This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.
- Syrian forces are making advances on rebel-held Homs.
- Bashar al-Assad made a rare public appearance.
- J. Malcolm Garcia has a touching essay on Syria’s child refugees living in Turkey in Guernica.
- Syrian PM Wael Nader al-Halki survived an apparent assassination attempt.
- The Obama administration continues to weigh its options following intelligence that offered evidence that Assad’s forces may have deployed sarin gas.
- An Israeli rocket killed a Gazan soon after an Israeli civilian was stabbed to death in the West Bank.
- Egypt walked out of nuclear talks in Geneva, accusing other nations of not moving quickly enough.
- Saif al-Islam al-Gaddhafi appeared in court in Zintan for the second time.
- Armed men seized Libya’s justice ministry.
- A coup attempt against Chad’s president Idriss Deby was foiled.
- According to a new study, 260,000 people died between 2010 and 2012 in the Somali famine.
- The Nigerian army’s tactics in their war against Islamist insurgents has come under serious scrutiny following word of a horrifying massacre in the village of Baga, where as many as 200 civilians lost their lives when Nigerian soldiers torched homes and gunned down fleeing residents.
- Inside the PKK’s headquarters in Northern Iraq.
- On Monday 25 people were killed and many more wounded in a series of car bombings in Shi’ite areas in Iraq. At least 15 people were killed in a series of blasts in Iraq on Wednesday.
- The Taliban killed a senior member of Afghanistan’s peace council on Wednesday.
- Pakistani troops and Afghan police clashed on Wednesday, exchanging fire over the border which left one Afghan policeman dead.
- A Pakistani court banned former leader Pervez Musharraf from ever again holding public office in Pakistan.
- Bolivian president Evo Morales expelled USAID as a reaction to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s remark about Latin America being Washington’s “backyard.”
- South Korean-born US citizen Kenneth Bae was sentenced in North Korea to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state.
- 100 prisoners (out of 166) are currently on hunger strike in Guantánamo.
- The New York Times’ Room for Debate series hosts a discussion on the ethics of force-feeding in light of the Guantánamo hunger strike.
- John Bellinger, the lawyer who first drew up the White House drone policy under Bush, has said that the Obama administration has turned to targeted assassination so they don’t have to deal with detaining more suspects in Guantánamo.
- Four policies under the Obama administration that participate in keeping Guantánamo Bay open.
- PBS Frontline’s Top Secret America traces the war on terror from 9/11 to the Boston bombings.
- Azmat Khan looks more closely at the magazine that gave the Tsarnaev brothers information on how to build bombs.
- Three friends of Dzokhar Tsarnaev have been arrested for their obstructionism and actions after the bombing.
- According to Freedom House, the percent of the global population living in a country with a free press is at its lowest level in sixteen years.
- The Independent launches a new online section: Voices in Danger - to cover attacks on and harassment of journalists around the world.
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Photo: Otaybah, Syria. Near Damascus. A photo released by the official Syrian News Agency, SANA, shows the damage to the town after weeks of fighting. SANA/AP.