WarSclerotic

Inside the Ring: All eyes on Moscow’s military moves in Ukraine – Washington Times.

U.S. intelligence agencies are stepping up their spying on Russia’s military amid concerns that Moscow is preparing to use force against Ukraine in the wake of the pro-democracy revolution in Kiev.

Earlier this week, intelligence agencies reported that two Ural-4320 trucks full of armed Russian troops were observed arriving in the Black Sea port of Yalta. Photographs made by a Ukrainian civilian were posted online as the troop transports entered a Russian military facility in Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine.

Other activities in recent days have included the movement of armored personnel carriers observed at Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in nearby Sevastopol.

U.S. officials said the purpose of the troops is not known, but speculation centers on the possibility of the troops being used as part of an advance force for a future Russian military operation.

U.S. intelligence agencies also are tracking possible covert infiltration of Russian Spetsnaz commandos. One concern is that Moscow will provoke a conflict by using the undercover commandos to attack ethnic Russians and then launch an invasion under the guise of protecting those Russians.

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A part of debris from a rocket North Korea launched on Dec. … more >

Some 8 million Russians reside in Ukraine, making up about 17 percent of the population.

Tensions remain high between Moscow and Kiev over the recent ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, who now is being sought on murder charges.

In a sign of Moscow’s concern over losing what it regards as a strategic neighbor, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces on a higher state of alert Tuesday. The mobilization includes forces some 200 miles from Russia’s southern border with Ukraine.

The mobilization could indicate a future military operation, although Moscow’s Defense Ministry said the troop movements are not related to the unrest in Ukraine.

The Obama administration has issued indirect warnings to Russia not to intervene militarily, the latest signal made by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns during a visit Tuesday to Kiev.

“We strongly support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its unity,” Mr. Burns told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev.

Asked about the Russian military activities in the Crimea, and how far the United States is prepared to go to prevent military intervention, Mr. Burns said: “All that I would stress is what I said before, and that is that the United States strongly supports the unity and the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Mr. Burns said speculation over splitting Ukraine into pro-Russian and pro-European regions “is not in Ukraine’s interest.”

“And the United States will continue to reinforce that very firm position,” he said.

Iran calls for ‘respect rather than sanctions,’ Tehran Times, February 26, 2014

(Iran deserves more “respect” than the P5+1 negotiators. Although her military nuclear programs are not open for inspection or discussion, she has already gained substantial relief from sanctions that will be difficult if not impossible to restore. Her “open for business” sign is already bringing in funds and will likely continue to do so regardless of whether the talks ultimately fail. — DM)

TEHRAN – An Iranian official has urged the major powers to address Iran with respect rather than sanctions, as negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program are underway between the two sides.

The head of the press office of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, Hamid Babaei, made the remarks in a letter published by the New York Times on Tuesday in response to an Op-Ed essay critical of Iran published by the same newspaper on February 21.

The article, written by the president and the chairman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), called for more “economic and diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government” to achieve what it claimed to be the “peaceful dismantling of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”

Following is the text of the letter entitled “Respect rather than sanctions:”

The writers claim that they are not advocating further conflict with the Islamic Republic while spreading unfounded accusations of deception and intransigence against Iran and its officials.

Let’s try to develop new approaches to thinking about Iran.

If a meaningful and adequate response is expected from Iran, the language of respect rather than sanctions and threats will work. Iran is the harbor of peace and stability in this tumultuous region. The writers’ arguments may add more joy to the annual gathering of their organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, but in practice will not change the realities.

While negotiations for reaching a comprehensive deal between the P5-plus-1 countries (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) and Iran are underway, it’s reasonable to refrain from hyperbole to make the world safer for all.

Russian military drill may be lead-in to Crimea occupation and Ukraine split.

DEBKAfile Special Report February 26, 2014, 6:09 PM (IST)

The Russian Combat Army in a drill

 

There is no way that President Vladimir Putin will relinquish Russian control of the Crimean peninsula and its military bases there – or more particularly the big Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol. This military stronghold is the key to Russia’s Middle East policy. If it is imperiled, so too are Russia’s military posture in Syria and its strategic understandings with Iran.

This peril raised its head Wednesday, Feb. 26, when pro-Russian and pro-European protesters clashed violently in the Crimean town of Simferopol, the Peninsula’s financial and highway hub.

Most of the protesters against Moscow were members of the minority Tatar community, who had gathered from around the region to demand that Crimea accept Kiev rule.

The majority population is Russian speaking and fought the Tatar demonstrators. However,  rival historic claims to this strategic peninsula were in full flight, sparking red lights in Moscow to danger.

The Tatars ruled Crimea in the 18th century. If they manage to expel Russian influence from Simferopol and then the rest of the region, it would be the signal for dozens of the small peoples who make up the Russian Federation to go into separatist mode and raise the flags of mutiny. The Kremlin is therefore bound to nip the Tatar outbreak in the bud to save Russia.

And so, Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to stage an urgent four-day drill to test the combat readiness of Russian military forces in central and western Russia, starting with a high alert for the military and the deployment of some units to shooting ranges.
The exercise will involve Russia’s Baltic and Northern Fleets and its air force.

In a televised statement after a meeting of top military officials in Moscow, defense minister Gen. Shoigu said the forces “must be ready to bomb unfamiliar testing grounds” and be “ready for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation’s military security.”

A senior Russian lawmaker on Tuesday told pro-Russia activists in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula that Moscow will protect them if their lives are in danger.

The Russian president’s military move Wednesday signaled his readiness to send his army into Ukraine and divide the country, if Moscow’s national interests and the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine are at stake. Having broadcast that message, Putin will now wait to see if it picked up by Washington and Brussels for action to restrain the new authorities in Kiev.

But it is no longer certain how much control Western powers have over the former protesters of Kiev, who appear to have taken the bit between their teeth.

Hezbollah says it was hit by Israel, vows response | The Times of Israel.

Terror group announces it will ‘choose the right time and place to retaliate’ for reported Israeli strike on Monday near Syrian border

By Times of Israel staff February 26, 2014, 12:07 pm

Israel Air Force F-16 jet prepares for take off. June 28 2010.(photo credit: Ofer Zidon/Flash90)

Hezbollah on Wednesday vowed to retaliate for a Monday night attack on its forces that was widely reported to have been an Israeli airstrike, calling it an attack against all of Lebanon.

The statement on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station was the first acknowledgement of the strike for the terror group. Al-Manar had previously denied that a strike on the group’s forces had occurred, despite reports in Lebanese media earlier Wednesday that four Hezbollah operatives had been killed.

“The resistance will choose the right time and place to retaliate for the Israeli offensive,” Hezbollah was quoted as saying by Al-Manar.

The group denied that it had suffered any deaths or injuries in the strike, but said there had been material damage. It said the strike occurred near the city of Janta in the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

“This new assault is a flagrant aggression against Lebanon, its sovereignty and territories, not against the resistance only,” the Hezbollah statement said.

Lebanon’s Daily Star reported that two trucks transferring missiles and a missile launcher were targeted in the raid as they were being transported from Syria to a Hezbollah storage facility. However, Hezbollah denied that a missile or artillery site was the target.

The attack was widely reported upon and attributed to Israel on Monday night, and a senior Israeli security official told Time magazine on Tuesday that the Jewish state was indeed behind the bombing.

A Hezbollah poster in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. (photo credit: CC BY CazzJj, Flickr)

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman discussed the airstrike with Army Chief of Staff Maj. Walid Salman on Tuesday, the Beirut-based Daily Star reported, and the two discussed how to confront “such aggressions.”

There had been conflicting reports as to whether the strike in the mountainous Baalbek region occurred in Lebanese or Syrian territory.

Janta lies along a known smuggling route for arms between Syria and Lebanon, the Daily Star reported. According to a 2012 report, Hezbollah built a training facility at Janta “which includes a suspected driver training course, a 100-meter firing range and a possible urban terrain assault course.”

Hezbollah’s silence until now was seen as an attempt by the Shiite group, already tied down in Syria fighting for President Bashar Assad’s regime, to avoid being forced into responding to Israel.

The group fought a punishing month-long war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

The organization, considered a major political force in Lebanon, was also blamed for a bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July 2012 in which five Israelis and a local bus driver were killed.

Syrian-Lebanese border partly erased by hectic war traffic. Israeli air strike Monday mostly inside Syria.

Nabi Sheet highway crosses from Syria to Lebanon

According to Middle East sources, Israel’s air strikes Monday, Feb. 24, were far more limited in scope than presented – no more than one or two warplanes which aimed four rockets at a single target, an SS-21 surface missile launcher on the Syrian side. Four Hizballah operatives were killed.

The hectic traffic of arms, men and smuggling networks between Syria and Lebanon, run by Hizballah and the Syrian military, has virtually obliterated large sections of the border between the two countries.  A broad military zone has taken its place, which is characterized by lofty peaks 1,600 meters high, deep gulches and narrow winding roads through wild vegetation. Traffic moving along those roads is hard to identify.

Hizballah arms and missile stores in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley are in free use as strategic reserve supply centers for the units – both Hizballah and Syrian – fighting in border sectors such as the battles in the Qalamoun mountain range.

Brig. Gen. Ellie Sharvit, commander of the Navy base in Haifa, touched on this situation Tuesday, when he noted that Israel presumes that any weapons systems reaching Syria have also come into the hands of he Lebanese Hizballah. Israel is therefore on a constant state of alert. He mentioned advanced Yakhont shore-sea missiles as well as top products of Iran’s and Syria’s military industries in this regard.

Brig. Sharvit was the first IDF officer to confirm debkafile’s reporting in the past year that large quantities of weapons were moving between Syria and Lebanon. This traffic is by now by and large out of the IDF’s control – except for pinpointed strikes. Any attempt to seal the border to this illicit traffic would be unrealistic.
Most Israeli military officials are still trying to present President Bashar Assad as losing the Syrian war and Hizballah’s military capabilities as being eroded.

Contrary to this view, our Middle East sources describe the old Lebanese-Syrian border area as having been transformed into the busy hive of a burgeoning international Shiite legion of mercenaries, who are arriving in ever larger numbers from outside the region. Hizballah has opened European recruiting centers for the Syrian war effort in Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and Kosovo. More than 1,000 mercenaries are already undergoing brief instruction at its Beqaa Valley training facilities. After they are familiarized with the weapons in the use of the Syrian army and Hizballah, they are sent across into battle.

The IAF ‘scalpel’ and the epidemic of weapons transfers | The Times of Israel.

Monday’s alleged IAF strike against Hezbollah-bound weapons is yet another stage in the deadly game playing out in the border regions to Israel’s north

By Mitch Ginsburg February 26, 2014, 2:40 am

IAF pilots near a plane after training (Illustrative photo: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

In January, during his annual address at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, spoke about the current “war between wars.” The IAF, “a sledgehammer,” he said, was being asked to do the “work of a scalpel.”

That appears to be what happened on Monday night. According to Lebanese sources, four “warplanes for the Israeli enemy,” flying southwest off the sea, entered Lebanese airspace at 9:50 p.m., streaking toward the Beqaa Valley. Thirty-five minutes later, the planes exited Lebanon via Nakoura and were back out over the sea.

The strikes took place in the northern Beqaa Valley region, “where recruitment and training of [Hezbollah] fighters are carried out,” and along “a well-known route for arms smuggling between Lebanon and Syria,” according to the Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star.

Al Arabiya suggested that the target was a convoy of long-range surface-to-surface missiles. This was not confirmed. But what is clear, according to Maj. Gen. (res) Eyal Ben-Reuven, the deputy commander of the northern front during the Second Lebanon War, is that the front, ever since Hezbollah and Iran came to the aid of the then-waning Bashar Assad, has changed shape entirely. “Today Lebanon and Syria are one front, under the umbrella of Iran,” Ben-Reuven said in a conference call.

The tens of thousands of rockets and missiles Hezbollah possesses have always come largely from the stores of the Syrian army. Today, though, the balance of power has shifted. Bashar Assad won Qusayr and held the capital thanks to Hezbollah soldiers on the ground and Iranian Quds Force officers at the helm. Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, is now “running the war himself,” according to a 2013 New Yorker profile. Iran, which gave the regime a $7 billion loan in 2013, has been sending troops and arms daily to Damascus.

The price for these self-serving heroics, Ben-Reuven said, is the delivery of “game-changing weapons” to Hezbollah.

The transfer of those arms – the cornerstone of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria – is a murky, deadly affair. Hezbollah troops guard an array of arms depots in Syria. They might simply be safeguarding the weapons from rebel troops or they might be watching over the arms until the order is given to move the matériel into Lebanon. Quite possibly both. Further complicating matters, many of these weapons are put into motion and then, according to a January report in The Wall Street Journal, transferred “piece by piece” to Lebanon.

On Monday night, after weeks of clear skies in the region, Hezbollah may have tried to operate under the cover of stormy weather, veteran military affairs analyst Ron Ben-Yishai wrote Monday. If so, the organization’s calculations were off. Brig. Gen. (res) Asaf Agmon, the head of the Fisher Institute, said that while meteorological conditions are a factor “that always influences things,” the IAF has the sort of thermal or radar-guided capacities “to operate in this sort of weather.”

Eshel did not elaborate on the difficulty of tracking weapons through the mountainous and fog-enclosed border regions. He did say, though, that the “bubbling spring” of continuous, low-grade conflict was “a daily problem,” which the IAF, on account of its flexibility and near-immediate readiness, was uniquely equipped to deal with.

Acknowledging, though, that certain actions could, as in 2006, spark a full-scale conflict, he said that the test of each decision made is that “the efficacy will be immediate and will not make things worse or lead to war.”

Thus far, the alleged Israeli considerations have proved correct but the Middle East, as Ben-Reuven noted, has a logic of its own.

Vigilance in the North | JPost | Israel News.

By JPOST EDITORIAL

02/25/2014 21:18

The air force attacked Hezbollah targets on the Lebanon-Syria border on Monday night, according to Lebanese and other Arab media sources. The IDF has declined to comment.

The air force attacked Hezbollah targets on the Lebanon-Syria border on Monday night, according to Lebanese and other Arab media sources. The IDF has declined to comment.

The strikes targeted a “qualitative” weapons shipment to Hezbollah, Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper reported, quoting unnamed military sources.

In all, four Israeli planes launched four rockets in the Janta area, in the mountains separating the east Lebanon village of Nabi Sheet from Syrian.

The Janta area houses a Hezbollah post, where recruitment and training of fighters are carried out. Janta is also a well-known route for smuggling arms between Lebanon and Syria, the Daily Star’s source said.

The target was a Hezbollah missile base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Al-Arabiya television, citing unconfirmed reports, said Hezbollah’s “moving convoy” was attacked because it tried to bring ballistic missiles from Syria to Lebanon.

One day before the reported air attack, a senior security source told The Jerusalem Post’s military correspondent Yaakov Lappin that the IDF prevents Hezbollah and other enemies of Israel from growing stronger “almost every night.”

Despite these efforts, however, Hezbollah has arm itself with about 100,000 rockets and missiles, including a small number of satellite-guided projectiles that can be used to target key Israeli installations and infrastructure.

The growing size of global jihadi operatives such as Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and, of course, various al-Qaida organizations such as al-Qaida Central Command and al-Qaida in Iraq present another threat.

In addition to Iranian-made arms smuggled into Lebanon, there is concern Russian-made weapons are making their way to Hezbollah hands.

Yiftah Shapir, head of the Middle East Military Balance Project at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told the Post some of the weapons Russia is providing the Assad regime have no apparent use in the war against rebel forces, but would be highly effective in attacks against Israel. One example is the SA-17 or “Buk” surface-to-air missile. The Syrian rebels have no air force, so why would the regime need these types of ballistic weapons? The rebels do not have a navy either, so why do Assad’s forces need Russian-made P800 Yakhont supersonic antiship missiles? The regime might want them to protect itself against Turkey. Another, more likely possibility, is to use them against Israel.

If Hezbollah acquires these weapons, they would represent a dangerous upgrade in the Shi’ite organization’s capabilities vis-à-vis Israel.

In August 2013, anonymous US officials told The New York Times that a July 5 IAF strike on a Syrian warehouse near Latakia targeted a cache of these Yakhont missiles, which were, it was reported, destined for Hezbollah.

Israel has very limited goals in Syria and has no interest in taking sides in the civil war. Keeping the regime in power is not a clear Israeli interest since, unlike Hafez Assad, with whom Israel managed to maintain a modus vivendi, Basher Assad has been unreliable. The alternatives to the regime are, however, even worse.

Israel, an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region, has restricted its involvement in Syria and Lebanon to a minimum. Nevertheless, Jerusalem cannot afford to ignore the situation due to the severe threat presented by the smuggling of advanced weapons from Syria to Hezbollah. Israel must remain vigilant in the face of the challenges coming from the North. Monday night’s air attack, if indeed the IAF carried it out, was a necessary part of that vigilance.

IDF sees steep rise in submarine operations | The Times of Israel.

Last year saw spike in deployments for Israel’s nuclear-capable fleet, which is set to grow by two more vessels this year

By Times of Israel staff February 25, 2014, 11:20 pm

An Israeli navy Dolphin-class submarine (photo credit: Moshe Shai/FLASH90)

The IDF’s submarine flotilla has seen a sharp increase in the number and duration of its at-sea operations, with a special focus on Israel’s northern neighbor Lebanon.

According to a senior Israel Navy officer, 58 percent of the navy’s submarine flotilla’s time at sea in 2013 were in operational deployments, while the remaining 42% were for training purposes. That marks a dramatic increase from the three previous years, when submarines spent just 36% of their time at sea in operational deployments.

The navy’s submarines also conducted 54 special operations in 2013, a similarly sharp increase from previous years. The operations included deployments to the Lebanese coast and deployments lasting several weeks that took the submarines thousands of kilometers from Israel.

The navy’s figures mark a rare revelation on the part of the IDF that suggests the military has significantly upped its operational presence to counter threats from Hezbollah and the more distant Iran.

It is also likely a message to the German government, which is visiting Israel this week in a delegation led by Chancellor Angela Merkel for high-level talks with Israeli counterparts.

Israel buys its top-of-the-line, nuclear warhead-capable (according to foreign reports) Dolphin submarines from Germany, and the navy expects two new Dolphin-class subs to be delivered in the second half of 2014, the INS Tanin and INS Rahav.

An Israeli Dolphin-class submarine at port. (photo credit: CC BY shlomiliss, Wikimedia)

The new submarines have engines that don’t require surfacing to acquire new air supplies, effectively expanding Israel’s naval (and, reportedly, nuclear) reach and allowing for more distant and long-lasting operations.

“Last year we carried out thousands of hours of operations in the submarines,” the commander of the navy’s submarine flotilla, Col. “G,” said in a briefing Tuesday.

“G” called the new submarines “very technologically sophisticated vessels that require highly trained and professional crews to operate them… We operate in different theaters, including the northern theater, to ensure the security of the State of Israel,” he said.

According to Brig. Gen. Eli Sharvit, commander of the navy’s Haifa base, the navy’s northern deployments are intended to protect Israel from a “highly operational” Syrian navy, which is armed with “strategic weaponry” and has maintained a powerful presence in the region despite the civil war raging in the country.

Israeli official confirms: IAF hit missile convoy entering Lebanon last night | JPost | Israel News.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, TOVAH LAZAROFF

02/25/2014 23:06

Following Lebanese media reports of Israeli strike on Monday night, anonymous Israeli official tells TIME that IAF jets struck a transport destined for Hezbollah of surface-to-surface missiles near the Syria-Lebanon border.

Islamist group slaughters 43 children in Nigerian boarding school | Mail Online.

( Another contribution from “the religion of peace”… – JW )

• Suspected militants from Al-Quaeda affiliated group burned children alive
• Teacher says they set locked hostel on fire then shot and slit the throats of children who tried to escape through the windows
• Other reports suggest attackers threw explosives, sprayed rooms with gunfire and used machetes to hack pupils to death
• Attack brings toll from Boko Haram attacks to more than 300 this month

By Chris Pleasance

PUBLISHED: 11:55 GMT, 25 February 2014 | UPDATED: 15:48 GMT, 25 February 2014

Suspected Islamic militants killed 43 students in a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a northeast Nigerian college, survivors said.

The terrorists, thought to be from Boko Haram, set a locked hostel on fire, before shooting and slitting the throats of those who tried to climb out the windows. Some were burned alive.

Adamu Garba said he and other teachers who ran away through the bush estimate 40 students died in the assault that began around 2 a.m. Tuesday at the Federal Government College at Buni Yadi.

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Boko Haram have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in the north of Nigera as they increasingly target civilians (file picture)

It is a co-ed school about 45 miles south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists last year destroyed the cell phone tower there.

Garba, who teaches at a secondary school attached to the college, said the attackers first set ablaze the college administrative block, then moved to the hostels, where they locked students in and started firebombing the buildings.

At one hostel, he said: ‘Students were trying to climb out of the windows and they were slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists who slit their throats. Others who ran were gunned down.’

He said students who could not escape were burned alive

The attackers also reportedly hurled explosives into student residential buildings, sprayed gunfire into rooms and hacked a number students to death.

A senior medical source at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Yobe’s capital Damaturu said the gunmen only targeted male students and that female students were ‘spared’.

‘So far, 43 bodies have been brought (from the college) and are lying at the morgue,’ said the source, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss death tolls.

Damaturu resident Babagoni Musa told AFP that four ambulances carrying dead bodies drove past his shop, which falls on the road from Buni Yadi.

‘They had tree branches on them which is a sign used here to signify a corpse is in a vehicle,’ he said.

People whose relatives were studying at the college had surrounded the morgue and were desperately seeking information about those killed, forcing the military to take control of the building to restore calm, the hospital source said.

Yobe is one of three northeastern states which was placed under emergency rule in May last year when the military launched a massive operation to crush the Boko Haram uprising.

At least 40 students were killed in September at an agriculture training college in Yobe after Boko Haram gunmen stormed a series of dorms in the middle of the night and sprayed gunfire on sleeping students.

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Boko Haram are just one of several Islamist groups in Africa which are trying to seize power, including Somalia’s al Shabaab (pictured)

Tuesday’s attack brings the toll from killings blamed on Boko Haram to more than 300 this month alone.

It is the first reported in Yobe state and the first school attack reported this year by suspected fighters of the terrorist network of Boko Haram – the nickname that means Western education is forbidden.

President Goodluck Jonathan told a news conference Monday night that the Boko Haram attacks were ‘quite worrisome’ but that he was sure ‘we will get over it.’

Thousands of Nigerians have lost family members, houses, businesses, their belongings and livelihoods in the 4-year-old rebellion.

And it likely will anger regional officials who charge the military is losing its war to halt the Islamic uprising in the northeast of Africa’s biggest oil producer.

The military has said recent attacks are being perpetrated by militants who have escaped a sustained aerial bombardment and ground assaults on forest hideouts along the border with Cameroon.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday condemned the ‘unspeakable violence and acts of terror’ and said the United States is helping Nigerian authorities to develop a comprehensive approach ‘to combat the threat posed by Boko Haram while protecting civilians and ensuring respect for human rights.’

But survivors and local officials charge they get no protection. And refugees who have fled to neighboring states have said that they are fleeing the extremists as much as the fallout from a military campaign in which soldiers are accused of gross human rights abuses including executions of people suspected of helping Boko Haram.

‘Everybody is living in fear,’ local government chairman Maina Ularamu told AP after Izghe village was attacked twice in a week this month – with militants first killing 106 and burning hundreds of thatched huts, then returning to kill another three people and setting ablaze what little remained of the settlement in neighboring Adamawa state.

‘There is no protection. We cannot predict where and when they are going to attack. People can’t sleep with their eyes closed,’ Ularamu said.