Iraq on Tuesday launched the second phase of a military operation in the north to combat ISIS sleeper cells.

Here’s What You Need To Remember: Virtually all the state actors in the region find it more expedient to remain locked in perpetual small-scale warfare than to take on the political risks of negotiating in good faith with their adversaries—a move which could delegitimize them with their own allies.

Over the weekend, the French military claimed, and United States Africa Command confirmed, that its forces had killed the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droukdal, in northern Mali.