitimizing their results. The Salafi militias overtaking the security sector are another block to free-and-fair elections, as well as a source of sectarian and ethnic conflict. Libya will dissolve into a renewed war—or several wars—in the absence of a significant course-correction, causing Salafi-jihadi expansion, increased migration, humanitarian crises, and regional destabilization. Elections, if they occur, will not resolve Libya’s political crisis and may lead to more violence. A victory by a polarizing figure, like LNA commander Haftar, could spark armed backlash akin to the 2014 parliamentary elections. The election of a weak consensus candidate, or the splitting of votes between regions, will preserve or deepen Libya’s current regional, political, and ideological faultlines. Armed groups may also move to secure their interests—and salvage fragmenting coalitions—by taking action before elections occur, making conflict over Libya’s major cities and oil resources increasingly likely in 2018. Salafi-jihadi groups in Libya, among them ISIS and al Qaeda, will regain momentum in 2018. ISIS is recovering from the loss of its coastal stronghold in late 2016 and has established a safe haven in central Libya. ISIS will conduct attack campaigns intended to derail Libya’s oil production and destabilize urban centers in 2018. It will also shift even more external attack planning to Libya as it loses freedom of movement in Iraq and Syria. Al Qaeda and affiliated groups in Libya, including Ansar al Sharia, are currently keeping a low profile following losses in 2016-2017. These groups will seize on the opportunity of local and national conflicts to regain influence by infiltrating and leading insurgencies in central and eastern Libya in 2018. The LNA’s campaign to seize Derna city in the northeast will also be a rallying cry for the al Qaeda network. The involvement of regional and extra-regional powers will prolong the Libya conflict. The UAE, Turkey, and Qatar will engage even more episodically in Libya as they prioritize wars and power struggles in the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa. Egypt, for which Libya is a higher priority, will still find its engagement limited by competing priorities at home and in the Nile River Valley. These states will periodically provide military, economic, and political support to their proxies in order to defend their interests in Libya, but will not dramatically escalate their involvement to a level required to resolve the conflict in their favor. Russia, which will prioritize Syria and Eastern Europe, will nevertheless seize the opportunity to establish a military footprint in eastern Libya, using counterterrorism operations as justification to gain another strategic foothold on the Mediterranean. The U.S. must recognize the coming dangers in Libya and develop a policy to change its course. Libya has not yet fallen off the brink. The U.S. should rally the international community behind a political solution to the Libya conflict and pressure regional states to cease military support for Libyan spoilers. Ending the Libya crisis will also require an overhaul of the Libyan security sector that includes both training and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs. A smart intervention now could avert another tragedy for the Libyan people and put the U.S. in a position of strength against both terrorist groups and geopolitical foes in North Africa.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday barred former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from leading his political party, the latest setback for the embattled politician since his ouster from office last year. - New York Times
Saudi Arabia joined Turkey and China in a move to block a U.S.-led attempt this week to place Pakistan on an international terror-financing watch list, according to officials involved in the process, in a rare disagreement between Riyadh and the Trump administration. - Wall Street Journal An Afghan official says Taliban fighters have attacked a police security post in central Ghazni province, killing eight local police. - Associated Press
Pakistan has been given a three-month reprieve by a global watchdog over a U.S.-led motion to put the South Asian country on a terrorist financing watchlist, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said late on Tuesday. - Reuters
U.S., PAKISTAN:
U.S. Demands Pakistan Arrest 'Hit List' of Top Haqqani & Taliban Leaders By Kimberly Dozier, The Cipher Brief: “The Trump administration has given Pakistan a new “hit list” of nearly a dozen top militants to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, but the U.S. won’t share intelligence that would help lead to their capture, and has snubbed Pakistani requests to meet CIA chief Mike Pompeo in Washington, a senior Pakistani official tells The Cipher Brief.”
The Trump administration has given Pakistan a new “hit list” of nearly a dozen top militants to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, but the U.S. won’t share intelligence that would help lead to their capture – and has snubbed Pakistani requests to meet CIA chief Mike Pompeo in Washington, a senior Pakistani official tells The Cipher Brief.
For more background on the breakdown in U.S.-Pakistan relations, read today’s brief.
Pakistan slipping out of US influence, say intelligence agencies
(Dawn News) Seventeen US intelligence agencies have warned Congress that Pakistan will continue to slip out of America’s influence and into China’s orbit in 2019, and will become a threat to Washington’s interests in the South Asian region.
Pakistani terror groups launch multiple attacks in Jammu and Kashmir
(Long War Journal) Pakistani terror groups Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) launched two attacks against security forces this week in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both attacks targeted Indian military facilities and together resulted in the deaths of six Indian security personnel and one civilian. Rouhani embarks on India state visit
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has departed on his first state visit to India. He is slated to meet with senior officials including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as India hopes to strike a deal to use Iran's Chabahar free trade zone on the Gulf of Oman to trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia while bypassing archrival Pakistan. Rouhani will visit New Delhi and the southern city of Hyderabad. Read More Pushing back on Iran, part 1: The why Kenneth Pollack | AEIdeas Kenneth Pollack writes about why the US needs a more confrontational approach toward Iran. One of the most profound threats is that Iran is actively struggling to push the transformation of the Middle East in directions that best suit Iranian interests, not the interests of the US or the people of the Middle East. This is the first in a series of essays that flesh out the idea of pushing back on Iran. Pushing back on Iran, part 3: The Syrian civil war
Kenneth Pollack | AEIdeas Syria is the ideal place for the US to take on Iran. However, Americans have debated the wisdom of playing a more active role there. As the Israeli air strikes last weekend remind us, the situation in Syria remains uncertain and complex, meaning that any American policy toward Syria is likely to run certain risks and incur certain costs that should be addressed. ![]()
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Campaign against Pashtuns undermines rule of law RAHIM NASAR For the last six decades, Pakistan's Pashtuns have been oppressed by the establishment. Marking opponents with the black stamp of treason has been the establishment's most effective tool for silencing the ethnic group's leaders when they dare to criticize state policy-makers. The promotion of Pashtun cultural stereotypes – the portrayal of the Pashtuns as a violent and extremist ethnic group – has led to them being internally exiled as the war against militancy is waged... There are good reasons for the army’s popularity in Pakistan ATTA RASOOL MALIK The ideological origins of the Pakistan Army can be traced back to what is known in British histories as the 'The Indian Mutiny.’ Its objective was to reinstate to power in Delhi the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah. This was India’s First War of Independence and was mainly fought by Muslims, although many Hindu troops also took part as a result of crude treatment by their British officers. When partition came around in 1947, the formations, units... In Afghanistan, Hard Is Not Hopeless—but Time Is Running Out By Rep. Mike Gallagher, RealClearDefense: “Now is the time to be honest about what we are trying to achieve in Afghanistan, what it will cost, how we measure progress on the ground, and how this will be different from the last 17 years. ”
Pakistani Taliban confirms US killed deputy emir in North Waziristan drone strike Sajna Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, not in Afghanistan like some Pakistani officials have claimed. Sajna lead the group's powerful Mehsud faction, was close to al Qaeda, and was responsible for murdering thousands of Pakistanis. ![]()
Pakistani General talks tough on terrorism, but remains short on action General Bajwa and Pakistani officials can pontificate all they like about how their country has eliminated terrorism and no longer permit terrorists to use its soil to attack another country. A look at the facts tells another story, and that is one of Pakistani duplicity. The Major Flaws in Afghanistan's Intelligence War
By Javid Ahmad, The National Interest: “For Afghanistan, the recent spate of violence signifies important intelligence failures.” Pentagon plays down Russian influence in Syria after clash with US-backed forces Secretary of Defense James Mattis insisted that Moscow had little control over Syrian troops that attacked US allies. Mattis also dismissed fears that the United States is getting dragged into another Middle East war. US maintains mystery about long-term intentions in Syria Remember that "border force" the US said it was, and then wasn't, forming in Syria? Apparently, it's already there US support for Kurds in Iraq and Syria unaffected by tensions with Turkey
The Pentagon is standing by Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria despite growing political pressure to back off, according to a government audit.
'Can’t Kill Enough to Win? Think Again': The Author’s Respond
By David G. Bolgiano & John Taylor, U.S. Naval Institute Blog: “One critic stated: “Killing our way to victory is a simplistic notion that appears to totally ignore the real-world complexities and challenges of the current war on terror.” On the contrary, U.S. military personnel have created their own complexities by trying to be diplomats instead of warriors.”
Tillerson embarks on Middle East tour to put out foreign policy fires
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heads out on a marathon tour of a half-dozen Middle East countries next week as US foreign policy faces crises across the region. The top US diplomat’s first stop will be Sunday in Jordan, where he’ll try to salvage crumbling Israel-Palestinian peace talks with King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi(see story below). Tillerson is also expected to sign a bilateral memorandum of understanding on economic and security assistance with the cash-strapped US counterterrorism ally. Then it’s off to Turkey, where Tillerson is expected to raise “some of the more difficult issues” with Turkish leaders, a senior State Department official said in a background call today – a possible reference to Ankara’s military incursion into northern Syria to battle US-backed Kurdish forces. After that, Tillerson flies to Lebanon for the first visit by a US secretary of state in four years. He’s scheduled to meet with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Haririand parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. With tensions rising between Lebanon and Israel as the Shiite militia Hezbollah stockpiles rockets, the visit aims to “underscore our commitment to Lebanese national institutions, principally the Lebanese Armed Forces and internal security forces” as a bulwark against instability and Sunni extremism, according to officials on the call. Next, Tillerson heads to Egypt for a meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Hot topics include the conflicts in Libya and Syria, terrorism, and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with some discussion expected on the March elections and the silencing of Sisi’s main challengers. Finally, Tillerson wraps things up with a visit to Kuwait, which is hosting both a ministerial meeting of the anti-Islamic State coalition and a reconstruction conference to help rebuild Iraq after the terrorist group’s defeat
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/president-trump-condemn-this-sham-egyptian-election•
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middleeast/egypt-opens-border-with-gaza-temporarily-first-time-in-2018/2018/02/07/75f5f014-0c12-11e8-998c-96deb18cca19story.html?utm_term=.e2cf1c432c26
As the ongoing dispute between Qatar and Arab countries enters its eighth month, the U.S. has been forced to strike a delicate balance in its dealings with critical allies in the Middle East.
Deputy emir of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan reportedly killed in US drone strike
Sajna Mehsud, the deputy emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Paksitan and the leader of its powerful Mehsud faction, it reported to have been killed along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. However his death has not been confirmed by the US government or the Taliban.
Peace Through Bombings: The US Strategy in Afghanistan // Krishnadev Calamur
The goal of negotiating with the Taliban is at odds with President Trump's statements.
China’s latest move in the graveyard of empires
BY PEPE ESCOBAR Beijing’s strategic priority is to prevent ETIM fighters exiled in Afghanistan crossing the Wakhan Corridor to carry out operations in Xinjian
The United States' attempt to cut Pakistan's military or civilian aid may lead to further complications in the relations between the two countries, Pakistan's interior minister said Thursday. - Voice of America
Air Force Sets Another B-52 Smart Bomb Record in Afghanistan By Oriana Pawlyk, Military.com: “The B-52 Stratofortress this week set another record for the number of smart bombs dropped from the iconic bomber, officials said Tuesday. US conducts 10 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen US forces conducted a record 120 strikes in Yemen in 2017 and appears to be operating at a similar tempo thus far in 2018. America's war in Afghanistan is the longest war the U.S. has ever fought. Beginning a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the initial mission was to remove the Taliban from power and destroy the al-Qaida terror network. Now, nearly 17 years later, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll points out that the war's goals have changed. - National Public Radio
Jessa Rose Dury-Agri and Omer Kassim write: The U.S. should reassess military and political plans that rest on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s continued premiership after Iraq’s May 12, 2018 elections. Abadi’s failed political alliance with Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces and inability to maintain the confidence of Ammar al-Hakim’s political allies signals that Abadi is unable to manage varying political interests and will struggle to hold together a post-election coalition. - Institute for the Study of War Ayatollah Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts who is thought to be the designated successor of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, visited Lebanon and Syria at the end of January 2018. Raisi toured the border between Israel and Lebanon accompanied by Hezbollah military commanders and Iranian officers. - Jerusalem Post
The three-year-old Yemen conflict has largely been cast as a war that pits an internationally recognized government against Iranian-backed rebels who ousted it from the capital and now also control much of the north. But fighting in the southern Yemeni city of Aden over the past week revealed the extent to which Yemen’s war also is driven by other historical grievances that could pose serious obstacles to negotiating an end to the conflict. - Washington Post
In the rocky highlands outside of Yemen’s rebel-held capital, it quickly becomes clear how the Arab world’s poorest country remains mired in a stalemated civil war. The nearly three-year civil war, pitting the Saudi-led coalition against the rebels, has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 2 million and helped spawn a devastating cholera epidemic - and yet the front lines have hardly moved. - Associated Press Ahmed Al-Quiasy writes: The question poses itself: does Saudi-Chinese closeness indicate the beginning of problem in Saudi-U.S. relations, or can China fill the vacuum occupied by the United States? To answer this question, the nature of the Saudi-Chinese relationship should be examined at both the economic and the security level, and analyzed for its implications on Saudi-U.S. relations. - Washington Institute HOW TRUMP ECHOES TALLEYRAND U.S. Strategic Interests in the Middle East and Implications for the Army Karl P. Mueller, Becca Wasser, Jeffrey Martini, Stephen Watts The U.S. Army should be prepared for its involvement in the Middle East and North Africa to extend into the future. Having borne the brunt of previous interventions there, the Army is well positioned to help policymakers understand both the utility and the limitations of U.S. military power in the region. Read more » Secret alliance: Israel carries out airstrikes in Egypt, with Cairo’s O.K Unmarked Israeli warplanes and helicopters have carried out dozens of covert attacks against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups inside the Egyptian Sinai in recent years, said two former senior U.S. officials. - Washington Post
Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot warned the cabinet on Sunday that the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse due to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-ruled enclave. - Haaretz Palestinians on Sunday strongly denounced an Israeli decision to collect taxes from churches and United Nations agencies in Jerusalem, saying the move was aimed at “emptying” the city of its Arab residents and Christian holy sites. - Times of Israel Ishaan Tharoor writes: A number of recent reports have appeared to confirm one of the worst-kept secrets in the Middle East. In coordination with Egyptian authorities, Israel has for months been conducting clandestine airstrikes against jihadist groups operating in northern Sinai. The Israelis used unmarked drones, helicopters and jets to launch at least 100 strikes on the peninsula, all with the apparent blessing of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. - Washington Post Pakistan: Graveyard of Strategy By Robert Cassidy, Modern War Institute: “For any Afghanistan strategy, the gap between theory and practice will remain vast until the full host of resources is employed to prevail upon Pakistan to stop supporting the Haqqani Network and the Taliban. ” There’s no military solution to the long-running conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said, warning little progress would be made until all sides entered into peace talks. - Bloomberg Afghanistan’s government and security forces are mired in a grueling struggle for survival, despite the relative lull the winter is supposed to provide ahead of the Taliban’s traditional spring offensive. The warmer months will likely only add to the violence as the Afghan state fights an open-ended battle against several deadly enemies, including the Taliban and ISIS, who are rapidly conquering more and more territory – and attacking civilians and troops with spectacular ferocity. The Taliban and ISIS’s Afghan affiliate known as ISIS Khorasan Province (ISKP) continue to conduct regular attacks against Afghan civilians and security forces. A decade and a half after the initial U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, these insurgent groups are gaining strength at an alarming, threatening to overrun several districts in the country.
The State of the Afghan War By Seth G. Jones, CSIS: “How is the war going? And what metrics are important to gauge the state of the war? Thankfully, there is more than sufficient publicly available information to answer these questions for a war that has witnessed several recent grisly attacks—and which has evolved into a draw between the government and Taliban.” Kabul attacks cloud U.S. Afghan strategy Afghanistan has given neighboring Pakistan confessions and other proof that the militants who carried out a recent series of attacks were trained in Pakistan and that Taliban leaders there are allowed to roam freely, the Afghan interior minister said Thursday. - Associated Press Pakistan’s defense minister said his country is determined to retain a positive relationship with the U.S. despite President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend military aid to the nuclear-armed nation. - Bloomberg Seth G. Jones writes: Groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State have generally orchestrated attacks in cities like Kabul for their psychological effect. These attacks, which are meant to grab local and international media attention, are often intended to cast doubt on the Afghan government’s ability to protect its population and to create an impression that insurgents are resilient—if not omnipresent. But they aren’t helpful indicators of how the war is going. - Center for Strategic & International Studies The Case for Counter Insurgency ‘Light’ in Afghanistan
By Charles Barham, RealClearDefense: “Unlike the U.S. led COIN campaign of 2010-2012, this emerging COIN campaign will not be the U.S. or even coalition led.”
Strategic Innovation and Great Power Competition
By Elsa B. Kania, Strategy Bridge: “At this time of disruptive transitions, the new U.S. National Defense Strategy rightly recognizes that the character of warfare is changing due to the advent of a range of disruptive technologies.”
Troubled Times in South Asia
The USA has taken a back seat. China is getting active. Pakistan has strong allies. South Asia just became a lot more challenging for India.
US military halts release of data on Taliban-controlled districts
The DoD would not be suppressing information on Taliban district and population control as well as key metrics on the Afghan security forces if the fight was going well.
U.S., AFGHANISTAN:
Resolute Support Claims ‘Human Error’ Led to Withholding District Control Data By Bill Roggio, FDD's Long War Journal: “SIGAR countered with evidence that shows how Resolute Support – which is NATO’s command in Afghanistan – marked elements of the draft report that it did not want disclosed as “not releasable to the public,” and followed up with the U.S. military on the classifications.”
India misleading US on why it is failing in Afghanistan
ATTA RASOOL MALIK Because of what they read and hear in the media, it may seem far-fetched to most US and other Western readers, but the fact is this – it is India that is lying to and cheating the US in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. First things first. The belief in the doctrine of "American supremacy" runs deep in the culture and history of the United States. American troops quite often underestimate their foes, and such is the... The War in Yemen and the Making of a Chaos State // Defense One Staff The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is in Yemen. An ancient and remote place not exactly known for its international tourism, the country has begun to make headlines for its war, outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria, and rockets aimed at the Saudi capital hundreds of miles away from the front lines. The dangers have gone regional. The main conflict inside Yemen — there are several — is a U.S.-backed, Saudi Arabia-led intervention to unseat a group of rebels called the Houthis. It’s been going on for more than 1,000 days, and yet both sides feel more emboldened today than ever. Meanwhile, less than half of the country’s hospitals are operational. Children are being recruited into war. The outlook is grim, and for a much larger area than just Yemen. But why? And is there any sort of way out? In this special feature, Defense One's Ben Watson traces the roots of conflict:
And don't miss this animated, historical review of the conflicts in Yemen, and how the country's dangers have gone regional. Yemen separatists take control of Aden
Yemen’s southern separatists took control of the port city of Aden on Tuesday after seizing the area around the presidential palace and confining members of the UN-backed government inside. Sources within the self-proclaimed Southern Transitional Council said Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr was preparing to flee the city, claims that the internationally recognized government denied. Fighting between the separatists and forces loyal to Saudi Arabia-based President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have been ongoing since Sunday, killing dozens of people. The conflict has complicated the Saudi-led coalition’s efforts to fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels on behalf of the Hadi government. Read More AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR & THE ALLY DRIVING THE CONFLICT; PAKISTAN CONDONES HAQQANI HIT WITH U.S. DRONE1/29/2018
America's Longest War—and the Ally That Fuels It
How Pakistan has perpetuated the Afghan conflict.
U.S., PAKISTAN:
Pakistan 'Condemns Drone Strike' That Killed Haqqani Network Commander By Bill Roggio, FDD's Long War Journal: “Over the past two years, the U.S. drone campaign appears to have shifted its focus from the tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan to Kurram. The U.S. has launched 13 such attacks inside Pakistan since Dec. 2016.”
Don’t Let China Start Calling the Shots in Pakistan
By Tim Willasey-Wilsey, The Cipher Brief: “The vast size of the proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has players on all sides struggling to calculate the pros and cons for their own interests. From the benefit of creating new trade routes to the obstacle of the war in Afghanistan, regional leaders and their citizens are assessing whether and how much to get involved in the estimated $62 billion Chinese project. Asia’s Escalating Missile Race By Brendan Thomas-Noone, the interpreter: “If the Cold War was one long arms race, the modern era could be accurately described as an arms jog. Countries are defined less by how many nuclear warheads they have, and more by what they can do with them.”
Jihad decree triggers demands for holy war on Kashmir
BY KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID Efforts by Pakistan's government to dissociate itself from charges of sponsoring terrorism have attracted a hostile response from Islamists
AFGHANISTAN: Islamic State Branch Claims Attack on Afghan Military Academy
By Thomas Joscelyn, FDD's Long War Journal: “It appears that the raid was yet another inghimasi operation involving several jihadists. Inghimasis are generally well-trained guerrilla fighters who are prepared to die in battle. They are different from traditional suicide bombers in that they don’t detonate their explosive belts or vests at the outset of the fight, but instead first battle their enemies with light arms or other weapons. They “immerse” themselves in the battle before killing themselves.”
The Future of Afghanistan Security: Afghan Commandos
By Marty Skovlund Jr., Task & Purpose: “The near-term goal is to have 4,000 additional troops ready in time for this year’s spring offensive. In order to achieve this, three commando courses will be running concurrently by the end of January, with a total of 2,500 soldiers in training at once.” |
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