This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.
A bus carrying members of the presidential guard was targeted with a suicide attack in Tunis, killing at least 12. The Islamic State has claimed it.
Algeria’s former long-time counter-espionage chief, Abdelkader Ait Ouarabi, is now on trial for “destruction of documents” and “breach of orders.”
Two arrests have been made over the Mali hotel attack. The Al Qaeda group Al Murabitoon has laid claim to the attack.
Germany will send 650 troops to Mali for the peacekeeping mission.
The analysts at Long War Journal reject Secretary Kerry’s claim that Al Qaeda’s top leadership has been “neutralized.”
The 2015 Global Terrorism Index from the Institute for Economics and Peace highlights the highly concentrated geography of terrorism.
An African regional bloc has pulled out of Burundi over security fears.
Burundi has suspended 10 civil society groups, accusing them of fueling violence.
Boko Haram killed 18 in an attack on a village in Niger’s southern border area with Nigeria.
Authorities in Niger arrested five journalists.
The UN says that a million of the children living in the Central African Republic are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The Islamic State’s branch in the Sinai bombed a hotel, killing four.
The Washington Post gives a look into the “medieval reality show” that is the Islamic State’s propaganda machine, where “[b]attle scenes and public beheadings are so scripted and staged that fighters and executioners often perform multiple takes and read their lines from cue cards.”
Three Syrian women who escaped the Islamic State recount their experience as members of the group’s morality police.
The US is using banking records to choose their targets against the Islamic State, aiming to wipe out sources of financial revenue for the terror group.
Germany has joined the coalition fighting the Islamic State.
Somali group Al Shabaab have claimed attacks in northeastern Kenya.
Two Turkish journalists have been jailed for their reporting on Turkey’s arms smuggling to Syria, and have been charged with espionage and aiding an armed group.
Turkey has scrapped a deal with a Chinese firm for long-range missile defense architecture.
Russia is going to impose import sanctions on Turkey, following the downing of their fighter jet, and will also cancel major investment projects. These tensions put Central Asia in a difficult position.
Putin signaled that Russia is ready to coordinate airstrikes against the Islamic State with the United States and others. The US and Russia, however, do not have a great deal in common when it comes to Syria.
RIA Novosti, a state-run Russian news agency, reports that Russia’s S-400 long-range missile defense systems are already in place inside Syria.
The Jaysh al Fateh coalition (which includes radical groups Ahrar al Sham and Al Nusra Front) has launched a counter-offensive in Aleppo.
Hezbollah says it killed an Islamic State operative responsible for orchestrating the recent attacks in Beirut, which killed 43.
VIDEO: Forensic architects collect evidence of war crimes in Gaza.
Israel successfully tested the Barak-8 missile defense system.
Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank has become a symbol and site of ongoing violence.
Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, struggles under the weight of a months-long Houthi siege.
The UAE is sending Colombian mercenaries into the fight in Yemen.
Iran sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to an unspecified prison sentence for espionage.
A US military investigation concluded that the crew of the AC-130 gunship that bombarded the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz mistook it for another building and military procedure failed to correct the error.
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is looking for a comeback.
In two districts in Helmand, the Afghan Taliban have put on a rare show of cooperation and allowed the government to reopen schools.
Food prices have increased as fighting has disrupted farming in Afghanistan’s breadbasket. “While retreating, the Taliban mined our fields with IEDs. The crop is ready for harvest but we cannot touch one fruit or vegetable.”
Haroon Bhatti, the founder of Pakistani terror group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, was killed while in police custody – reportedly while acting as an informant. The group’s former leader, Malik Ishaq, also died in police custody in July.
A remote-controlled bomb attack unsuccessfully targeted Pakistan’s federal minister for housing and works in northwestern Pakistan.
Gunmen struck a Shiite mosque in Bangladesh Thursday night.
Russia will help Cambodia build a nuclear power plant.
The U.N. human rights investigator on North Korea has said that Russia’s extradition pact with Pyongyang could have serious repercussions for defectors.
The Chinese air force held drills in the West Pacific.
The trade war between Russia and Ukraine is expanding.
2 million Crimeans were left without power after saboteurs attacked power lines. Here, residents describe life in the blackout.
Many of Russia’s (millions of) Muslims see the Russian intervention specifically as a war on Islam.
Moldovan police detained 13 members of a suspected paramilitary group allegedly planning to attack two cities, including the capital, and establish a breakaway separatist republic.
France’s far right capitalizes on the country’s heightened fear of terrorism.
The debate over Syrian refugees strikes a personal chord with Japanese-Americans.
Four former US drone operators are speaking out against the program, discussing civilian deaths, kill-driven mentality among operators and PTSD.
A federal appeals court ruled that the DOJ can continue to keep internal documents about targeted killing a secret.
The Guardian gained access to one of FARC’s remaining rebel cells, holed up in the Colombian jungle as a five decade revolution comes to an end.
And don’t forget to sign the Committee to Protect Journalists’ petition to the Turkish government to release Iraqi journalist Mohammed Rasool, imprisoned since August without charge.
Photo: Ramallah, West Bank. A Palestinian protester uses a sling during clashes with Israeli troops. Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP.
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