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.
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- Egyptian General Abdul-Fatah al-Sisi, leader of last year’s military takeover, has announced his military resignation and presidential bid.
- The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 others went on trial on a variety of charges, a day after the capital sentencing of 500 plus supporters of former president Morsi.
- The Ethiopian government is importing European and Chinese technologies to spy on the electronic communications of the opposition.
- William Langewiesche reports for GQ from South Sudan, where he observed G4S (a British “global security” contractor) and their ordnance-disposal teams in action.
- A makeshift refugee camp near the airport in the Central African capital of Bangui holds tens of thousands of people in an incredibly precarious situation.
- Peacekeepers in CAR have declared war against the anti-balaka, a Christian militant group, after the group’s attacks against their troops.
- More than three million Nigerians, a third of the country’s population, are suffering the results of the Islamic militant uprising.
- The US is sending 150 USAF Special Operations forces and CV-22 Osprey aircraft to assist the Ugandan government in its efforts against Joseph Kony.
- The Arab League summit was held this week despite deep tensions over Syria and Egypt.
- Turkey blocked Twitter ahead of an electoral vote.
- 53.6% of Syria’s chemical weapons have been destroyed or removed.
- Turkey shot down a Syrian warplane.
- Islamist rebels in Syria captured a small town on the Turkish border.
- Syrian troops overtook the Crusader castle on the Lebanese border, a UNESCO world heritage site with symbolic value to the rebels who had controlled it since 2012.
- 20 members of Yemen’s security forces were killed in a militant raid on a checkpoint.
- The entire board of Iraq’s electoral commission resigned this week, citing political interference.
- RFE/RL’s Baghdad bureau chief, Mohammed Bdaiwai Owaid Al-Shammari, was shot dead by a member of the presidential guard.
- Reporters Without Borders expresses concern about Iraq’s official treatment of journalists.
- A global spike in executions is sourced to those carried out in Iran and Iraq.
- Iran says one of its five border guards held hostage by a militant group has been killed.
- Well-known Afghan journalist Sardar Ahmed, his wife and two of his three young children were among those killed by a militant gunman at the Serena Hotel last week.
- The chief judge in former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf’s treason trial has quit, recusing himself after repeated accusations of bias against Musharraf.
- Peace talks began between the Pakistani government and the Pakistani Taliban.
- A mass grave has been discovered in Bosnia, containing the remains of 147 Bosnian Muslims, believed to have been killed in 1992 in the town of Kozarac.
- Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, has announced a bid for the presidency.
- Russia is re-investing in Afghanistan as the US pulls out.
- Russia calls on its prominent artists to publicly express support for the Crimean annexation, a move that many artists reject as a return to Soviet-era tactics.
- Increased signs of the annexation in Crimean daily life: the currency is now the ruble, and the Russian Investigative Committee has set up its new offices and legal procedures are in limbo.
- Russia staged military training exercises in the separatist Moldovan region of Trans-Dniester, considered a possible next target for annexation.
- CNN reports that a new US intelligence assessment believes that Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine is more likely than previously thought.
- According to Time, Putin’s aversion to texting presents a challenge to US spies.
- Japan is turning over more than 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and 450 pounds of highly-enriched uranium to the US.
- The death toll in Venezuelan protests rose to 34.
- Tens of thousands of Chileans marched for constitutional reform.
- On the rise and fall of unusual Army Special Forces Major Jim Gant.
- How British satellite company Inmarsat narrowed the search for flight MH370.
- The White House prepares NSA reforms, which Shane Harris points out still contains wins for current NSA practices.
- Abu Ghaith, bin Laden’s son-in-law, was convicted of terrorism charges by a federal jury in New York City.
Photo: Raqqa province, Syria. An image from a militant website shows a group of fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has become entrenched in the province. Associated Press.