Eurasia

Al Jazeera published an article last week titled “Hisham Ashmawy…the other side of Al-Ikhtiyar (The Choice)” where the author praised the Egyptian terrorist and sought to clear his name, but later took down the piece due to “contradictions with Al Jazeera publishing policies,” according to the news site.

Spokesman of the Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan Armed Forces, Major General Ahmed Al-Mesmari, has stressed that the blatant Turkish military intervention in Libya and its support for Al-Wefaq government’s militias since 2014 have thwarted all attempts to reach a political solution in Libya.

Beijing just imposed a raft of new security measures that will completely undermine the independence of Hong Kong’s own legislature. The new measures will apparently be announced in a few weeks — but one can assume that they include extradition to the mainland and imprisonment.

Iranian tankers have fed fuel to one of Venezuela’s most important refineries, enabling the strategic El Palito facility to resume gasoline production after it was forced to largely reduce its activities under pressure from draconian American sanctions.

U.S. Africa Command assesses that Moscow recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya in order to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors (PMCs) operating on the ground there.

Bottom Line Up Front: In both Syria and Libya, Russia has relied on a combination of mercenaries, weapons sales to proxies and clients, and an aggressive disinformation campaign to grow its influence.

Saad Aljabri knows “where the bodies are buried.” Now Saudi authorities are arresting his relatives to force him to return to the kingdom, his son says.

A senior Daesh member being held in Iraq has described the group’s new leader as “not as firm” as his predecessor Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

A Czech appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that convicted a former Prague Muslim leader of being part of a terror group and financing terrorism, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

Thirteen female suspected Daesh militants from France have escaped from YPG/PKK-controlled prisons in northern Syria, a Paris-based anti-terror monitor said Wednesday.