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The Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) on 7 January issued its annual tally of suicide attacks, which the Israeli think tank said “remain one of the most effective tools available to terrorist organisations to achieve their objectives” and to “ build an image of power that is far greater than their actual power”. The INSS’s Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict research programme said 348 suicide attacks were carried out in 23 countries by some 623 terrorists in 2017, the lowest number since 2013.

The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), a group now consisting of 41 countries that was announced by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and defence minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) in December 2015, finally held its inaugural meeting on 26 November in Riyadh. The half-day event held under the theme ‘allied against terrorism’ marked the official launch of the organisation, which promises to co-ordinate efforts against terrorism in terms of ideology, communications, financing and military action.

A series of incidents involving Iranian and Saudi naval forces over recent weeks is heightening the risk of a more violent confrontation between rivals. The first notable event was on 16 June when Saudi Arabia claimed to have captured members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) intent on attacking the offshore Marjan oil field. Iranian officials insisted they were fishermen who had inadvertently drifted off course in heavy seas. Since then IRGC forces have seized Saudi boats in the waters off Bushehr provinces on two occasions, on 7 and 22 July, for trespassing into Iranian waters.

The UAE is reportedly close to finalising a deal with US-based Iomax to buy 12 more Archangel border patrol aircraft, with options for a further dozen, according to defence industry specialist Jane’s.

The French Ministry of Defence is providing a $1.1m grant to fund a US-French consortium developing technology to digitally document heritage in conflict zones. The Art Newspaper reported that the three-year BIG3D project is intended to widen access to the 3D data, which can be used by troops on the ground and scholars around the world to assess the condition of at-risk monuments and sites. Peacetime applications include sites threatened by climate change and urban growth.

With Islamic State (IS or Daesh) continuing to lose ground in Mosul, the time will soon come when Iraqis can look beyond the destruction wrought by that invidious group and dare to focus instead on the future. They can do so buoyed by some promising signs that things could at last start to move in the right direction. A recent survey of 1,338 Iraqis found they were more optimistic about the country’s direction, not least because of improvements in security and reductions in sectarianism.

In a surprise announcement on 14 June, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha said it had withdrawn its troops deployed on the border between Eritrea and Djibouti. Underlining the extent that Qatar and other Gulf states have become significant players in East Africa, the move quickly triggered a crisis. On 16 June, Djiboutian foreign minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said Eritrean troops had seized the contested Dumeira Mountain and Dumeira Island areas, and his country’s military was on alert.

Territory controlled by Islamic State (IS or Daesh) shrunk by 23% in 2016, according to analysis by IHS Markit, from 78,000km2 in early January 2016 to 60,400km2 by the end of the year. As of January 2015, the ‘caliphate’ had controlled some 90,800km2 of territory. Continued progress by Iraqi government forces in eastern parts of Mosul, along with advances by the Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) to the west of the city which are preventing resupply for IS fighters, prompted IHS to predict that Daesh will lose control of the city by mid-year.

Five UAE nationals were among 39 killed people in a terrorist attack at the governor of Kandahar’s headquarters in Afghanistan on 10 January. UAE authorities said the men – Mohammed Ali Zainal Al-Bastaki, Abdullah Mohammed Essa Obaid Al-Kaabi, Ahmed Rashid Salim Ali Al-Mazroui, Ahmed Abdul Rahman Ahmed Al-Tunaiji and Abdul Hamid Sultan Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Hammadi – were in the area to perform humanitarian work. UAE ambassador to Afghanistan Juma Al-Kaabi was wounded in the attack.

Senior military figures in Pakistan say they are increasingly worried that Middle East conflicts, stoked by the regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, could exacerbate sectarian rifts within Pakistan. Behind the scenes, they have been calling for Pakistani political leaders to do more to try and mediate between Riyadh and Tehran, saying that Pakistan needs to convince Tehran that its efforts to encircle the Gulf Arab countries with Shia-dominated regimes will ultimately prove counter-productive, and to convince Riyadh that its export of radical Wahhabist ideology is similarly problematic.

The Ministry of the Interior (MoI) signed 11 contracts worth a total of QR260m ($71m) at the biannual Milipol Qatar homeland security exhibition, which ran from 31 October to 2 November in Doha. The event attracted 6,538 visitors from 103 countries, and 230 exhibitors from 35 countries. MoI deals included a QR140m contract with Ares Beskitas of Turkey for unspecified equipment and weapons for boats, and a QR2.5m deal with Austria’s Sail Labs Technology for media monitoring systems.

Gulf Co-operation Council countries began the Gulf Security 1 exercise on 26 October in Prince Naif Security City, Bahrain. The drill is a collaboration by GCC interior ministries and is intended to improve preparedness for security events and to develop co-operation and co-ordination between the GCC member states’ forces.

Tehran says it has foiled an attack by Kurdish militants in the north-west. A brief report from the official Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna) on 11 October said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Beit-Ul-Moqaddas unit had prevented the attack on Marivan in Kurdestan province, close to the border with Iraq. Other reports said there had been a brief clash in the village of Gol-e Cheydar, close to Marvian, with one rocket-propelled grenade fired at IRGC forces before the attackers fled.

Houthi fighters on 1 October fired an anti-ship missile at a UAE military vessel near the Red Sea port of Mocha in the Bab Al-Mandab strait off the coast of Yemen. The Swift, a high-speed catamaran, is owned by Abu Dhabi-based Marine National Dredging Company and leased by the UAE Navy. The vessel was travelling from an Emirati base in Eritrea to Aden, where UAE forces are assisting in reconstruction work. UAE authorities said it was delivering medical and relief aid and evacuating injured civilians.

One year after an Islamic State (IS or Daesh) suicide bomber killed 27 people inside a Shia mosque in Kuwait City – and following the discovery of three IS cells the authorities said were plotting attacks in the country – strict security procedures were imposed on mosques, oil fields and Kuwait International Airport in the run up to Eid Al-Fitr. The authorities said they had carried three out “pre-emptive” operations in Kuwait and abroad that confounded a number of IS plots within Kuwait and led to the arrest of several Daesh members.