Thursday

December 3, 2015

Armed conflicts and attacks

Military intervention against ISIL, Operation Tidal Wave II

The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force bombs Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-controlled oil wells in eastern Syria. At least four Tornado GR4 fighter jets, operating out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, were involved in raids. The Ministry of Defence said initial analysis "indicates that the strikes were successful". (Sky News)

Syrian Civil War, 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

Russian president Vladimir Putin addresses the shootdown of one of their jets in Syria by the Turkish Air Force. He goes on to say that "if anyone thinks Russia's reaction will be limited to trade sanctions, they are deeply mistaken". (BBC via MSN)

Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017), American-led intervention in Iraq

Following the Obama Administration's pledge of additional Special Operations troops to Iraq, several members of Iraq’s ruling alliance state that only the Iraqi Parliament can authorize the action, and political associates of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi report such a troop expansion would be unacceptable. Several members of Iraqi militias have also decried a deployment of more U.S. troops. During the pull out from Iraq, president Obama promised there would be no more "boots on the ground" in Iraq again. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

Israel’s Holocaust and Remembrance Center posthumously adds U.S. Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds to the list of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions in 1945 at a Nazi prisoner of war camp. (NPR), (Yad Vashem)

Harvard Law School officials are reviewing the use of the school’s seal that includes three bushels of wheat, which also appears on Isaac Royall's family coat of arms. Royall, a slaveholder whose father was known to be a cruel owner, left part of his estate to help found the law school. (MSNBC), (The Boston Globe)