This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.
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Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine attacked a checkpoint on Thursday, killing 16 Ukrainian soldiers.
Julia Ioffe takes us inside the 11-story building otherwise known as the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
The Ukrainian military detained two reporters early this week — one a Russian TV journalist and the other a British freelancer for the RT network.
Last week, French photojournalist Camille Lepage was killed in the Central African Republic.
80 US troops have deployed to Chad to assist in finding the abducted Nigerian girls.
Nigeria has formally asked the UN to sanction Boko Haram.
Joseph Kony has reportedly handed over control of the LRA to his son.
Two New York Times journalists, photographer Jack Hill and reporter Anthony Loyd, were detained by Syrian rebels and badly beaten before being released.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 162,000 people have been killed so far in the Syrian conflict.
Were Iraq’s elections rigged?
The runoff presidential election in Afghanistan between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani is set for June 14.
Why does Britain’s Ministry of Defence hate this book on the Afghan war?
Two tribes in Afghanistan, the Kamdeshi and Kashtozi, agreed last week to an end to their century-long conflict, largely centered on land rights.
22 Afghan police officers were killed by Taliban attacks around the country on Wednesday.
Karzai suspended 3 police special forces commanders with the intent of trying them for illegal detentions and desecration of a mosque.
Kabul investigates reports that Iran has been recruiting Afghans to fight in Syria.
Pakistani fighter jets bombed militant positions on Wednesday, reportedly killing 32 people.
Attempts to take Geo TV, Pakistan’s most influential television station, off the air have resulted in public controversy and a rift among the members of the country’s Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.
Twitter has agreed to block “blasphemous” tweets inside Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban kidnapped a Chinese tourist.
The Indian Consulate in Afghanistan’s Herat province was attacked by gunmen this morning (Friday), but no diplomatic staff are reported harmed.
The Thai military seized power and suspended the constitution. TV broadcasting is suspended as is political assembling. It has detained politicians and activists, including former PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
The US indicted five members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on charges of espionage over hacking the networks of US companies.
Court documents filed on Thursday reveal the effects of force-feeding on one of the Guantánamo inmates. Ahmed Rabbani, who has been in prison without charge for a decade, detailed botched attempts at force-feeding which left him with a serious chest infection, which was initially ignored, and subsequent force-feedings left him vomiting blood.
British imam Mostafa Kamel Mostafa was convicted of 11 terrorism charges in federal court in Manhattan.
The White House plans to release the memo approving the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a US citizen.
The White House pledges no more use of vaccination programs as operational cover for the CIA.
Helen McKendry, daughter of IRA victim Jean McConville, is saying she is no longer afraid to go public with what she says she knows about her mother’s abduction and murder.
Northern Ireland’s police are suing for the Boston College tapes — oral history recordings of former militants from both sides of the conflict — for use in their investigations. Most of the interviews were given on the condition that they be kept confidential until the deaths of the interview subjects.
Street views in Europe during the Second World War, then and now.
Flooding has created a land mine risk in Bosnia.
The NSA surveillance reform bill passed the House on Thursday 303 - 121.
The Intercept reports that the NSA records cell phone calls in the Bahamas.
An explainer from NY Mag on the Veterans Affairs scandal — or rather the recently inflamed, yet long-running saga of failure to care for returning veterans. The VA, struggling with a high volume of claims, has a backlog/waitlist of 300,000 — some veterans waiting a year on the list and some even dying before approval.
The CIA won its legal battle to keep a draft history of its involvement in Bay of Pigs a secret.
Photographer Ashley Gilbertson’s new book, Bedrooms of the Fallen, documents the bedrooms belonging to a selection of the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Photo: Daldako, Sudan. Sudanese armed forces after successfully recapturing Daldako from rebels. Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters.