FUBAR in Yemen

U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.

"saving" a village

The weekend raid by SEAL Team 6 forces into Yemen to target what was described as “al-Qaeda headquarters,” was championed by the administration as a great success in the initial wake of it, but subsequent accounts have instead shown a complete disaster, with losses among the attack US forces and substantial harm to civilians, virtually destroying the entire village and leading Yemen’s Foreign Minister to fault the attack as “extrajudicial killings.”
The attack on the village of Yakla didn’t target a “headquarters,” but rather the home of a person the US believed was an al-Qaeda “collaborator.” This would explain why the named casualties from reports were all from the same family, the in-laws of US-born cleric Anwar Awlaki, whose 8-year-old daughter was slain in the raid.
The raid was scheduled for a night with no moon to make the multi-mile ground raid into the village a total surprise. Locals knew long before the troops got there, however, saying there were more US surveillance drones than usual and they were flying lower than would be normal long before the attack. The SEALs knew their mission was compromised but went in anyway.
This turned a “secret” raid on one guy’s house into the obliteration of almost the whole village, and despite Pentagon claims of “14 al-Qaeda fighters killed,” local estimates put the overall death toll around 57, with a lot of women and children shot to death as the fighting went from bad to worse.

what is a "lie" anyway?

A protracted and very serious investigation into claims of CENTCOM leaders deliberately distorting intelligence on the ISIS war before passing it along to decision-makers has concluded with an admission of a “significant problem” and a decision to more or less sweep the whole thing under the table.
This was done by way of centering on the technical definition of “falsifying” intelligence, and arguing that substantial efforts to distort the intelligence to paint a far rosier picture of the conflict did not ultimately amount to falsifying, and that they don’t recommend any punishment for anyone.

This could be bad

Throughout the Syrian Civil War, an ever-growing number of disparate factions fighting one another over territorial claims have often seen their fortunes wildly shift when other, seemingly unrelated fighting brings new potential rivals into direct contact with them.
This may be happening now in the Aleppo Province, where Turkey’s invasion has secured much northern territory, while the Syrian military’s successful recapture of the city of Aleppo continues with the surrounding area. Both find themselves in increasingly close quarters near al-Bab.
Al-Bab is ISIS’ last significant city in Aleppo Province, and Turkey has been taking it for over a month, with backing from the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Reuters claimed a “non-Syrian” source as saying Syrian forces were deliberately getting close to al-Bab to challenge them, and were willing to fight the FSA over the territory.

Taliban still gaining ground

The Afghan government controls less than 60 percent of the country, a U.S. watchdog agency reported on Wednesday, after security forces retreated from many strongholds last year.
Afghan soldiers and police, with the aid of thousands of foreign military advisers, are struggling to hold off a resurgent insurgency led by the Taliban, as well as other groups like Islamic State.
As of November, the government could only claim to control or influence 57 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts, according to U.S. military estimates released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in a quarterly report to the U.S. Congress.
That represents a 15 percent decrease in territory held compared with the same time in 2015, the agency said in a report.

Romanian protests

More than 250,000 Romanians demonstrated on Wednesday against a government decree decriminalizing some graft offences, seen as the biggest retreat on reforms since the country joined the European Union in 2007.
Romania's top judicial watchdog, the Superior Magistrates' Council (CSM), earlier in the day filed a constitutional court challenge to the decree unveiled by the new Social Democrat government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

about that muslim ban story

The leader of a mosque in Dearborn has confirmed to FOX 2 that a man who claimed his mother died in Iraq after being barred from returning to the United States under a ban instituted by President Trump this weekend, lied to FOX 2 about when her death occurred.
Imam Husham Al-Hussainy, leader of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, says Mike Hager's mom did not pass away this weekend after the travel ban was put in place. The Imam confirms that Hager's mother died before the executive order was signed.