Situation Update - Headlines

• Syria appointed its chief government negotiator in upcoming peace talks with opposition leaders. • Iraq plans to launch the operation to dislodge Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul in the first half of 2016, Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeid said. • A British inquiry into the 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy critical of the Kremlin, has found that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved his murder. • China’s working age population saw its largest decline on record in 2015, underscoring concerns about a looming labor shortage. • North Korea arrested a U.S. university student for allegedly committing a “hostile act” intended to "destroy the country’s unity." • Indonesian police have foiled potential terror attacks in at least three locations in the days following the Jan. 14 attack in central Jakarta, Jakarta police chief Inspector-General Tito Karnavian said. • Laos’ ruling Communist Party unveiled a new central committee that will not include the incumbent prime minister or party chief, signaling a change in senior leadership. • Al Shabaab gunmen opened fire after setting off at least one car bomb at a beachside restaurant in a busy area of Mogadishu.

Situation Report – Headlines

• U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said defense ministers from France and five other countries have agreed to step up the military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. • French President Francois Hollande said that French airstrikes against the Islamic State will accelerate in coming months and that 2016 must be a “year of transition for Syria.” • Germany will extend its border controls for an indefinite period, with the goal of drastically reducing the number of refugees coming into the country, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. • Austria announced that it will grant asylum to half as many immigrants this year as it did in 2015. • In a televised speech, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized the Guardian Council’s sweeping disqualification of reformist candidates for next month’s parliamentary election and appointed Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri to work with the Council toward allowing candidates to re-enter the race. • Chinese President Xi Jinping continued his Middle East tour in Egypt today, where he signed a series of economic agreements that include infrastructure support and $1.7 billion in loans to shore up the Egyptian banking sector. • Israel is “in the final stages” of appropriating a 380-acre tract of arable land in the West Bank, near Jericho, drawing criticism from Palestinian groups, the United States, and the United Nations. • Armed militants opened fire on a security checkpoint in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, killing five policemen and wounding three soldiers; the Egyptian government is responding with airstrikes and ground operations, BBC reports. • Intra-Syrian peace talks scheduled for Jan. 25 in Geneva may be pushed back “a day or two,” but do not face a fundamental delay, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. • A Russian Deputy Foreign Minister canceled his Jan. 22 trip to Istanbul, which would have been the first high-level visit by a Russian official to Turkey since the downing of a Russian warplane on the Turkish border two months ago. • Japan is expected to lift its sanctions on Iran on Jan. 22. • Iraq's plan to increase oil production in 2016 this year will proceed as planned, despite Iran’s return to the market, Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. • Suspected Islamic State militants once again attacked oil installations close to Libya's Ras Lanuf terminal, setting oil tanks on fire. • Assailants shot and killed five policemen and wounded three others in an attack on a security checkpoint in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. • The number of HIV-positive patients registered in Russia has reached one million, according to Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of the Moscow-based Federal Center for Fighting AIDS. • Hundreds of protesters, many of them supporters of pro-Russian parties, have stormed Moldova's Parliament after lawmakers voted to form a new government. • Niger Delta militants have forced the shutdown of two refineries in Gbaramatu after gunmen attacked Nigerian oil and natural gas pipelines.

Iraq Update

Iraqi Shi'a militias significantly escalated their confrontation with the U.S. by kidnapping three American contractors and an interpreter in southern Baghdad on January 15, reportedly from the apartment of the interpreter. While no group has claimed responsibility, Iraqi Shi'a militias proliferate both the neighborhood of abduction, al-Dora, as well as Sadr City, the northeastern neighborhood to which the contractors were reportedly taken. Iranian proxy militias were responsible for kidnapping American servicemen before the U.S. withdrawal in 2011. Iraqi Shi'a militias carried out similar kidnappings of Turkish citizens in Baghdad in September 2015 and Qatari citizens in Muthanna Province in December 2015. The kidnapping of the American citizens came just one day before the release of four American prisoners by Iran and two days before the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile test in October 2015. The timing of the kidnapping suggests that Iranian proxies did not kidnap the contractors in response to the additional sanctions, but did so in order to secure future leverage over the U.S. However, the possibility remains that an Iranian proxy militia may have conducted the kidnapping without a direct order from their supervisors in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force (IRGC-QF). Regardless of intent, the kidnapping underscores the impunity with which Iranian proxies operate as well as the persistent threat they pose to U.S. personnel and interests.

Situation Report – Headlines

• The United States is looking to increase the number of trainers working with Iraqi military and police forces, U.S. Secretary of Defense told reporters during a trip to Europe; the increase in trainers would include U.S. troops, but the United States is also talking to coalition countries about increasing their training commitments. • Information obtained by Stratfor reveals that Saudi Arabia has no plans to purchase military hardware from Russia, including the Iskander-E, a tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. • The Russian ruble dropped to a near-historic low, falling past 80 rubles to the U.S. dollar. • Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on condemned the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran earlier this month. • Iraq's parliament suspended its meeting after Sunni lawmakers and government ministers elected to boycott parliamentary and government meetings because of violence against Sunnis in the eastern part of the country. • North Korea’s Jan. 6 nuclear test did not expand its technical capability, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said. • China has moved an offshore oil rig back into South China Sea waters disputed with Vietnam, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said. • Militants attacked a university in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least 21 people. • Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) mounted a counterattack against Somali jihadist group al Shabaab in Somalia. • Tunisian police fired tear gas on hundreds of protesters gathered near the government headquarters in the central city of Kasserine. • The Southern African Development Community halted its activities in Lesotho over a disagreement over the death of former Gen. Maaparankoe Mahao. • The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) asked the United Nations for a 12-month observer mission to oversee a cease-fire between the two sides. • The Turkish government is targeting mayors and local representatives belonging to the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party for prosecution; 18 mayors and nearly 50 local representatives are currently facing charges brought in recent weeks. • During a visit to Saudi Arabia, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a joint statement with Saudi Arabia stating his support for the “unity, independence and sovereignty of Yemen” and the Hadi government; Xi is expected to also visit Egypt and Iran during his trip to the Middle East. • The head of Iran’s central bank said yesterday that it has begun accessing some of the frozen assets made available after the implementation of the nuclear agreement and that $32 billion assets will be freed under the deal. • Oman has closed two border crossings with Yemen because of security concerns; the closures happened earlier this year but were only confirmed by Omani officials today.

Check out this sizzler reel to see upcoming projects from TV4 Entertainment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQNz8oVQ--E&feature=youtu.be!

Situation Report - Headlines

• Oman became the first major oil producer to say it will lower its output, with the hope that other countries will follow suit. • The three U.S. citizens reported missing in Baghdad were kidnapped, two Iraqi parliament members said. • Chinese economic growth in 2015 slowed to 6.9 percent, its weakest annual pace in 25 years, according to official figures. • Macedonia’s parliament accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, voted to dissolve the parliament on Feb. 24, and set elections for April 24. • A suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Cameroon killed four people and injured two others. • Moroccan officials announced yesterday that they have arrested a Belgian man who was tried and convicted in absentia by a Belgian court last year for involvement in a terrorist organization; he is believed to have been an associate of one of the leaders of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks. • Heavy bombing from Saudi coalition airstrikes targeting Sanaa, Yemen, has killed at least 35 people in recent days, including Almigdad Mojalli, a Yemeni journalist who had reported for Voice of America. • Israeli officials are responding to two stabbing attacks targeting women in Israeli settlements; on Sunday, a Palestinian suspect killed a 38-year-old Israeli woman in her home in Otniel, south of Hebron, and on Monday, a pregnant woman was stabbed in the Tekoa settlement near Jerusalem. • Libya’s Unity Presidential Council announced today that it has formed a 32-member cabinet drawn from representatives of both the Tobruk and Tripoli governments; the Council, which is based in Tunisia, is the result of a U.N.-brokered peace plan, but it faces significant opposition from holdouts in both governments. • Formal invitations to Syrian peace talks, scheduled to begin in a week, have yet to be sent and the talks could be postponed pending continuing disputes between Saudi Arabia and Russia over who should represent the Syrian opposition.

1/18/16 Situation Report - Headlines

• Islamic State fighters swept into Deir Ezzor, Syria, killing dozens of people after the Assad regime airdropped supplies to besieged neighborhoods. • A U.S. drone strike struck a vehicle in Shabwa Province, Yemen, killing three men believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; it is the first drone strike in Yemen reported this year. • The United States is discussing with Arab coalition states the possibility of deploying special operations forces to fight the Islamic State, according to remarks last week by the U.S. secretary of defense. • Seven people were killed in Aden, Yemen, when a car bomb was detonated at the home of the city’s police chief in a failed assassination attempt. • Saudi Arabia authorized $50 million in aid to Somalia on January 7, the same day that Somalia severed diplomatic relations with Iran, according to a report by Reuters. • The International Atomic Energy Agency released a report Jan. 16 that confirmed Iran has complied with a deal with six world powers to end its nuclear program. • Ahead of the nuclear announcement, Tehran announced that it had freed four Iranian-American prisoners. • However, Washington later announced new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program. Tehran called the measures illegitimate and said it will continue developing its conventional military deterrents. • U.S. authorities are trying to locate Americans reported missing in Baghdad. • Islamic State militants kidnapped at least 400 civilians when they attacked government-held areas in the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour. • Chinese President Xi Jinping officially announced the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at a ceremony in Beijing. • Taiwanese Nationalist Party candidate Eric Chu conceded defeat in presidential elections to Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen — Taiwan's first female president. • A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people at a meeting of tribal elders at the Jalalabad home of a local Afghan politician. • Local and French security forces stormed the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou on Jan. 16, killing four al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb militants and freeing 126 people taken hostage a day earlier. • Burkina Faso and Mali agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants following attacks in each country. • Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared a 60-day state of emergency during which he will govern by decree amid the crumbling economic situation.

Special Forces Raiding Islamic State Positions, Says Iraqi Official

Foreign special forces, reported by Arab media to be U.S. troops, have been carrying out raids against Islamic State targets near Hawija, Iraq, Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Salim al-Jabouri told Reuters. “These operations are bearing fruit,” Jabouri said, saying that they were done in collaboration with Iraqi forces and part of a plan to prepare for larger operations to retake Mosul. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition denied that U.S. Special Forces are involved in the strikes. The claim is part of an “Iranian disinformation” campaign and U.S. forces have not been involved in direct action since a raid on an Islamic State prison in October, Col. Steve Warren told reporters.

Islamic State Attacks Oil Terminals in Libya

Islamic State fighters operating in eastern Libya attacked two oil terminals yesterday, detonating car bombs outside the gates of an oil facility at Es Sider and shooting at a separate facility at Ras Lanuf. Islamic State fighters returned to continue their attack on Es Sider this morning. Both facilities have been closed for more than a year but still contain large quantities of oil, and the incident at Ras Lanuf reportedly ignited a storage tank containing crude oil. In statements claiming credit for the attacks, Islamic State fighters also said they had shot down a Libyan military jet and seized the town of Bin Jawad, but these claims could not be verified.

The fallout from Saudi Arabia’s execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr continues today

Kuwait has now joined Bahrain and Sudan in severing diplomatic ties with Iran in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, which announced on Sunday that it was breaking ties after an angry mob stormed its embassy in Tehran. The United Arab Emirates said it would downgrade its diplomatic relations, but stopped short of a complete break with Iran. On Monday, Iraqi officials and police said that two Sunni mosques had been attacked the day before in apparent retaliation for Nimr’s execution. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, however, blamed the attacks on the Islamic State “and those who are similar to them.” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to deescalate the situation quickly and offered to mediate between the countries. "Diplomatic channels must be given a chance immediately. As Turkey, we are ready to offer any constructive help we can for a solution," he said in a parliamentary meeting. Saudi Arabia, for its part, has downplayed the potential effect the diplomatic tensions could have on upcoming peace talks on the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

News You May Have Missed

• Two Sunni mosques in central Iraq were attacked in response to Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. • Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Iran. • The United Arab Emirates downgraded diplomatic ties with Iran and reduced the number of Iranian diplomats allowed in the country. • The United Nations announced that its special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, will visit Saudi Arabia ahead of a visit to Iran to try to ease tensions between the two countries. • Libyan government troops say they have besieged areas controlled by the Ansar al-Sharia militant group in the cities of Benghazi and Darnah. • Islamic State militants resumed shelling near Libya’s Es Sider oil port. • Hezbollah militants targeted an Israeli army patrol with an explosive device in Shebaa Farms, disputed territory near the convergence of the Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli borders. • The newly elected president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, claimed that security forces prevented him from entering the legislature's administrative building. • At least 17 people were killed and another 32 injured in a suspected arson attack on a public bus in Yinchuan, the capital of the remote Chinese region of Ningxia. • An Asian institution that will perform some similar tasks to the International Monetary Fund is expected to be launched as early as spring this year.

News You May Have Missed

• Saudi Arabia executed 47 shiites, including a prominent Shiite cleric. • In response, Iranian protesters threw several Molotov cocktails at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran before storming the building and setting it on fire. • In response, Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran. • Bahrain followed suit by severing its own diplomatic relations with Iran. • Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accelerated his country's ballistic missile production, saying that Iran will not accept any limitations on its program. • Attacks by five Islamic State suicide bombers on an Iraqi military base outside the city of Tikrit killed at least 15 members of the security forces and wounded 22 others. • The truce between Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led military coalition has formally ended. • The Vatican's first accord with the Palestinians, which details the Roman Catholic Church's operations in areas under Palestinian control, came into force. • Catalonia’s leftist CUP party decided against backing a new regional government headed by outgoing President Artur Mas, making new elections in the autonomous region likely. • Vietnam accused China of violating its sovereignty Jan. 2 by landing a plane on an airstrip Beijing built on the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. • Chinese shares dropped around 7 percent, triggering a suspension of trading nearly 90 minutes before the regular close. • Large and medium-sized Chinese steel mills reported losses of 53.1 billion yuan (nearly $8.2 billion) during the first 11 months of 2015. • Gunfire and a blast were heard at an Indian air base at Pathankot near the northern state of Punjab, as troops continued to battle the remnants of a group that attacked the site. • Opposition congressman Henry Ramos Allup was elected president of Venezuela’s National Assembly. • Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia will hold a series of meetings this month and next to discuss technical issues regarding Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Damn on the Nile River.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain Sever Ties With Iran

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties (NYT) with Iran in the regional fallout triggered by the Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric. Nimr was one of forty-seven prisoners executed (BBC) across the country on Saturday. The severing of ties comes after protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday following the execution (WSJ). Saudi Arabia has given Iranian diplomats forty-eight hours to leave the kingdom. Sudan expelled the Iranian ambassador on Monday, and the United Arab Emirates recalled its ambassador to Tehran.