How a spate of terrorist attacks by a ‘resurgent’ Daesh threaten to push Syria deeper into chaos

Thirteen years of civil war and sanctions, the twin earthquakes of February 2023, and the spillover of the Gaza conflict have traumatized and impoverished the Syrian people. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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How a spate of terrorist attacks by a ‘resurgent’ Daesh threaten to push Syria deeper into chaos

  • Five years since its territorial defeat, there are fears Daesh could be about to stage a comeback in Iraq and Syria
  • Economic hardship, national fragmentation, and spillover from Gaza could create conditions for a new insurgency

LONDON: Just when Syrians thought they could finally put the horrors of the past decade behind them, the first half of 2024 bore witness to a series of savage attacks by an Islamist group that many hoped had been vanquished for good.

Daesh claimed responsibility for 153 terrorist attacks in Syria and Iraq in the first six months of this year, according to US Central Command — already surpassing the 121 attacks reported over the entirety of 2023.

At its peak in 2015, the terrorist group controlled roughly 110,000 sq. km of territory — a third of Syria and 40 percent of Iraq, including major cities like Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, according to the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh.

It also commanded an army exceeding some 40,000 militants and had at its disposal a formidable arsenal captured from local forces. However, after an international effort, Daesh met its territorial defeat in the village of Baghuz, eastern Syria, in March 2019.




Al-Hol camp in Syria's northeastern Al-Hasakah Governorate. (AFP/File)

Five years on, and on the 10th anniversary of the group’s 2014 blitzkrieg of Iraq and Syria, there are fears that Daesh could be about to stage a comeback, at a time when the world’s attention is distracted by crises elsewhere.

On July 22, Geir Otto Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told the Security Council that the “resurgence” of terrorist activities posed a significant threat to Syrian civilians, especially amid a deepening, country-wide humanitarian crisis.

Highlighting that Syria “remains in a state of profound conflict, complexity and division,” he said the country is “riddled” with armed actors, listed terrorist groups, foreign armies and front lines.

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies and the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Arabian Gulf Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Arab News the group’s lack of territory meant its militants had to content themselves with low-level insurgent activity.

“(Daesh) has remained a threat in Syria and the number of people that ISIS has killed and the number of attacks in 2024 has risen compared to last year,” said Landis, using another acronym for the group.

Daesh “is also trying to reconstitute itself, although it remains without territory and must carry out hit-and-run attacks and assassinations,” he added.

Ian J. McCary, deputy special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh, confirmed in March that the threat of Daesh continued to lurk in Syria and Iraq.

“We continue to see a real threat in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS at one point controlled a region with a population of approximately 10 million people,” he told the Washington Institute.

“We have seen the emergence of ISIS affiliates — the so-called ISIS Khorasan inside Afghanistan, which poses a clear external threat — and in Sub-Saharan Africa where several ISIS affiliates have emerged.”




Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. (AFP/File)

Established in early 2015 as the regional branch of Daesh in South-Central Asia, the Islamic State — Khorasan Province, also known by the acronym IS-K, initially focused on transferring fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria, according to the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies.

The group has a history of attacks that extended far beyond Afghanistan, including one that targeted the Crocus City Hall in Russia’s capital Moscow on March 22 this year, killing at least 133 people and injuring more than 100.

In January, IS-K also claimed responsibility for twin blasts in Iran that killed at least 100 people and injured 284 more during a memorial for the slain Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

In Syria, the group has staged attacks in central and northeastern Syria, targeting both the armed forces of the Bashar Assad regime and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the country’s semi-autonomous region.

Throughout much of 2020 and 2021, Daesh sleeper cells in the northeast were building an intelligence network and raising money through theft, extortion and smuggling, according to a 2022 report by the International Crisis Group.

However, analysts are particularly concerned about northeast Syria’s prisons and detention camps, where militants and their families have been held since their capture in 2019.




Women and children evacuated from Baghouz, a Daesh holdout in 2019, arrive in Deir Ezzor. (AFP/File)

Some 50,000 Daesh suspects and their family members are currently held by the SDF across 27 detention facilities, CNN reported in June. With local forces overstretched, many inmates have either escaped or been released.

According to Landis, the SDF “has amnestied a lot of detainees and converted many death sentences to 15-year prison terms. This means that many detainees are being freed from prisons in northeastern Syria.”

Human Rights Watch reported last year that there remain some 42,000 foreign Daesh supporters and their family members, the majority of them children, from 60 countries detained in northeast Syria.

The New York-based monitor said the children in those camps are “held in conditions so dire they may amount to torture, and face escalating risks of becoming victims of violence or susceptible to recruitment by (Daesh).”

Local authorities warn these detention camps have become breeding grounds for radicalization, potentially contributing to a Daesh revival. Such a reemergence would be devastating for a country already brought to the very brink.

Thirteen years of civil war and sanctions, the twin earthquakes of February 2023, and the spillover of the Gaza conflict have traumatized and impoverished the Syrian people.

In early 2024, the UN said some 16.7 million people in Syria — nearly three-quarters of the population — required humanitarian assistance. This came at a time when international aid budgets were already stretched to their limit.




Some 50,000 Daesh suspects and their family members are currently held by the SDF across 27 detention facilities. (AFP/File)

According to a July report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria remains significantly underfunded, with just $871 million of its $4.07 billion budget secured as of July 25.

Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the OCHA Coordination Division, described the situation in Syria as the “worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict,” made worse by ongoing clashes among various armed actors in northeast Syria.

“Another reason that (Daesh) has grown is because of the infighting in northeast Syria between the Arab tribes and the SDF and Kurdish militia,” said Landis.

“The chaos and internecine fighting in northeast Syria have been replicated by infighting inside Syrian government-controlled territory and northwest Syria, which is ruled by opposition militias under Turkish sponsorship and protection.

“The general poverty in Syria and declining humanitarian aid combined with ongoing sanctions is having a bad impact on stability.”

He added: “So long as Syria is divided and suffers from a shrinking economy, (Daesh) will find recruits in Syria. Police forces in all the various regions have been weakened by the lack of funds, bad government, and poverty.”

Syria has experienced a sharp economic decline since 2022, according to the World Bank’s Syria Economic Monitor for Spring 2024. The report projects that the real gross domestic product will contract by 1.5 percent this year, exceeding the 1.2 percent decline of 2023.




Bashar Assad’s Syria has experienced a sharp economic decline since 2022. (AFP/File)

According to UN figures, more than 90 percent of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line, and more than half lack access to nutritious food, resulting in more than 600,000 children suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Despite growing concerns of a Daesh resurgence in the region, Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, does not foresee the terrorist group regaining control over large areas in Syria and Iraq as it did a decade ago.

“Because of the deterioration in living conditions and the fact that the grievances of many Sunni Muslims in that region remain unanswered, there will always be an appeal for (Daesh),” he told Arab News.

“Yet, I don’t think they could ever control large swathes just because of the current situation on the ground and them being too weak to do so.”

One reason for this is that Daesh’s “modus operandi has actually changed,” he said. “They are now a borderline criminal group as opposed to being a terrorist group. The distinction between the two is whether there is a political message to their activities or not.”

He said Daesh leaders “know full well that if they decide to control large areas, there would be a serious response from multiple actors on the ground, including the Kurds backed by the US, the Syrian regime backed by Russia and Iran.”

In Iraq, the group may be deterred by “the Iraqi army, also backed by the US,” he added.




Daesh has targeted both the armed forces of the Bashar Assad regime and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. (AFP/File)

Both Shaar and Landis believe a redeployment of foreign troops to eliminate Daesh insurgents is unlikely. “I don’t see this happening given the current circumstances,” said Shaar.

Landis concurred that “more foreign troops are unlikely to be sent to Syria” to combat a resurgence. “Turkiye is seeking a deal with Assad. The US is likely to want to withdraw from Syria in the future, not increase its military position there.”

And far from involving itself in fighting Daesh, “Israel is likely to continue, if not increase, its regular attacks on state military forces in order to decrease their capabilities” as part of its shadow war with Iran and its proxies.

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Shiny and deadly, unexploded munitions a threat to Gaza children

Updated 03 April 2025
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Shiny and deadly, unexploded munitions a threat to Gaza children

  • “We’re losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment,” says former UK military deminer
  • UN Mine Action Service says it could take 14 years to make the coastal territory safe from unexploded bombs

 

JERUSALEM: War has left Gaza littered with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, with children drawn to metal casings maimed or even killed when they try to pick them up, a demining expert said.
Nicholas Orr, a former UK military deminer, told AFP after a mission to the war-battered Palestinian territory that “we’re losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment.”
According to Orr, most of the casualties are children out of school desperate for something to do, searching through the rubble of bombed-out buildings sometimes for lack of better playthings.
“They’re bored, they’re running around, they find something curious, they play with it, and that’s the end,” he said.
Among the victims was 15-year-old Ahmed Azzam, who lost his leg to an explosive left in the rubble as he returned to his home in the southern city of Rafah after months of displacement.
“We were inspecting the remains of our home and there was a suspicious object in the rubble,” Azzam told AFP.
“I didn’t know it was explosive, but suddenly it detonated,” he said, causing “severe wounds to both my legs, which led to the amputation of one of them.”
He was one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning home during a truce that brought short-lived calm to Gaza after more than 15 months of war, before Israel resumed its bombardment and military operations last month.
For Azzam and other children, the return was marred by the dangers of leftover explosives.

Children are most vulnerable
Demining expert Orr, who was in Gaza for charity Handicap International, said that while no one is safe from the threat posed by unexploded munitions, children are especially vulnerable.
Some ordnance is like “gold to look at, so they’re quite attractive to kids,” he said.
“You pick that up and that detonates. That’s you and your family gone, and the rest of your building.”
Another common scenario involved people back from displacement, said Orr, giving an example of “a father of a family who’s moved back to his home to reclaim his life, and finds that there’s UXO in his garden.”
“So he tries to help himself and help his family by moving the UXO, and there’s an accident.”
With fighting ongoing and humanitarian access limited, little data is available, but in January the UN Mine Action Service said that “between five and 10 percent” of weapons fired into Gaza failed to detonate.
It could take 14 years to make the coastal territory safe from unexploded bombs, the UN agency said.
Alexandra Saieh, head of advocacy for Save The Children, said unexploded ordnance is a common sight in the Gaza Strip, where her charity operates.
“When our teams go on field they see UXOs all the time. Gaza is littered with them,” she said.

Catastrophic situation
For children who lose limbs from blasts, “the situation is catastrophic,” said Saieh, because “child amputees require specialized long-term care... that’s just not available in Gaza.”
In early March, just before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza. That included prosthetics that could have helped avoid long-term mobility loss, Saieh said.
Unexploded ordnance comes in various forms, Orr said. In Gaza’s north, where ground battles raged for months, there are things like “mortars, grenades, and a lot of bullets.”
In Rafah, where air strikes were more intense than ground combat, “it’s artillery projectiles, it’s airdrop projectiles,” which can often weigh dozens of kilograms, he added.
Orr said he was unable to obtain permission to conduct bomb disposal in Gaza, as Israeli aerial surveillance could have mistaken him for a militant attempting to repurpose unexploded ordnance into weapons.
He also said that while awareness-raising could help Gazans manage the threat, the message doesn’t always travel fast enough.
“People see each other moving it and think, ‘Oh, they’ve done it, I can get away with it,’” Orr said, warning that it was difficult for a layperson to know which bombs might still explode, insisting it was not worth the risk.
“You’re just playing against the odds, it’s a numbers game.”


Libya ‘crackdown’ forces aid groups to cease operations: diplomats

Members of a military unit deployed in the western city of Zawiya on May 14, 2023, following clashes between armed groups. (AFP)
Updated 03 April 2025
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Libya ‘crackdown’ forces aid groups to cease operations: diplomats

  • Libya has struggled to recover from the chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi

TUNIS: Diplomats in Libya have said in a letter to authorities seen by AFP that several international humanitarian organizations were forced to suspend operations after threats by security services and forced resignations.
In the letter, which was obtained by AFP on Wednesday, 17 mainly European ambassadors and a UN official accuse the Internal Security Agency (ISA) of an “ongoing crackdown” on non-governmental groups and humanitarian aid workers.
In war-torn Libya split between two rival administrations, the ISA reports to the interior ministry in the capital Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognized government.
“Between March 13 and 27, the ISA summoned at least 18 staff members from six international NGOs for questioning,” said the letter addressed to the Tripoli-based foreign ministry.
ISA agents “seized some of their passports,” forced them to “resign from their positions” and pledge in writing never to work for an international NGO again, the letter added.
It also said the security service “sealed some of their offices.”
Beyond the six groups directly affected, the diplomats said that “many other organizations are suspending activities as a matter of precaution.”
AFP was not able to independently verify the claims made in the letter, dated March 27.
The authorities in Tripoli did not immediately comment on the matter, but announced a press conference later on Wednesday to address “the work of international NGOs.”
Libya has struggled to recover from the chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
It remains split between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival authority in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The diplomats’ letter does not name the organizations affected by the ISA’s alleged measures, but a source familiar with the issue said on condition of anonymity that they include the International Rescue Committee, the International Medical Corps and the Danish Refugee Council.
Contacted by AFP, the Danish Refugee Council said it “could not comment” on the matter. There was no immediate comment from the other groups.
The source said that some foreign NGO staff members had been ordered to leave Libya, while others had been barred from returning after recent trips abroad.
The source mentioned that the authorities had already imposed visa restrictions on foreign humanitarian workers between July 2022 and December 2023, but operations had continued using local staff or individuals who did not require visas.
In their letter, the diplomats from the European Union, France, Britain and other countries as well as a top UN humanitarian representative voiced concern about the impact of the measures.
The crackdown including detention and questioning of staff members has had a “particularly alarming” effect “on the provision of humanitarian primary health assistance,” the letter said.
It urged authorities to allow the NGOs to “reopen their offices and safely restart humanitarian operations as soon as possible.”
It also demanded that seized passports be returned to staff members, and “any resignation letters or pledges signed at the ISA office” invalidated.

 


Will US pressure on Iraq succeed in bringing Iran-backed militias to heel?

Updated 03 April 2025
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Will US pressure on Iraq succeed in bringing Iran-backed militias to heel?

  • The Popular Mobilization Forces are formally part of Iraq’s state security apparatus, but include powerful militias loyal to Iran’s IRGC
  • A long-debated Iraqi law aims to regulate the PMF, but critics argue it will do little to curb their ties to Iran or ease American pressure

LONDON: It was a message that was both unequivocal and uncompromising. Iraq must rein in the sprawling network of militia groups that take their orders from Iran, and if they threaten American interests in the country, the US will respond.

The comments were delivered last week by Tammy Bruce, the US State Department spokesperson, in response to a question on a new law being wrangled over in Iraq about the future of the Popular Mobilization Forces.

A military parade held by Iraq's army, Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), and the Police force, drives down a highway during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the defeat of the Daesh group, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on December 10, 2024. (AFP)/File)

The PMF, an umbrella group for dozens of militias in Iraq, includes many that take their money and orders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, despite belonging to Iraq’s formal state security apparatus.

Along with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza, they are considered part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” — a network of proxy militias throughout the Middle East loyal to the IRGC.

America’s renewed military campaign against the Houthis, along with the degradation of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel and the fall of Iranian ally Bashar Assad in Syria, has placed increased focus on Iraq’s Iran-backed militias.

They remain the only major Iranian proxy in the region to avoid significant Israeli or US military action since the Gaza conflict began in October 2023.

Doubts have been cast over whether the long-proposed Iraqi law to assert greater central government control over the militias would have much of an effect — or sufficiently appease US concerns.

But domestic events in Iraq, along with US President Donald Trump’s renewal of the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran to suspend its nuclear program, place the PMF increasingly in the firing line.

There is a lot of pressure from the Trump administration on the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to rein in the Iran-backed militias, Renad Mansour, a senior Iraq research fellow at Chatham House, told Arab News. “Especially to stop any kind of attacks on American citizens or interests in Iraq.”

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during an event commemorating the 21st anniversary of the creation of "Asaib Ahl al-Haq", one of the member factions of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitaries, in Baghdad on May 3, 2024. (AFP)

Mansour said the policy stemmed from renewed US efforts to combat Iranian influence in the region. “It’s very clear that the Trump administration is looking at Iraq as an important vehicle where Iran maintains economic and other types of authority,” he said.

The PMF, known in Arabic as Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, was created in 2014 in response to a fatwa issued by the country’s top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, after the extremist group Daesh seized swathes of territory.

The sprawling network of armed groups included many armed and funded by Iran. Many came from existing militias mobilized by the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force.

Members of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi faction walk near the frontline on October 21, 2016, near the village of Tall al-Tibah, some 30 kilometrers south of Mosul, during an operation to retake the main hub city from the Daesh group jihadists. (AFP)

The PMF comprised approximately 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups made up of around 250,000 fighters. They played a major role in the defeat of Daesh in Iraq alongside the Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and the US-led coalition.

After the extremist group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and attention turned to its holdouts in Syria, questions began to be raised over the purpose of the PMF.

A flimsy Iraqi law in 2016 attempted to exert more state control over the militias and included some basic details about their structure and employment terms.

IN NUMBERS

• 250k Fighters the PMF claims to have under arms.

• $3.3 billion Iraqi state funding at the PMF’s disposal.

Meanwhile, the PMF developed political wings that contested elections. These party blocs were accused by political rivals and Western governments of causing instability and acting in Iran’s interest.

The militias suffered a major blow in January 2020 when the first Trump administration killed PMF chief Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis alongside Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad airport.

Later that year, Al-Sistani, who had given the PMF its religious legitimacy when it was originally formed, withdrew his own factions as concerns over Iranian influence grew.

Iraqis participate in a candle light vigil marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, near Baghdad's International Airport on January 2, 2024. (AFP/File)

Yet the PMF managed to rebound from these setbacks, increasing both its funding and armory, including Iranian drones and missiles.

It has also been at the center of domestic turmoil, with its factions accused of an assassination attempt on then-Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in November 2021 and militias clashing with supporters of cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr in 2022.

After the Gaza war began in October 2023, the militias launched drones and missiles at Israel and carried out dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq, where some 2,500 troops remain as part of the coalition mission against Daesh.

In February last year, the Biden administration bombed 85 militia targets in Iraq and Syria after three US soldiers were killed in a drone attack on a Jordanian outpost known as Tower 22. 

Maxar satellite imagery of Tower 22 which houses a small number of US.Troops in northern Jordan.  (Satellite image (c) 2024 Maxar Technologies/via AFP)

The US said senior commanders from the Kataib Hezbollah militia were among those killed. Since then, Iran has urged its militias in Iraq to refrain from attacking US interests.

“The Iraqi militias’ harassment of US targets in Iraq ended when the Biden administration took out three top commanders from the Kataib Hezbollah,” Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Arab News.

“This signaled to militia leaders that their safety became at risk and their attacks stopped.”

The second Trump administration made clear in February when it issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum that Iraq’s militias would be central to renewed pressure on Iraq to reduce economic ties to Iran.

The other front is for Iraq to reduce dollar transactions with Tehran, particularly through cutting purchases of energy.

Demonstrators,one with a portrait of Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, shout slogans during a march in solidarity with the people of Gaza in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 5, 2024. (AFP)

But there is also the wider geopolitical pressure on the militias as a result of US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s other proxies in the region, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

“The Iraq militias became the last resort for all other Iranian militias across the region,” said Abdul-Hussain. “Since Israel crushed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, the pro-Iran militia weight has shifted to Iraq.”

On the economic pressure now being exerted on Iran, he said the US is aware that the IRGC is siphoning US dollars from Iraq’s oil revenues, mainly using the $3.3 billion budget allocated to the PMF.

In response to this renewed pressure, the PMF Service and Retirement Law was introduced to the Iraqi parliament last week after months of wrangling over its contents.

A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location in Yemen after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against the Iran-aligned Houthis on March 15, 2025. (US Central Command/Handout via REUTERS)

The bill aims to fully integrate the PMF into Iraq’s state security forces. However, critics say it has been hijacked by rival Shiite blocs jostling for advantage within the organization. 

In its current form, the bill is unlikely to fill the US with confidence that the PMF will fully submit to central government control and renounce fealty to Iran. Abdul-Hussain described the bill as a “total smoke screen.”

He said: “Parliament is trying to enshrine PMF perks by law for fear that the next executive chief might not be Iran-friendly and could thus cut the $3.3 billion with a decree. Laws trump decrees, and that’s why the Iraqi parliament is racing to enshrine PMF funding in a law.

“The irony is that the same law does not demand that the organization follow a military order or be included under the military’s rank or supervision. They want to take the money but keep the hierarchy in the hands of the IRGC.”
 

 


Israel’s military faces backlash over AI ‘Ghibli-style’ social media posts

Updated 02 April 2025
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Israel’s military faces backlash over AI ‘Ghibli-style’ social media posts

  • Attempt to jump on trend of posting AI-generated images in style of famed Japanese animation studio

LONDON: An attempt by the Israeli military to jump on the bandwagon of a social media trend that uses AI-generated images in the style of a legendary Japanese animation studio has spectacularly backfired.

The internet has been flooded by images in the style of Studio Ghibli after ChatGPT maker OpenAI launched a new image generator last week.

The craze has intensified debate over the extent to which artificial intelligence models breach copyright of artists. It also contrasts the painstaking work that goes into meticulously crafting the beautiful hand-drawn films produced by Studio Ghibli with the instant gratification culture fed by social media and the emergence of AI models.

Not wanting to be left out, the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday posted four images depicting different branches of its military in the Ghibli style on its social media accounts.

“We thought we’d also hop on the trend,” the post said.

What followed was a barrage of responses, many angry, many humorous, denouncing and mocking the post.

The images were shared as Israel intensified the bombing of Gaza where it has already killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and forced the population to flee their homes in an action it began in October 2023.

Many responded with AI-generated images in the Ghibli style on X that depicted Israeli brutality in the Palestinian territory.

The counter-images depicted Israeli soldiers mocking a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian child, and IDF troops pointing rifles at women and children against a backdrop of devastation.

“Colonizing art too,” read one reply in reference to Israel’s building of illegal settlements and its occupation of Palestinian land.

Other users pointed out that Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, is a staunch pacifist and that many of his films contain strong anti-war messages.

He famously refused to travel to the US in 2003 to attend the Academy Awards where his work “Spirited Away” won an Oscar.

A video from 2016 appears to show Miyazaki’s disdain for AI-generated imagery. A clip from a documentary shows Miyazaki saying he was “utterly disgusted” after seeing an AI demo.


Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 6 people, Houthi rebels say

Updated 03 April 2025
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Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 6 people, Houthi rebels say

  • In addition, US overnight air raids left four people dead in Hodeida
  • Houthi-held parts of Yemen have witnessed near-daily attacks blamed on the United States

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Suspected US airstrikes battered rebel-controlled areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with the Houthis saying the attacks killed at least six people across the country.
Meanwhile, satellite images taken Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press show at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.
The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump, targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war, has killed at least 67 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.
The campaign showed no signs of stopping as the Trump administration again linked its airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. While so far giving no specifics about the campaign and its targets, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt put the overall number of strikes on Tuesday at more than 200.
“Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said. “They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels and this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored.”
The Houthis haven’t acknowledged the loss of any of its leadership so far — and the US hasn’t identified any official by name. However, messages released by the leak of a Signal conversation between Trump administration officials and their public comments suggest a leader in the rebels’ missile forces had been targeted.
Fatal strike reportedly targets Hodeida
A likely US airstrike targeted what the Houthis described as a “water project” in Hodeida governorate’s Mansuriyah District, killing four people and wounding others. Other strikes into Wednesday targeted Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa governorates, the rebels said. Into Wednesday night, the Houthis said some 17 strikes hit Saada, with a person being killed in a strike at Ras Isa port in Hodeida and another at a telecommunication site on Jebel Namah mountain in Ibb governorate.
The rebels say they’ve continued to launch attacks against US warships in the Red Sea, namely the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which is carrying out the majority of the strikes on the Houthis. No warship has been struck yet, but the US Navy has described the Houthi fire as the most intense combat its sailors have faced since World War II.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, now in Asia, is on its way to the Middle East to back up the Truman. Early Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that “additional squadrons and other air assets” would be deployed to the region, without elaborating.
More than 300 airmen and several A-10 Thunderbolt IIs have deployed into the Middle East as well to support the mission from the Idaho Air National Guard. The troops, from Idaho’s 124th Fighter Wing out of Boise, fly the aircraft known as the Warthog. The US military’s Central Command, which oversees Mideast operations, posted an image Wednesday of two A-10s flying in the region.
More B-2s seen at Diego Garcia
Satellite photos taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by the AP showed at least six nuclear-capable B-2 bombers deployed to Camp Thunder Bay on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The deployment represents nearly a third of all the B-2 bombers in Washington’s arsenal. It’s highly unusual to see that many at one base abroad. Typically, so-called show of force missions involving the B-2 have seen two or three of the aircraft conduct operations in foreign territory.
The B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the US military in combat, because each aircraft is worth around $1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well. The bombers are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there.
The US has used the B-2 in Yemen last year to attack underground Houthi bases. The B-2 likely would need to be used if Washington ever tried to target Iran’s underground nuclear sites as well.
The Houthis on Tuesday said that they shot down another American MQ-9 drone over the country.
Intense US bombings began on March 15
An AP review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former US President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The attacks greatly raised the profile of the Houthis, who faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers in Yemen amid a decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.