Militants Storm Hotel in Mali, Take Hostages

Ten gunmen in Bamako, the capital of Mali, have attacked a hotel that was being used by U.N. officials managing peace talks in the country. The city has also been a logistical hub for French efforts to assist the Malian military since the French intervention there after much of the country came under jihadist control in 2012. At least 153 people are being held hostage, though some have escaped and others were reportedly released after demonstrating they could recite the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith. No groups have claimed credit for the attack yet. At least four people have been killed, including three Malian civilians and a Belgian security officer. Malian security forces have surrounded the hotel but the standoff is ongoing at this time.

Two Attacks Leave Five Dead in Israel and West Bank

Five people were killed in one of the deadliest days of the recent spate of violence in Israel and the West Bank. Two Israeli men were stabbed to death by a Palestinian man in Tel Aviv, and three others — an Israeli, a Palestinian, and an American college student — were killed in a separate attack in Gush Etzion in the West Bank when a man opened fired on traffic before driving into pedestrians. Israeli defense officials have increased security in the area and are limiting Palestinians’ movement in response.

Headlines

• French officials have confirmed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian man who planned the Paris attacks, was killed in a police raid in the Paris neighborhood of Saint-Denis on Wednesday; last night, a third body, identified as Abaaoud’s cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, who detonated a bomb during the raid, was found in rubble at the apartment.

• Fifteen Yemeni soldiers and 14 al-Qaeda militants were left dead after al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula attacked a Yemeni army position in Hadramawt province, north of Mukalla; clashes near the base are reportedly ongoing.

• Three U.S. citizens being detained for at least the past two months by Houthi rebels in Sanaa, Yemen, were released and flown to Oman.

• The Chinese government said it “will resolutely oppose all forms of terrorism, and resolutely strike at any violent terrorist criminal activities that defy the bottom lines of human culture” and promised “justice” after the Islamic State claimed to have executed a Chinese hostage.

• The Saudi government will host a conference in mid-December to try to unify Syrian rebel groups ahead of a new round of international peace talks on Syria set to begin in January.

Arguments and Analysis

“The Paris Attacks, Refugees, and the Brutal Fiction of Borders” (Molly Crabapple, Vice)

“The person who gave me his book is the holder of a bad passport. Even before a civil war consumed his country, people with its passport required visas to go nearly anywhere. Now they crowd on rubber rafts tossed by the waves between Izmir and Lesbos. Those who survive the passage will trudge through half the European continent to gain asylum. They don’t travel this way because they’re broke — smugglers fees start at $1,000. They do it because wealthy countries have banned them from buying plane tickets. Words don’t need visas, but humans do. After my friend gave me the book, he took me to the Istanbul airport. While we waited for my flight, we compared our passports. They were both cheap leatherette, stamped in gold. But mine gave me the gift of movement. His did not. Citizenship is our most loaded form of fiction. Our nationalities are invented, nothing but marks on a page, but they can determine who is free and who is not. Or who dies and who gets to live.”

“Overconfidence and the War in Syria” (Dominic Johnson, Political Violence at a Glance)

“However, wars are unpredictable. This is especially so in the case of Syria, with multiple non-state armed groups interacting with each other, multiple foreign state actors, and no legitimate government. Even the vast asymmetry in power between the international coalition and IS does not make the outcome predictable: powerful states have often lost wars against much weaker foes, from the United States in Vietnam, to Russia in Afghanistan, to the British Empire in the American colonies. If they have the right strategy and motivation, the weak can win, and this is a trend that has increased over time. There is, however, one thing that is predictable about war: overconfidence. Even if the outcome of war cannot be known in advance, the historical record shows a remarkable empirical regularity in that politicians, military leaders, and the public on both sides tend to believe they will win, with astounding repetitiveness. Nations around the world and over the centuries have repeatedly underestimated their enemies, overestimated their own capabilities, and exaggerated their ability to control what are inherently unpredictable events. Notably, the bias becomes stronger once we decide we must fight (which is now), and enter an implemental rather than a deliberative mindset.”

-J. Dana Stuster

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