By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian Kurds and the British based Syrian Observatory said Monday that Turkish tanks had shelled the village of Zur Maghar near Kobani on the Syrian side of the border held by the YPG [People’s Protection Unit] leftist Kurdish militia. Four of its fighters were wounded. The […]
Top Six Signs ISIL/ Daesh is Doomed
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been over a year since Mosul fell to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). In some ways the organization has continued to make advances since then, taking Ramadi and Palmyra in the past few months. It isn’t as important as FBI director James Comey says it is, […]
Turkey’s new “war on terror” mainly targeting Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – What was at first announced as a new Turkish turn toward attacks on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Friday has quickly become largely a campaign against Kurds instead. It is being alleged that the Turkish Air Force launched dozens of strikes against bases of the Kurdistan Workers […]
Obama in Kenya: Why the Horn of Africa Matters to Geopolitics
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama’s visit to Kenya is of course personal, though he has been there before both as a civilian and as a senator. But it does also have a geopolitical and economic dimension. Kenya is a country of roughly 46 million people, about the same as […]
Turkey enters war on ISIL w/ airstrikes: Does AKP Fear losing Snap Election?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey at long last entered the struggle against Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) on Thursday. It gave the US Air Force permission to bomb sites in Syria from Incirlik Air Force Base. (The US has long had use of this base as part of Turkey’s NATO commitments, and […]
Actually, Oldest Qur’ans are in Sanaa, Yemen & in Danger of Saudi Bombing
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The discovery of a couple pages [apparently actually 18] of a very old Qur’an (the Muslim scripture), probably from the 640s CE [“AD”], in a library in Britain, has provoked a good deal of press reporting. Muslim tradition holds that the scripture was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad […]
Are Arab Oil Monarchies divided over Iran Deal?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In recent years it has faced severe internal divisions, especially a Saudi-Qatar split over the Muslim Brotherhood, which Riyadh wanted to crush but which Qatar generally has supported. After […]
Terrorist kills 31 at Socialist Rally for Kobane in Turkey
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – According to Alarabiya, on Monday a young woman aged 18 detonated a suicide bomb belt at a socialist youth rally in Suruç, Turkey, just ten miles from the border with Syria. Some three hundred members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associates were on a summer […]
Iraqi Government halts al-Anbar Campaign over Sectarian Fears, US Pressure
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Kuwaiti press (al-Siyasah) is alleging that the Iraqi government, under American pressure, has hit the pause button on its campaign to take al-Anbar Province back from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). The report was also carried by 24.ae in the United Arab Emirates. A source in the […]
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