WARS OF 2024 ...Artilce written by Frank Gardner. Security correspondent for The BBC

The sudden toppling of Syria's President Assad, North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia. British and US missiles sent to Ukraine and fired at Russia, Iranian missiles shipped to Russia. US-armed Israeli air strikes in Lebanon and Gaza, Yemeni missiles fired at Israel.

It's a complex and confusing web of conflicts and it prompts the inevitable question: Are the world's battle lines becoming ever more interconnected?

Let's get one thing straight: this is not World War Three, although President Putin does like to dangle that menace to scare the West away from sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine. But it's clear that many of the conflicts on our planet have an international dimension, so how do these lines join up?

The wars of 2024 brought together rivals - but created new enemies 

BBC

a day ago

How the wars of 2024 brought together rivals and created enemies

 Frank Gardner

Security correspondent•@FrankRGardner

Ukraine vs Russia: Europe's war on our doorstep

The Middle East: A chessboard upended 

Syria: Under new management 

Gaza: Endless conflict? 

Iran and its proxies 

North Korea: A sanctions-busting partnership 

Taiwan and China: When, not if 

2024's big picture 

"This was the year that the balance of power in the Middle East shifted dramatically, in Israel's favour and to Iran's disadvantage. Israel's government has clearly decided to go all-out to "neutralise" its enemies, be they in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen or Syria. Red lines previously adhered to, by both Iran and Israel, have now been crossed, with the two sides trading missiles in direct attacks on each other for the first time.
The Ukraine war has now shown itself to be almost certainly unwinnable, at least for Ukraine. Russia has ramped up its defence industrial machine to the extent it can now partially overwhelm Ukraine's air defences and its front lines but not so much that it can take the whole country. Yet Ukraine's position now looks weaker than at any time since the early months of the full-scale invasion.
The war has become increasingly internationalised, with North Korean troops arriving in Europe to fight on Russia's side and the West giving the green light for Ukraine to fire its long-range missiles into Russia.
Sweden has now joined Nato, meaning that eight Nato countries now border the Baltic Sea where Russia maintains two strategic footholds, in St Petersburg and Kaliningrad. There have been several incidents of so-called "hybrid warfare" in the Baltic, where Russia is suspected of purposefully damaging undersea communications cables." 

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WESTERN MYOPIA IN LIBYA:

Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

In 2014, the country fell into a civil war that led to it splitting between warring factions. 

Nearly10 years later, a political standoff continues between an internationally recognized government in the capital, Tripoli, in the west of the country, that is led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, and a rival rebel administration in the eastern city of Benghazi, led by Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), that is supported by some states.

OK that covers only the past 10 year years...

LIBYA'S NEW STRONG MAN 

Small-time CIA asset turned Libya's biggest strongman

A US citizen wants to overthrow a US-backed government in Libya. Here’s why

EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND (from earlier uploaded posts on this blog)

Haftar was born in the Libyan city of Tarhuna. He served in the Libyan army under Muammar Gaddafi, and took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. 

• He took part in the Libyan contingent against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.^[5] 
• In 1987, he became a prisoner of war during the war against Chad after being lured into a trap and captured, which was then a major embarrassment for Gaddafi and represented a major blow to Gaddafi's ambitions in Chad. 
• While being held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. 
• He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades living in the U.S. in Langley, Virginia, and gained U.S. citizenship.^[6][7]
•  In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. 

RELATED

Project Opus[edit]

On April 14, 2019, Erik Prince made a proposal of a $80 million deal to Libya's militia leader Khalifa Haftar to supply aircraft and other military equipment. 

Called the Project Opus, it involved purchase of surplus military helicopters from Jordan. 

• The plan was designed to supply intelligence surveillance aircraft, drones, armed assault helicopters, maritime interdiction, and cyber intelligence and targeting capabilities to Haftar's forces. 
• The project was, however, aborted in June 2019.^[79] 
• The planning, management and financing of the Prince's project was done using three firms from the United Arab Emirates, including Lancaster 6 DMCC, L-6 FZE and Opus Capital Asset Limited FZE, which were using a web of shell companies.^[80][81]

THIS WAS A SURPRISE INCLUSION:

Africa: Moscow's new backyard 

Getty Images

Russia has a big ally in the form of Libya's 'Marshal' Khalifa Haftar 

Russia may have lost its key Mediterranean ally, Syria, but it still has a big one in the form of Libya's "Marshal" Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi. Russian air force cargo planes have recently been seen flying into Libyan airstrips, both on the coast and inland at a place called Brak. 

• Moscow clearly sees Libya as both a springboard for projecting its global reach in the Mediterranean and also as a staging post for its mercenary activities further south in Sudan and the Sahel.

The Russian mercenary group formerly known as Wagner and now rebranded as "Afrika Korps" have successfully supplanted French and other Western forces in the Sahel nations and former French colonies of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Central African Republic.

This means Russia has effectively inherited the IS jihadist problem in those countries but in the meantime it is enriching itself from lucrative deals that see mineral and other wealth flowing back to Moscow.

Ukraine recently appeared to take a wrong turn in this area by enabling a major attack on Malian government forces and their Russian mentors in July. 

• Ukrainian Special Forces reportedly supplied drones and training to Tuareg rebels that resulted in an ambush, killing 84 Russian mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers. 
• Kyiv is clearly trying to "take the fight to the enemy" but if they were responsible for supplying the drones, this move is widely considered to have backfired. 
• Ukraine has denied involvement.

So what next?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !!!!!!