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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In a surprise announcement on 14 June, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha said it had withdrawn its troops deployed on the border between Eritrea and Djibouti.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.

Interior minister Mohammed Salem Al-Ghabban resigned on 5 July following a suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 250 people. His resignation was approved by prime minister Haider Al-Abadi, who promoted a deputy minister to take over the Ministry of Interior (MoI). Abadi subsequently relieved Lieutenant General Abdulamir Al-Shimmari of his position as Operations Commander in Baghdad, along with the heads of the capital’s intelligence and security departments.

The amount of territory controlled by Islamic State (IS or Daesh) shrank by 12% in H1 2016, according to research firm IHS. As of early July, IS controlled roughly 68,300km2 in Iraq and Syria, roughly the size of Ireland. Territorial losses in Iraq this year include an area north-west of Baiji, land between Ramadi and Haditha, and parts of Anbar province. IHS joined analysts predicting that the continued loss of territory is likely to push Daesh towards more mass casualty attacks in Iraq, Syria and further afield, including Europe and Kuwait.

The new Louvre Abu Dhabi building is expected to host an international conference on the terrorist threat to culture, convened by French President François Hollande and President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. The conference could take place this December, even though the delayed building will not be completed by then, The Art Newspaper reported.

An Islamic State (IS or Daesh) affiliate claimed responsibility for seven simultaneous attacks, including two suicide bombings, that killed 43 people in Mukalla on 27 June. Mukalla was occupied by its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until April, when it left following an agreement with local groups to avoid conflict with forces backed by the UAE, which secured Mukalla’s main streets, port and airport.