Hundreds of thousands from across Saudi Arabia attended a funeral for the victims of an attack earlier this week on a Shi'ite meeting hall in the village of al-Dalwa, Eastern Province. Mourners repudiated sectarianism, chanting "Sunnis and Shi'ites, we are brothers!" Calling the funeral march a "demonstration of national unity," marchers said they represent the "silent majority" that opposes sectarianism. Eight people—including three children—were killed in the Nov. 3 attack, when masked gunmen fired on a crowd of people celebrating Ashura. Saudi authorities responded with a huge security operation, arresting 15 in six cities across the country. Two security troops were killed in a raid in central Qassim province, and three suspects shot dead. Authorities say one of the attackers had recently returned from fighting (presumably for ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. (Middle East Eye, Nov. 7)

The top international commander in Afghanistan, US Army Gen. John Campbell, is assessing whether more coalition troops should remain in the country beyond the Obama administration's current plans for a "complete withdrawal" in 2016. In a phone interview from Kabul with Foreign Policy (Nov. 3), Campbell said he was "beginning now to take a hard look" at what effect delays in concluding a US-Afghanistan bilateral security agreement have had on the preparedness of the Afghan military in the face of a resurgent Taliban. "Do I come back and do I alert my leadership and say we are coming down to this number, we need to hold a little bit longer to take advantage of some of the things that President [Ashraf] Ghani has put in place and we need more NATO forces in certain locations for longer?" Campbell said. "I've got to do that analysis and we're just starting that now."

At Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, local Bedouin families are emptying their homes, loading belongings into vans as soldiers look on from armored cars. At eight border villages, 680 houses—homes to 1,165 families—are being demolished to create a "security zone." Residents were ordered to evacuate on 48 hours notice. Some monetary compensation is being offered, but no provisions for new housing have been made, and landlords are jacking up rents in the Sinai in response to the sudden demand. Dynamite as well as bulldozers is being used to demolish the villages. The operation will result in a buffer 13.5 kilometers long and 500 meters wide. But some Bedouin pledge to resist relocation. A woman at Ibshar village said: "I'm not leaving my house even if they kill me. I was born and raised in this house. If they want the terrorists, they know where they are. There’s no need to force us from our homes." (Middle East Eye, Nov. 6; Reuters, Nov. 5)

A mass mobilization was held in Peru's northern city of Cajamarca Nov. 4 to protest the police slaying of local mechanic Fidel Flores in an eviction five days earlier. National Police troops used tear-gas to break up the protest amid street clashes in which a local police post was besieged and two police motorcycles were doused with petrol and burned. Students occupied the National University of Cajamarca as part of the protest mobilization, and the city's intermediary school San Ramón was also shut down by students who walked out of class to join the campaign. Protest organizers resolved not to permit any visible presence at the demonstrations by Cajamarca's ruling left-populist Social Affirmation Movement (MAS), saying that the death of Fidel Flores should not be exploited by political parties.

A joint force of Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and Free Syrian Army (FSA) units have launched a new offensive at the besieged border town of Kobani, driving back ISIS fighters from villages west of the city. The ISIS positions also continue to be targetted by US-led coalition warplanes, with the last air-strike reported Nov. 3. Peshmerga Commander Ahmed Gardi told BasNews: "Coalition airstrikes shelled the militants in the southern part of Kobani in order to prevent them from taking control of the strategic Murshid Penari gate." The joint force, now consisting of some 2,000 fighters, is now said to be fighting in the villages of al-Badour, Manaze, Arbosh and Chigor. Grad missiles brought by the Peshmerga force have also helped turn the tide. However, the Kurdish-led force is still outnumbered two-to-one by the ISIS fighters besieging Kobani, who have tanks and heavy artillery. And even as ISIS is driven back at outlying villages, fighting still continues within the urban area of Kobani. (Rudaw, Bas News, Kurdish Question)

Mexico claimed another capture of a long-fugitive cartel kingpin Oct. 9, when Vicente Carrillo Fuentes AKA "El Viceroy" surrendered without a shot after being recognized by federal police at a checkpoint in Torreon, Coahuila. A bodyguard in the car was also taken into custody. El Viceroy, top boss of the Juárez Cartel, was one of Mexico's most wanted fugitives, and the US was offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. (CNN, Oct. 9) However, like Héctor Beltran Leyva of the Beltran Leyva Organization, who was apprehended just days earlier, the Viceroy headed a crime syndicate that was already in decline—squeezed out by the twin behemoths of the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas.

Via Facebook, Oct. 31:

Global Rally Against ISIS — For Kobanê — For Humanity
ISIS [has] launched a major multi-front military campaign against the Kurdish region of Kobanê in northern Syria. This is the third ISIS onslaught on Kobanê since March 2014. As the ISIS was unsuccessful on the two previous occasions, they are attacking with larger forces and want to take Kobanê.

Colombia's FARC guerillas on Oct. 29 admitted to causing harm to the population during the 50 years of their war against the state, and vowed to assume responsibility for their victims. "We explicitly recognize that our actions have affected civilians at different times and under different circumstances throughout the conflict," rebel commander "Pablo Atrato" said at a Havana press conference already dubbed "historic" by Colombian media. "We are aware that the results of our actions were not always what the FARC had foreseen or expected, and we assume the consequences because there can not be another way. The FARC will assume the responsibility that belongs with us." Atrato stated that "it is evident" that the FARC "actively participated" in violence and that the "adverse impact" of rebel actions "caused damage to the population that has been immersed in war."