(Al Jazeera) Rhetorical bait and switch enabled Assad to neglect political reform while cultivating support among wealthy elite. Assad was portrayed as an accidental president with no previous political ambitions [Getty Images] In January 2011, citizens across Egypt and Tunisia began demonstrating against their governments. Their calls for change swelled into a collective outrage that, in Tunisia, quickly pushed the… Read more »
(France24) Morocco’s October 7 election has been presented as a showdown between the ruling PJD party and a self-styled party of “modernity”. But on the streets of Casablanca, the country’s largest city, few people can be bothered to vote. Morocco heads to the polls Friday, and yet there is hardly any trace of the looming general election in the sprawling… Read more »
(France 24) French fighter jets took off from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle on Friday for an operation against the Islamic State jihadist organisation (IS) in its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, an officer said. Eight jets took off from the carrier in the eastern Mediterranean, an AFP photographer on the flight deck reported. The Charles de Gaulle is on… Read more »
(BBC) At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a Kurdish wedding in north-eastern Syria. The bomber blew himself up on Monday night at a hall in Tal Tawil, outside Hassakeh city, reportedly while the bride and groom were exchanging vows. There were conflicting reports about whether the groom was among the dead.
(Reuters) About 6,055 migrants were rescued and 22 found dead on the perilous sea route to Europe on Monday, one of the highest numbers in a single day, Italian and Libyan officials said. Italy’s coastguard said at least nine migrants had died and a pregnant woman and a child had been taken by helicopter to a hospital on the Italian… Read more »
(Reuters) The health system in the Libyan city of Sirte has collapsed and thousands of residents are facing shortages of food and medicine as pro-government forces battle to seize control of the coastal city from Islamic State, a medical charity said on Tuesday. Over the past two days, forces led by brigades from Misrata have pressed further into Sirte’s neighborhood… Read more »
(New York Times) An array of groups allied with the Syrian government pressed an assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Friday, as the World Health Organization said heavy bombardment of the area by Russia and Syria had killed 338 people in the last week, including more than 100 children. With more of the city’s already limited hospitals destroyed in the latest… Read more »
(Reuters) The Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it had deployed an S-300 missile system to its Tartus naval base in Syria. “The missile battery is intended to ensure the safety of the naval base … It is unclear why the deployment of the S-300 caused such alarm among our Western partners,” the ministry said in a statement. U.S. media… Read more »
(Fox News) ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is at death’s door after being poisoned by a mystery assassin in Iraq, it has been reported. Three other senior jihadis were also afflicted by the toxin in Al-Ba’aj, southwest of Mosul – Islamic State’s biggest city in Iraq. The four have reportedly been rushed for treatment at a secret location.
(New York Times) Shimon Peres, one of the last surviving pillars of Israel’s founding generation, who did more than anyone to build up his country’s formidable military might, then worked as hard to establish a lasting peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors, died on Wednesday in a Tel Aviv area hospital. He was 93. His death was announced by his son… Read more »