World roundup: December 16 2024

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Sudan, Germany, and elsewhere

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Apologies, but I have come down with some sort of bug that features a sore throat, which will prevent me from recording our usual voiceover tonight. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it tomorrow but we’ll see. Thanks for your patience!

TODAY IN HISTORY

December 16, 755: Chinese general An Lushan declares himself emperor, attempting to usurp power from the ruling Tang Dynasty. The An Lushan Rebellion lasted over seven years (long after the death of its namesake in 757), and while it failed it also badly weakened the Tang Dynasty, which strengthened the neighboring Uyghur Khaganate and the Tibetan Empire.

December 16, 1944: A major and sudden German offensive in the Ardennes Forest begins the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most important engagements on the Western Front in World War II. The battle ended on January 25, 1945, with an Allied victory. The German attack did delay the Allied advance into Germany by several weeks, but the cost was the near obliteration of whatever remained of the German military’s capacity to wage an offensive war.

Members of the US Army’s 7th Armored Division near Vielsalm, Belgium in late December (US Army Signal Corps via Wikimedia Commons)

December 16, 1971: The Indo-Pakistani War and Bangladesh Liberation War (two parts of the same conflict) both end.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

This story was still developing at time of writing, but the Turkish government and its “Syrian National Army” proxies have reportedly scrapped a US-brokered ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces group. According to Al-Monitor’s Amberin Zaman, sources report “significant military buildups” around the SDF-held town of Kobani, which is presumably the SNA’s next target. It’s unclear how the US government is going to respond given that Turkey is a NATO ally and the SDF is a US client. I will note, however, that Washington prodded the SDF to withdraw from Manbij last week on the premise that US officials had brokered a deal whereby Turkey and the SNA would not pursue the SDF on the eastern side of the Euphrates River. Did the Turkish government have any intention of accepting that deal? Did those US officials think Turkey would accept or did they know they were selling the SDF out?

In other items: