Belgium’s operations against ISIS, codenamed Operation Desert Falcon, began in late August 2014 with humanitarian supply missions flying from Melsbroek, Belgium to Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. The aircraft, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the 15th Wing (Belgian Air Component), was loaded with flour, rice, sugar, pasta, clothing, and medicine, and flew from Melsbroek to an airport […]
International Solidarity: The Case for Supporting Rojava, Part 4 Flags of the Syrian government, Rojava/Federation of Northern Syria, the Syrian opposition, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Continued from Parts 1, 2, and 3) Over five years ago an uprising in Dara’a, Southern Syria, set into motion the events that would eventually culminate in the […]
ISIS in Iraq as of June 3rd, 2016 While most Americans were preoccupied with holiday celebrations in late December 2015, a battle was raging for control of the city of Ramadi, Iraq. Ramadi had been captured by Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) in mid-May of 2015 and went relatively uncontested until late November of that year. In the […]
International Solidarity: The Case for Supporting Rojava, Part 2 Flags of the Syrian government, Rojava/Federation of Northern Syria, the Syrian opposition, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham Over five years ago an uprising in Dara’a, Southern Syria, set into motion the events that would eventually culminate in the multi-front Syrian Civil War we […]
Flags of the Syrian government, Rojava/Federation of Northern Syria, the Syrian opposition, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham Over five years ago an uprising in Dara’a, Southern Syria, set into motion the events that would eventually culminate in the multi-front Syrian Civil War we see today. Throughout the conflict one group in particular […]
Recently a series of videos was uploaded by a pro-regime media outlet that purported to show operations near Khan Tuman, south of Aleppo, Syria. The videos are mostly of anti-aircraft guns in pickup trucks (technicals) firing wildly at targets unseen, but some clips show behind-the-scenes information about the war that you cannot really see any […]
On 5 May 2016 forces from the Syrian Islamist conglomeration Jaysh al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) launched an offensive on Khan Tuman, a village 15km south of Aleppo. The battle was filmed from several angles, with some cameras being on the ground and others mounted on drones. The video featured a VBIED attack followed by a “mechanized” […]
It is mid-2014 and fighting is raging all across Syria and Iraq. In northern Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS (Henceforth Daesh), is on the offensive. Throughout July and August, thousands of ethnic Kurds fled north toward Turkey, many through the border town of Kobanê. Kobanê is the seat of the […]
Several days ago, 30 April, frustrated with a lack of reforms and accountability from an increasingly-corrupt government, thousands of Iraqi constituents of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets of Baghdad and surrounded the so-called Green Zone. The Green Zone is a fortified part of the capital city that houses the government offices and […]
