Russia Bombs Islamic State in Coordination with France

After announcing that the Oct. 31 Metrojet crash in the Sinai was caused by a bomb, Russia has begun bombing Islamic State targets in Syria in coordination with France. Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone and agreed to coordinate airstrikes; the two leaders will meet in Moscow later this month. At least 25 long-range bombers took part in the strikes yesterday, as well as cruise missiles. Russian officials notified the United States in advance of the strikes, marking the first time that the United States and Russia have used the deconfliction protocol agreed to in October. Russia claimed it targeted command centers where the Islamic State coordinates operation in Idlib and Aleppo — regions that were also struck in cruise missile strikes — though the Islamic State does not operate in these areas.

Kurds Control Sinjar after Islamic State Retreat

Kurdish forces are in complete control of the town of Sinjar; they began their offensive to recapture the town last week. Many Islamic State fighters may have withdrawn from the city during a lull in the air campaign, though military sources say that airstrikes and Kurdish forces are believed to have killed several hundred fighters. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani yesterday about the recent victory. “The two leaders noted that this operation is part of a concerted campaign to increase pressure on (Islamic State) in its heartland and disrupt supply routes between Mosul and Raqqa,” according to a readout of the call. Kurdish forces backed by U.S. air support were assisted by U.S. military personnel overseeing and advising the operation from a nearby hill, away from the front lines, according to the U.S. military.

New from FP: In this week’s Global Thinkers podcast, FP Global Thinkers Erica Chenoweth and David Scheffer debate when — if ever — social and political movements should turn to armed insurgency. Check it out on iTunes, along with FP’s other podcasts, here: http://atfp.co/1ljqfAp

Headlines

• French police raided an apartment believed to be a hideout for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is believed to have planned the Paris attacks; a woman at the apartment detonated a bomb and two suspects were killed during the raid, three others were arrested. Police have not identified if one of them is Abaaoud.

• On Sunday, Iran’s minister of intelligence warned that the Paris attacks “are a serious warning to us that needs the consideration of specialists.”

• The Russian press, citing someone close to the investigation of the downed Metrojet that crashed in the Sinai on Oct. 31, is reporting that the bomb was placed in the passenger cabin, not in the cargo hold.

• The hacking collective Anonymous says that they have taken 5,500 Twitter accounts associated with the Islamic State since launching “#OpParis” on Saturday in response to the Paris attacks.

• A Spanish court has reopened a case brought against Israeli government officials after the deaths of several activists in a 2010 Gaza flotilla and issued arrest warrants for seven people, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; an Israeli official dismissed the warrant as a “provocation.”

Arguments and Analysis

“The U.S. plan to counter Russia in Syria” (Jeremy Shapiro and Laura Daniels, Order from Chaos)

“Inside Syria, the United States has quietly countered the Russian buildup to keep Russia from any major gains on the ground that could translate into leverage at the negotiating table. Indeed, it is remarkable, after over a month of sustained Russian air strikes and ground offensives by the regime and its allies, just how little ground has been gained and how little the military balance has changed. In very little time, the sense of impending regime victory provided by Russia’s dramatic moves has evaporated and the prospect of a quagmire looms. The inertia on the ground has in no small part resulted from a clear counter-escalation. According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States and allies such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have funneled arms into Syria in increasing quantities. Most important has been the dramatic increase in BGM-71 TOW (anti-tank) missiles. According to our colleague Charles Lister, there has been a nearly 850 percent rise in their use since the Russian intervention and they continue to be replenished. Commanders on the ground attest that TOWs have proven critical in blunting Russian-supported offensives. Many of the TOW missiles are probably provided by Saudi Arabia and other countries. But, as The New York Times notes, all of these states need at least tacit U.S. approval to ship such weapons to Syria.”

“This is the group that’s surprisingly prone to violent extremism” (Henry Farrell, Monkey Cage)

“Gambetta and Hertog speculate that engineers combine these political predilections with a marked preference towards finding clearcut answers. This preference has affinities with the clear answer that radical Islamist groups propose for dealing with the complexities of modernity: Get rid of it. They quote the famous right-wing economist Friedrich von Hayek, who argues that people with engineering training ‘react violently against the deficiencies of their education and develop a passion for imposing on society the order which they are unable to detect by the means with which they are familiar.’ Gambetta and Hertog suggest that this mindset combines with frustrated expectations in many Middle Eastern and North African countries, and among many migrant populations, where people with engineering backgrounds have difficulty in realizing their ambitions for good and socially valued jobs.”

-J. Dana Stuster

-/AFP/Getty Images