Attack Kills Two Saudi Border Guards Near Iraq

A suicide bombing and gun attack killed two border guards, and wounded another, early Monday in Saudi Arabia’s Northern Borders province, near the border with Iraq. Two gunmen shot at the border patrol near Arar, close to Iraq’s western Anbar province. Security forces shot one of the assailants then the other detonated an explosives belt. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Saudi Arabia has joined the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants, and the attack has raised concerns over spillover violence into the kingdom.

Syria

Lebanon is limiting the flow of Syrians into the country, imposing new visa restrictions on Monday. Lebanon is hosting over a million Syrian refugees, putting an increasing strain on the country’s economy. In October, border officials began restricting entry to Syrians, causing a 50 percent decline in people registering with the U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Western-backed Syrian opposition National Coalition elected Khaled Khoja as the new president Sunday, replacing Hadi al-Bahra.

Headlines

• Habib Essid, former interior minister and Ben Ali regime veteran, has been nominated as Tunisia’s prime minister, tasked with forming a new government.
• Israel is withholding the transfer of $127 million in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority following the Palestinians’ move to join the ICC meanwhile President Abbas is discussing resubmitting a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council.
• The Libyan air force bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker at the Libyan port of Derna Sunday killing two crew members, but causing no oil leakage.
• Al Qaeda militants bombed a Houthi office in Yemen’s Dhamar province killing up to six people meanwhile a senior army officer was killed Sunday in the southeastern Shabwa province.
• Gunmen kidnapped 13 Egyptian Coptic Christians in the Libyan city of Sirte Saturday a week after the abduction of seven others.

Arguments and Analysis

‘Hammer and Anvil: How to Defeat ISIS’ (Robert A. Pape, Keven Ruby, and Vincent Bauer, Foreign Affairs)

“A plan to reclaim territory currently held by ISIS in Iraq that has more limited short-term objectives would be less vulnerable to failure. There is a fundamental strategic asymmetry between the situations in Syria and Iraq. In the short term—the next two years—Syria is likely to remain intractable. Whatever local ally works with the United States must fight a two-front war, confronting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and ISIS simultaneously—a task so daunting that it is hardly surprising that the Free Syrian Army has failed at it. In Iraq, by contrast, there are real possibilities for success. Indeed, success in Iraq can serve as a basis for achieving significantly more in Syria in the future.”

‘Europe’s fear of Syria’s ghost boats’ (James Denselow, Al Jazeera)

“The ghost ships represent both a new tactic – using large cargo ships to move people in winter across longer crossing – and a new trend – that of the refugees coming from Syria. Last year some 230,000 people arrived illegally across the Mediterranean into the EU with Italy receiving the lion’s share of 160,000 whilst 3,500 people died trying to make the crossing. The UNHCR explained that in 2014 for the first time, people mainly from Syria ‘have become a major component in this tragic flow, accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total’.

The policy of the EU has largely been one of ‘Fortress Europe’ characterised by the reduction of humanitarian support to sea born refugees and tighter border fences to the east. Whilst Syria’s neighbours have accepted the lion’s share of the over 3 million Syrian refugees Europe’s record remains dismal with a recent summit agreeing on only 33,000 more asylum cases.

EU policy is as adrift as many of the refugees who struggle to survive in the Med. The sudden up tick in refugees attempting to travel from Syria and the high risk ghost ships that are used should prompt a review of both the national polices of EU member states and the supra-national EU policy at large. The conflict in Syria is getting worse with 5,000 Syrians fleeing every day (over three a minute) and 2015 could see the number of refugees top 4 million.”

— Mary Casey-Baker

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