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.
- Al-Shabaab massacred 36 non-Muslim quarry workers in Kenya.
- The International Criminal Court has set a deadline for prosecutors in the case against Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
- Kenyan police say they have cracked a cybercrime center run by Chinese nationals in Nairobi.
- The US has warned South Sudan that sanctions may be on their way for those threatening peace in the new country.
- France’s commander in the Central African Republic, Gen. Éric Bellot des Minières, says security is improving.
- Egypt’s public prosecutor is appealing the verdict clearing former president Hosni Mubarak of the killing of protesters in 2011.
- A judge sentenced 185 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for an attack on a Cairo police station last year.
- ISIS is reportedly setting up training camps in Libya.
- Activists say that ISIS is now attacking Syria from positions inside Turkey — a claim denied by the Turkish government.
- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has threatened the lifeof hostage American photographer Luke Somers in a recent video. Somers has been held in Yemen for over a year, and a recent American rescue mission failed to retrieve him.
- Saudi Arabia has suspended aid to Yemen.
- The Iranian air force bombed ISIS targets in Iraq.
- What has driven hundreds of young Germans to join the Islamic State?
- 12 reporters from DIE ZEIT and German public television news magazine report München investigated the Islamic State’s finances and found the group wealthy but the caliphate’s economy poorly managed and failing.
- A new Brookings report profiles the Islamic State.
- A French charity is suspected of being a front for financing Syrian terrorism.
- The Syrian war’s death toll now tops 200,000.
- The World Food Program has had to suspend aid to 1.7 million Syrian refugees as a result of a funding crisis.
- Syrian rebels trained by the US will undergo rigorous screening — stress tests, psychological evaluations, background checks and biometric data collection.
- The UN has begun an investigation of Israeli strikes that hit UN facilities in Gaza this summer.
- Israel will conduct early elections.
- Lebanon detained the wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
- A corruption investigation revealed the Iraqi army had 50,000 “ghost soldiers” on its payroll. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi fired 24 senior Interior Ministry officials as a result.
- Air Force pilot Captain William Dubois has been named as the third American to die in Operation Inherent Resolve. He was killed when his F-16 crashed as a result of maintenance problems.
- US airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan over the past two weeks have been aimed at the senior leadership of the Pakistani Taliban.
- Kabul’s police chief, General Zahir Zahir, has resigned his post with no public explanation. His resignation comes after an upsurge in Taliban attacks in the capital.
- A new International Criminal Court prosecutor’s reportpushes the court closer to a legal confrontation with the United States over the war in Afghanistan.
- Maoists killed 13 members of India’s Central Reserve Police Force in Chhattisgarh on Monday.
- The Ukrainian military and separatist rebels have agreedto a temporary truce at the Donetsk airport.
- NATO is struggling to set up a rapid reaction force to deal with Russia.
- Militants and government forces clashed in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The gun battle left 20 dead.
- Russia admits that it is headed toward a recession.
- Kalashnikov — the Russian gun manufacturer — gets a brand overhaul.
- WIRED interviews the Russian dark web drug lord known online as Darkside.
- A report from the Center for New American Security looks at Chinese cybersecurity strategy.
- “By accident and by design, mortars mostly kill civilians.” A new report from Action on Armed Violence examines the data on the impact of manufactured explosive weapons — calling mortars the worst of them. 92% of their casualties are civilian.
- A look at the militarization of police around the world.
- The next US secretary of defense will be Ashton Carter.
- The US Army is recognizing the real names of two transgender veterans and has changed the gender status on their discharge documents, which will allow them to receive their benefits.
- Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism has renamed their Medill Medal for Courage after James Foley. The medal, awarded to a journalist every year for courage in pursuit of a story, was awarded to Matthieu Aikins this year.
- Inside the debate over the release of the CIA torture report.
- The House passed the FY2015 defense authorization bill. It goes to the Senate next week. Here are some key provisions.
