TODAY IN HISTORY
August 12, 1099: In the final, anticlimactic battle of the First Crusade, the Crusader army routs a Fatimid army at Ascalon. The victory sparked a Fatimid retreat that secured the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem, but the exhausted and constantly bickering knights failed to take Ascalon itself.
August 12, 1121: Georgian King David IV defeats a much larger army sent by the Seljuk Sultanate at the Battle of Didgori. The Georgian victory helped to secure a measure of independence from the Seljuks.
August 12, 1687: The retreating Ottomans suffer a decisive defeat to the pursuing Habsburgs at the (second) Battle of Mohács in what is today southern Hungary. Just as the first Battle of Mohács, in 1526, led to the Ottoman conquest of much of Hungary, this battle signaled their departure from central Europe altogether. The Habsburg victory allowed them to reconstitute Hungary under their rule and to push into the Balkans and parts of modern Romania.
MIDDLE EAST
LEBANON
The Guardian’s William Christou reports that “firefighters and residents” are accusing the Israeli military (IDF) of intentionally starting wildfires across parts of southern Lebanon, particularly targeting “olive groves and agricultural land.” At least one group of firefighters has even reported coming under drone attack when it attempted to respond to one fire on Tuesday. Responders are “required to coordinate their movements with the Lebanese army,” which then has to seek permission from the IDF before it can green-light any firefighting operations. Lebanese conservationists say that the fires are consistent with “a pattern of Israeli attacks against Lebanon’s environment.”
