Today's Headlines and Commentary

"It's becoming a nightmare," said one Iraqi colonel of the advance into Mosul. The relatively easy operations to clear Mosul’s outlying towns have given way to brutal urban warfare, Reuters reports. Iraqi forces have recaptured six of 60 neighborhoods in Mosul, but Islamic State militants are putting up fierce resistance through sniper fire, suicide bombers, and a 45 mile tunnel network that allows fighters to strike suddenly where and when government forces least expect it. Militants are trying to blend in with the civilian population and using civilians as human shields in an attempt to protect themselves from coalition airstrikes. This is to say nothing of the tens of thousands of civilians moving through the battlefield as they flee the city.

The dense urban terrain has helped bolster Islamic State fighters contending with far larger and better equipped coalition forces. Iraqi armored vehicles cannot pass through many of the city’s narrow streets, and this limited mobility makes them especially vulnerable to suicide bombers. The Islamic State is employing what it refers to as “crashing waves” tactics, maintaining continuous pressure on the government’s elite counterterrorism units by sending small waves of fighters that strike quickly and fiercely before giving way to the next wave of attacking militants. The terrain and tactics have allowed the rebels—outnumbered 20:1—to resist the coalition's advance. Reuters has more.

Government forces took today to regroup rather than advance deeper into the city, the AP tells us. The pause is symptomatic of the advance’s overall slowdown as government forces move deeper into this treacherous environment inside Mosul proper. The Peshmerga hold their positions north of the city, and the Shiite militias are fighting to control key routes to the city’s west.

Amnesty International alleges that Iraqi government forces involved in the Mosul offensive have been abusing the civilian population, Reuters writes. An Amnesty report accuses federal police of extrajudicial killings against six civilians whom police believed have links to extremist groups. Preventing reprisals against the civilian population was one of the coalition’s major concerns before the Mosul offensive, which led to the exclusion of Shiite militias from the main coalition moving on the Sunni-majority city. Such abuses could fuel support among local civilians for the insurgents once they have lost territorial control.

Meanwhile in Syria, U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters continue their advance on the Islamic State’s capital in Raqqa, the AP notes. The Syrian Democratic Forces have deployed 30,000 troops to the offensive, which have already captured 17 villages since the offensive began this weekend. Its forces are approaching from Raqqa’s north and plan to envelope the city with other members of the coalition before making a final punch into the urban center.

The U.S. military announced that its operations against the Islamic State have killed 119 civilians in Iraq and Syria since 2014, the New York Times reports. Military officials stressed that the American operations at issue complied with the laws of armed conflict and noted that the military went with the worst-case assessment of civilian losses so as not to understate the humanitarian costs of the campaign. Reuters notes that there have been 12,354 total U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State.

Aid workers in Aleppo have run out of rations to distribute to the hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held territory, Reuters writes. The Syrian government is not allowing the United Nations to provide more food aid this month, and Russia will likely resume its oscillation between intermittent airstrikes and “humanitarian pauses.” These starve-or-submit tactics have thus far proved unsuccessful in driving the insurgents out of eastern Aleppo, but the Russians and Syrians seem committed to the tactic.

Terrorists killed three people in a government building in southeast Turkey today, the AP tells us. Turkish officials claim the PKK was behind the attack, which is one of many such strikes on government targets in recent months. These attacks have aggravated the Turkish government’s fears that U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters operating in Syria are linked with PKK forces and will begin to threaten Turkey once the Islamic State is defeated.

The IAEA released a report Wednesday claiming that Iran has again exceeded a “soft limit” in the Iran deal on the amount of heavy water it can possess, Reuters reports. The deal does not prohibit Iran from exceeding the 130 metric ton threshold, but it does require that any excess “will be made available for export to the international market.” Iran’s current stock is 130.1 tons, and it has announced plans to export 5 tons within days. The previous incident in February was resolved with similar expediency.

Interpol elected its first Chinese president, prompting some concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to use the international police institution to harass domestic political dissidents, the AP notes. Some human rights groups argue that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s widespread anti-corruption campaign has gone beyond legitimate purposes to target Xi’s political opponents, and now fear that China will now be better positioned to imitate the Russian practice of using Interpol as a tool to harass political dissidents.

Russia’s FSB detained three Ukrainians accused of planning attacks on Russian sites in Crimea, Reuters writes. Moscow alleges that the three men were intelligence agents with military experience in the Ukrainian army, which Kiev denies. This is the second time since August that Russia has arrested people it accuses of planning terrorist acts against Russian forces in Ukraine.

A Russian diplomat claimed today that Russian officials had been in contact with the Trump and Clinton campaigns throughout the election, the Times reports. Trump’s spokeswoman has denied the statement, while Clinton’s campaign has not commented. Foreign leaders and diplomats are regularly in touch with American presidential candidates, although Moscow’s interference with the election and its well-reported ties with the Trump campaign makes news of contact with Russian officials unusually controversial. Bloomberg has more.

Donald Trump may have trouble staffing national security positions in his administration, the Daily Beast tells us. In an unprecedented move during the campaign, hundreds of conservative national security experts pledged in multiple different open letters that they would not work for Trump if he were elected. Insider reports suggest that many are making good on that pledge now.

Finally, police are investigating a number of reported hate crimes at U.S. universities immediately following the election, the Times notes. Several female Muslim students report being confronted by men who harassed them for their religious affiliation, sometimes referencing the president-elect. The incidents emphasize widespread concerns over the encouragement that extremists have appeared to draw from the Trump campaign.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Susan Hennessey made the case for experts to serve in the Trump administration.

Benjamin Wittes argued that the burden is on Trump to change his behavior, not on the national security community to overlook the threats his presidency poses to the country.

Quinta Jurecic flagged an upcoming Hoover Book Soiree on Bill Banks’ new book, Soldiers on the Homefront: The Domestic Role of the American Military.

Graham Webster posted a reading list and set of unanswered questions on how Trump will approach U.S.-Sino relations.

Herb Lin suggested that the United States should institute a two-person rule for ordering the use of nuclear weapons.

Bobby Chesney outlined possible changes to laws regulating interrogation in the Trump administration.

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