The Levant Files

  Jihadist Offensives, Ebola Emergency, and Endless War Converge in Catastrophic Multi-Front Collapse The African continent is experiencing one of the most severe convergences of simultaneous crises in its modern history. Over the past three weeks, a devastating jihadist offensive has effectively besieged Mali's capital, a rare and poorly understood strain of Ebola has jumped borders and been declared a global health emergency, and Sudan's civil war has entered a terrifying new chapter defined by mass civilian slaughter from drone strikes. Taken together, these crises are reshaping the security, humanitarian, and geopolitical architecture of an entire hemisphere — and doing so largely beyond the gaze of an international community consumed by other flashpoints.   🇲🇱 MALI: The Siege of Bamako and the Collapse of the Russian Gamble What began on April 25 as a coordinated series of attacks has since evolved into the most dangerous crisis Mali has faced since the 2012...

As President Kais Saied tightens his authoritarian grip, Tunisians take to the streets in the largest wave of demonstrations since his 2021 power grab — but the tools of resistance are shrinking fast Fifteen years after the Arab Spring ignited a revolution that once made Tunisia the world's brightest democratic hope, the North African nation is burning again — this time not with the euphoria of uprising, but with the fury of a people watching their hard-won freedoms systematically dismantled. Demonstrations have erupted across Tunisia, from the capital Tunis to the industrial city of Gabès, fuelled by a cascading series of political crises: mass political trials handing out sentences of up to 66 years, the forced shuttering of the country's most respected civil society organizations, the imprisonment of journalists, lawyers, and opposition leaders, and an economy offering little hope to an increasingly desperate population. A Nation's Democratic Flame Flickering Out Fifteen...

Under the Cover of War, Tehran Accelerates a Brutal Purge — Executions Surge, Dissidents Hanged, and the World's Most Famous Political Prisoner Clings to Life The Islamic Republic of Iran is executing its own citizens at a terrifying pace. As missiles fly and regional war rages around it, the Iranian regime has turned its guns inward — systematically eliminating scientists, protesters, and dissidents behind prison walls while the world's attention is fixed on the battlefield. The numbers are staggering, the methods brutal, and the message unmistakable: in wartime Iran, dissent is now a death sentence. A Killing Spree Hidden Behind the Fog of War In the 48 days following March 18, at least 28 political prisoners were executed. In the first half of May alone, more than 20 people were hanged. Human rights monitoring organizations — including Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center — have sounded the alarm, warning that the Iranian government is deliberately ex...

Iran has dramatically escalated its use of the death penalty in the weeks following the April ceasefire that ended its war with the United States and Israel, with rights organizations warning that the Islamic Republic is using executions as a tool of political intimidation, according to a report by The New York Times published May 15. Iranian authorities executed four prisoners this week alone on charges including espionage and terrorism, Iranian state media reported. But rights groups say the surge began earlier — in mid-March — and has accelerated sharply since the ceasefire took hold. Many of those executed were detained during the mass anti-government protests that shook Iran in January, when security forces killed thousands of demonstrators. "Many of these executions follow extremely rapid judicial proceedings in which defendants have little or no access to legal counsel, face fundamentally unfair trials and are often convicted using forced confessions extracted under torture...

Bahrain, in the wake of previous Iranian attacks and threats of continued missile and drone strikes, has placed all its units on the highest state of alert, warning that the risk of a new assault by the Islamic Republic has not been fully eliminated. In a new statement, Bahrain’s General Command of the Defence Force announced that all military units are now at the “highest level of readiness and defensive alert,” a move that follows the wave of tensions triggered by recent Iranian missile and drone strikes on Bahraini territory. According to the Iran International, the decision comes amid warnings from Bahraini officials and regional analysts that the possibility of renewed Iranian attacks on military and infrastructure targets, especially around Manama and key energy and security installations, remains serious. During the 2026 war, Iran used a mix of missiles and drones to hit Bahrain several times, and according to official estimates, dozens of missiles and hundreds of ballistic and ...

A recently resurfaced photograph of a blindfolded man, believed to be a Greek Cypriot prisoner of war from 1974, has been confirmed as authentic by the Turkish journalist who says he was present when it was taken, according to a fact-check published by the Cyprus Information and Research Network (CIReN). The image, showing a blindfolded man flanked by a civilian and an armed soldier in front of a black Mercedes, has circulated widely on social media in recent days, reigniting public debate over the fate of thousands of missing persons from the 1974 conflict in Cyprus. At the same time, it has prompted questions and scepticism about whether the photograph might have been manipulated or created using artificial intelligence tools. Researcher’s Post and AI doubts The first widely shared version of the photograph was posted on 4 May by researcher Odysseas Christou, administrator of the Facebook group “1974 Eyewitness Accounts and Evidence.” CIReN reports that initial checks with specialise...

US President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a fresh round of military action against Iran within the next 24 hours, thrusting an already volatile region to the brink of a dramatic new escalation in the 2026 Iran war. As ceasefire talks falter and front lines harden from the Strait of Hormuz to Israel’s northern border, diplomats and analysts warn that the conflict is entering one of its most dangerous phases yet, with the risk of a sudden slide into large-scale regional war growing by the hour. According to the Iran International, s peaking in recent interviews and social media posts, Trump has repeatedly signaled that his patience with Tehran is “running out,” insisting he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and vowing to hit the country “a lot harder, and a lot more violently” if it does not quickly accept a US‑backed deal. US strikes on Iranian targets have already continued despite an officially declared truce, with Washington describing recent attacks as “limited” r...

Two major reports released within days of each other this week documented sexual violence from opposing sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, revealing not only horrific crimes but also deeply tribal responses that rely on dangerous notions of uniqueness, according to Haaretz political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin. A heavily researched column by veteran New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof presented stark documentation of sexual abuse of Palestinians by Israeli prison authorities, while the Israeli Civil Commission released its nearly 300-page report on Hamas' sexual violence during the October 7 attacks and against hostages, Scheindlin reports. She notes that the vast majority of responses focused on defending one's own side while attacking the other, with each community treating their victimization as unprecedented. According to Scheindlin, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian readers "snapped into action like automatons," picking apart flaws in reports about the ...

Despite widespread speculation that Turkey's Democratic Society Process has been "frozen" or "ended," contacts between the parties continue at both Kandil and İmralı, according to NuMedya24 journalist Tuncay Doğan. The negotiations have now moved beyond the question of disarmament to address the fundamental issue of the Kurds' future political status in Turkey. A Turkish state delegation is conducting discussions in Kandil, the PKK's mountainous stronghold, while high-level political contacts also continue with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan at İmralı prison, Doğan reports. These revelations emerged from two key media reports published within days of each other in mid-May 2026. According to Doğan's analysis, the first indication came from Dr. Hayri Hazargöl's reporting in Yeni Yaşam newspaper on May 13, which revealed that contacts between the state and Kandil representatives included not just indirect communication but face-to-face meetin...