It’s Personal

“Mezher had converted the master bedroom into a makeshift operations center. I found him sitting on the edge of the bed, casually flipping a hand grenade around his finger. ‘Welcome to Mosul,’ he said.” The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson provides a riveting look inside the battle for Mosul through the experiences of swat team of Iraqis, all of whom have suffered at the hands of terrorists.

+ “Some of them have had no education at all since IS took over Mosul, once Iraq’s second-largest city, in June 2014. Others have been in IS-run madrassas where, besides studying the Koran, boys trained with weapons and girls did little more than cook and clean.” From The Economist: Schools are reopening in Mosul, after two years of jihadist rule. (If you’re feeling like politics has become too hard and exhausting in America over the past few months, read this for a reality check.)

+ A US commando was killed in Yemen in the first military operation approved by the new administration. “The U.S. military said it killed 14 militants in a raid on a powerful al Qaeda branch that has been a frequent target of U.S. drone strikes. Medics at the scene, however, said around 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed.” From NBC: “Almost everything went wrong.”

+ “For me, it is easy to take for granted the life that my family and I get to live everyday. Words don’t do justice for the gratitude that I have for people like Ryan that sacrifice their lives fighting against evil, so that we may live with freedom.” Buster Posey of the Giants on Ryan Owens, the Navy Seal (and two-time bronze star recipient) killed in Yemen.