Italy probes suspect in Sarajevo ‘sniper tourism’ during Bosnia war: Report Report says an 80-year-old suspect faces charges on several counts, including premeditated murder. 5 Feb 2026, Al Jazeera The Human Hunters of Sarajevo / True Crime Reports Prosecutors in Italy have placed a man under investigation as part of a probe into alleged “sniper tourism” in Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, the Reuters news agency reports. Sources told Reuters on Wednesday that the man, the first individual to be identified in the inquiry that began last year, is an 80-year-old former truck driver who lives near the northern Italian town of Pordenone. Italian prosecutors launched an investigation last year, after it was alleged that foreigners, including nationals from Italy, had travelled to Bosnia and paid large amounts of money to shoot at civilians during the siege of Sarajevo three decades ago . The grotesque scheme has been referred to as “sniper safaris” in reference to expeditions to hunt animals in the wild, mostly in Africa. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the elderly suspect, who was not named, faces charges of several counts of premeditated murder, according to sources who spoke to the news agency. The sources did not tell Reuters whether the man is suspected of directly carrying out killings or of helping with transport and logistics for clients. The man, who remains free, has been summoned by prosecutors for questioning on February 9, the sources added. An estimated 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb army positions on hills around Sarajevo city during the 1992-95 war that followed Bosnia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. ‘Tourist shooters’ Milan prosecutors opened their investigation into the killing of civilians in the so-called sniper scheme after local journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint over allegations that Italians and other foreigners had paid members of Bosnian Serb forces to let them take part in the shooting of people in Sarajevo. Gavazzeni said he was inspired to look into the allegations after watching the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari” by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic. A witness cited in Gavazzeni’s complaint said that three men, who are now being investigated, come from the cities of Turin, Milan and Trieste. According to the Italian publication La Repubblica, “tourists” paid up to 100,000 euros ($116,000), adjusted for current inflation rates and currency change, as the euro was not introduced until 1999, to join trips to Sarajevo to commit the killings. Gavazzeni claims that participants would be given a price list for the type of kill that foreigners would pay for, including to target children, which cost the most, then men, women and elderly people, who could be killed free of charge. He said the Italians met in the city of Trieste before travelling to Belgrade, where Bosnian Serb soldiers escorted them to hills overlooking Sarajevo. It is believed that citizens of the United States and Russia also took part in the practice. In 2007, former US Marine John Jordan testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that “tourist shooters” had come to Sarajevo . Serbia has denied any involvement in the alleged scheme, but investigators believe that Serbian intelligence services were aware of the tourist trips. The launch of the Italian investigation in November 2025 raised survivors’ hopes that those responsible would be brought to justice. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network Genocide Watch Comments: Murder, when ' part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack' remains a crime against humanity. This constitutes a grave crime against humanity, a violation of international hu manitarian law (Geneva Conventions - Articles 146/147 GC IV), Customary international law, Rome Statute, The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Notice the lack of publicity that this issue has gained at a European and international level.

In closing statements at the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others, prosecutors demanded 45 years in prison for each of them, based on the 'gravity' of the war-crimes charges against them. Hashim Thaci (R) and Rexhep Selimi (L) at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, February 9, 2026. Photo: Kosovo Specialist Chambers Livestream/Screenshot. On the first day of closing statements in the war-crimes trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Monday, the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, SPO, sought a sentence of 45 years’ imprisonment for each of the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. “The SPO has requested convictions on all 10 counts and the imposition of a single sentence of 45 years based on the individual contributions to the crimes made by each of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi,” chief prosecutor Kimberly West told the court. “These crimes are war crimes and crimes against humanity and are grave in nature. And the gravity of the charges has not diminished with the passage of time,” she added. West stressed that “a conviction and sentence are not sought against the General Staff, nor against the KLA. Equally, no conviction is sought, and no sentence can be imposed, on the sole basis of being a member of the General Staff or of the KLA.” The Specialist Chambers have been widely criticised by ethnic Albanians who consider the court ethnically biased and seeking to undermine the legacy of what they see as the KLA’s just war against Serbian forces. The KLA War Veterans’ Organisation has staged four mass protests across Europe in support of the ex-KLA leaders on trial. However, prosecutors have insisted that the KLA itself is not on trial, despite the perception. Thaci, Krasniqi, Selimi and Veseli are accused of having individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and in neighbouring Albania, including 102 murders. The crimes were allegedly committed during and just after the Kosovo war in 1998 and 1999. Thaci was indicted in October 2020 and resigned as Kosovo’s president the following month. He and the others have been in detention in The Hague ever since. The so-called special court is part of Kosovo’s justice system but is based in The Hague with an international staff to ensure fair proceedings, after witness intimidation problems arose in previous KLA-related cases. Many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doors to protect their identities due to fears of reprisals, but this has led to allegations of a lack of transparency. The prosecution argues that Thaci and three others had command responsibility over lower-ranking fighters and also committed crimes themselves. The defence has maintained that the KLA did not have a proper command structure, and that the accused did not have the authority to hold the guerrilla fighters accountable, as real power in the KLA was held by operational zone commanders. The closing statements are scheduled to continue until February 18, with a day off on Kosovo’s independence day, on February 17. After the closing statements, the judges’ panel has 90 days to consider its verdict, which means it may come in the spring. Copyright BIRN 2015

Powerful explosion rocks Shia mosque in Pakistani capital’s Tarlai Kalan area during Friday prayers. People shift an injured man to a hospital following an explosion at a mosque in Islamabad on February 6, 2026 [Aamir Qureshi/AFP] An apparent suicide attack at a Shia mosque in Islamabad has killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more, in one of the worst such incidents to hit Pakistan’s capital. The powerful explosion occurred at Khadija Tul Kubra mosque, in southeastern Islamabad’s Tarlai Kalan area, during Friday prayers. A senior police official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity the explosion appeared to be a suicide attack but the conclusive cause is yet to be determined. “Our team is present at the site and we’re in process of confirming the cause,” he said. A security source told told AFP on condition of anonymity the attacker detonated himself after being stopped at the gate of the mosque. In a statement, Islamabad administration said 169 people were transferred to hospital after rescue teams reached the site of the explosion. Footage shared on social media and verified by Al Jazeera showed bloodied bodies laying on the floor of the mosque, surrounded by broken glass and debris. In a statement, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his “deep grief” following the incident. In November last year, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the Islamabad District Judicial Complex, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens. In September 2008, a suicide bomber detonated a dump truck at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 250. Al Jazeera’s Abid Hussain contributed to this report. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

Prosecutor's Office crest. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR A Kohtla-Järve politician who is a self-described fascist and who has called for a Russian invasion of Estonia may face a fine or even detention for hate speech over social media, Delfi reported . Aleksandr Sahno, 32, who ran in last autumn's local elections in the Ida-Viru County town of Kohtla-Järve, where picked up eight votes, came to the attention of the authorities after he shared materials on social media supporting Russia's aggression, materials which include hate speech and incitement. Sahno has openly and publicly described himself as a fascist, threatened Estonians and Ukrainians, and said that in the event of any Russian invasion of Estonia, he would side with the occupiers. Jõhvi police investigator Triin Pihlak confirmed to Delfi that misdemeanor proceedings have been initiated against Sahno under § 151(1) of the Penal Code after law enforcement received a report some time ago that a TikTok account had published materials supporting Russia and inciting hatred. In the course of their investigation into Sahno, the authorities also obtained video clips and screenshots, which provided sufficient basis to launch proceedings, Pihlak said, adding: "The investigation will continue to establish all the circumstances of the incident." Sahno's posts and statements have also justified the actions of Russia leader Vladimir Putin and the now-deceased Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group which launched an abortive coup in summer 2023; he has also called for the destruction of Ukrainians, and, via TikTok livestreams, accused the West of prolonging the war, disparaged Estonia's aid to Ukraine, and regurgitated Russian propaganda narratives. Sahno has also taken part in TikTok streams together with Russian ultra-nationalist Konstantin Gorlov, expelled from Estonia and hit with an entry ban as a national security threat and after his residence permit expired, while Sahno has also issued threats against various European countries. Delfi reports Sahno first joined the Social Democratic Party, in March 2022, leaving to join the Centre Party in October 2024, but he was expelled from Centre in August last year once his views and activities became clear.He then joined the pro-Kremlin KOOS party and ran at the October local elections in Kohtla-Järve, polling eight votes. Under § 151(1) of the Penal Code, incitement to hatred is punishable by a fine of up to €2,400 or by detention. On being expelled at a border checkpoint last summer, Gorlov complained that "you ruined my life." ERR News

Associated Press February 2, 2026 By Amir Aman Kiyaro Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters attend an orientation session in Western Oromia, Ethiopia, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo) Wanted by the Ethiopian government, rebel military leader Jaal Marroo moves constantly to stay ahead of drones hunting him from the skies. The rebel commander leads the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) from a series of remote forest outpost in Oromia, the country’s biggest region with a population of roughly 40 million people. The government has designated the former student as a terrorist, accusing the OLA of massacring civilians in ethnically motivated attacks. But in a rare interview from one of his hideouts, Marroo rejected accusations that his fighters target civilians. “Our war is not against the people,” he told The Associated Press. “It is against the brutal regime that has occupied and oppressed the nation for generations.” He added: “We are fighting to correct a system that treats the Oromo as subjects, rather than citizens. Our goal is to establish a democratic, inclusive political order based on the will of the people.” ‘Almost impossible to travel’ The OLA has been battling Ethiopia’s government since 2018, even if at times the rebellion was overshadowed by the country’s other conflicts, such as the 2020-2022 war in the northern Tigray region . United Nations investigators have accused the OLA of serious abuses, including killings, rapes and kidnappings. But human rights monitors, who have also documented violations by government forces, say indiscriminate drone strikes , extrajudicial killings and disappearances have become a hallmark of their counterinsurgency campaign. “The research that we conducted puts both the OLA and the government forces in the middle of the conflict in terms of summary executions, in terms of torture, in terms of abductions, in terms of rape of women,” said Sarah Kimani, a regional spokesperson for Amnesty International, which will publish a report in March into human rights abuses in the region. “Our report is able to point to both groups having been responsible for the atrocities that are being carried out in the Oromia region and that continue to be carried out against civilians in the region,” she told the AP. Ayantu Bulcha was at home in the capital, Addis Ababa , when she heard that soldiers had come to her family’s house in Oromia in early December. Her cousin was shot outside the property, she said. Then the soldiers took her father and her uncle to a nearby field, where they were also killed, she said. They had been accused of fighting alongside the OLA. “There have been threats against my family since the killing, and even before that,” said Bulcha, who is a member of an Ethiopian opposition party. She denies allegations that her relatives belonged to the rebels. Lensa Hordofa, a civil servant from Oromia’s Shewa region, said her family faces constant harassment and extortion from armed men. This includes demands for food and other supplies. Her uncle was recently detained and only released after paying a ransom of 100,000 Ethiopian birr ($650). “Movement from place to place has become increasingly restricted,” she said. “It’s almost impossible to travel.” Bulcha said she was too scared to return home, fearing retaliation by government forces. “My frail mother is left alone in an empty house, grieving. I can’t even go there to grieve with her,” she said. “I am afraid for my own safety.” Attacks on hospitals and clinics Ethiopia restricts access to Oromia for journalists and rights groups, meaning the conflict is largely hidden. “Unfortunately, the human rights situation — as well as the overall humanitarian crisis in Oromia — is underreported,” said Getu Saketa Roro, co-founder of Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa. Regional and federal government representatives did not respond to requests for comment. In January 2025, the U.N. reported that 3.2 million children were not in school because of the fighting. In the Wollega district , where Bulcha’s family lives, aid groups struggle to distribute supplies, contributing to high malnutrition. Hospitals and clinics have also come under attack. In 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that “nearly all” the 42 health posts in Oromia’s Begi district had been looted or damaged. Tulu Getachew, a coffee farmer from Wollega, has been unable to return home for three years due to the security situation. He hired workers to collect his beans, but the harvest was stolen by armed men. ’’One party hurts you because they say you belong to the other,” he said. “You suffer because they say your family member is affiliated with the government or OLA.” Although Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is from Oromia — and the Oromo make up roughly 35% of Ethiopia’s population — many Oromo say that they are still marginalized in Ethiopia’s federal system, which grants resources and self-governance rights based on ethnicity. ‘Oromia is very insecure’ Recent government offensives have eroded the OLA’s military capabilities, analysts say. At the end of 2024 the authorities convinced one of the group’s main commanders to defect, further degrading its capabilities. The government claims hundreds of thousands of displaced people have been able to return home. But the conflict continues to destabilise the region, with civilians caught in the middle of the violence. Members of the Amhara ethnicity , Ethiopia’s second-biggest group, have been targeted for attacks, according to rights monitors. Meanwhile insurgents from the region of Amhara have also carried out attacks in Oromia. Armed banditry is also prevalent, and kidnapping has become a particular issue. It is not always clear who is responsible for the abductions. “Oromia is very insecure, not simply because of the OLA but because of other groups operating as criminal enterprises, engaging in extortion, kidnapping and robberies,” said Magnus Taylor, Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group. _____ For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org . © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A Pristina court for a second time found Muhamet Alidemaj, a former Serbian policeman, guilty of war crimes in the village of Izbice, where 130 men were shot dead in March 1999. Muhamet Alidemaj in court in Pristina on February 2, 2026. Photo: BIRN. After a retrial, Pristina Basic Court on Monday sentenced Muhamet Alidemaj, a former Serbian policeman, to 13 years’ imprisonment for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999. Alidemaj had pleaded not guilty. In December 2025, he told the court: “I am one million per cent not guilty.” In the first verdict on the case, on July 12, 2024, Alidemaj also similarly said that he was “not 100 per cent but 1,000 per cent” not guilty of the charges, claiming he had not even been in Kosovo from September 1998 to 2021. The Pristina Basic Court had sentenced Alidemaj to 15 years of imprisonment but the Court of Appeals returned the case for retrial in August 2025. On Monday, the trial panel confirmed the verdict again. The court established that, on March 18, 1999, Alidemaj entered the village of Izbice with other Serbian police and military forces. They then forced a villager to lead them on a search of her house at gunpoint, slapped her, stole 1,000 German marks from her and set her property on fire. They then forcibly separated women and children under 12 from the men and ordered the former to go to Albania. The men were then divided into groups and about 130 of them were executed with automatic weapons. Only 12 managed to survive. After the Kosovo war, the bodies were found in a mass grave at a police training centre in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica in Serbia. Prosecutor Ilir Morina, in closing statements on July 9, withdrew the second count of the indictment, which claimed that two months after the attack, the accused and other members of Serbian forces returned to the village, exhumed the bodies with an excavator and took them away. The sentence can be appealed. Copyright BIRN 2015

Manhunt under way in southwestern province after attacks by separatist group kill dozens, including 31 civilians. Pakistani security personnel cordon off a road leading to the blast site in the Balochistan provincial capital, Quetta, on Sunday [Banaras Khan/AFP] Pakistani security forces have killed at least 145 fighters in the restive Balochistan province in a manhunt launched after a series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks that left nearly 50 people dead. The announcement on Sunday came a day after the attacks, which began early on Saturday at multiple locations across southwestern Balochistan and left 31 civilians, including five women, and 17 security personnel dead. The assault, claimed by the banned separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), prompted authorities to impose months-long security restrictions on the province, banning public gatherings, demonstrations and limiting traffic movement. The measures also ban the use of face coverings that conceal the identification of individuals in public places, the Dawn newspaper reported. Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial chief minister, told reporters in Quetta that troops and police officers responded swiftly to the attacks, killing 145 members of “Fitna al-Hindustan,” a phrase the government uses for the BLA. The number of fighters killed over the past two days was the highest in decades, he said. “The bodies of these 145 killed terrorists are in our custody, and some of them are Afghan nationals,” Bugti said. He claimed that the “Indian-backed terrorists” wanted to take hostages, but failed to make it to the city centre. Pakistan’s military said 92 fighters were killed on Saturday, while 41 were killed on Friday. “We had intelligence reports that this kind of operation was being planned, and as a result of those, we started pre-operations a day before,” Bugti said. Bugti also accused Afghanistan of backing the assailants, and said senior leaders of the BLA were operating from Afghan territory. Both New Delhi and Kabul deny the allegations. In a statement on Sunday, India denied the assertion, accusing Islamabad of deflecting attention from its own internal problems. “We categorically reject the ‌baseless allegations made by Pakistan,” the spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said, adding that Islamabad should instead address the “longstanding demands of its people in the region”. Balochistan, which is also Pakistan’s poorest province, has faced decades-long violence and separatist attacks by ethnic Baloch seeking greater autonomy and a larger share of the area’s natural resources. The BLA regularly targets Pakistani security forces and has attacked civilians, including Chinese nationals, who are among thousands working on various projects in the province. Officials said the latest assaults on Saturday were launched almost simultaneously across the Quetta, ​Gwadar, Mastung and Noshki districts, with armed men opening fire at security installations, including a Frontier Corps headquarters, attempting ‌suicide bombings and briefly blocking roads in urban areas. Outside a damaged shop, private security guard Jamil Ahmed Mashwani said the attackers struck shortly after midday. “They hit me on my face and head,” he said. Pakistani Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif said that two of the attacks involved female fighters. He noted that the attacks were now increasingly targeting civilians, labourers and low-income communities. The United States condemned the attacks, with its charge d’affaires, Natalie Baker, calling them acts of terrorist violence and saying Washington stood in solidarity ‍with Pakistan. The BLA is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation. Pakistan has also faced periodic attacks by armed groups elsewhere in the country, including factions linked to the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

A protester facing down Customs and Border Protection officers during a demonstration over the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents, Minneapolis, January 24, 2026 Arthur Maiorella/Anadolu/Getty Images Fifteen Below Zero The New York Review of Books January 30, 2026 Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein   Up against the delirious scale of Operation Metro Surge, ordinary people juggle daily life with looking out for each other however they can. Driving to St. Paul from the airport you pass under Fort Snelling, an enormous limestone structure from the early nineteenth century. In November 1862, following the bloody conclusion of the US–Dakota War, 1,700 people from the Dakota tribe were forced to march to Fort Snelling and kept in a concentration camp on the river flats below. The next month thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota—the largest mass execution in US history. Between one hundred and three hundred people died in the camp. When I was a kid, growing up in St. Paul, we didn’t learn about any of this, but we did regularly go to Fort Snelling on field trips to see historical reenactors light fake cannons. The rock candy in the general store was a big draw. Today Fort Snelling is across the highway from a new detention operation, at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which serves as the local headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the past St. Paul, across the river, has largely been immune to the sorts of civilian unrest that Minneapolis has experienced over the decades; even during the 2020 uprisings things stayed fairly low-key there. But when I started calling people back home in the Twin Cities in early January, everyone was on edge. One person sent me a Minnesota Public Radio article about a man beaten unconscious by ICE agents and detained at a gas station just blocks from her house, in a sleepy neighborhood of St. Paul. Another told me that ICE had been patrolling the city’s central arteries, driving up and down University and Snelling. By then it was clear that ICE is not in Minnesota primarily to detain and deport people. The agents have come, above all, to terrorize Minnesotans. Why else would they have shown up dressed for war in tactical gear? The Obama administration deported millions of people across the country without so much fanfare. Operation Metro Surge was not well thought-out, as videos of ICE vehicles stuck in snow and agents slipping on frozen streets emphasize. But this realization brings no comfort whatsoever; even before they started killing people, it was obvious that the agents’ incompetence only made them more dangerous. The bitter cold obstructs the operation but also seems to collude with it: ICE is driving around looking for targets in weather that keeps all but those who have no choice hunkered down indoors. As the surge has ramped up, the agents haven’t seemed to fear cameras. In fact, they participate in broadcasting their own brutality, often using colored smoke canisters to yield theatrical visuals. On Reddit I watched an agent in the passenger seat of a van point his handgun at unarmed civilians on the street; I saw others violently ransacking apartments; yet another casually pepper sprayed a protester who was walking away from him; a few others dragged a young man out of a Target and then dropped him off crying soon after. One video showed a squad of agents ripping a disabled woman from her car as she tried to get to a doctor’s appointment and carrying her by her limbs like an animal. Terrorized and terrified people are still resisting the surge however they can. Seemingly overnight, churches have created warehouse-like operations to deliver food to those who have gone into hiding; Iglesia Dios Habla Hoy in South Minneapolis dropped off more than 12,000 boxes of groceries in six weeks. Food banks have been flooded with both donations and volunteers. Somali women in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood patrol the streets in safety vests and take shifts in lobbies of housing complexes, informing people of their rights and serving tea; squads of neighbors stand guard outside a Somali mall in Minneapolis and a Mexican supermarket in St. Paul, both which have been targeted by raids. In one case people linked arms to prevent ICE from entering a grocery store without a warrant. Shuttles drive people to jobs and doctors’ appointments. Volunteers travel around the city as notaries, signing Delegation of Parental Authority (DOPA) forms for separated families. Local tow-truck companies respond free of charge to calls about vehicles found on the street with their doors open, suddenly a common occurrence. Neighbors walk dogs for families in hiding. People organize to provide breast milk to babies whose parents have been taken by ICE. As has become standard in all forms of American crisis, people circulate online fundraisers for those struggling to pay rent or support their kids. Rapid response chats form on Signal and WhatsApp to alert residents when ICE shows up and to turn out crowds of observers, who blow whistles and car horns. Some people follow ICE vehicles while others record the license plates of cars leaving the Whipple building. Still others track helicopters to try to figure out where ICE is going next. Crowds play horns and bang pots outside hotels housing ICE agents. In mid-January the DoubleTree in St. Paul notified DHS employees staying there that their reservations had been canceled and the hotel was closing due to “public safety concerns.” The sheer scale of the mutual aid effort is hard to comprehend, as is the speed with which it has come together and the bravery of those responsible. At the same time, what they’re doing is largely triage, responding to emergency after emergency. Neighbors juggling jobs, kids, and their own fears are up against three thousand federal agents. (For comparison, three hundred were deployed to Chicago.) The size of Operation Metro Surge is delirious, outlandish. As state and local officials grandstand at press conferences and file lawsuits, people do what they can to protect each other and hang on. When I arrived in Minneapolis on Wednesday of last week the temperature was warmer than normal, about 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and a light crystal snow was whipping around. After days of watching videos of ICE arrests, I had unconsciously expected total pandemonium, but the pick-up area at the airport was the calmest I’d ever seen it. I drove past the gas station in St. Paul where agents beat a man unconscious; there was no sign of the abduction. At a grocery store in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, I heard one cashier ask another, “But is that illegal?” As I bagged my groceries, I asked if they were talking about ICE. “They knocked on her family’s door, but no one was home. So, they broke the camera,” one said with a shrug. On the streets of South Minneapolis, a center of ICE’s hunting operation, two days later, I found none of this surreal semi-normality. Quiet blocks are busy with volunteers driving around on patrol or standing on corners with whistles, and with ICE vehicles speeding recklessly on slick roads; agents appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. Once a car passed in front of me and I saw a man adjusting his flak jacket behind a tinted window, flashing the tell-tale embroidered POLICE patch. Another time I spotted an SUV with no front plates and two other vehicles trailing close behind. The three cars made a U-turn and then an immediate left into a side street, moving as a single, sinuous unit, like a snake. I pulled into the side street behind them and saw that they’d parked in an alleyway, and roughly a dozen agents had popped out. I circled the block to try to see where they went on foot, but there was no sign of them, and by the time I looped back they were gone. People who lived through 2020 in Minneapolis are already familiar with the sight of armed federal troops prowling their streets. During the uprisings, National Guard members patrolled neighborhoods and fired rubber bullets at civilians to enforce a curfew. Contributing to the sense of déjà vu is the fact that many of the city’s residents are again stuck at home, too afraid to go outside. As was the case during the pandemic, for some people simply running an errand or going to see friends requires a degree of planning and a certain tolerance for risk. School districts across the Twin Cities have begun offering remote learning options for students. Even some non-white citizen friends of mine are sheltering in place. The pandemic and uprising spurred people in Minneapolis to organize block by block. Neighborhood Signal and WhatsApp chats coordinated food and rent aid, then marshaled local crime watches, filling a void when police seemed to pull back on enforcement. Today these text chats once again appear to be the basic unit of organizing in Minneapolis. The resistance to ICE is driven by neighbors looking out for neighbors more than by affinity groups or any specific left-wing ideological project. Federal agents advancing on protesters after firing tear gas, Minneapolis, January 24, 2026 Arthur Maiorella/Anadolu/Getty Images Of course, one difference between this moment and the pandemic is that the majority of people are not  out of work. Whether they’re immigrants living in fear of ICE, mutual aid volunteers, or both, most are still going to their jobs, in addition to possibly caring for kids and getting dinner on the table. Many told me with a laugh that, when you add it all up, they were working eighteen- to twenty-hour days. Other than this upsurge of activity, many people are experiencing the invasion primarily by way of the videos, often filmed by citizen-observers, that spread on social media and play on the news. (“It’s like Call of Duty !” a camo-clad agent shouts in one clip, pointing his weapon at protesters. “Pretty cool, huh?”) This footage projects power far beyond the parts of the city where ICE is most active. Even the regular updates about ICE sightings in the neighborhood chats can heighten the sense that the agents are omnipresent. It’s a fine line: the networks that stoke resistance can also feed the thrum of fear. Something new about this moment: it was hard to tell how safe it was for anyone to talk to me. During my time back home, as I interviewed people directly impacted by Operation Metro Surge and tagged along with mutual aid volunteers, I kept hearing about the lengths to which ICE is going to ensnare people who criticize the agency or obstruct its terror campaign. After a local toy store was featured on ABC News for distributing 3D-printed whistles, it was visited by ICE agents who demanded employees’ work authorization documents. On January 26, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed in an interview that he had launched an investigation into private Signal chats after a right-wing podcaster infiltrated multiple patrol threads. Protesters and observers are increasingly being detained for little reason; I was told midway through my visit that if I went to the Whipple building, I should prepare to be held for up to three days. ICE’s tactics change constantly. I heard a rumor that agents are putting “Vegan” and “Coexist” bumper stickers on their cars in order to evade detection. They might be posing as delivery drivers. I heard about volunteers who followed ICE vehicles only to be led directly back to their own homes—the agents’ way of letting them know that they’d been identified. A school warned families that ICE was distributing flyers offering food, turning the food insecurity the agency had created into a trap. Volunteers delivering groceries to people in hiding have been tracked by agents looking for targets. ICE is holding three members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in detention and has refused to release information beyond their first names unless the tribe enters an “immigration agreement” with the government. School bus pick-up and drop-off monitors report ICE agents posing as observers to surveil kids. Ninety-five miles west of Minneapolis, in Willmar, ICE agents dined at a Mexican restaurant for lunch, then returned five hours later and detained three employees as they left work. They pulled a grandfather, wearing only his underwear and draped in a blanket, out of his home in 10-degree weather. They arrest observers, nearly all of whom are citizens, and drop them in woods or random parking lots. They have abducted kids as young as two; one afternoon they made a five-year-old who was captured upon his arrival home from preschool knock on the door of his house while family members hid inside. Friday, January 23, was the day of a well-publicized general strike, a call by Twin Cities labor unions for no work, no shopping, and no school. The Minnesota labor movement, among others, planned an enormous public march in downtown Minneapolis to protest ICE. I could tell that word was circulating widely online by the number of people outside the Twin Cities who texted me to ask if I was attending. Instead, I ended up interviewing people affected by ICE and shadowing mutual aid organizers, who were keeping at their work. I met with Vi in a cozy, chaotic South Minneapolis home. Vi lives in the suburbs, but because of the strike’s prohibition on shopping, she was dropping off homemade pork and chicken egg rolls to friends on her way to the rally downtown. Vi, who is Hmong, is worried about Stephen Miller’s expressed desire to denaturalize naturalized citizens like her. She has three children, and her husband has a chronic illness; she handles the bills and a lot of the family’s paperwork, on top of cooking, sewing, and everything else. She recently found it necessary to show her kids where to hide in the house if agents come to take her. Her eleven-year-old has been having nightmares about getting abducted by ICE. The five-year-old asks if there are “soldiers” outside before he opens the door. The toddler has not gone to preschool all week. “Kids cannot be kids right now,” Vi said. Meanwhile, she’s still going to work every day, even though she feels numb and disconnected from her body, and she isn’t sleeping well. “The part that scares me the most is that the rules keep changing,” she told me. “It used to be very clear.” You knew what could get you deported, what could move your case forward, and how far the government would go to enforce the law. Now it’s unclear whether laws even matter. Still, Vi told me, she was planning to join the general strike march downtown. When she hugged and kissed her kids that morning she explained why she needed to go. She doesn’t believe in waiting for a higher authority to come to her rescue. The sign she made for the protest read: “History tells us it was never government that will save us, it was the people.” A crowd of protesters marching in downtown Minneapolis, January 25, 2026 Arthur Maiorella/Anadolu/Getty Images I met another mutual aid volunteer, Lucia, in the basement of a community center in St. Paul, where she worked on her computer while we talked. (That’s to say that, like most mutual aid workers, she was still doing her day job.) Her phone never stopped lighting up with messages from her volunteer chat during our interview; she told me she has had to start carrying around an extra-large backup battery because the constant updates quickly drain her cell. Lucia is a citizen, but she was born in Mexico. A few months ago she formed a mutual aid organization using the text chat from her weekly dance group; this was in late November, after ICE broke into a home in east St. Paul without a warrant and detained an unarmed Latino man. Neighbors had come out to observe and record, but as ICE was finishing their operation, a squad from the St. Paul Police Department showed up in riot gear and tear-gassed the crowd. Lucia thought: “Nobody’s safe.” People in Lucia’s community started to go into hiding. She and her mutual aid group delivered food, gave rides, and helped with rent, among much else. Then things got scarier. For three days in a row she noticed a black Jeep parked across from her home. On the third day it was parked directly behind her car. The previous day Lucia had been organizing a supplies drive for families who might need to go into hiding, telling contacts to bring backpacks and essentials like toothbrushes, ChapStick, and feminine products. Now she packed a bag for herself and went to stay with friends for three days. The killing of Renee Good was another turning point for Lucia. As she explained to me: if ICE was ready to shoot a white woman in the head, who knew what they would do to brown people? Who knew what they would do to anyone ? After that, she doubled down on her mutual aid efforts. Lucia and her husband, Harold, like her Latino and an American citizen, now carry their passports everywhere. (So do many people in the Twin Cities, including the mayor of St. Paul, who is Hmong.) They also wear tracking devices hidden under their clothes in case they end up in an out-of-state detention center. They write and rewrite the numbers for lawyers on their arms. They’ve established plans with people who will know what it means if they send a text reading only “911.” When I asked Harold about the fear that comes with knowing he might be racially profiled as an immigrant, his answer echoed Vi’s. “The fear has always been there,” he said, “but the fear has changed because the rules have changed.” When he patrols his neighborhood with the mutual aid group or attends peaceful protests, he told me, “I’m expecting to get arrested. You’re just trying to mentally prepare.” I was set to leave on Saturday, January 24, catching a noon flight to avoid an oncoming storm on the east coast. On my last morning, I met up with a childhood friend who lives in South Minneapolis, and we trudged through the winter glare and gnarled snow to a local diner. It was 15 degrees below zero, and steam poured from the sewer vents. My friend’s life, like everyone’s, has been greatly altered by the surge; he sees ICE agents every day. Still, over breakfast, we talked about our old friends, our lives, and my kid. As we ate, the diner filled up with a typical weekend brunch crowd, choosing between medium and dark roast, pancakes and French toast, sunny-side up and scrambled. He wanted to show me his house, which he had recently purchased, so we walked the couple of blocks there. It’s a small bungalow with beautiful wood details—knotty pine paneled stairwell, battered oak floors—that are typical of the neighborhood. His partner greeted us at the door. After a quick tour, I started shuffling back into my winter gear. His partner took a phone call and drifted into the next room. All of a sudden, she was back. “I’m putting you on speaker,” she said. The person on the other end was audibly shaking. “We think he has been shot,” they said. We stood in the dim entryway, dust sparkling in the air, frozen in silence. The caller had seen a video circulated online, in which ICE agents appeared to shoot a man in the street. They thought the man in the video was their friend. My friend told me that he had just been hanging out the night before with the person in question, a sweet, gentle guy who had nonetheless been incensed by the situation. Nothing was clear yet, but they decided to go to the ICU. As my mom dropped me off at the airport, I heard from them that it was their friend, Alex Pretti, who had been shot. Just before the plane took off, I learned he was dead. This story was copublished and supported by the journalism nonprofit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project . Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein   Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein is a freelance journalist and the author of the forthcoming book Tyranny at Work: Unfreedom and the American Workplace. (January 2026) Copyright 2026 The New York Review of Books Provided for public education by Genocide Watch. Do not republish.

By Michał Jagielski Pahlavi’s name is on the lips of many protesters, who chant that they want the “shah” back. | John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images On December 28, 2025, Iranians began widespread protests against the Islamic theocratic regime’s mismanagement of the country’s economy. Food prices had surged by 72% compared to the previous year. Inflation hovered around 40% . The Iranian rial continued to lose value monthly. The government responded with a brutal crackdown on protesters. Reliable reports indicate thousands dead , with many more arrested  and imprisoned. Authorities severed the country’s access to communication channels, including the internet . Since the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, the United States has issued repeated threats against the Iranian government, openly hinting at regime change . The ongoing protests have provided President Donald Trump with an opportunity to escalate his interventionist rhetoric , as he has called on Iranians to continue protesting while promising that “ help is on its way. ” In light of the United States’ abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro , and President Trump’s subsequent promises to “run Venezuela” and control its oil resources , many experts have begun to speculate about what American intervention in Iran might mean for the country’s future. Some observers point to Reza Pahlavi , the exiled son of Iran’s former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who currently resides in Washington, D.C., as a potential pro-Western ruler. If Reza Pahlavi were to return to Iran, he would be following in his father’s footsteps as the second Pahlavi Shah installed by the American government. On the last occasion, such a decision resulted in decades of repression, instability, and widespread suffering for the Iranian people. Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the 1953 US & UK-sponsored coup After the end of World War II, the United Kingdom retained significant influence in Iran, securing highly favorable oil trade concessions. The creation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company  granted the UK a de facto monopoly over Iran’s oil and gas reserves. In 1951, the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, initiated the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry  in an effort to restore the country’s economic sovereignty. Mosaddegh’s actions limited Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s influence and directly threatened British interests. Unable to halt Mosaddegh’s plans and alarmed by his growing popularity, the UK turned to the United States for assistance . British officials persuaded their State Department and CIA counterparts in Washington that Mosaddegh was a communist sympathizer and that Iran’s oil nationalization would ultimately benefit the Soviet Union. As a result, Operation Ajax , a joint MI6–CIA plot to overthrow the Iranian government, was devised. CIA-funded operatives harassed religious and political figures and orchestrated a widespread disinformation campaign. The coup d’état succeeded in August 1953. Mosaddegh was imprisoned and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest, while absolute power was restored to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Consequences of the return of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi After returning to power, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi grew increasingly paranoid, fearing domestic opposition to his rule. He subsequently relied heavily on American support  and on the National Intelligence and Security Organization ( SAVAK ), which was established in 1957. SAVAK’s leadership was appointed directly by the Shah and granted broad autonomy in conducting its operations. Its primary objective was to identify and eliminate the Shah’s political opponents, both within Iran and among the Iranian diaspora. The organization relied on a vast network of informants, fostering an atmosphere of fear, distrust, and state surveillance. Due to Iran’s status at the time as a constitutional monarchy and SAVAK’s highly secretive nature, it is difficult to determine the full scale of SAVAK’s political repression. However, estimates by international organizations suggest that between 25,000 and 125,000 Iranians were imprisoned. Imprisonment was not limited to members of political parties, but also targeted religious figures, and ethnic minorities , including Kurds, Baloch, and Azerbaijanis. Conditions in detention  violated every international treaty on the treatment of prisoners. Prisoners were denied contact with the outside world, held in unheated cells, deprived of adequate food, medical care, and treatment, and prevented from exercising or engaging in communal activities. In prisons such as the infamous Evin Prison  in Tehran, torture was routinely employed to extract confessions. Survivors of SAVAK’s torture have reported being beaten, flogged, electrocuted, and having their teeth and fingernails forcibly torn out. Many were subjected to sexual assault, including rape. Beyond imprisonment and torture, the Shah’s tyranny extended to widespread media censorship , the banning of labor unions , the surveillance of universities , and the widespread use of capital punishment . Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s authoritarian rule left deep scars on Iranian society. In the Islamic Revolution of 1979, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and forced to flee from Iran to the United States. Since then, the Islamic Republic of Iran has ruled with an iron fist. Revolutionary Guards invaded the U.S. Embassy and captured 66 American hostages. 52 were held for 444 days until January 20, 1981. Thousands of Iranian civil servants and opponents of the Islamic regime were executed. Iran became embroiled in a war with Iraq that killed over a hundred thousand Iranians and Iraqis. Under the Islamic Republic of Iran, women have been severely subjugated. They are required to wear hijabs and are subjected to harassment by the morality police . In September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini , was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. She was beaten to death in police custody. Her death sparked massive demonstrations by Iranian women and men for women’s rights. The protests were brutally crushed by the Revolutionary Guard. Opponents of the theocratic regime are still arrested and held in the Evin Prison and other prisons, where torture, rape, beatings, starvation, and murder continue to be routine. Should Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah’s son, return to lead Iran? A Warning.   As protesters in Iran continue to die at the hands of the regime, some demonstrators, members of the Iranian diaspora, and international observers have called for the return of the former Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, as the preferred alternative to the current government. Although a Reza Pahlavi-led Iran might abolish some of the country’s oppressive religious laws and benefit from the lifting of international sanctions, the Iranian people would not be freed from official violation of their human rights. Reza Pahlavi would purport to institute a constitutional monarchy. But he would, much more likely, reinstitute an authoritarian government like his father’s regime. Reza Pahlavi is an American. If he is installed as the new Shah of Iran, the result will be much like the U.S. attempt to impose a “democracy” in Iraq led by an Iraqi expatriate, Deputy Prime Minister and Oil Minister Ahmed Chalabi, who had lived in the USA for much of his life. Chalabi turned out to be an Iran and CIA agent. He was convicted of bank fraud in Jordan and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Any government that owes its rise to power to a foreign nation is inherently indebted, as such support is never extended for charitable reasons. The primary responsibility of any government is to serve the well-being of its people, not the interests of foreign states or corporations. If Reza Pahlavi were to return as Iran’s leader, his role, much like his father’s, would be to serve his own interests and the interests of his American allies rather than those of the Iranian people. Reza Pahlavi does not possess the necessary experience required to revive Iran’s economy and restore Iranians’ trust in government institutions. If recent protests result in a political opening that allows for a new form of government to emerge, it must be the Iranian people themselves who determine their own future. Report:

The New York Times January 27, 2025 By Helene Cooper The number of deaths, injuries and missing is approaching a grim milestone after nearly four years of fighting. The funeral of a Ukrainian soldier in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, last year. The latest accounting of casualties came after talks among Russian, Ukrainian and American officials ended on Saturday on a rare positive note. Credit: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times The number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded or missing during nearly four years of war is on track to reach two million by this spring, according to a new study , a stunning toll as Russia’s assault on its neighbor grinds on. The study, published on Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that nearly 1.2 million Russian troops and close to 600,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded or were missing. That would put the overall casualty figure for both countries combined at almost 1.8 million. For the entirety of the war, casualty figures have been difficult to ascertain because Russia is believed to routinely undercount its dead and injured, and Ukraine does not disclose official figures. The study relied on American and British government estimates, among other sources. The figures present a grim accounting of Russia’s anemic progress in Ukraine, with Russian troops proceeding in some places at around 50 to 230 feet a day. Since January 2024, Russia has seized 1.5 percent of Ukrainian territory, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and occupies about 20 percent of the country. As frigid winter temperatures have slowed troops on both sides, Russia has made grinding progress through the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, as troops continue to try to gain full control of the area. Tactics on both sides have changed. Because of the constant presence of drones overhead, Russia has partially scuttled major heavy armor movements in favor of small groups of soldiers on motorcycles or on foot to try to infiltrate Ukrainian lines, in the hope that they are less noticeable to drones. Ukrainian drone officers, for their part, monitor footsteps and tire tracks in the snow , looking for Russian troops. The latest accounting of casualties came after talks among Russian, Ukrainian and American officials — the first between all three countries — ended on Saturday on a rare positive note. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the negotiations had made headway and that Ukraine was ready to hold further meetings. A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said the talks would resume next week. The United States and Ukraine have reached an agreement on much of a peace plan that has been revised several times. But whether Russia will agree to any part of the plan remains unclear. Meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb. The center put the number of Russian troop deaths at close to 325,000 since President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion in February 2022. “No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities since World War II,” the study said. There were roughly 415,000 Russian deaths and injuries in 2025 alone, with an average of nearly 35,000 per month. Last week, President Trump said that nearly 26,000 soldiers were dying in Ukraine every month. The study estimated that 100,000 to 140,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed since the war began. Russians outnumber Ukrainians on the battlefield almost three to one, and Russia has a larger population from which to replenish its ranks. Ukraine is losing a larger share of its smaller army. Russia has maintained its troop levels despite the high casualties by carrying out its first draft since World War II and by enlisting prisoners and debtors. It has also paid bonuses to new recruits. As many as 15,000 North Korean troops have fought alongside the Russians, primarily in Russia’s western Kursk region after Ukraine captured territory there. South Korean intelligence officials and analysts have said that at least hundreds of North Korean troops are believed to have been killed in the war. The war has also been a drag on Russia’s economy, according to Seth G. Jones, one of the authors of the study. Russia’s war economy is “under mounting strain,” the study said, “with manufacturing declining, slowing growth to 0.6 percent in 2025, and no globally competitive technology firms to help drive long-term productivity.” The high casualty figures, slow pace of Russia’s territorial gains, and economic losses are a clear indication that Russia is diminished, Mr. Jones said. “Russia’s poor battlefield performance in Ukraine and declining economic productivity indicate that Russia is in serious decline as a major power,” he said in an email. “While Russia still possesses nuclear weapons and a large military, it is no longer a great power in most military, economic, or science and technology categories.” © 2026 The New York Times Company

Kurdish women braid their hair during a demonstration in Erbil in solidarity with Kurdish female fighters in Rojava (northeast Syria), January 23, 2026. © Safin Hamid / AFP Genocide Emergency: Rojava and Northern Syria    January 2026    Rojava (the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is facing a coordinated campaign of annihilation. Following the collapse of the Assad Regime and Ahmed al-Sharaa's (Abu Mohammed al-Julani) rise to power, Damascus’s conflict with the Kurds has been revived. Since mid-January 2026, forces of the Syrian transitional government, joined by allied local tribal militias, have engaged in siege tactics, spreading terror, and mass displacement. The government forces are attacking the very conditions needed for Kurdish survival, through cuts to water and electricity, food scarcity, blocked access routes, displacement, violence and humiliation. We are witnessing a convergence of destruction and destabilization from multiple directions.  Kobani is a symbol of Kurdish resistance, the city where the Kurds were besieged by the Islamic State (ISIS) and triumphed. Today that same city is being pushed towards collapse . People have been melting snow to drink water. Four Kurdish children have died from cold exposure as the siege by government forces tightens, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent . A statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) describes Kobani as cut off, with civilians facing growing shortages. The siege by the Syrian military is especially dire for internally displaced persons (IDPs), who have the least protection and the fewest survival options. Deprivation is not “collateral” when it is systematic, prolonged, and lethal. This is a humanitarian disaster caused by siege conditions.    Fighting and coercion are producing more displacement in and around northern Syria, including Aleppo. Humanitarian reporting describes families fleeing violence in freezing temperatures with urgent needs for shelter, food, heating, and protection. Local agreements intended to protect civilians are being undermined. Documentation by Syria-focused accountability groups warns of dangerous escalation affecting civilian neighborhoods .   Kurdish women have stood at the frontlines of Kurdish survival: they fought against ISIS, defended villages, and built councils, schools, and communities from ruins. Now, gender-based violence is being used as a strategy of annihilation. One of the most brutal acts documented in this escalation was the killing of the Kurdish woman fighter Denîz Ciya , who was thrown from a high building in Aleppo after being captured. Her death was not only an execution but a public message threatening to punish Kurdish women who resist and lead. Such methods mirror the violence used by ISIS against women and minorities and are intended to terrorize entire communities by targeting those who embody resistance and continuity. Denîz Ciya’s killing stands as a stark example of the gendered nature of this genocide and the deliberate use of cruelty to erase Kurdish women from public and political life.    A video circulated online shows a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) militiaman displaying a severed braid of a female fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and framing it as a trophy, using the Kurdish word “hêval” (“comrade”). The video sparked outrage worldwide. Although subsequent accounts disputed elements of the claim, the terrorizing effects remain. This display of a woman’s braid represents a desecration of the body as well as a symbolic attack on Kurdish identity and womanhood. In Kurdish culture, women’s braids embody collective memory, connection to land, ancestry, and traditions passed through generations. In mourning, cutting or unbraiding hair has long expressed grief. Now the braid has acquired a new political meaning: Kurdish women worldwide are braiding their hair on camera and posting it publicly as a form of defiance, turning a violated symbol into an act of resistance .   This escalation in Rojava is not an isolated crisis. It unfolds within a wider geography of Kurdish struggle against occupation and coerced control that has, for decades, led to mass displacement, demographic engineering, and systematic repression across the region. In Türkiye, solidarity protests are being crushed, as in Mardin , where police have violently dispersed demonstrations and targeted protesters. There have been allegations that gender-based violence has been committed against Kurdish women in northern Syria by members of Turkish-backed militias. In Esslingen, Germany, an Arab Syrian Islamist supporter publicly celebrated the destruction of Kurds, wearing military-style clothing and chanting songs associated with calls to kill Kurds. In Antwerp, Belgium, an assailant at a Kurdish demonstration injured multiple people with a knife, leaving some in critical condition.   International abandonment is now explicit. The United States has again abandoned the Kurds, while Damascus demands the full “integration” of the SDF into the State’s forces, without credible guarantees for Kurdish civilian protection or self-administration.  Genocide is not only mass killing. It is also the deliberate destruction of a group’s ability to live, as stated in Article II, act (c) of the UN Convention on Genocide . Kurds are being punished for seeking autonomy, their aspiration branded as illegitimate. Kurdish identity is being attacked through symbolic violence. The campaign is coordinated and escalating into a humanitarian disaster.  Genocide Watch recommends:   Immediate humanitarian access to Kobani and all besieged areas. Open protected corridors for fuel, heating supplies, medical aid, water access, and food.   Independent investigation of war crimes and gender-based atrocities. Evidence collection must include open-source material and witness protection.  Protection for women and children in displacement and winter conditions. Expand emergency shelter, protection from gender-based violence, medical response, and safe access routes for families displaced toward Aleppo and surrounding areas.  The restoration and full protection of Kurdish language, culture, and public life in Bakur and Rojhelat, including education and political expression.  The immediate halt to Syrian and Turkish drone warfare and aerial strikes, including in and around Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo, where civilian harm and displacement are intensified.    A shift to dialogue and peace: the current militarized approach is producing chaos and instability far beyond Syria and risks wider regional escalation.    The immediate release of the civilians reportedly kidnapped by mercenaries, and the establishment of independent mechanisms to locate the disappeared and hold perpetrators accountable.