Monthly Archives: January 2016

A more detailed report on the SDF, deriving from information obtained during my visit to Syria in December, appeared in Janes Intelligence Review in January, 2016. Here is a link to the report, which is behind a paywall and can … Continue reading →

The Australian, 23/1   In northern Syria, a new military alliance is making headway against IS   Kobani is a good place to start.  This once anonymous Kurdish town on the Syrian-Turkish border was the subject last year of the … Continue reading →

  Jerusalem Report, 18/1 Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the last days of 2015 is a place that appears to have risen from a near-death experience. In the summer of 2014, the fighters of the Islamic State (IS) got to … Continue reading →

PJmedia, 19/1 On a recent reporting trip to Iraq and northern Syria, two things were made apparent to me — one of them relatively encouraging, the other far less so. The encouraging news is that ISIS is currently in a state … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 8/1 Saudi-Iranian confrontation reflects key Mideast trend lines The decision by Saudi Arabia to sever diplomatic relations with Iran following the burning of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran is an escalation in an enmity of long standing between … Continue reading →