this week in war

a friday round-up of what happened and whats been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. its a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

syria denied access to a UN team seeking to investigate chemical weapons use.

a new human rights watch report details details “deliberate and indiscriminate air strikes on civilians” by the syrian government.

from PBS frontline: from PBS frontline: “syria behind the lines: the bombing of al-bara.”

the al-nusra front, a group fighting in syria, has formally pledged support to al-qaeda.

egyptian doctors were ordered to operate on protesters without anesthetic during protests against military rule according to an investigation commissioned by president morsi.

according to a UN panel, weapons in libya are spreading at ”an alarming rate.”

yemens president has ordered a military command shake-up.

saudi arabia is building a giant fence to seal off its border with yemen.

two people have died in detention in mali after being tortured

12 people (5 UN peacekeepers, 2 UN staffers, and 5 civilian contractors) were killed in an ambush on a convoy in south sudan.

obama approved military assistance to somalia.

an iraqi blogger, "riverbend" who documented daily life in iraq from 2003 to 2007 before going silent after leaving for syria, posted again with a look back on the ten years of the war.

a french photographer, pierre borghi, kidnapped four months ago in kabul, has been freed.

a suicide attack in southern afghanistan killed five, three soldiers and two civilians, one of whom was diplomat anne smedinghoff, the first US diplomat to die in afghanistan since the 1970s.

a special ops raid in southern afghanistan resulted in the death of khiraullah janan, a man with family ties to afghan president hamid karzai.

taliban peace envoys were sent to qatar for negotiations in 2010. they havent left (although they are having children).

an NPR interview afghan photojournalist farzana wahidy

a candidate for provincial election in sindh province, pakistan, was assassinated, the second such killing during the country’s election campaign.

tirah valley in pakistan has become a nexus of violence as the pakistani army fights tehreek-i-taliban and lashkar-e-taiba, causing an exodus.

drone strikes are not actually only being used to target senior terrorist leaders, but lesser suspected militants and other unidentified militants within certain areas.

anonymous hacked north korean social media and networking accounts.

japan set up interceptor missiles in tokyo as a reaction to tensions on the korean peninsula.

april 10th was the official fifteenth anniversary of the good friday agreement, which ended the troubles in northern ireland.

drones will accompany an 8000 strong police force in northern ireland to provide security for the upcoming G8 summit.

a new round of trials seventy years later may bring some former guards at auschwitz to justice.

a mysterious disappearance of the defenses legal documents has delayed pretrial hearings for the guantanamo war crimes trials.

wikileaks published 1.7 million US diplomatic and intelligence records from the 1970s.

a judge ruled at a pretrial hearing that bradley mannings prosecutors are required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that manning "had reason to believe" that the files he leaked could be harmful.

defense secretary hagel has asked congress to pass legislation that would remove the power of the convening authority to overturn court martial convictions for major crimes like sexual assault.

an interview at the nation with the makers of "the invisible war"

Photo: drapes and curtains are hung all over the city of aleppo to allow safe (or the closest approximation of safe) passage of residents across streets, a protection from snipers. conflict photographer franco pagetti took a series of photographs of these colorful protective drapes, which can be viewed at TIMEs lightbox blog.