When I read the headline (edit - referring to the plane crash) at first I assumed it was Wilayat Sinai, but since it was from Paris to Cairo rather than vice versa, I think an IS cell in France/lone wolf IS loyalist is the most likely culprit.
Which, from the European perspective, is probably worse.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
He's the guy in charge of Yisrael Beiteinu as well, one of the major far right nationalist parties in Israel that are chewing at the heels of Bibi's Likud coalition government of late.
He's the guy in charge of Yisrael Beiteinu as well, one of the major far right nationalist parties in Israel that are chewing at the heels of Bibi's Likud coalition government of late.
Wow, Two quotes in and I already want to see a meteor fall on his head at relativistic speeds.
He's the guy in charge of Yisrael Beiteinu as well, one of the major far right nationalist parties in Israel that are chewing at the heels of Bibi's Likud coalition government of late.
Wow, Two quotes in and I already want to see a meteor fall on his head at relativistic speeds.
Well no, you don't. If only for the collateral damage.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
i live in a country with a batshit crazy president and no, english is not my first language
Calling the move "historic" as lawmakers voted, Mr Erdogan told a crowd in his hometown of Rize: "My people do not want to see guilty lawmakers in this parliament."
It's ironic that Erdogan loves to criticize Israel so much, since he seems to love imitating their politicians.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
Calling the move "historic" as lawmakers voted, Mr Erdogan told a crowd in his hometown of Rize: "My people do not want to see guilty lawmakers in this parliament."
It's ironic that Erdogan loves to criticize Israel so much, since he seems to love imitating their politicians.
In somewhat less depressing MENA governance news, Ennahda in Tunisia is holding a party congress, reportedly with the intent of moving away from political Islam.
On the eve of the congress, French daily Le Monde published an interview with Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi in which he said there was no longer any room for "political Islam" in post-Arab Spring Tunisia.
"Tunisia is now a democracy. The 2014 constitution has imposed limits on extreme secularism and extreme religion," he was quoted as saying.
"We want religious activity to be completely independent from political activity.
"We are leaving political Islam and entering democratic Islam. We are Muslim democrats who are no longer claim to represent political Islam," he added.
Pretty fascinating to see what is usually described as an Islamist political party publicly abandon political Islam.
I've thought up a new slogan for their battered tourism industry: Tunisia: the country in MENA that is not yet completely fucked.
Remember those peaceful demonstrations outside and inside the Baghdad Green Zone, let by al-Sadr?
Well.
The Iraqi army has declared a curfew in Baghdad after security forces opened fire to stop protesters storming the Green Zone, reportedly injuring dozens.
I get the feeling from what I have been reading, that the EU-Turkey refugee deal and indeed EU-Turkey relations are going to break down. Sooner rather than later.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
i live in a country with a batshit crazy president and no, english is not my first language
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Giggles_FunsworthBlight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered Userregular
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
I'm hella sorry dude. Glad I visited your city last November.
Remember those peaceful demonstrations outside and inside the Baghdad Green Zone, let by al-Sadr?
Well.
The Iraqi army has declared a curfew in Baghdad after security forces opened fire to stop protesters storming the Green Zone, reportedly injuring dozens.
The Iraqi government's political situation is insane right now. And the weeks(s?) of mass death due to suicide bombings probably haven't made things more calm. Sadr is continuing to mobilize his forces - from what I understand Sadr City is now under the control of Sadr's "Peace Brigades", not Iraqi Security Forces - Shi'a militia are talking about an imminent offensive on Fallujah, which was Islamic State of Iraq's cradle and the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIS in early 2014, but it remains to be seen whether this materializes.
Infighting among the Iraqi Shi'a factions would have grave consequences for their war with IS, I think.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
Am I right in thinking that, if Erdogan removes the HDP from parliament in the way you describe, the conflict in the south/southeast is likely to intensify?
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
Am I right in thinking that, if Erdogan removes the HDP from parliament in the way you describe, the conflict in the south/southeast is likely to intensify?
You don't need Basar to confirm that for you Kap.
It would be a pretty blatant message to the Kurds that there is NO political solution to their problems.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
Am I right in thinking that, if Erdogan removes the HDP from parliament in the way you describe, the conflict in the south/southeast is likely to intensify?
You don't need Basar to confirm that for you Kap.
It would be a pretty blatant message to the Kurds that there is NO political solution to their problems.
I imagine if they make any sort of move, there will be at least one politically convenient car bomb to aid in demonizing and othering the kurds as a prelude to a purge
Remember those peaceful demonstrations outside and inside the Baghdad Green Zone, let by al-Sadr?
Well.
The Iraqi army has declared a curfew in Baghdad after security forces opened fire to stop protesters storming the Green Zone, reportedly injuring dozens.
The Iraqi government's political situation is insane right now. And the weeks(s?) of mass death due to suicide bombings probably haven't made things more calm. Sadr is continuing to mobilize his forces - from what I understand Sadr City is now under the control of Sadr's "Peace Brigades", not Iraqi Security Forces - Shi'a militia are talking about an imminent offensive on Fallujah, which was Islamic State of Iraq's cradle and the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIS in early 2014, but it remains to be seen whether this materializes.
Infighting among the Iraqi Shi'a factions would have grave consequences for their war with IS, I think.
Did Iraqi security forces ever really control Sadr city?
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
Am I right in thinking that, if Erdogan removes the HDP from parliament in the way you describe, the conflict in the south/southeast is likely to intensify?
You don't need Basar to confirm that for you Kap.
It would be a pretty blatant message to the Kurds that there is NO political solution to their problems.
Yeah, I'm just desperately trying to imagine a realistic and less bloody alternative here, I guess (without success)
You know that leadership struggle that had been papered over?
Holy shit.
Before the recent weeks of fighting in Afghanistan, the US, Pakistan, and Kabul were trying to get the Taliban to negotiate a peaceful settlement. This failed, and recent statements from Kabul have been less conciliatory. I suspect (without evidence aside from the timing) that the US may have had the capability to kill Mansour prior to this, but didn't want to destabilize the Taliban while the remote possibility of a deal still existed.
After the few months of infighting that you reference, Mansour had managed to bring most of the rebellious Taliban factions under his wing, in part by placing their leaders in high ranking positions and in part by crushing those who still rebelled. I agree that his death is likely to lead to more infighting, although it's hard to tell. This could conceivably change the course of 2016's fighting season.
Excellent .gifv showing the rapidly shifting frontlines between IS and the rebels in northern Aleppo from the end of March until now. The battle has been very fluid, with the rebels at one point capturing a good chunk of the stretch of border between Azaz and Jarabulus, then losing it all within a week or two. Since then many villages have changed hands repeatedly, but the current lines look pretty much the same as they did at the start of the major fighting - IS is so far unable to penetrate into the rebels' strongholds of Azaz and Mare, but the rebels seem unable to hold any of the territory they take from IS. The US-led coalition has been bombing IS heavily on this front, along with Turkey shelling them, but while this is enough to make IS temporarily retreat from its positions, it hasn't prevented them from rapidly retaking them.
Meanwhile, the SDF sits on either side of the rebel/IS held part of northern Aleppo, occasionally clashing with the rebels in the west or threatening to move on IS-held Manbij in the east. As we know, Turkey doesn't want the SDF (or the SAA or IS, for that matter) to hvae this part of the Syrian/Turkish border, so the Azaz-based rebels are in some ways their last hope. Turkish special forces have crossed the border and directly fought IS recently, in response to IS launching rockets at Turkish border towns - this contrasts with earlier phases of the war, where the two have generally left each other alone despite bordering each other.
After a false start last year, where I learned the script and some basic words and then abandoned the endeavor, I started trying to teach myself Arabic again last January. After months of varying diligence and gradually finding good resources/devising a structure for studying, I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel: my vocabulary is still very limited (though growing), but my understanding of the grammar/syntax is finally coming together. If all goes well, I should be able to translate written articles fairly reliably within a couple of months here (it's mainly just the vocab that's stopping me now), although it will be longer before I can understand spoken MSA well, I think.
On the offchance that anyone else is interested in the language, these three resources were invaluable to my study:
http://allthearabicyouneverlearnedthefirsttimearound.com/
Terrible URL, but a great book on Arabic grammar. It was written by James Price for the Defense Language Institute, and while it states that it is meant for people who have taken Arabic courses but lack grammatical understanding rather than first time learners, it's basically been my sole resource for grammar, and I've found its explanations to be understandable and sufficiently detailed. I've gone from not understanding Arabic grammar at all to understanding most of what I need to read and write from this book alone. Plus, the author has a decent sense of humor and frequently denigrates the Arabic ability of American students and journalists.
http://aratools.com/
The best Arabic-English or English-Arabic translator I've found. It includes vocalization on letters (in Arabic, short vowels are not usually written), suggesting all of the possible options if you put an unvocalized word in. And it tells you the part of speech and the root as well, the latter of which is especially useful. I've had no reason to torture myself with Google Translate since finding this site.
https://en.wiktionary.org
A more well known site, wiktionary's Arabic section is surprisingly well done (although I do encounter missing words). Looking up words on wiktionary gives you verb conjugations, declensions of nouns or adjectives, and sometimes related words (like a Form I verb's equivalent in other forms).
I'm endlessly grateful that I live in the age of the internet, where one can teach themselves to read a foreign language without paying thousands for formal courses or tutoring lessons, or even buying a textbook (though I did buy a fairly useless textbook last year).
Remember those peaceful demonstrations outside and inside the Baghdad Green Zone, let by al-Sadr?
Well.
The Iraqi army has declared a curfew in Baghdad after security forces opened fire to stop protesters storming the Green Zone, reportedly injuring dozens.
The Iraqi government's political situation is insane right now. And the weeks(s?) of mass death due to suicide bombings probably haven't made things more calm. Sadr is continuing to mobilize his forces - from what I understand Sadr City is now under the control of Sadr's "Peace Brigades", not Iraqi Security Forces - Shi'a militia are talking about an imminent offensive on Fallujah, which was Islamic State of Iraq's cradle and the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIS in early 2014, but it remains to be seen whether this materializes.
Infighting among the Iraqi Shi'a factions would have grave consequences for their war with IS, I think.
Did Iraqi security forces ever really control Sadr city?
I don't know enough about the situation in Baghdad to really answer that, but from the reporting of recent events it sounds as though Sadr's control of the district has at the very least become more blatant and public.
The term in Vietnam referred to Green Berets sent to work with the South Vietnamese army. Their primary focus was/is training foreign militaries. Line units can also fulfill this role, but the term doesn't/didn't apply to troops not in a MiT Team.
At the peak of the war in 1968, 9,430 Army personnel acted as advisors down to the district and battalion level to train, advise and mentor the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps, Republic of Vietnam Navy and the Vietnam Air Force.
(Very belatedly) I want to say this is a good point--I personally wasn't aware of the 1964 transition linked above (I'm much more familiar with the Eurasian side of the war than the American side, especially from a scholarly standpoint). Thank you, that was very informative--I've been regularly confused by State Department personnel today using the terms, at least casually, with a very high level of interchangeabiltiy, and thought it was born out of past practice.
Hopefully it doesn't take us decades to make sense of the distinction today in, for example, Syria. Thanks, Taranis.
What's the word on ISIS in the rest of the ME and the Maghreb?
I've been seeing articles about Tunisia and Libya all of a sudden being worried about major ISIS attacks.
It's not really all of a sudden. Libya's IS branch captured the coastal city of Sirte (pop. ~80k) last year, and has captured some small towns/villages along the coast in either direction since, expanding to a thin stretch of like <200 miles of territory along the Mediterranean. Several months ago there was concern they might take the important oil fields/facilities at Adjabiya to the east, but the Tobruk government has held its ground. They recently launched a successful attack westwards and are now close to the militia-held city of Misrata. US and EU special forces have been in Libya in small numbers for some time now (hard to say how long, but "months" seems safe).
The situation in Tunisia isn't quite as bad. IS has launched several deadly insurgent/terrorist attacks on security and, more often, civilian targets, killing scores and doing great damage to the country's tourism industry. A month or so ago, Tunisian IS loyalists launched an assault on the city of Ben Guerdane, presumably with the intent to make it their stronghold in the country, but the security forces held the city. In per capita terms, more Tunisians have joined IS than people of any other nationality (for reasons I don't fully understand), which adds to their security issues. But so far IS hasn't managed to actually defeat the Tunisian security forces in battle or take over any territory there, as far as I know.
edit - outside of that, Wilayat Sinai in Egypt is probably their second strongest branch outside the core. They continue an insurgency against the Egyptian security forces in the peninsula. I never see reports of large clashes, but assassinations, car bombings, and sometimes small gunfights are pretty frequent. It's hard to know a lot about the current situation in the Sinai, since neither side allows reporters. IS also has a relatively weak branch in Yemen. They operate underground there, in part because al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still the dominant salafi-jihadist force, but also because they just don't seem very large or strong. They've managed some ambushes on Yemeni security forces, and last year they were responsible for some brutal mass-casualty attacks in the north, but so far IS's Yemeni branch hasn't been very successful.
Overall, their Libyan branch is the only one outside of Iraq/Syria to have much success, which is part of why Western countries are increasingly focused on and involved in the situation there.
Oh, dang, aratools is super helpful. I already had the others on your list but that is a great site, at least for MSA.
Speaking of Arabic, I've been curious for a while: Brotherhood of Ḍād?
Stupid joke that only makes sense to people who know about Arabic (which is I guess sometimes called The Language of Ḍād since that sound is mostly unique to it) and Command & Conquer (which has the Brotherhood of Nod and is also the first game I ever played), which is...not a lot of overlap. I made it on a whim at like 1AM but I figured there's enough diversity here that someone might get a kick out of it.
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
How can Erdogan be stopped at this point? Is there any way to avert him plunging your country into disaster?
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
Am I right in thinking that, if Erdogan removes the HDP from parliament in the way you describe, the conflict in the south/southeast is likely to intensify?
You don't need Basar to confirm that for you Kap.
It would be a pretty blatant message to the Kurds that there is NO political solution to their problems.
Pretty much what Rchanen said.
Erdogan pretty much sees himself as the Sultan of the neo-Ottomanizm.
I took these photos on my way to work yesterday. He is calling for his supporters to join him in celebrating the 563rd anniversary of capturing Istanbul (Constantinople). He is everywhere, every 10 meters.
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Which, from the European perspective, is probably worse.
Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Bibi really had to dig deep to stave off the wolves with this appointment didn't he?
Don't know who that is.
but I can assume its not good from your subtle signals.
Here's a collection of some quotes of his, a bit old but a good illustration of his personality and priorities while in government.
He's the guy in charge of Yisrael Beiteinu as well, one of the major far right nationalist parties in Israel that are chewing at the heels of Bibi's Likud coalition government of late.
Wow, Two quotes in and I already want to see a meteor fall on his head at relativistic speeds.
Well no, you don't. If only for the collateral damage.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36344314
We are officially **cked. They will expel the HDP and replace it with AKP reps to pass the needed constitutional revisions to allow Erdogan to become the executive President
It's ironic that Erdogan loves to criticize Israel so much, since he seems to love imitating their politicians.
edit - because aside from the oft-discussed but questionably feasible military coup, it seems like what little room there is to oppose Erdogan politically will disappear soon
...realistically I don't want an answer to that. But the Israeli government's composition is rapidly growing more disturbing.
The next level of wolfishness involves actual lycanthropy.
Politics, aka "Do as I say, not as I do."
Pretty fascinating to see what is usually described as an Islamist political party publicly abandon political Islam.
I've thought up a new slogan for their battered tourism industry: Tunisia: the country in MENA that is not yet completely fucked.
Well.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36344996
I don't think there's a democratic way. We'll have to wait until he dies naturally... On the other hand, I (and many others) would rather have a vasectomy than have children in this country with him in power, so the ratio of his supporters among the general population will likely increase in the future.
I'm hella sorry dude. Glad I visited your city last November.
Infighting among the Iraqi Shi'a factions would have grave consequences for their war with IS, I think.
Exactly the kind of story that puts a lot of pressure on the "Safe Haven" standpoint of politicians in Europe.
But honestly I don't see it bursting soon. As ugly as it is, the political loss of having it explode is far higher than the gain.
You don't need Basar to confirm that for you Kap.
It would be a pretty blatant message to the Kurds that there is NO political solution to their problems.
I imagine if they make any sort of move, there will be at least one politically convenient car bomb to aid in demonizing and othering the kurds as a prelude to a purge
Did Iraqi security forces ever really control Sadr city?
You know that leadership struggle that had been papered over?
Before the recent weeks of fighting in Afghanistan, the US, Pakistan, and Kabul were trying to get the Taliban to negotiate a peaceful settlement. This failed, and recent statements from Kabul have been less conciliatory. I suspect (without evidence aside from the timing) that the US may have had the capability to kill Mansour prior to this, but didn't want to destabilize the Taliban while the remote possibility of a deal still existed.
After the few months of infighting that you reference, Mansour had managed to bring most of the rebellious Taliban factions under his wing, in part by placing their leaders in high ranking positions and in part by crushing those who still rebelled. I agree that his death is likely to lead to more infighting, although it's hard to tell. This could conceivably change the course of 2016's fighting season.
Meanwhile, the SDF sits on either side of the rebel/IS held part of northern Aleppo, occasionally clashing with the rebels in the west or threatening to move on IS-held Manbij in the east. As we know, Turkey doesn't want the SDF (or the SAA or IS, for that matter) to hvae this part of the Syrian/Turkish border, so the Azaz-based rebels are in some ways their last hope. Turkish special forces have crossed the border and directly fought IS recently, in response to IS launching rockets at Turkish border towns - this contrasts with earlier phases of the war, where the two have generally left each other alone despite bordering each other.
Edit: You know unlike Syria, where progress against IS is slower Iraq actually seems to be gradually picking up steam against IS.
I've been seeing articles about Tunisia and Libya all of a sudden being worried about major ISIS attacks.
On the offchance that anyone else is interested in the language, these three resources were invaluable to my study:
http://allthearabicyouneverlearnedthefirsttimearound.com/
Terrible URL, but a great book on Arabic grammar. It was written by James Price for the Defense Language Institute, and while it states that it is meant for people who have taken Arabic courses but lack grammatical understanding rather than first time learners, it's basically been my sole resource for grammar, and I've found its explanations to be understandable and sufficiently detailed. I've gone from not understanding Arabic grammar at all to understanding most of what I need to read and write from this book alone. Plus, the author has a decent sense of humor and frequently denigrates the Arabic ability of American students and journalists.
http://aratools.com/
The best Arabic-English or English-Arabic translator I've found. It includes vocalization on letters (in Arabic, short vowels are not usually written), suggesting all of the possible options if you put an unvocalized word in. And it tells you the part of speech and the root as well, the latter of which is especially useful. I've had no reason to torture myself with Google Translate since finding this site.
https://en.wiktionary.org
A more well known site, wiktionary's Arabic section is surprisingly well done (although I do encounter missing words). Looking up words on wiktionary gives you verb conjugations, declensions of nouns or adjectives, and sometimes related words (like a Form I verb's equivalent in other forms).
I'm endlessly grateful that I live in the age of the internet, where one can teach themselves to read a foreign language without paying thousands for formal courses or tutoring lessons, or even buying a textbook (though I did buy a fairly useless textbook last year).
edit -
I don't know enough about the situation in Baghdad to really answer that, but from the reporting of recent events it sounds as though Sadr's control of the district has at the very least become more blatant and public.
(Very belatedly) I want to say this is a good point--I personally wasn't aware of the 1964 transition linked above (I'm much more familiar with the Eurasian side of the war than the American side, especially from a scholarly standpoint). Thank you, that was very informative--I've been regularly confused by State Department personnel today using the terms, at least casually, with a very high level of interchangeabiltiy, and thought it was born out of past practice.
Hopefully it doesn't take us decades to make sense of the distinction today in, for example, Syria. Thanks, Taranis.
The situation in Tunisia isn't quite as bad. IS has launched several deadly insurgent/terrorist attacks on security and, more often, civilian targets, killing scores and doing great damage to the country's tourism industry. A month or so ago, Tunisian IS loyalists launched an assault on the city of Ben Guerdane, presumably with the intent to make it their stronghold in the country, but the security forces held the city. In per capita terms, more Tunisians have joined IS than people of any other nationality (for reasons I don't fully understand), which adds to their security issues. But so far IS hasn't managed to actually defeat the Tunisian security forces in battle or take over any territory there, as far as I know.
edit - outside of that, Wilayat Sinai in Egypt is probably their second strongest branch outside the core. They continue an insurgency against the Egyptian security forces in the peninsula. I never see reports of large clashes, but assassinations, car bombings, and sometimes small gunfights are pretty frequent. It's hard to know a lot about the current situation in the Sinai, since neither side allows reporters. IS also has a relatively weak branch in Yemen. They operate underground there, in part because al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still the dominant salafi-jihadist force, but also because they just don't seem very large or strong. They've managed some ambushes on Yemeni security forces, and last year they were responsible for some brutal mass-casualty attacks in the north, but so far IS's Yemeni branch hasn't been very successful.
Overall, their Libyan branch is the only one outside of Iraq/Syria to have much success, which is part of why Western countries are increasingly focused on and involved in the situation there.
Stupid joke that only makes sense to people who know about Arabic (which is I guess sometimes called The Language of Ḍād since that sound is mostly unique to it) and Command & Conquer (which has the Brotherhood of Nod and is also the first game I ever played), which is...not a lot of overlap. I made it on a whim at like 1AM but I figured there's enough diversity here that someone might get a kick out of it.
Pretty much what Rchanen said.
Erdogan pretty much sees himself as the Sultan of the neo-Ottomanizm.
I took these photos on my way to work yesterday. He is calling for his supporters to join him in celebrating the 563rd anniversary of capturing Istanbul (Constantinople). He is everywhere, every 10 meters.