Yearly Archives: 2020

Rockets fall in Baghdad after Pentagon announces Iraq troop reduction

One child was killed and at least five other people were injured, the Iraqi military said. Five people were injured and a child was killed after a barrage of rockets landed in Baghdad on Tuesday evening, shortly after the Pentagon announced the United States would pull another 500 troops from …

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Hungary and Poland Play ‘Who Blinks First?’ with the EU

Hungary and Poland have plunged Europe into another untimely crisis by vetoing the budget as they look to water down the rule-of-law mechanism governing the distribution of EU funds. Hungary and Poland blocked the €1.82 trillion budget-and-recovery package during a meeting of EU ambassadors (COREPER) on Monday, saying they could …

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The Vukovar Murders: Which Units Killed Civilians in Croatia in 1991?

“As far as I can remember, at least 50 prisoners were killed during the afternoon of November 19, 1991. I witnessed some of these killings.” These are the words of Ivan Gasparovic, one of the few witnesses to the crimes that were committed in the Croatian village of Dalj the …

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Week in Review: Between Continuity and Change

With the region facing two important elections – in Moldova and Bosnia – and still digesting the implications of the US election, our selection of articles this week ponders the possibilities of continuity or change in more than one way.

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Fate of ‘Disappeared’ Yugoslav Soldiers from Kosovo Still Unknown

Three decades on, it is still not known what happened to dozens of Kosovo Albanian conscript soldiers who went missing while serving in the Yugoslav People’s Army during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. Muhamet Gashi remembers that it was a rainy day on June 30, 1991 when his son Vesel …

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‘Fear Exists’: The Romanian Soldiers Who Served in Afghanistan

Some of the Romanian men and women who have served under NATO in Afghanistan tell BIRN why they went and what it was like.It began with 265 soldiers and 15 medics. Almost 19 years later, Romania’s participation in NATO’s mission in Afghanistan has grown to 693 troops, making the former …

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As al-Qaeda’s old guard dies, leadership’s role shifts

No longer the supreme jihadist group, al-Qaeda has seen other outfits grow and has sometimes clashed with them on the ground. The reported deaths of al-Qaeda’s top two leaders in recent months have raised questions about the future strategy and strength of the terror network, already a shadow of the …

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Resurgent ISIS kills 11 regime soldiers in Syria

In recent months, “Islamic State” extremists have been demanding tax payments from residents of towns and villages in eastern Syria. Clashes in the Syrian desert between Russia-backed Syrian government forces and “Islamic State” (ISIS) group extremists killed 11 regime loyalists Wednesday, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based …

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