Structure hit, suicide bomber success, another suicide bomber at the hospital handling casualties, and then a unit of unknown size storms the hospital in an attack lasting hours? I first noticed the Balochistan independence movement about six months ago. The action that gets reported has thus far been in Pakistan.
CORRECTION: Balochistan Triple Tap
The structure hit was indeed the Balochistan Liberation Army, striking a symbolic target with no loss of life.The suicide bombings and armed assault were not at all related. … So I had some good background, some good maps, but this one conceptual error throws the whole piece off kilter. Rather than editing it in place, I felt a clean update was best.
Declining Oil Production: Syria, Egypt & Yemen
Oil producers are subject to an effect know as the Export Land Model. Basically, oil fuels internal growth and when production declines exports decline even more swiftly, as producers steer production into uses at home. Egypt, Syria, and Yemen have all featured heavily here and they are first up in the ominously titled How Oil Exporters Reach Financial Collapse.
The ethnic and sectarian divides in Syria are fueling their civil war, and they have a long history of intervention in the affairs of Lebanon. These maps show with increasing focus the ethnic and religious groups that inhabit the region.
