Muffiner posted:

Bouteflika has resigned.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47795108

Muffiner posted:

Bouteflika has resigned.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47795108

Grouchio posted:

WHAT. WHAT. WHAT.

WHAT NOW?

Volkerball posted:

https://twitter.com/ThomasVLinge/status/1113198719158165505

Zurakara posted:

It's a coup by a regime general. I'm skeptical, but I hope everything works out.

Sinteres posted:

Libya seems to be kicking off again:

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1113829588298346496

Squalid posted:

Hopefully this doesn't result in full scale battles inside Tripoli, but instead will lead to negotiation. Haftar has been threatening this for years but was never capable of pulling it off. However he's just been steadily taking more and more territory and assets, improving his position, while the Tripoli based government just becomes more and more dysfunctional. My guess is he will back down before there's really large scale destructive fighting, but the Tripoli authority will give him new concessions. Nobody is really in a position to stop Haftar from taking western Libya apart piece by piece.

Andrew Desiderio posted:

The House on Thursday approved a measure to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's bloody civil war, in yet another harsh rebuke of President Donald Trump's foreign policy.

Trump is expected to veto the measure, which passed with bipartisan support in both chambers. Thursday’s 247-175 vote marks the first time in history that a War Powers resolution will reach the president's desk.

The effort was a top priority for House Democrats after they took control in January amid a worsening humanitarian crisis on the ground in Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have sought to overthrow the country’s government.

It also reflects broad dissatisfaction on Capitol Hill with Trump’s foreign policy — in particular, his posture toward Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“The president will have to face the reality that Congress is no longer going to ignore its constitutional obligations when it comes to foreign policy,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

thatfatkid posted:

Sounds like things in Libya are coming along nicely post-gaddafi.

thatfatkid posted:

Conveniently ignoring a few key details to the civil war doesn't make the end result any less horrific.

quote:

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed a district in Afghanistan’s western Badghis province, with both Afghan government forces and the insurgent group suffering dozens of casualties, provincial officials said.

The district of Bala Murghab has been a recurring hotspot of fighting in the past two months, and officials have previously warned that it could fall to the Taliban without reinforcements.

Fighting in Afghanistan has escalated ahead of the usual spring season, as both sides seek to increase leverage in talks on a peace settlement.

The Taliban killed 36 members of the government forces and captured several security checkpoints in attacks that began on Wednesday night, Waris Sherzad, district governor of Bala Murghab, said late on Thursday. Fighting was ongoing, he said.

More than 30 Taliban were also killed, said Jamshed Shahabi spokesman for Badghis’ provincial governor.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said it attacked from four directions, capturing five checkpoints.

Afghanistan’s defense ministry, in a series of tweets, said its forces chose to “tactically retreat” from the checkpoints to prevent civilian casualties. The ministry said it called in multiple air strikes on Taliban positions.

On Friday, the defense ministry said Afghan forces had forced the Taliban to retreat from some checkpoints and that all key areas remained under its control

The conflict in Badghis has been particularly intense along with northern Kunduz province and Helmand province in the south in recent weeks. Both sides took heavy casualties in Badghis last month, and at one point 50 members of Afghan security forces surrendered to the Taliban.

Sinteres posted:

Today it looks like Haftar's forces are still moving toward Tripoli, so either the reports yesterday were wrong, he lied about backing down, or things changed.

Edit: Now they're reported to be in control of Tripoli International Airport, though that's been disputed.

quote:

U.S. media are reporting that the United States will soon designate Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, which would be the first time Washingtion has given that label to the military unit of another country.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing U.S. officials, reported on April 5 that the action could come as early as April 8.

The United States has designated the IRGC’s external branch -- the Quds Force -- and a number of individuals and entities associated with the organization as terrorist, but not the IRGC as a whole.

The WSJ said national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are strong proponents of the move, asserting that it would help Washington crack down on businesses in Europe and elsewhere controlled by the IRGC.

But critics and some Pentagon officials have said the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly foreign governments. The WSJ said General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the CIA oppose the move.

The WSJ said spokesmen for Dunford and the CIA declined to comment. Officials at the Iranian UN mission did not respond to requests for comment.

The move to designate the IRGC has been speculated upon for several years.

The WSJ quoted Jason Blazakis, who served until last year as director of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, as saying that “the designation of IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization [FTO] is precedent-setting.”

“Never before has the FTO sanctions tool been directed at a state body. The future ramifications of this decision will be profound,” he said.

The IRGC has a force of some 100,000 personnel and runs Tehran’s ballistic missile programs, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has said.

The IRGC’s powerful Quds Force, which conducts foreign operations in the Middle East, has arranged weapons deliveries and advised pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere.

Last October, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain -- both bitter rivals of Iran -- added the IRGC and senior officers from the Quds Force to their lists of people and organizations suspected of involvement in terrorism.

Saudi security services said Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, was on the list together with Quds Force officers Hamed Abdollahi and Abdul Reza Shahlai.

In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the three amid allegations that Soleimani, Abdollahi, and Shahlai were linked to a failed plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir.

Iran at the time dismissed the accusations as false and demanded an apology from Washington.

Coldwar timewarp posted:

Unless the US/NATO are willing to bomb them, why would they stop?

Europe wants a strongman in charge who can be bribed not to allow any more migrant boats come from Libyan shores.

quote:

In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the three amid allegations that Soleimani, Abdollahi, and Shahlai were linked to a failed plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir.

Vernii posted:

Cable Guy posted:

Wasn't there speculation that donny the boy had speculative links with the Imperial Guard through a property in uh... Kazakhstan I think it was.
I'm on a tram and phone posting so can't look it up right now. I know Maddow did a piece on it. It's a building in the middle of a turnpike from memory. I'll look it up when I get home.

Squalid posted:

There's a few reasons I can think of. Number 1 is money. Libya's oil wealth still flows through the national bank in Tripoli, and if he really pisses the US and other players off the money top could be shut off.

Second is he might lose. Hiftar's LNA is basically just another militia and it's hard say if its even capable of taking Tripoli. If they want to occupy the city by force they'll have to face down the Misratans who are well trained and equipped thanks to their collaboration with the US in defeating IS in Sirte.

Third is politics. Haftar wants position himself as the face of order and secular stability. Shelling Tripoli is going to be a real bad look. As much as he wants to be a dictator and strong man keeping himself in control requires maintaining delicate political relationships and getting lots of people killed could be a problem.

The fourth reason is that he might not need to push further. The Tripoli government has proved to be a joke. The city is divided between many militias who often hate each other nearly as much as Haftar. Over the last few years the ideological motivations of many have faded and many have degenerated into glorified mafias, living through extortion and people smuggling. Haftar doesn't have to defeat these people in battle. Now that he's practically in Tripoli, he just has to offer them a better deal than Sirraj and they may defect.

The Tripoli government has shown an amazing lack of initiative over the last two years. While Hiftir was occupying all of the oil producing regions, they were consumed with byzantine political drama. Now Haftar has marched right up to Tripoli and they barely budged to stop him. If he just waits a little longer they might just fall apart completely without him even needing to finish them off.

Volkerball posted:

https://mobile.twitter.com/borzou/status/1114168571964346368

Big day for protests in Sudan as well.