TOP OF THE AGENDA
New Islamic State Video Depicts Peshmerga Beheadings
The self-declared Islamic State published (Rudaw)
a new video purportedly showing the beheadings of three Kurdish
peshmerga fighters in Iraq. Militants in the video also threatened to
kill dozens of other captives. Kurdish fighters have been successful in
mounting offensives against the Islamic State and retaking
militant-controlled territory. More than one thousand peshmerga
personnel have died in combat (Reuters) against the Islamic State since last summer. Meanwhile, the Islamic State claimed (Al Jazeera) responsibility for Wednesday's
deadly attack in Tunis that left twenty-three people dead. The gunmen
who carried out the attack at the National Bardo Museum are believed to
have trained in neighboring Libya.
TOP OF THE AGENDA
New Islamic State Video Depicts Peshmerga Beheadings
The self-declared Islamic State published (Rudaw)
a new video purportedly showing the beheadings of three Kurdish
peshmerga fighters in Iraq. Militants in the video also threatened to
kill dozens of other captives. Kurdish fighters have been successful in
mounting offensives against the Islamic State and retaking
militant-controlled territory. More than one thousand peshmerga
personnel have died in combat (Reuters) against the Islamic State since last summer. Meanwhile, the Islamic State claimed (Al Jazeera) responsibility for Wednesday's
deadly attack in Tunis that left twenty-three people dead. The gunmen
who carried out the attack at the National Bardo Museum are believed to
have trained in neighboring Libya.
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ANALYSIS
"As much as Islamic State is a cause of chaos
in the Middle East, it is also a symptom. Its ideology feeds off
Sunnis’ sense of victimhood. The group has taken root across the region,
and especially where the state has collapsed. Defeating it is
ultimately a matter of rebuilding governments in the Arab world—a task
that will take decades. Cutting back the caliphate is just the vital
first step," writes the Economist.
"Effectively ceding the war
against the Islamic State to Iran is a mistake that will make Iran the
Mid-East’s de facto hegemon and virtually ensure a regional Sunni-Shiite
conflict zone with global impact. It will ensure a partition of Iraq
that will precipitate a war over the nation’s resources between the
Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite rump States," writes retired Colonel Gary
Anderson in Foreign Policy.
"Tunisia has been the biggest contributor
of foreign jihadists to the war in Syria and Iraq; many of these
fighters joined ISIS, and the Tunisian government has acknowledged that
hundreds of them have returned home. In 2013, two leftist politicians
were assassinated by radical Islamist militants, provoking domestic
political crises. Since then, militias have been battling for control of
neighboring Libya, causing cross-border arms trafficking to flourish,"
writes Mischa Benoit-Lavelle in the New Yorker.
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