(6/17/14) News and Analysis

ISIS pushes towards Baghdad, but “[t]he Times questions the authenticity of the ‘massacre’ images circulating online…Its deputy picture editor Elizabeth Orcutt cautions that the pictures look too high-quality, too composed and are unusual for being shot by a stills camera rather than on video” …

… and public figures pile onto Tony Blair for call for more military intervention and his denial that his policies lead to the current crisis …

… and President Obama, who “never thought the US should be there in the first place” is urgently deploying several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq and considering sending an additional contingent of special forces soldiers as Baghdad struggles to repel a rampant insurgency …

… but “where are the interventions that have gone well? Recent examples aren’t encouraging”:

“This may be called the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act…. It will debar unilateral triple talaq, discourage polygamy and establish women as natural guardian of kids. Marriage, maintenance and divorce will take place on principles laid down by the Quran” — Noorjahan Safia Niaz, BMMA founder:

“The riots … followed a protest march by a hard-line Buddhist group …which is led in part by monks. Its name roughly translates as Buddhist Power Force. Shops and homes in the area, many of them owned by Muslims, were set ablaze and vandalized in violence that continued throughout the night”:

“Somali-linked Islamist militants have killed at least eight people in a second night of attacks on Kenya‘s coast, after a raid on the town of Mpeketoni left at least 50 dead, the Kenya Red Cross and the Somali rebel group have said”:

“Fresh clashes broke out in Benghazi on Sunday after a rogue general launched a fresh assault on Islamist militants…. The clashes on Sunday were said to have been some of the worst since Gen Haftar began his offensive against Islamists, dubbed ‘Operation Dignity,’ in May”:

“What began as a session purportedly about “unanswered questions” surrounding the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya deteriorated into the ugly taunting of a woman in the room who wore an Islamic head covering”:

“The Kurdish forces, or Peshmerga, spent years co-existing uneasily with the Iraqi army, but many government troops abandoned their posts when the ISIS-led insurgency moved in. Peshmerga forces are now solely in charge of security in the region”:

 


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