Associated Press: Iraq Scrambles To Contain Fighting Between US Troops And Iran-Backed Groups, Fearing Gaza Spillover 

“Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months as the Israel-Hamas war has raged have forced Baghdad into a balancing act that’s becoming more difficult by the day. A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the latest Middle East war. Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq and a coalition of Iran-backed groups brought Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power in October 2022. At the same time, there are some 2,000 U.S. troops in Iraq under an agreement with Baghdad, mainly to counter the militant Islamic State group. Baghdad also relies heavily on Washington’s sanctions waivers to buy electricity from Iran, and since the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq’s foreign currency reserves have been housed at the U.S. Federal Reserve, giving the Americans significant control over Iraq’s supply of dollars. Al-Sudani’s predecessors also had to walk a delicate line between Tehran and Washington, but the Israel-Hamas war has considerably upped the stakes. Since the war erupted on Oct. 7, at least 92 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been claimed by an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants dubbed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The militants say their attacks are in retaliation for Washington’s backing of Israel and its military presence in Iraq and Syria.”

Voice Of America: Taliban: Iran Deports Almost 350,000 Afghans Within 3 Months 

“In the last three months, Iran and Pakistan have forced around 850,000 undocumented Afghan nationals to return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, officials reported Sunday. The crackdown on Afghans illegally residing in the neighboring countries is ongoing, despite warnings by the United Nations that a harsh winter and an uncertain future await returnees in their crisis-ridden, impoverished nation. Abdul Rahman Rashid, the Taliban minister of refugees and repatriation, told the local TOLO news channel Monday that Iran had deported "approximately 345,000" Afghans since the last week of September. Without giving further details, Rashid said the Taliban administration had provided each returning family with cash grants and other urgent assistance. Iranian authorities have pledged to deport Afghans illegally residing in their country. Officials in Pakistan have reported that almost 490,000 individuals have returned to Afghanistan since the government ordered a crackdown on all illegal foreigners, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghan nationals two months ago. Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti claimed at a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, over the weekend that "more than 90%" of undocumented Afghans had returned or doing so "voluntarily.”

United States 

Military.com: Congress Set To Extinguish Pentagon's Anti-Domestic Extremism Working Group Created After Jan. 6 

“A Pentagon working group established to provide recommendations for rooting out extremism in the ranks is set to be defunded under the sweeping defense policy bill Congress is expected to pass this week. The compromise National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which was released last week after months of negotiations between House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, would bar any funding from going to the Defense Department's Countering Extremist Activity Working Group.”

Turkey 

Reuters: Turkish Air Strikes Hit 13 Kurdish Militant Targets In Northern Iraq -Ministry 

“Turkey's military conducted air strikes in northern Iraq on Monday and destroyed 13 Kurdish militant targets, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, adding many militants had been "neutralised" in the attack. In a statement on social messaging platform X, the ministry said the targets hit in the strikes included caves, shelters, and storage facilities where militants were believed to be. It said the strikes targeted the Hakurk, Gara, Qandil, and Metina regions of northern Iraq. Turkey typically uses the term "neutralised" to mean killed.”

Pakistan 

Associated Press: Suicide Bomber Attacks Police Station In Northwest Pakistan, Killing 23 Officers And Wounding 32 

“A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at a police station’s main gate in northwest Pakistan early Tuesday, killing at least 23 troops and wounding 32 others, and causing a part of the building to collapse upon impact, the military and officials said. The suicide attack — one of the deadliest attacks since January — led to “multiple causalities,” Pakistan’s army said in a statement. It added that six militants also opened fire and a shootout ensued for hours between them and security forces before “the terrorists” were gunned down. Local police officials also confirmed all six attackers were dead. Separately, the statement said that “troops killed 27 insurgents” in multiple operations in the same region. The death toll from Tuesday’s attack was likely to rise as some of the officers were in critical condition, authorities said. The bodies of the 23 security forces killed were transferred to a hospital, Mohammad Adnan, a senior police official told reporters. The attack targeted the Daraban police station in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, local police officer Kamal said. The province is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.”

Lebanon 

Jewish Press: Hamas Creates New Terrorist Group to Destroy Lebanon

“On December 4, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas announced the establishment of a new terrorist group in Lebanon with the goal of “liberating Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” In the past two months, Hamas terrorists in Lebanon have carried out rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in northern Israel. Hamas has called on the Palestinians living in Lebanon to join the group, “Vanguards of the Al-Aqsa Flood,” the name it chose for its barbaric invasion of Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, when it massacred 1,200 Israelis and abducted 240 others to the Gaza Strip.”

Middle East 

Reuters: Israel Has No Intention Of Staying Permanently In Gaza -Defence Minister 

“Israel's defence minister on Monday said his country has no intention of staying permanently in the Gaza Strip and that it was open to discussing alternatives about who would control the territory, as long as it was not a group hostile to Israel. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also said that Israel was open to possibly reaching an agreement with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the condition any agreement included a safe zone along the border and proper guarantees. "Israel will take any measures in order to destroy Hamas, but we have no intention to stay permanently in the Gaza Strip," he told reporters. More than two months since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel that sparked the war and over a month since Israel launched its ground offensive, Gallant said serious progress had been made, particularly in northern Gaza, where things were nearing a "breaking point." He said that Israel was open to discussing alternatives about who might control Gaza after the war. "The key condition is that this body will not act with hostility towards the state of Israel. All the rest, in my opinion, can be discussed. It certainly will not be Hamas, and also will not be Israel. We will maintain our freedom to act, to operate militarily against any threat." In an apparent shift in strategy, at least publicly, Gallant called on Hamas fighters and commanders to surrender, rather than be killed. "If you surrender you can save your lives. If not, your fate is sealed."”

Associated Press: Israel And The US Face Growing Isolation Over Gaza As Offensive Grinds On With No End In Sight 

“Israel and the United States were increasingly isolated as they faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, including a non-binding vote expected to pass at the United Nations later on Tuesday. Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months. The war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been obliterated, and hundreds of thousands have fled to ever-shrinking so-called safe zones in the south. The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of Gaza, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps. Strikes overnight and into Tuesday in southern Gaza — in an area where civilians have been told to seek shelter — killed at least 23 people, according to an Associated Press reporter at a nearby hospital. In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 33 people killed in strikes overnight, including 16 women and four children, according to hospital records. Many were killed in strikes that hit residential buildings in the built-up Maghazi refugee camp nearby.”

Africa 

Associated Press: Man Charged With Terrorism Over A Fire At South African Parliament Is Declared Unfit To Stand Trial 

“A man charged with terrorism and other offenses over a 2022 fire that badly damaged South Africa’s historic Parliament complex in Cape Town was declared unfit to stand trial by a court on Monday. Zandile Mafe was diagnosed with schizophrenia by an expert panel in a report, and a judge in the Western Cape High Court ruled that he agreed with the assessment. Judge Nathan Erasmus said that Mafe wasn’t able to understand the charges against him. Mafe has said he’s fit to stand trial and has admitted in previous court hearings to starting the blaze in January 2022. He said he did it in protest against Parliament, the local government in Cape Town and the national government. He said all of them have failed South Africa’s people. In a previous court outburst, he threatened to burn the Parliament building again and challenged the court to send him to prison, saying he wasn’t afraid of a life sentence. Mafe’s lawyer said at Monday’s hearing that he would appeal the ruling and wants his client to stand trial. Mafe was also charged with arson and breaking and entering. The huge fire was started sometime late at night on New Year’s Day or early in the morning of Jan 2. Lawmakers and Parliament workers were on vacation and the buildings were closed and unoccupied. No one was hurt.”

Reuters: Niger, Mali And Burkina Faso To Move Toward Monetary Alliance, Niger Leader Says 

“Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are eyeing a political and monetary alliance, Niger's military leader said on national television of a move that could mark a further break with the West African regional bloc. Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani did not give a timeline or details about the project, but said it was one of the reasons for his recent visit to both countries. "In addition to the security domain, our alliance must evolve in the political domain and in the monetary domain," he said in an interview on Niger's RTS channel late on Sunday. The three neighbouring states are all ruled by military juntas that have seized power in coups since 2020. This has put them at odds with the rest of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the region's main political and economic bloc which is urging them to return to democratic rule. Abandoning the eight-member West African monetary union and adopting a new currency would further isolate Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, who have called their new union the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The three countries and five others in the region currently use the West African CFA franc, a currency which is pegged to the euro and which critics see as a relic from French colonial rule. Burkina Faso's military leader Ibrahim Traoré also discussed his vision for closer ties with Mali and Niger in a speech on Sunday night.”