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This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• The big defection of this week was Syria’s prime minister Riyad Farid Hijab, who defected to Jordan.
• In another dispatch from Syria, Layla M. delves into why a significant portion of the population remains supportive of Bashar al-Assad.
• British photojournalist John Cantlie writes about his experience as a captive, alongside Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans, of militants in Syria. These weren’t Syrian radicals, though: these were Chechnyans and Bangladeshis, and, Cantlie reports, the worst of them were the British.
• The US hasn’t ruled out no-fly zones in Syria and is preparing to send shoulder-launched missiles to rebels.
• Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker on the future of this Syrian conflict.
• Mary Fitzgerald of the Irish Times in Foreign Policy profiling Irish-Libyan rebel leader Mahdi al-Harati, who moved from a leadership position in the Libyan revolution to one in the Syrian war.
• On August 4th, a busload of 48 Iranians (whom Assad-allied Iran claim are religious pilgrims) were taken hostage by Syrian rebels in Damascus. Iran has sought help from the UN.
• Egypt’s President Morsi fired his intelligence chief Murad Muwafi and the governor of Northern Sinai Abdel Wahab Mabruk in a military and intelligence shake-up following last weekend’s ambush in Sinai near the Israeli border which left sixteen Egyptian soldiers dead.
• The Libyan National Transitional Council handed over power on Wednesday to the new assembly. The assembly has chosen veteran opposition leader Mohammed Magarief as its president.
• Tunisian protesters in the famous town of Sidi Bouzid clashed with police as they denounced the Ennahda leadership Thursday night.
• Tunisian activist and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni was beaten by police during a sit-in in Tunis, also against Ennahda’s interim leadership.
• Amnesty International has voiced fears over Tunisian restrictions on press freedom and cited the arrest of another blogger/activist Sofiane Shurabi.
• African leaders failed to reach an agreement on use of force at a summit in Uganda to decide on deployment of a response to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Secretary Clinton has urged the formation of a counterterrorism cell in Nigeria, and has offered US assistance.
• Lebanon arrested former minister of information Michael Samaha in connection to a bomb plot.
• A top Yemeni security official was killed by a car bomb in Mukalla.
• CFR hosted White House Counterterrorism advisor John Brennan for a discussion of Yemen. Spencer Ackerman provided a takedown of some of Brennan’s points over at the Danger Room blog as did Marc Lync on The Middle East Channel.
• How did the small cities of the Middle East and North Africa become forces for political change?
• Noted intellectual and academic Tariq Ramadan on Islam, secularism and the “Arab Awakening.”
• Iran test-launched an upgraded version of the Fateh-110 short-range missile.
• Afghan civilian casualties are down for the first time in five years. 
• Another green on blue attack this morning: a man in an Afghan military uniform killed three US troops in Helmand.
• Longform.org kicked off a new podcast series by interviewing longform journalist Matthieu Aikins, who talked with Evan Ratliff just prior to moving to Kabul.
• Reports say that the US and Pakistan are working on a new joint border security strategy.
• Steve Coll asks if Imran Khan, “a former tabloid celebrity aspiring to negotiate with the Taliban,” can run Pakistan (paywalled/limited to New Yorker subscribers).
• Over on one of the BBC’s blogs, a discussion of the British role in Bahrain’s oppressive governance.
• The legal drama surrounding the Chinese trial over the murder of Gu Kailai, allegedly by the wife of former political star Bo Xilai, continues. The trial was over in one short day, and all that’s left is the verdict and sentence.
• This week marked the 67th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Up at The Atlantic is a short video by the US War Dept in 1946, titled A Tale of Two Cities, documenting the development and the aftermath of the atomic bombs. 
• Best new Tumblr: “Confessions of a Defense Industry Executive.”
• Ian Johnson on the new geopolitical dynamics of the Olympics.
• Considering some of the networks of extremism centered in and near Ft. Bragg. 
• Nearly a year later, Marines remain somewhat divided on the notion of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
• The current suicide rate for the U.S. military is now estimated to be at least double or triple that of the US military during the Civil War.
• President Obama signed a law which, among other things, limits protests at military funerals.
• Academi (formerly Xe, formerly Blackwater…) settled a federal case with the DOJ, paying a $7.5m fine to cover 17 counts of arms trafficking.
• The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit tossed out a warrantless wiretapping case, overturning the damages awarded to lawyers for the Al-Haramin Islamic Foundation who claimed they were illegally surveilled under the Bush administration.
• The US is appealing a federal injunction of military detention law.
• Guantánamo Bay detainees have apparently moved on from former favorite Harry Potter and now The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is in high demand.

Photo: The Salaheddine neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. A rebel fighter runs for cover during clashes in the center of the northern city. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.

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