This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• US Defense Secretary Hagel announced that US intelligence believes it to be likely that Syria has used chemical warfare, specifically sarin gas.
• On Sunday, 566 people were found dead in Syria, having been killed over the previous six day period. According to the opposition group Local Coordination Committees, that is the highest number of dead found on a single day since the war began two years ago.
• 2 kidnapped Syrian bishops remain missing.
• The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will withdraw from Turkey.
• Egypt’s justice minister resigned. 
• A car bomb exploded outside the French embassy in Libya this week, destroying about half of the embassy. Two guards were injured, but most employees had not arrived yet.
• 185 people in a fishing community in the northeast of Nigeria were killed during fighting between extremists and government forces. 
• The Security Council has approved the creation of a peacekeeping force in Mali. 
• Sudanese Darfur war crimes suspect Saleh Muhammad Jerbo Janus was killed in fighting in the region this week.
• Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army have been brought together for peace talks for the first time.
• Jeremy Scahill, author of the new book Dirty Wars, on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki (and his son).
• The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on drones from a Yemen with experience having drone strikes hit close to home. 
• Jordan and the UK have signed a mutual assistance treaty that will allow the UK to deport Abu Qatada.
• Iraqi soldiers opened fire on gunmen from helicopters this week, part of an escalation of violence in the country that has many worried.
• According to a recent report from an NGO, Taliban violence in Afghanistan is up sharply for the first quarter of 2013. 
• Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has formally arrested former President Pervez Musharraf for his role in the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
• Pakistan’s Supreme Court made public a list of journalists who allegedly received money from a secret government fund. 
• The Taliban’s election-related violence could have serious impact on the kind of people elected to office in Pakistan’s northwest regions.
• Spain is currently holding two suspects believed to be part of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
• Serbia’s president has issued an apology for Srebrenica and “all crimes” committed by Serbia during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. 
• As news of Guantanamo hunger striking reveals the extent of the protest, Sen. Feinstein urges White House review of the 86 detainees cleared for release and a search for where to relocate them.
• The RCMP arrested two people for an Al Qaeda-linked plot to derail a Via Rail train on the Toronto-NY route.
• Law enforcement believes the Tsarnaev brothers to have been planning further attacks.
• Read about the criminal charges and first-round court proceedings for Dzokhar Tsarnaev from this Monday.
• Further information has come out regarding the process of the investigation and how events unfolded during the manhunt: read here, here, and here.
• The DC Circuit Court voted on Tuesday to review Congressional power to create new war crimes that apply to crimes committed prior to the existence of those laws. Whichever way the Circuit Court goes, the ruling is likely to be challenged at the Supreme Court. 
• Paul Curtis was freed after charges against him in the ricin letter cases were dropped.
• At GQ, Nate Penn challenges arguments against women in combat by relaying stories from women who have served, in their own words. 

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Photo: Umayyad Mosque earlier this month. The UNESCO World Heritage site was seriously damaged, losing its minaret, by fighting this week. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty.