Syrian Civil War

Islamic State Fighters Fleeing Raqqa as the Battle Nears the End

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have agreed to a proposal with the Islamic State that allows Syrian jihadists to leave the city of Raqqa in exchange for the release of civilians held captive by the ISIS group.

A statement released by SDF stated ISIS fighters are fleeing as the SDF has nearly totally captured Raqqa. The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, on Saturday, launched what they deem their final assault against the remaining Islamic State fighters in the city, located in Northern Syria.

So far. Over 3000 civilians have fled the city as part of the evacuation agreement. Foreign fighters for ISIS are not covered in the agreement, however.

“Last night, the final batch of fighters (who agreed to leave) left the city,” said SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali, adding that no foreign fighters had left the city. The SDF later said in a statement that around 275 local fighters and their families had left as part of the deal.
“The final battle will continue until the entire city is cleansed of terrorists, who have refused to surrender,” the SDF said.
However, Omar Alloush, an official in the Raqqa Civilian Council, disputed the SDF’s claim and said a batch of foreign jihadists had also departed with the convoy of local militants.
The US had earlier protested a safe exit for the extremist group. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday the US would accept the surrender of IS militants who would be interrogated for intelligence purposes.
The tribal leaders said they appealed to the coalition and the SDF to allow IS fighters to leave the city to stem further violence.
“Because our aim is liberation, not killing, we appealed to the SDF to arrange for the local fighters and secure their exit to outside of the city with our guarantees,” the tribal chiefs said in a statement.

US statements from the Combined Joint Task Force did not support the freeing of ISIS or Daesh (the local term) fighters in any agreement. But the fight for Raqqa now is down to their final days. The IS also lost the Syrian town of Mayadeen to Syrian government forces that were backed by Russian airstrikes.

To read the entire article Deutsche Welle click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

War in Syria Has Transformed Hezbollah Into a Regional Power

Hezbollah was borne out of a struggle against Israel and now the large organization has transformed into a much larger force since its experience in the civil war in Syria. Their success in fighting against the Islamic State, or Daesh, as they call it, have them flush with new recruits.

But while they have fought for the Syrian government that has always supported them with arms and sanctuaries, their ultimate goal is still the same. And now they consider themselves a regional power.

Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by Washington, has gained extensive battlefield experience in Syria, and it claims it is prepared for another war with Israel if necessary.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah recently warned Israel of “heavy losses” if it underestimates his organization’s capabilities.
The official said the Iran-backed group’s “decisive and essential” role in Syria has turned it into a major military force in the Middle East.
“That was not our aim when we intervened in Syria,” he said. “All we wanted is to defend the resistance and defend a state that has stood by and supported the resistance since its inception in 1982 until now.

And the organization that has lost anywhere between 1300-1500 fighters during the war in Syria has had no problems in attracting new Shia recruits to their flag. In fact, their numbers have grown as Hezbollah leaders are using a sort of theology to attract the young to their cause.

Naim Qassem, the Deputy Chief of Hezbollah has attended funerals for young killed fighters where he linked the deaths to the concept of fate, which is predestined by God and therefore unchangeable.

And now the next question is, what happens next? Many thought that Hezbollah would just return to Lebanon after the war was over. But their leaders aren’t so quick to acknowledge that, stating that they’ll “go where they are needed.”

To read the entire article from Middle East Eye click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Iraqi Forces Drive Islamic State Fighters Out of Central Hawija

Military forces from Iraq are driving out fighters from the Islamic State in their last bastion in Iraqi territory. On Tuesday, the military announced that they’ve driven ISIS troops out of the center of the town of Hawija.

In heavy fighting, the Iraqis claim to have killed 196 ISIS fighters and recaptured 98 small villages that surround the town. Hawija is the last big enclave of the Islamic State in Iraq. Once they’ve been ousted, they will control only a small strip of land between Iraq and Syria.

On Tuesday, Iraqi forces captured the Rashad air base south of the city, which was used as a training camp by the militants.
The UN said on Tuesday up to 78,000 civilians were still trapped in Hawija. Iraqi security forces said IS militants were preventing some people from leaving and might have laid explosives around the town.
About 12,500 people had fled since the army’s operation began two weeks ago, according to the UN. It is unclear though how many civilians have escaped in the past couple of days.

Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah, the Iraqi force commander, told the press that a combined force of military, police, and paramilitary had captured the center of Hawija and are continuing the advance. The Islamic State had held Hawija since moving into Iraq in 2014.

To read the entire article from the BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

U.S. Backed SDF Scours ISIS Base in Raqqa For Intelligence

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are moving thru the Islamic State’s former bastion at Raqqa as now 90 percent of the city has been taken. Their fighters on Monday were slowly recovering communication equipment and weapons used by the ISIS forces in their former command centers.

After battling thru the western edge of the city, the SDF in the vicious no-quarter-given fight were now slowly moving from house-by-house in the search weapons or intelligence left behind by ISIS.

“This neighbourhood was a strategic place for Daesh. Most of their bases were here, including command centres and ammunition depots,” said local SDF commander Gabar Derek, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
Many of the buildings in the area are large stone complexes formerly used by Syria’s government, then taken up as bases by IS before the SDF moved in.
“A few days ago we advanced into a position used by IS and found walkie-talkies. We took out a lot but there was a part we could not remove until today,” said Derek, 25.
As he spoke, his fighters unloaded an armoured vehicle full of dozens of walkie-talkies, military fatigues and boots, a gas mask, rocket-propelled grenades, and even a serrated sword retrieved from the former IS command centre.

The SDF fighters are finding a treasure trove of weapons, equipment and documents as the Islamic State are leaving behind a mountain of gear in an attempt to flee. Radios with frequencies and call-signs and documents will all be gone thru carefully by the group as they finish up the task of evicting ISIS from the last big bastion in Syria.

To read the entire article from AL-Monitor, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Captured ISIS Fighter in Iraq Claims to Only Be a Cook

Iraqi officials are having to deal with a massive influx of civilian refugees as their military is putting the final touches on crushing the army of the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria. To compound matters, they’re dealing with a huge influx of military age men, who, dirty and pitiful looking are arriving at checkpoints begging for mercy and claiming to be legitimate refugees.

But Iraqi officials believe that up to 90 percent of them are ISIS fighters and that many have committed atrocities against Iraqi civilians and military. And they’re taking no chances, as each is being interrogated thoroughly.

While civilians from the stronghold, the city of Hawija, have sought safety in Kirkuk and elsewhere in Iraq’s Kurdish region, this past weekend was the first time they came in large numbers with men of fighting age.

Iraqi Kurdish officials were taking no chances on Sunday (Oct 1) as they prepared one suspected fighter in a small office as his wife and four children squatted on the dirt outside.
A lieutenant in the Asayish, the Iraqi Kurdish region’s intelligence service, put one hand on his holstered pistol and pointed with the other hand at a spot on the tiled floor. The prisoner understood and knelt on that spot, as an Asayish corporal tied the man’s hands behind his back with a scarf.
“It doesn’t matter what you do, I’m not going to spy for you,” said the man, Salah Hassan, 32, who described himself as a former construction worker.
“We don’t care about that,” the lieutenant said. “Just tell the truth.”
“Yes, tell them you’re ISIS,” the corporal said, brandishing a pipe in the prisoner’s face. “Don’t lie.”
Hassan hung his head and admitted it, then looked up. “I was only a cook.”

The Iraqi forces don’t buy that excuse, joking that with so many cooks, it would seem all ISIS did was eat. The men, deserting the fight to run and fight away another time are acting passively but their families, mostly the women freely admit they were ISIS families.

Thus far, the Iraqis are treating their ISIS prisoners much better than the Islamic State showed Iraqi civilians during their occupation.

To read the entire article from NY Times, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikimedia

Lebanon Sentences Radical Islamic Cleric to Death for Inciting Violence

A Lebanese court has sentenced to death a radical Sunni Muslim cleric for inciting attacks on the military. Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who had supporters protesting outside the courtroom had refused to recognize the hearing, was convicted for his part in inciting clashes that occurred in 2013, made worse by the war in neighboring Syria.

Assir rose to prominence supporting the mostly Sunni insurgents in Syria and condemning the backers of the Syrian government, including Lebanon’s Shi‘ite Muslim Hezbollah group.
Lebanese soldiers raided a mosque complex belonging to Assir in June 2013, after skirmishes between his supporters and opponents in the southern Mediterranean port city of Sidon.
The army said at least 18 soldiers died in fighting with Assir’s supporters, which raised fears at the time of sectarian violence spreading in Lebanon. (reut.rs/2xBmdx6)

Assir was arrested in 2015 after trying to leave the country with a false passport. He’d gone underground after the raid on his mosque complex.

Assir’s trial was delayed numerous times and he fired his legal representation which he refused to recognize. The court also found 30 more people guilty in absentia. Their sentences range from prison sentences to death as well. One interesting footnote to this trial is although Assir has been sentenced to death for his role in this incident, the country of Lebanon hasn’t executed anyone in more than 10 years.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikimedia

Israel Shoots Down Iranian Drone Over Their Border with Syria

An Israeli Patriot Missile battery shot down an Iranian-built drone over the Golan Heights on Tuesday, just hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly about concerns of Iranian and Hezbollah forces on the Syrian border with Israel.

The Israeli military stated that the Iranian-built drone was launched from Damascus on a reconnaissance mission for Hezbollah and downed it with a Patriot missile as it crossed the Israeli border over the Golan Heights

“As we understand, it was on a reconnaissance mission along the border and the Golan Heights on behalf of Hezbollah,” a military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, told reporters. “Our intelligence suggests it was … Iranian-made.”
Asked whether the drone might have been armed, Conricus said that information was not yet available. He said Israeli warplanes had also been scrambled.
Officials from Syria, Hezbollah and Iran had no immediate comment on the incident. The Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 conflict, has seen spillover violence from the Syrian civil war. Israel has at times fired to foil what it deemed deliberate cross-border attacks.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has stated repeatedly that they will not allow any violation of Israeli sovereignty nor allow Iranian forces, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or Shi‘ite militias of any kind to approach the Israeli borders.

Hezbollah has sent drones on intelligence gathering missions in the past in southern Syria, but coming this close to Israeli territory was a new development so it was decided to shoot it down. Entering the demilitarized zone on the Golan is a violation of the Israel-Syria Separation of Forces Agreement from 1974. Israel has controlled the Golan Heights since the 1973 war.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Turkey Sends Military Equipment and Tanks to the Syrian Border

Turkey’s state-run news organization Anadolu is reporting that the military of President Erdogan has sent 80 military vehicles including tanks to its southern border with Syria.

The military forces were deployed to the Iskendurun district of the southeastern province of Hatay, as part of the government’s plan to reinforce troops along the Turkish/Syrian border according to unnamed military sources.

A convoy of about 18 Turkish army vehicles arrived in an area close to the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border

Late on Saturday, Anadolu also reported that the army had dispatched first aid trucks and military vehicles to the same location, along with heavy equipment.
A third convoy of armoured vehicles was heading to Hatay’s Reyhanli district, where Turkey’s Cilvegozu border gate with Syria is located, Anadolu said.
On Friday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Russia, Iran and Turkey had agreed to deploy observers around a de-escalation zone in northern Syria’s Idlib region, which is mostly controlled by militants linked to a former al Qaeda affiliate.

On Friday, there were reports that the three countries planned to divide the Idlib region in three, with Turkish forces and opposition fighters in the northwest region bordering Turkey. This agreement would have Iranian and Syrian army forces deployed to the southeast, with Russian forces in between those two zones.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy AP

American Who Fought for ISIS Will Be Treated as ‘Enemy Combatant’

An American citizen who fought for the Islamic State in Syria and surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was turned over to US forces according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a released statement, U.S. military officials said earlier that an American citizen who was fighting with ISIS and surrendered on September 12 is now “being legally detained by Department of Defense personnel as a known enemy combatant.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that the individual is still overseas, as the Department of Justice and the Trump administration determine how to move forward.
The Department of Defense has referred all questions about the incident to the State Department and Department of Justice. But during a State Department briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Heather Nauert said she had no further information on the individual’s circumstances, saying anyone who would fight for ISIS is “dumb.”
“It serves as a good reminder that in a nation of 330-some million people, some people will be dumb enough to go to Iraq and Syria to try to fight for ISIS,” Nauert said, adding, “You can’t be very bright if you’re going over there and doing that.”

The US government’s official policy is not to support any citizen’s desire to travel to Syria or Iraq to join the conflict on either side. Although they do monitor any attempts to support the terrorist groups of the Islamic State or al-Queda.

US intelligence officials estimate that more than 250 Americans have either traveled to Syria or Iraq, or attempted to travel to Syria or Iraq, to join the Islamic State. Many have cited the recruitment videos that ISIS produces as a major catalyst in joining.

To read the entire article from ABC News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

ISIS Recruiting Fighters for the Philippines, Not Syria

With the pressure on the Islamic State growing in the Middle East, and the beating they’re taking in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is changing its recruiting tactics to gather fighters for the fighting in the Philippines.

Foreign fighters are defecting by the hundreds in Syria and Iraq, so ISIS is putting the Philippines as their next big target for foreign fighters to go to.

The seven-minute, English-language video, released by the official ISIS media operation late last month, includes messages from several fighters in the Southern Philippines, and scenes from battles with government troops near the city of Marawi, including the pillaging of a Catholic church.
One of the fighters calls on Muslims in “East Asia, specifically those in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, and Singapore” to migrate and fight alongside the ISIS-linked militants in the Philippines.
A militant identified as “Abul-Yamaan from Marawi” proclaims: “Come forth to the land of jihad. Perform hijrah. Come forth to … Marawi.”

The three major ISIS-aligned Islamist groups on the island of Mindanao — Maute, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and Abu Sayyaf, formerly an al Qaeda offshoot. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon the ISIS emir of Southeast Asia in 2016 have been fighting in Marawi.

The US, which has been supplying Special Operations Forces to support the Filipinos’ efforts in defeating the terrorists have also supplied gun ships and air strikes to oust the insurgents and foreign terrorists who have flocked to the country.

To read the entire article from NBC News click here:

Photo courtesy Jack Murphy SOFREP