Iraq’s Kurds have reportedly finally broken ISIS’s encirclement of Mount Sinjar and rescued the Yazidis who have been struggling to stay alive there. That’s clearly an excellent thing, even if relief efforts are currently being hampered by mines that ISIS laid in the area. Also good, presumably, are reports that three top ISIS leaders in Iraq have been killed in U.S. and allied airstrikes: deputy leader Haji Mutazz, military commander Abd al-Basit, and Radwin Talib, the group’s governor of Mosul. I say “presumably” because high-profile jihadis tend to “die” multiple times before they actually get got, so you can’t necessarily believe reports like these, and because even when the death reports are accurate it’s often the case that the dead men’s roles within the organization aren’t exactly what they were initially reported to be. Mutazz’s death, for example, brings ISIS into the long and venerable tradition of America killing “Al-Qaeda number 2s” (it was “number 3s” until we got Bin Laden), many of whom may not actually have been number 2 (or 3) in the organization when we killed them.
Meanwhile on the other front of the fight against ISIS, Bashar al-Assad continues to demonstrate why he’ll never rule a united Syria again. After a group of rebels led by AQ-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (and reportedly including elements of the Free Syrian Army, the guys America has been arming because they’re moderates, not extremists like, uh, Jabhat al-Nusra) captured two Syrian army bases in Idlib, Assad responded by…indiscriminately targeting civilians all over the country, particularly in Homs. It’s called winning hearts and minds, folks.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 