Well, that attempted coup in Burundi certainly could have gone better for the plotters... Three leaders of a failed coup against Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza have been arrested, his spokesman says. However, coup leader General Godefroid Niyombare is "still on the run". He told the AFP news agency that he and his followers were going … Continue reading Flown the coup

Ramadi, capital of Iraq's Anbar Province, finally appears to be falling to ISIS: IS "now occupies the government centre in Ramadi and has also raised its flag over the police HQ for Anbar", a police major told the AFP news agency. The militant group itself issued a statement confirming it had taken control of the … Continue reading One step back

https://twitter.com/ajaltamimi/status/599222350026944513 Remember Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri's death? Yeah, about that... This is why you don't declare these guys dead just because a report comes in that says they are. Hell, Douri may actually be dead, and this speech video just a ruse, but actual video of the guy has to at least introduce some doubt into … Continue reading Speaking of declaring people dead who aren’t actually dead

The Iraqi government seems to have gotten a jump on the summer reruns. First there was the fourth (or twentieth, maybe, I'm losing count) claim that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been grievously, maybe mortally, wounded in a coalition airstrike, this one supposedly having come in March. ISIS, as it turns out, just released … Continue reading Early summer rerun season

The refugee crisis that's attracted the most notice of late is the one in the Mediterranean Sea, but there's another one taking place in Southeast Asia involving Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya. The Rohingya are arguably the single most abused population on the planet, denied citizenship by a Burmese government that insists, absent evidence, that they are … Continue reading The Rohingya have nowhere to go, but that’s better than staying where they are

Earlier this week it was JEB, now Rubio dives face-first into the quicksand: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that he would not have authorized the invasion of Iraq given what he knows today, becoming the latest candidate to weigh in on a question that has tripped up likely GOP rival Jeb Bush. "Not only … Continue reading It’s been 12 years; how can Republicans still not have a good answer about Iraq?

Lots of words have been written lately about whether or not Bashar al-Assad is finally losing the war in Syria, including by some incredibly sketchy characters, but everybody should understand that "losing" doesn't mean "lost." Assad still has a big army, uncontested air superiority, and his well-trained and cohesive Hezbollah allies on his side, and … Continue reading In one sense, maybe Bashar al-Assad has already lost

Apparently (though the story remains unconfirmed), a couple of weeks ago Kim Jong-un executed his defense minister (well, former defense minister), Hyon Yong Chol, by having him shot with a giant anti-aircraft gun, maybe for incompetence, maybe for falling asleep on the job, or who knows, really, this is Kim Jong-un we're talking about. "Analysts" … Continue reading Dead is dead, right?

Burundi may be in the midst of a military coup to oust President Pierre Nkurunziza: An army general in Burundi announced Wednesday that the military had ousted President Pierre Nkurunziza, setting off celebrations in the streets among protesters who had been trying to block the president’s bid for another term. “President Pierre Nkurunziza is removed … Continue reading Coup in Burundi, results unclear

Remember how I said that Seymour Hersh's big Osama bin Laden story was interesting but needed some serious corroboration before it could really be considered a serious challenge to the official version of events? Well, here's some corroboration, from Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: The latest contribution is the journalist Seymour Hersh’s 10,000-word … Continue reading Part of Seymour Hersh’s story gets corroborated