Last month, several Baghdad bombings attributed to ISIS killed more than a hundred civilians and wounded hundreds more. The attacks are a tragic reminder that Iraq is still a nation in turmoil. But they should also be a reason—more than 13 years after the decision to topple Saddam Hussein and undertake nation-building in Mesopotamia—to reevaluate U.S. policy in Iraq.
Chris Hayes interviewed John Kerry on Yemen earlier tonight. He mentioned the recent belated decision to block the transfer of cluster bombs to the Saudis, and pressed Kerry on why the U.S. was arming the Saudis. Kerry’s answer is notable for its repetition of a shamelessly pro-Saudi line:
Next months NATO summit in Poland is likely to enter the history books as the event where cyberspace was officially declared an operational warzone, according to a German official.
The Syrian army have captured the 20 stone ISIS executioner dubbed “The Bulldozer.” The obese jihadi once chopped off the arm and leg of a teenager for refusing to enlist with the terror group. He is famous for chopping off the heads of his victims with a three-foot sword and carrying around a five-foot-long, 52kg Browning machine gun. Video shows the terrifying man hand-cuffed and half-naked in the back of a truck, grimacing as he is driven away.
Israeli military forces have reportedly arrested a correspondent for Iran’s Al-Alam news channel in the occupied Golan Heights. According to a police spokemsan, 43 year old Bassam al-Safadi, a resident of the Druze village of Majdal Shams has been accused of “publishing statements in support of terror groups and incitement to violence or terror”.