World roundup: February 2 2024

Stories from Iran, North Korea, Ethiopia, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

February 2, 1982: The Hama Massacre begins

February 2, 1943: The remnants of the German Sixth Army surrender to the Soviets, ending the Battle of Stalingrad a bit over five months after it started. The combined Axis army that attacked Stalingrad suffered upwards of 1 million casualties as well as the loss of thousands of vehicles, the initiative on World War II’s Eastern Front, and the sense of inevitability that previous Axis victories had created. The battle served as a turning point, after which it would be the Red Army, not the Axis, that was on the offensive.

MIDDLE EAST

IRAN

The US military on Friday finally undertook, or at least began to undertake, its retaliation for last weekend’s deadly drone strike that targeted US forces in Jordan. As expected, the response involved airstrikes against Iranian-linked groups in Syria and Iraq. According to the Pentagon this attack, which is likely the first of several to come, targeted 85 sites connected with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and its various affiliated militias. At time of writing casualty figures were only just beginning to come in and I suspect it will be a day or more before something approximating an accurate assessment will be available.