CENTRAL COMMAND: CENTCOM & THE LONG WAR - CounterStrikeMedia

High Ranking Terror Commander HIT in Syria, Bret Stephens on How To Resolve syria & More

8/31/2016

The Long War Journal - Intelligence on "The HIT"

Spokesman’s death will have ISIS turning to its deep bench

WSJ: Bret Stephens "The Syrian Solution"

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Obama Rolling Dice on Middle East Again - Washington Post

Rashad al-Kattan writes: Indeed, the Assad regime’s endurance is explained by the steadfast loyalty of the top brass of the Syrian Arab Army and the myriad security and intelligence agencies. Their refusal to abandon the regime’s pursuit of a security solution — despite pleas by peaceful protestors from the early days of the uprising for the army to stand with them — can now be seen as one of the main reasons that ensured this civil war would be a long one. – War on the Rocks

Jennifer Cafarella, Nicholas A. Heras, and Genevieve Casagrande write: The struggle for Aleppo poses an awful threat for the United States. The ongoing battle for what was once Syria’s second-largest city has united two of the most prominent opposition coalitions. Their goal is to defeat Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But there’s one more thing they have in common — neither has ever received significant help from Washington in their joint effort to break a nearly month-long siege of opposition-controlled areas of the city and conquer the rest of it. – Foreign Policy

Taliban Surging In Afghanistan: Info-Graphic Map

8/29/2016

Pakistan has announced that the 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees in the country must leave by Dec. 31 as part of get-tough measures to combat terrorism, fueling fresh fear and uncertainty among families who have spent almost their entire lives in their adopted country. – Los Angeles Times

Afghanistan

The Taliban is close to capturing 10 more districts in Afghanistan, according to TOLO News. Anonymous government officials say districts in Uruzgan, Nangarhar, Sar-e Pol provinces, among others, are at risk of falling to the Islamist insurgent group. Officials say corruption has undermined the Afghan military's ability to respond to rising Taliban threats by interfering with the selection of local commanders. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry decried the interference from "non-military individuals" in the appointment of local military commanders. The Institute for the Study of War has a great new assessmentand map of the fighting in the country.

Hundreds of fighters from the Haqqani network overran a small, 90-man outpost in Paktia province, the New York Times reports. The Haqqani network has played an increasingly influential role within the Taliban as the group's new emir Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada relies on it for the military savvy he lacks. The move by the network in Paktia could foreshadow more dramatic operations in the southeast of Afghanistan.

Forrest: A partial threat assessment of Afghanistan

The Taliban have overrun a border district in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia and inflicted heavy casualties on the Afghan security forces, officials said Saturday, as the insurgent fighters opened a new front in a once-volatile region. – New York Times

Decentralizing the military bureaucracy and teaching Afghan forces to survive without the Western largesse have been a constant challenge. Both encouraged dependence and fostered corruption, which is viewed by many as the single largest obstacle to effective Afghan military performance in the war. – Washington Post

Now, more than 14 years after that brutal fight, in which seven Americans ultimately died, the Air Force says that Chief Slabinski was wrong — and that Sergeant Chapman not only was alive, but also fought on alone for more than an hour after the SEALs had retreated. The Air Force secretary is pushing for a Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award, after new technology used in an examination of videos from aircraft flying overhead helped officials conclude that the sergeant had killed two fighters with Al Qaeda — one in hand-to-hand combat — before dying in an attempt to protect arriving reinforcements. – New York Times

As the Afghan Air Force gets equipped with new fleets of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, American-run aviation school houses managed by industry giant Raytheon are preparing to graduate their largest classes of Afghan aviators to date. – Military.com

Caitlin Forrest writes: The Afghan unity government faces a political crisis because of deadlines in September imposed by the original agreement through which it came to power. If Afghanistan remains on this course, global extremist organizations will reconstitute their sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s ungoverned spaces and pose enduring threats to U.S. national security. – Institute for the Study of War

Afghanistan, Southwest Asia & the long war

8/26/2016

Afghanistan

As cafes, restaurants, and performance centers in Kabul came under attack one after another in recent years, the campus of the American University of Afghanistan remained a rare oasis for some of the country’s brightest young men and women. Beyond providing a quality education, the school offered a glimpse of a carefree life away from the unpredictable violence that afflicted the rest of the capital….That sense of freedom, too, was violated Wednesday night. – New York Times

More than 50 people were wounded in the nine-hour assault, most of them students who were drawn to the promise of a world-class education based on an American model that the university offered. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Despite fierce fighting in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the U.S. military says the Taliban is failing to take and hold any significant territory in recent months. – Washington Examiner

U.S. forces are accompanying Afghan special operations forces on about 10 percent of their missions, the spokesman for the U.S. military effort there said Thursday. – The Hill

The news from Afghanistan lately has been grim…Yet top U.S. officials say the 15-year-old mission to stabilize the poor and fractured country is progressing as well as can be expected. – Military Times

As the war against the Taliban grinds on, Afghan women are still largely treated as property and barely a week goes by without news emerging of a woman or girl being stoned to death, burned with gasoline, beaten or tortured by her in-laws, traded to repay a debt, jailed for running away from a violent husband, or sold into marriage as a child. – Associated Press

South Asia

France and India on Thursday each dismissed security concerns raised by the recent publication of documents involving Scorpene-class submarines currently being constructed in Mumbai by a French naval contractor. – Washington Times

The Indian Navy has expressed concern to French authorities over the reported leakage of data pertaining to the Scorpene submarines being built for India. – Defense News

Pakistan's continued support for resurgent militant groups hostile to the United States, coupled with warming U.S. military and business relations with India, is sharply diminishing Islamabad’s strategic importance as an ally to Washington, U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence officials and outside experts said. - Reuters

Gunmen in Pakistan killed six soldiers and a provincial government official in an ambush on their convoy in the insurgency plagued southwest province of Baluchistan, a senior official in the region said on Friday. - Reuters

Saudi reform & surging F.D.I., The War in Yemen, Low Oil & Regional Islamism

8/25/2016

Zalmay Khalilzad writes: A true change in Saudi Arabia’s policy of supporting Islamist extremists would be a turning point in the effort to defeat them. Given the kingdom’s role, Saudi success can provide a model for the rest of the Sunni Arab and Islamic world on how to pursue reform and succeed. That could, in turn, help launch the reformation that is so badly needed. The region and the world have a stake in Saudi success, and should do what we can to encourage and support them on this new path. - Politico

Saudi Capital Flows

Saudi Reform & Surging Foreign Direct Investment

Arabian Peninsula

Is the world today a more divided, dangerous and violent place because of the cumulative effect of five decades of oil-financed proselytizing from the historical heart of the Muslim world? Or is Saudi Arabia, which has often supported Western-friendly autocrats over Islamists, merely a convenient scapegoat for extremism and terrorism with many complex causes — the United States’s own actions among them? Those questions are deeply contentious, partly because of the contradictory impulses of the Saudi state. – New York Times

For the Obama administration, it was another public reminder of the spiraling violence of a war in which it has played a direct role. American officials have publicly condemned the hospital bombing — and the bombing of a school two days earlier — but the Pentagon has given steady support to the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, with targeting intelligence and fuel for the Saudi planes involved in the air campaign. – New York Times

Who Should Rule Syria, Gas Used & Turkish Offensive Begins

8/23/2016

For Islamic State, the 500-mile border between Syria and Turkey has been the main gateway for arms and foreign fighters entering its self-proclaimed caliphate. Jihadis would fly to Istanbul, Turkey, then travel to remote hamlets in southern Turkey to be smuggled into Syria. But that passageway has now been cut off by Syrian rebels and Turkish-backed Islamic factions that snatched a 54-mile strip of territory Sunday, Turkish officials and rebels said. – Los Angeles Times

Turkish Policy in Syria

CFR - Council Foreign Relations "Pressure Points" Series - US Foreign Policy Aims in Syria

Turkish Operations into Syria: The Long War Journal

CNN Info-Graphic Map on Turkish Offensive

Kyle Orton writes: The failure to punish Assad at the time for the Ghouta chemical massacre has done irreparable harm to one of the few international norms left, contributed beyond calculation to the radicalisation of Syria and the rise of anti-Western sentiments, and the course of events since has underlined the lesson that such criminality pays. It is now widely agreed – even by parts of the Turkish government, probably the most hawkishly anti-Assad – that Assad will to have some role in a "transition". The contrast to the autocrats who were not prepared to kill on this scale and thus fell from power is stark. – International Business Times

The Middle East Forum (MEF)

Turkish military begins major offensive into Syria against ISIS

Kurdish militias took a major step toward full control of a northeast Syrian province on Tuesday, signing a cease-fire with the government that gave them all but a few blocks of the provincial capital. – New York Times

Report: Syria used chlorine in bombs against civilians
US-backed Kurdish forces pull back from Euphrates
WSJ editorial: Turkey moves on Syria

Syrian military helicopters dropped bombs containing chlorine on civilians in at least two attacks over the past two years, a special joint investigation of the United Nations and an international chemical weapons monitor said on Wednesday in a confidential report. – New York Times

Turkey sent tanks, warplanes and special operations forces into northern Syria on Wednesday in its biggest plunge yet into the Syrian conflict, enabling Syrian rebels to capture an important Islamic State stronghold within hours. – New York Times

Kurdish-led forces in Syria have withdrawn to the east of the Euphrates River, American and Turkish officials said Thursday, after Vice President Biden publicly threatened to pull U.S. support if the fighters remained in areas where Turkey says they pose a threat to its national security. – Washington Post

The offensive launched from Turkey against an Islamic State-held town on Syria’s northern border raised the stakes in a deadly power struggle between two U.S.-backed forces—one Arab and one Kurdish—both battling the extremist group. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Life expectancy for men in Syria has declined by five years since the war there began in 2011, a new analysis of mortality data has found, a sudden collapse not seen since the decline that Russian men experienced after the end of the Soviet Union. – New York Times

Pentagon officials said that U.S.-trained Syrian forces helped recapture a strategic border town on Wednesday, highlighting the role of local fighters who received American support in an earlier, ill-fated effort to build up an army against the Islamic State. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint

The U.S. may have killed civilians in an airstrike meant to hit an Islamic State target in Syria this week, the military said on Wednesday. – Washington Examiner

At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria on Thursday as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory, Reuters witnesses said. - Reuters

Syrian rebels who seized Jarablus from Islamic State in a Turkey-backed operation on Wednesday have advanced up to 10 km (6 miles) south of the border town, rebel sources and a group monitoring the war said on Thursday. - Reuters

Defense One: Why Removal of Assad Solves NOTHING

Amid the chaos of Syria’s war, the Kurds have carved out a semiautonomous region called Rojava that is home to about four million people, is as big as Belgium and stretches nearly the full length of the 565-mile border between Syria and Turkey. The emergence of Rojava also has added complexity to a region in turmoil, bringing resistance from outside and dissent from within. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The Price of powerlessness

8/19/2016

Charles Krauthammer: The price of powerlessness

Josh Rogin writes: As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton had a wrongheaded policy on Bahrain and supported the regime while it cracked down on protesters and trampled its own people’s human rights. But that folly had nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation; it was part of the Obama administration’s overall muddled reaction to the Arab Spring. – Washington Post

Three Decades of "The Long War" - Defense One

u.s. strategic fatigue in afghanistan

8/19/2016

AEI

Phillip Lohaus writes: America’s SOF alone are unlikely to be enough to facilitate stability in Afghanistan—that task will fall to the Afghans themselves. SOF affect maximum impact with minimal political downside, but they too have limits. Fortunately, the resources exist to maximize the chances of American SOF’s success. Our leaders just need to get those resources to the right place. – The Cipher Brief

The Saudi Empire Strikes BAck

8/17/2016

Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia used American-made Patriot missile interceptors to shoot down rockets fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen last week, according to a top U.S. military commander. – Defense One

The cost from damage to infrastructure and economic losses in Yemen's civil war is more than $14 billion so far, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters that highlights the effort needed to rebuild the country, where more than half the population is suffering from malnutrition. - Reuters

John Hannah writes: Overcoming the deep mistrust that now plagues the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and that reached its pinnacle with the JCPOA, may well be difficult. But more difficult still would be trying to secure U.S. vital interests in a Middle East in which Saudi Arabia is left adrift, alone, and increasingly desperate. – Foreign Policy’s Shadow Government

bret stephens: judo & anti-semitism

8/16/2016

Bret Stephens writes: So long as an Arab athlete can’t pay his Israeli opposite the courtesy of a handshake, the disease of the Arab mind and the misfortunes of its world will continue. For Israel, this is a pity. For the Arabs, it’s a calamity. The hater always suffers more than the object of his hatred. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

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Gatestone Institute - Abbas & Palestinian State in Free Fall

Iranian Proxy in Saudi heartland: bahrain

8/16/2016

FPI Senior Policy Analyst Tzvi Kahn writes: Washington must increase pressure on Manama to halt its repression of the Shiite majority, and enact meaningful consequences — such as halting further arms sales — if the regime refuses to comply. At the same time, the administration should impose new sanctions on Iran for its regional aggression. In the absence of such steps, the stability of Bahrain will continue to deteriorate, risking a broader conflagration that directly threatens U.S. national interests. – Foreign Policy Initiative

Iranian Proxy War in Bahrain, Encirclement

the long war in afghanistan

8/15/2016

Drone Strike: Hafiz Saeed Khan Taliban Leadership Pakistan

Long War Journal (LWJ) Taliban Offensive

LWJ: Reconciling Multiple Jihadi Proxies in Taliban

LA Times: Afghan Hazara Minority Flees to Iran w/ Strategic Consequences
Nearly all are from Afghanistan’s Hazara minority. As Shiite Muslims, they fled to Iran in hopes that it would be more hospitable than Afghanistan, where they faced religious persecution and the economic hardships of a country racked by war and terrorism. But they wound up embroiled in another war. The Iranian government has relied heavily on the Afghan immigrants, sending them to battle in greater numbers than it does Iranians in the Revolutionary Guard. – Los Angeles Times

Afghanistan

The leader of the Islamic State branch that operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in an American airstrike on July 26 in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Friday. It was the United States military’s second killing of an anti-American Islamist militant leader in the region in the past three months. – New York Times

As Taliban fighters push toward the southern city of Lashkar Gah, members of Afghanistan’s elite forces are trying to hold their ground here, about 10 miles from the city, the capital of Helmand Province and a critical link in the defense of the entire region. – New York Times

Top members of the main Taliban splinter group that broke away last year have reversed course and pledged allegiance to the main group, despite the efforts of the Afghan government to exploit divisions in the insurgency. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Three years later, the young woman, now 24, lives in the United States and does not know when she will go back to Afghanistan. She told her story on the condition that her name not be used because of concern that her family in Afghanistan could be in danger…She is one of a growing number of educated young people who, frustrated by their country’s growing insecurity and lack of job opportunities, have been leaving Afghanistan in record numbers. – Washington Post

Helmand, a Taliban stronghold and the heartland of the lucrative illicit drug trade, is seen as a strategic target for the militants who would win a major psychological victory by capturing the provincial capital. Soldiers at the sharp end of the latest offensive described a battle that pitted increasingly well-armed and disciplined Taliban militants against Afghan special forces backed by U.S. air strikes - Reuters

Taliban insurgents, seeking to force the NATO-led coalition out of Afghanistan and bring in Islamic law, captured a key district in the northern province of Baghlan away after days of fighting, officials said on Monday. - Reuters

The Islamic State group, which has been building a presence in Afghanistan for more than a year, has established a recruitment and training camp in a restive southern province bordering Pakistan, Afghan officials said. – Associated Press

The killing of the Islamic State group's leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan has dealt a major blow to the jihadists, but despite a U.S.-backed scorched earth offensive the regional franchise is far from over, observers said Saturday. - AFP

petraeus: on mosul

8/15/2016

al-Monitor "Iraqi Shia Militia's & the Liberation of Mosul"

Petraeus: Challenge in Mosul will be what happens after

General David Petraeus, USA (Ret.) writes: The process to resolve post-Islamic State issues will be difficult and intense. But having enabled the defeat of the Islamic State and having provided the largest amount of assets to ensure further successes and reconstruction initiatives, the United States, together with its numerous coalition partners, will have considerable influence over the resolution of the issues. It will have to exercise that influence. – Washington Post

How a State Dept plan to stabilize Iraq fell apart

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces say they have completed the operation to retake a string of villages east of the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group, an advance that is part of laying the groundwork ahead of the key battle for Iraq's second-largest city. – Associated Press

Targeting Mosul and Raqqa. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend is stepping into a tough job. On Sunday, he took command of the U.S. war on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, tasked with retaking the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, working with (or around) the Russians in Syria, trying to keep Iraqi and Kurdish forces from pointing their guns at one another, and avoiding aerial dogfights between American and Syrian warplanes over Syria’s crowded skies.

Townsend -- the seventh U.S. general since 2003 to lead troops in Iraq -- told the Washington Post that his plan is to “pick up our pace of operations, our rate of fire if you will, so [Iraqi, Kurdish, and Syrian Arab allies] can posture themselves for the next big step.” He’ll be there for a year, and “it’s my intent to have liberated Mosul and Raqqa and be in a pursuit phase by the end of our tour.”

How the arab world came apart

8/12/2016

NYT magazine: How the Arab World came apart

pakistan: fear of encirclement

8/12/2016

Afghan forces struggle to hold firm against Taliban in south

Pakistan pressed over dual-track terror strategy

The fragile Afghan power-sharing arrangement brokered by the United States sustained a serious blow on Thursday, when the government’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, angrily denounced his governing partner, President Ashraf Ghani, as unfit to govern. – New York Times

Pakistan’s response to a suicide bombing that killed dozens this week reflects an unwillingness to alter policies that enable jihadist groups to operate there, according to critics of Islamabad’s approach on terrorism. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The commander in charge of US forces in Afghanistan has asked India to step up military aid in the Asian country. Gen. John Nicholson's call to action comes as Western sanctions against Russia is leading to a paucity of spares for Russian-made weaponry used by Afghan forces. – Defense News

Pakistan has adopted a much-criticized cyber security law that grants sweeping powers to regulators to block private information they deem illegal. - Reuters

Bangladesh police said on Friday they had arrested five members of a domestic Islamist militant group planning suicide attacks in the capital, Dhaka, as authorities hunted for the mastermind of a deadly assault last month. - Reuters

not ready for mosul & Pentagon considers iron dome for entire u.s. military

8/11/2016

Not Ready for Mosul

ISIS Changing Tactics, Baghdad Must Get Its ACT Together

What the next President Inherits

Pentagon Considers Iron Dome for Entire U.S. Military

pakistan hit again, massive suicide bomber in emergency room

8/10/2016

The Long War Journal

turkey: post coup

8/10/2016

Middle East Forum

the saudi's game plan in yemen is lost; afghan commitment; & how improvisation in libya is the obama doctrine

8/10/2016

Defense One

Defense One: U.S. Fighting Aims in "The Long War"

Defense One: Afghanistan, Its Getting Worse

Defense One: How Improvisation IS THE OBAMA DOCTRINE IN LIBYA

Interview: The Cipher Brief discusses the situation in Afghanistan with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX).

israeli defense minister steps up his game

8/10/2016

Rubin Center Israel

yemen: collapse of u.n. peace talks

8/9/2016

United Nations-brokered peace talks between the Houthis and the government of the ousted president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, collapsed on Saturday after more than three months. A cease-fire was in place for the talks, and despite many violations, it resulted in a significant decrease in coalition airstrikes, especially around major cities like Sana. Sunday’s airstrikes seemed to signal an end to efforts to respect the cease-fire. – New York Times

the army's I.S.R. advances

8/8/2016

“The ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) side will get a lot smarter. With the next generation, you will see UAVs that are faster, more maneuverable and maybe stealthy. You will see them accompanying fighters with extra weapons, EW (electronic warfare), countermeasures and even lasers on board,” Air Force Chief Scientist Greg Zacharias told Scout Warrior in an interview. – Scout Warrior

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) writes: From cyber to the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the civilized world faces formidable security challenges. U.S. leadership is required to meet them, and “A Better Way” offers a blueprint that would serve both parties and the nation well to follow. But more fundamentally, each of those serving and their families must know they and their loved ones are honored and supported above and beyond the politics of the moment. – Real Clear Defense

Rebeccah Heinrichs writes: After years now of bipartisan consensus to fully invest in the triad, bipartisan consensus to move forward with the LRSO and GBSD, after the Obama administration maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity in the Nuclear Posture Review, and when the U.S. Senate is definitely opposed to a test ban treaty, the Obama administration should throw in the towel. It has done enough damage and the clock has all but run out. Any decisions about the country’s nuclear deterrent should belong with the next President. On this, both parties in Congress should agree. – Real Clear Defense

southwest asian news on "the long war"

8/8/2016

Air-strikes Barely Hold Back Taliban: NYT

A gruesome suicide bombing at midday Monday left at least 70 people dead outside a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, most of them lawyers who had rushed there to protest and mourn the earlier killing of a local bar-association leader. – Washington Post

Pakistani lawyers staged a nationwide strike on Tuesday after dozens of colleagues were slain in a suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta. - Reuters

Afghanistan

Islamic State and the Taliban, after more than a year of fierce combat, have forged a patchwork cease-fire across much of eastern Afghanistan that has helped both insurgencies regroup and counter U.S.-backed efforts to dislodge them. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The Islamic State group is circulating photos of potentially sensitive American military equipment and identification cards purportedly confiscated by militants after recent battlefield engagements in Afghanistan. – Military Times

As a member of the male-dominated local Kandahar government, called the provincial council, Sarina Faizy is accustomed to standing out. She comes from the heartland of Pashtun culture, where a woman’s place is hidden and where the Taliban established its rule in 1994 based on the unyielding doctrine of Islamic Sharia law. Women are forbidden to work, to seek an education or to participate in governance and the shaping of their communities. Yet she sits on the government and is outspoken in her fight for equity and peace in her country. – Stars and Stripes

An Afghan official says the crew of a Pakistani helicopter that crashed in a lawless region of Afghanistan is being held by Taliban insurgents. – Associated Press

An elite new Taliban force is proving its strength in the strategic southern province of Helmand, pointing to the insurgents' ability to refine their battlefield techniques to match Afghanistan's increasingly professional national army. – Associated Press

Five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms have abducted an American and an Australian in the Afghan capital, Kabul, a security official said Monday. – Associated Press

South Asia

At least 42 people were killed on Monday in the restive Pakistani city of Quetta when an explosion, apparently caused by a suicide bomber, struck a hospital where dozens of lawyers had gathered to condemn the killing of a prominent colleague. – New York Times

An American citizen previously deported from Pakistan on charges of espionage was arrested Saturday in the Pakistani capital for illegally reentering the country, officials said. – Washington Post

After nearly eight years of waiting, India has signed a $300 million contract with Rosoboronexport of Russia to upgrade 10 Russian-made submarine-hunting helicopters for the Indian Navy, said an Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) official. – Defense News

the russians & aleppo syria

8/8/2016

A coalition of Syrian rebels have broken the siege of Aleppo, creating a route into the besieged city by taking an artillery school held by Assad regime troops and allied militias. The Guardian reports that rebel groups temporarily set aside rounds of infighting to marshal resources for the push to retake the city, which Syrian military forces, backed by Russian airpower and Iranian support on the ground, had managed to encircle. Some analysts, however, fear that Western and particularly American abstention from the attempt to break the siege has handed a political victory to the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's one-time (ahem) franchise in Syria which participated in the fighting.

Offensive by Syrian rebels challenges Assad siege of Aleppo
Military success in Syria gives Putin the upper hand

For the first time since Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Russian military for the past year has been in direct combat with rebel forces trained and supplied by the C.I.A. The American-supplied Afghan fighters prevailed during that Cold War conflict. But this time the outcome — thus far — has been different….Russia’s battlefield successes in Syria have given Moscow, isolated by the West after its annexation of Crimea and other incursions into Ukraine, new leverage in decisions about the future of the Middle East. – New York Times

south asian news "the long war"

8/4/2016

New Taliban Initiatives in Pakistan

New Taliban leader moves to repair old fractures
Taliban’s new commando force tests Afghan army’s strength

Taliban, ISIS forge informal alliance in eastern Afghanistan

The Taliban has a new special operations unit and it's starting to worry Afghan officials in Helmand province. The AP says authorities in Helmand have been noticing commando-like troops appearing among the ranks of the insurgent group as it takes more territory in the province. The Taliban tells the wire service that it has, in fact, created a 300-strong special operations unit called "Sara Khitta" or "Danger Group" in the Pashto language. Afghan officials say the commando troops first achieved success in Sangin, prompting the expansion of the unit.

South Asia

On Thursday, Shahidur Rahman, deputy inspector general of the Dhaka police, confirmed that both were in custody and had been arrested the previous night under a law that allows such action without a warrant. The police previously said the two were suspected of involvement in the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery. – New York Times

Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan have joined China in a military alliance aimed at countering Islamist militancy, officials said. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Pakistan's prime minister said on Friday his government is using "formal and informal channels" to seek the return of seven passengers of a crashed helicopter Pakistani helicopter who were captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan. - Reuters

India

Sadanand Dhume writes: As India continues to integrate itself into the global economy, the search for authentic cultural roots behind the renaming spree is unlikely to subside. But a wise political class will look for a more sensible way to accommodate nativist urges than by simply forcing English speakers to use the same name as the locals. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Derek Scissors writes: The importance of ultimately successful implementation goes beyond the GST. The Modi government finally has its centerpiece reform. If it fizzles out over time in a morass of countervailing actions, Modi’s now sky-high credibility will fade. If GST is blamed for causing inflation or otherwise seen as unsuccessful, India’s desire for reforms to shrink the state and permit greater labor market flexibility will fade. – AEI Ideas

Afghanistan

The Taliban’s new leader is wooing back some disaffected members as the insurgency wages a new offensive in strategic Helmand province, say those close to the group, defying U.S. and Afghan government efforts to undermine it. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

[Karzai] flatly denies that he’s trying to harm the government. But then there’s the hint of a wry smile: “If there are some people running faster, those who are falling behind should not complain.” Following Mr. Karzai through days of meetings — dozens of discussions, and interviews on and off camera — it becomes clear that he is still operating like a man in power. – New York Times

Taliban militants attacked a group of 12 American and European tourists escorted by an Afghan army convoy in western Herat province Thursday, leaving at least seven people wounded as the insurgents step up nationwide attacks. - AFP

T]he explosion did more than take scores of lives, mostly youthful protesters from the “Illumination” crusade, which has been pressing for months to bring electrical power to their long-neglected regions. It also upended the Hazaras’ nonviolent reform movement, once seen as a role model for Afghanistan’s emerging democracy, and further radicalized the long-suppressed, pro-government minority whose younger generation has recently begun flexing its political muscle. – Washington Post

A convoy of a dozen foreign tourists including three Americans was ambushed and attacked by Taliban militants Thursday in a remote region of western Afghanistan, leaving at least six people injured, Afghan officials said. – Washington Post

After more than a year of gridlock, the upper house of India’s parliament approved a contentious overhaul of the country’s convoluted tax system, an important step in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign to modernize Asia’s No. 3 economy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The Pentagon has withheld $300 million in military assistance to Pakistan, U.S. officials said Wednesday, a potential blow to U.S.-Pakistani ties and a sign of ongoing frustration with Islamabad for not acting against militants fueling violence in Afghanistan. – Washington Post

The United States has added the Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ur-Ahrar to its list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions against a faction that has staged multiple attacks on civilians, religious minorities and soldiers. - Reuters

Distributing the alias of a dead jihadi in an all-points bulletin is just one illustration of how Bangladesh authorities have failed to confront the international links of radical Islamist groups in the country. Police and government officials here continue to insist they are facing a home-grown threat -- a "grave error," according to regional experts on militant groups. - Reuters

taking mosul

8/4/2016

The terrorist group held the strategic Mosul Dam for less than two weeks, but the aftershocks and fears are still palpable and have become sources of tension between U.S. authorities and Iraqi overseers of the 32-year-old structure. – Washington Times

Beginning in April, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the White House announced a number of tactics to accelerate the campaign to retake Mosul from ISIS, but few have been implemented, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday. – DOD Buzz

The siege of Mosul is not impenetrable. “The enemy can still bring foreign fighters into Mosul,” Army Col. Christopher Garver, a Defense Department spokesman in Baghdad, said Wednesday. – Military

SECULARISM, NATIONALISM, ISLAMISM: MAKING MODERN MIDDLE EAST
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CHANGING DYNAMICS OF SALAFI JIHADI MOVEMENTS

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - THE ARAB SPRING @ 5
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