Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (p; August (at WebCite)(at WebCite) (Or December by father&#;s account – November ) was a British naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian FSB secret service who specialised in tackling organised crime. According to US diplomats, Litvinenko coined the phrase Mafia state. In November , Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian tycoon and oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in . He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in London, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, wherein he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the murder in October of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On November , Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-; he died from the poisoning on November. He became the first known victim of lethal polonium -induced acute radiation syndrome. The events leading up to this are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia&#;s Federal Protective Service, as the prime suspect. Britain demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, which is against the Constitution of Russia, which directly prohibits extradition of Russian citizens. Russia denied the extradition, leading to the cooling of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom. After Litvinenko&#;s death, his widow, Marina, pursued a vigorous campaign on behalf of her husband through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October , she won the right for an inquest into her husband&#;s death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence. A public inquiry began on January , and concluded in January that Litvinenko&#;s murder was an FSB operation, that was probably personally approved by Vladimir Putin.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (translit, Hêzên Sûriya Demokratîk, translit), commonly abbreviated as SDF, HSD or QSD, are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious alliance of predominantly Kurdish, but also Arab and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Turkmen, Armenian, Circassian and Chechen groups/participation in the Syrian Civil War. The SDF is mostly composed of, and militarily led by, the People&#;s Protection Units (YPG), a mostly Kurdish militia. Founded in October , the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federal Syria, along the lines of the Rojava Revolution in northern Syria. The updated December constitution of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria names the SDF as its official defence force. The primary opponents of the SDF and their allies are the Salafist and Islamic fundamentalist groups involved in the civil war, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, al-Qaeda affiliates, and their allies. The SDF has focused primarily on ISIL, successfully driving them from important strategic areas, such as Al-Hawl, Shaddadi, Tishrin Dam, Manbij, al-Tabqah, Tabqa Dam, Baath Dam, and ISIL&#;s former capital of Raqqa.

United Nations Security Council Resolution , adopted unanimously on September , , after reaffirming all resolutions on the situation in Afghanistan, particularly resolutions (), (), (), (), (), () and () and resolutions () and () on terrorism, the Council extended the authorisation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) until mid-October .

Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi (أحمد عبد الهادي الجلبي; October – November ) was an Iraqi politician, a founder of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and the President of the Governing Council of Iraq (th Prime Minister of Iraq) He was interim Minister of Oil in Iraq in April–May and December – January and Deputy Prime Minister from May to May .

Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/آپریشن ضربِ عضب ALA-LC) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, al-Qaeda, Jundallah and the Haqqani network. The operation was launched on June in North Waziristan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as a renewed effort against militancy in the wake of the June attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, for which the TTP and the IMU claimed responsibility. As of July , the operation internally displaced about , people belonging to , families from North Waziristan. Part of the war in North-West Pakistan, up to , Pakistani soldiers were involved in Zarb-e-Azb, described as a "comprehensive operation" to flush out all foreign and local militants hiding in North Waziristan. The operation has received widespread support from the Pakistani political, defence and civilian sectors. As a consequence, the overall security situation improved and terrorist attacks in Pakistan dropped to a six-year low since . Zarb-e-Azb was followed by Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad which began in February , following a resurgence in terrorist incidents.