Middle East Update Kurdish Forces Take Key District in Kobani Kurdish forces, supported by coalition airstrikes, have seized a key district in the northern Syrian town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), near the Turkish border, according to Kurdish officials and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish forces overtook the security district, including the police headquarters, following clashes with Islamic State fighters that broke out on Sunday night. Kurdish forces say they control about 80 percent of the town, with Islamic State fighters still holding the eastern districts of Maqtala and Kani Kordan. Meanwhile, the Observatory reported a top official in the Islamic State’s self-declared police force was found beheaded in eastern Syria. Iraq A suicide bombing and clashes with Islamic State fighters killed at least 23 Iraqi soldiers and pro-government Sunni militiamen in the town of al-Baghdadi in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Tuesday. The Pentagon reported Monday that U.S. troops have begun training Iraqi military forces at two bases in Iraq, in Anbar and Taji, though training was not expected to begin at bases in Irbil or Besmaya for several more weeks. On Tuesday, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said the Iraqi military has started rebuilding, though he noted, “We are still in the very early steps.” Headlines • A Libyan tribal leader said 13 Egyptian Coptic Christians were held by people smugglers, not abducted, and that they have been freed, however Egypt’s Foreign Ministry denies the report. • Masked gunmen killed two Egyptian policemen guarding a Coptic Christian church in Minya Tuesday, a day ahead of Coptic Christmas celebrations. • The United States and Israel’s president have criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to withhold Palestinian tax revenue meanwhile, as Palestinians have recognized the jurisdiction of the ICC, an Israeli group has filed a war crimes complaint against three Palestinian leaders. • Saudi Arabia cut oil prices to Europe and the United States Monday, but raised prices to Asia. • Turkish Airlines, the last foreign carrier operating in Libya, has suspended flights to the country over security concerns. Arguments and Analysis ‘The Isis economy: Meet the new boss’ (Erika Solomon, The Financial Times) “Isis’s repression and restrictions on media make it difficult to fully portray the group’s administration system, but through a series of more than a dozen interviews with residents, and visits to Isis-ruled areas by a local journalist, the FT found its attempt at state-building has so far failed to win over locals. In some cases they say Isis takes credit for systems in place before it seized power. In others, locals say it is stealing the resources of the region it seeks to rule.” ‘Three remarks on the Tunisian elections’ (Benjamin Preisler, The Washington Post) “Yet, as tentatively shown above, Nidaa Tounes/Essebsi’s electorate is made up of exactly that urban, coastal middle class, which still benefits from subsidy and regulatory rent system of the Ben Ali era. It is far from certain that Essebsi, an 88-year-old stalwart of post-independence Tunisian politics, and his party will have the – suicidal? – political courage to implement the drastic and sudden reforms the World Bank deems necessary in favor of those Tunisians and regions who did not vote for them. Yet, without those reforms the difficult economic situation of far too many Tunisians will not change, contributing to the populace’s political disillusionment as well as the overall sociopolitically volatile climate
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:02:02 +0000
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