The Chechen Wars Cast a Long Shadow
The TOS-1 thermobaric rocket launcher is a nasty reminder of the Chechen wars. The weapon is an anti-personnel, anti-fortification system that uses fuel-air explosives. It can literally tear the air from someone’s lungs. The Kremlin used it extensively during the second Chechen war — which lasted from from 1999... Read more
These Aren’t the Chemical Weapons You’re Looking For
Outgoing Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted this week that in the 1980s British companies sold precursor chemicals to the Syrian government that Damascus used to manufacture lethal sarin. But even as late as 2012, British firms were planning to honor contracts to export dual-use chemicals to Syria—in other words,... Read more
No, Iraqi Terrorists Aren’t About to Gas Us
One of the first things that the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria may have noticed when they rode up to a jumble of ruined bunkers 80 miles north of Baghdad was the smell of garlic. This is the odor of dispersed mustard gas. Now picked... Read more
Dam Warfare

Dam Warfare

Uncategorized July 10, 2014

In April 2014, fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria captured the Nuaimiyah Dam in western Iraq, despite earlier efforts to defend the site. They then overflowed it to dislodge Iraqi soldiers dug in upstream of the site—and to deny drinking water to civilians downstream. Iraq’s water... Read more