Today's Headlines and Commentary

Yesterday, the U.S. military announced that it had successfully targeted and killed over 150 al Shabaab militants in Somalia in a series of airstrikes against a training camp. According to the Washington Post, Pentagon officials described the group of militants as an “imminent threat” to both U.S. and African Union troops in Somalia. Foreign Policy calls the strike “one of the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in recent memory.” The news of the airstrikes, which apparently included drone strikes, came as Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, revealed that the Obama administration plans to release the number of suspected terrorists and civilians killed in U.S. drone strikes since 2009.

A day after the airstrikes, the New York Times reports that a bomb planted within a laptop computer exploded at an airport security checkpoint in the town of Beletwein in central Somalia. The hidden explosive wounded at least six people. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after the laptop detonated. According to police officials in Somalia, a second bomb was successfully defused. The month of February saw an uptick in attacks by al Shabaab with a twin car bombing in Baidoa, an attack on a hotel, and an attempted bombing of a jetliner.

A top Islamic State leader may have been killed in a U.S. drone strike. The U.S. military and intelligence community are assessing whether a targeted airstrike last week killed a militant known as“the Chechen.” “The Chechen” is also known as Abu Omar al Shashani and is one of the Islamic State’s most capable commanders. CNN has more.

Stars and Stripes reports that more than a dozen Islamic State militants were killed in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan Sunday night. That news comes shortly after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stated that Afghanistan would “become a graveyard for the Islamic State.” According to Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, “if all drone attacks continue like this, then it will not be difficult to eradicate the insurgency in the country.”

Yet while Afghanistan is seeing measured success against ISIS, U.K. authorities are increasnigly worried about a potential attack in the British isles. The Guardian reports that the Islamic State seeks to “inflict an ‘enormous and spectacular’ terrorist atrocity on Britain and may have people trained to a paramilitary level to carry out attacks.” According to Mark Rowley, Britain’s Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, terrorists still want to kill soldiers and police but now pose a real danger of attacking Western lifestyle targets. Rowley further stated that the Islamic State is “going from a narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader."

The Pentagon has presented the White House with its plan for stemming the Islamic State’s growing threat in Libya. The New York Times writes that the set of military options includes a range of potential airstrikes against training camps, command centers, munitions depots, and other militant targets. The Times also shares that the airstrikes against 30-40 targets in four areas around the country would seek to deal a “crippling blow” to the Islamic State’s most deadly affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria.

Back in the homeland, military intelligence reports on the Islamic State’s threat were softened after leaving analysts desks at U.S. Central Command. The Washington Examiner reports that the congressional task force established to investigate the allegedly cooked documents found that the higher the reports traveled in the chain-of-command the more they become "rose-colored" in regards to the actual threat.

The main Syrian opposition group will decide later this week whether to participate in the peace talks set to resume in Geneva tomorrow. Riad Hijab, the head of the Higher Negotiations Committee acknowledged that Russia’s bombardment has decreased following the implementation of the “cessation of hostilities” last week. However, Hijab added that Bashar al Assad’s government has not released any detainees and he said that the flow of aid to rebel-held areas was too small, citing the main preconditions for the opposition to continue in the peace process. ABC News has more.

Following a joint meeting between European Union officials and Turkey on the migrant crisis, Turkey has agreed to do more than the E.U. has asked in order to curb the flow of migrants traveling across the Aegean Sea. However, there is a catch. The Washington Post reports that Turkey will only step up its efforts in return for billions of dollars in aid and a new hearing on Turkish membership in the European Union. The proposal came as a surprise to E.U. negotiators.

Today, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps staged nationwide ballistic missile tests. The New York Times tells us that Iranian state television reported the news but did not specify whether the military had launched any missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Such a test would violate a United Nations resolution. Under the nuclear accord signed by the United States and Iran last summer, Iran was prohibited from testing missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace wing, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, stated that the United States is “trying to turn off the lights of Iran’s missile program” but that “the Guard Corps doesn’t give into threats.”

An American tourist was killed by a Palestinian attacker today in Israel’s port city of Jaffa. Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the American man was killed Tuesday when a Palestinian stabbed seven people. The victim has not yet been named.

Over the weekend, the Taliban issued a statement saying that it would not participate in any talks aimed at peace with the Afghan government. However, the Afghan government still hopes to hold peace talks with the insurgent group. The Associated Press shares that Afghanistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai deemed the Taliban’s statement a “tactical” move and said that Afghanistan would continue the peace process.

Following yesterday’s deadly bombing at a courthouse in Pakistan by Jamat-ul-Ahrar, Pakistan’s military conducted airstrikes that killed at least 21 militants in North Waziristan's tribal region near the Afghan border. According to Voice of America, Pakistan’s counter-insurgency army operation has cleared around 90 percent of the Waziristan territory of insurgents.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi indicated that China would not permit other nations to infringe on its sovereign rights in the South China Sea. Taking a hard line during a news conference today, the Associated Press reports that Wang said “another nation’s claim to freedom of navigation in the region doesn’t give it the right to do whatever it wants,” referencing the United States. Wang also deflected allegations that China is militarizing the disputed waters, saying instead that China was acting in defense and adding that “China cannot be labeled as the most militaristic. This label is more suited to other countries.”

Defense officials announced yesterday that the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group has passed out of the South China Sea just days after it had arrived in the heavily disputed waters. Appearing in the waters on March 1, the strike group entered amid rising tensions over China’s decision to install surface-to-air missiles on an island in the Parcel Island chain. Military.com tells us that Navy officials indicated that the ships were in the South China Sea only for standard operations and were not intended to show force to Chinese naval personnel. However, the strike group’s departure does not signal the end to U.S. missions in the South China Sea. Today, U.S. Air Force General Lori Robinson announced that the Air Force will continue to conduct missions in and over the South China Sea despite China’s recent claim that freedom of navigation has its limits.

Foreign Policy reports that an unpublished document by a United Nations panel responsible for enforcing sanctions against North Korea suggests that Pyongyang moved tens of millions of dollars through a Chinese bank to avoid sanctions. Foreign Policy has more on that report here.

South Korea has approved unilateral sanctions against North Korea by blacklisting dozens of northern companies and people for the first time and banning ships that have visited North Korean ports from its waters. The Washington Post shares that South Korean Minister of Government Policy Coordination Lee Suk-joon stated, “North Korea’s provocations—and its nuclear tests and long-range missiles—can no longer be accepted, and North Korea’s misjudgments should be corrected by making them pay the heavy price for their actions.”

Additionally, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service accused North Korea of hacking into the smartphones of dozens of senior South Korean government officials. Allegedly, Pyongyang stole the officials’ text messages, contact information, and voice conversations. The New York Times writes that the news comes as South Korea faces a growing threat of online attacks from the North, possibly in retaliation for the latest sanctions imposed on the Hermit Kingdom.

The Pentagon recently issued a military wide cybersecurity discipline implementation plan in an attempt to hold leaders up and down the chain of command accountable for cybersecurity. Initially released last October, the plan was updated in February and made public last week. C4ISR & Networks writes that the plan shares some similarities with the Defense Department’s other large-scale cyber assessments. Read the updates here.

In other cyber news, the Department of Defense has awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $5 billion contract for cybersecurity. C4ISR & Networks tells us that “Booz Allen will be the prime contractor on the five-year, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract awarded by the Department of Defense Information Analysis Centers Program Management Office.”

The Washington Post has the latest updates on the Apple vs. FBI dispute. Yesterday, the Department of Justice filed an appeal to a federal judge’s ruling in New York that Apple did not have to help the FBI access a locked iPhone belonging to a drug dealer. Read the rest from the Washington Post here.

Reuters reports that the Obama administration announced yesterday that the number of former Guantanamo Bay prison detainees who are suspected of having returned to fighting for militants doubled to 12. According to a report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as of January 15, the United States confirmed that seven out of the 144 detainees who were freed since President Obama took office in 2009 have returned to fighting.

The Washington Post reports that the White House is considering nearly half a dozen relatively new federal judges to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The Post shares a list of some of the judges under consideration for the bench here.

Ever wonder what the 2016 presidential candidates get wrong about the future of war? Defense One has you covered. Check out Defense One’s piece on the topic here.

Parting Shot: Here's an atomic oxymoron: Foreign Policy calls Donald Trump an “idiot savant on nuclear policy” who may not know just how right he is about the U.S.'s incoherent nuclear attitudes.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Cody shared the Week That Will Be and flagged upcoming events this week.

Ben linked us to a trans-Atlantic town hall dialogue with Germans on data privacy that he participated in.

Daniel Severson described how France amended a pending counterterrorism bill to impose heavy penalties on technology companies that fail to cooperate in decrypting information for investigators.

Jack Goldsmith provided us the title and description on a new book on international law in a changing world.

Bobby Chesney responded to the U.S. government’s airstrikes targeting 150 al Shabaab militants in Somalia.

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