Kurdish Forces Drive Islamic State Militants From Kobani

Kurdish forces have claimed victory over Islamic State militants in the northern Syrian town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) after over four months of fighting. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had taken control of the town, near the Turkish border, after expelling Islamic State militants, with the help of Iraqi Kurdish forces and U.S.-led airstrikes. However, the U.S. Central Command said the battle was not yet over, stating that anti-Islamic State forces controlled about 90 percent of Kobani. Islamic State fighters reportedly remain in some areas in the south and east. The fighting has killed at least 1,600 people, according to the Observatory, including 1,196 militants. Meanwhile, the CIA has recently halted assistance to all but a few “trusted commanders” in Syria due to failures in its program to arm moderate rebels.

Iraq

A FlyDubai commercial jet from the United Arab Emirates carrying 154 passengers was hit by small arms fire Monday as it landed at Baghdad International Airport, lightly injuring at least one person. The attack has increased concerns that Iraq’s airports are vulnerable, and prompted several airlines to suspend flights to the Iraqi capital.

Headlines

• Gunmen attacked a luxury hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing three guards and taking hostages, and a car bomb exploded outside shortly afterward.
• A U.S. drone strike Monday killed three suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen meanwhile the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa has reduced staff and closed to the public.
• The Israeli military reported at least two rockets launched from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Tuesday, and Israel returned fire.
• U.S. President Barack Obama, along with a bipartisan delegation of current and former U.S. officials, arrived in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to meet with the new King Salman.

Arguments and Analysis

‘Requiem for Yemen’s Revolution’ (Laura Kasinof, The Atlantic)

“Yemen’s central government has never been strong or exercised full control over the country. Sheikhs, or tribal leaders, fill that void, as they’ve done for centuries, by arbitrating disputes, providing essential services like water, and enforcing customary law. Saleh had kept some semblance of control over the nation by pitting the sheikhs who could threaten his authority against one another, while making alliances with local leaders through an intricate patronage system. For decades, Saleh exhibited a genius for staying in power, but his style of rule never addressed Yemen’s fundamental problems, including poverty, conflicts over water resources, and a lack of basic services and education. He ignited resentment that flared into violence. Even before the Arab Spring, Western writers wondered whether Yemen was ‘the next Afghanistan’ and pronounced it ‘on the brink of chaos.’

It was in this context that the Houthi movement, which had been engaged in a recurring war with government forces since 2004, was gathering strength in Saada, a province in Yemen’s far north. Theirs was a Shiite revivalist movement; Saleh alleged that the Houthis wanted to topple his regime and restore the imamate, the monarchy-style system of religious rule that had governed parts of the country for centuries. Yet in reality the Houthis’ political aims have always been murky, and they remain so even now, when it seems that their only clear aim in seizing Sanaa was to prevent Hadi from creating a federal system that could threaten their power.”

‘An Open Letter to the New Saudi King’ (Anonymous, Politico)

“Let us begin with your appointment of Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef as second in line for the throne, after the 69-year-old Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz. Since King Abdullah’s health began to fail in 2010, Bin Nayef, now a relatively young 55, has grown in power. And in his capacity as minister of interior, which gives him control of Saudi Arabia’s law enforcement, courts and prisons, he has given us a glimpse of a future kingdom under his rule: a police state reminiscent of Bashar Assad’s Syria and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The more that King Abdullah’s health declined and the more frequent his treatments abroad became, the higher the number of people being threatened and imprisoned by the Ministry of Interior grew.”

‘The news website that’s keeping press freedom alive in Egypt’ (Leslie T Chang, The Guardian)

“Mada Masr would be an independent online newspaper, owned by employees whose average age was 25, in a country where news production was controlled by the government or large conglomerates. It would produce stories, in English and Arabic, and make money from online advertising and side businesses in research, editing and translation. The company would be run as a democracy – in a country that had never seen such a system, by employees who, by and large, had not experienced it in practice. Egypt was ostensibly on a parallel course of building a democratic and sustainable state; both ventures were perilous, fraught with uncertainty, and short of money. In the year and a half to come, Mada’s goals would prove more daunting than its founders imagined. A military coup, set into motion three days after the website launched, would lead to the ruthless suppression of dissenting voices. Mada would emerge as one of the very few independent news sources in the country.”

— Mary Casey-Baker

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