Five Hezbollah fighters and one commander were killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Syria. The Assad regime has started destruction of its chemical weapons facilities. Kurdish forces have captured a key hilltop in the ongoing fight with the Islamic State for Kobane. Kurdish and Syrian regime troops clashed near the city of Hasakeh in […]
Kurdish fighters killed 41 Islamic State militants in a clash near Kobane, according to SOHR. Islamic State fighters reportedly beheaded a street magician in Raqqa for un-Islamic behavior. A senior Islamic State policeman responsible for many executions and beheadings was himself found beheaded in al-Mayadeen city in Deir-al-Zor province. The US-backed plan to train moderate […]
On Dec. 20, the Defense Department announced the transfer of four Afghans to their home country. Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) deemed all four to be “high” risks to the US, its interests and allies. All four are veteran insurgents, according to JTF-GTMO.
Intelligence cited in leaked Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) threat assessments link the six recently transferred Guantanamo detainees to Abu Zubaydah and al Qaeda.
The Islamic State attacked the sole remaining government air base in Deir el-Zour province; at least 19 regime troops and seven IS fighters have been killed thus far. The US accused the regime of continuing to use chemical weapons as recently as September. Syrian President Bashar al Assad declared US airstrikes against the Islamic State […]
Libyan Army airstrikes in the western city of Zwara killed eight people and wounded 24; a spokesman from Tripoli’s Islamist-controlled government claimed the strike hit a food warehouse and a chemical factory, whereas Army forces under General Khalifa Haftar claimed the target was an arms depot. A random shell killed four people and wounded seven […]
Thousands of Iraq Chemical Weapons Destroyed in Open Air, Watchdog Says
Kurds fear ISIS use of chemical weapon in Kobane
The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons
Gruesome photos may show ISIS using chemical weapons on Kurds, report says
Syria declares new chemical weapons facilities
Sources: Libya asks chemical weapons watchdog to remove stockpile
The Islamic State is gaining ground in Aleppo province, where it has now captured 21 Kurdish villages in the north near the Turkish border, in an offensive that began in early July. Kurdish YPG forces defending the area claimed at the time that the IS had used chemical weapons against them. Regime airstrikes targeted IS-held […]
Exclusive: Syria reveals more chemical weapons facilities to watchdog – sources
The Islamic State said that Abou al-Hassan al-Filastini a.k.a. Ahmed Taha, its emir for Qalamoun, was killed while fighting the Lebanese Army in Arsal on Aug. 4. Taha was said to have earlier joined the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. The Army arrested three Syrians and three Lebanese in Ras Baalbek yesterday, and confiscated “109 detonators, reels, […]
US Fears Syrian Chemical Weapons Falling to Extremists
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has announced its responsibility for the detention of 45 UN peacekeepers in Syria. The group claims its actions are justified because the UN supposedly works “against Muslims.”
Abu Muhammed al Adnani is the Islamic State’s controversial spokesman. Said Arif is a seasoned jihadist who has traveled to several battlefields and is now with the Al Nusrah Front in Syria.
President Obama said the US is pursuing a “longterm strategy” against the Islamic State, and yesterday invoked the War Powers Act to justify authorizing airstrikes against Islamic State militants threatening Iraq’s Mosul Dam; the Pentagon has conducted 40 airstrikes since Aug. 16 to support operations of Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga to retake […]
Syria Chemicals near Three-Quarters Destroyed
As the war in Gaza continues, Iran’s political, military, and religious calculations ascribe similar but not identical values to the ongoing conflict. The ways in which Iranian leaders codify events on the ground vary depending on their interests at home and abroad.
Secretary of State Kerry denounced the Assad regime and said the US will give an additional $378 million in humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, bringing the US total so far in the conflict to $2.4 billion. A Senate report found that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to conduct security inspections at 99% […]
All toxic chemicals removed from Syria reach destruction sites
The Islamic State is now said to control 35% of Syria’s territory, including over 98% of oil-rich Deir Izzour. The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front have stopped fighting the IS in Deir Izzour; some fighters turned over their weapons to the IS, but others retreated to Aleppo. Regime forces battled the IS near […]
The government said the Islamic State has taken control of the Muthanna Chemical Weapons complex in the Thar Thar area northwest of Baghdad. The Islamic State has rounded up scores of Baathists in Mosul. The military claimed it killed dozens of Islamic State fighters north of Bayji.
US team begins destroying Syrian chemical arsenal at sea
Removal of Syrian chemical arsenal was result of unprecedented collaboration
While Sunni Iraqi support of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham is not monolithic, the central government’s security forces are unlikely to decisively uproot the terrorist organization from the more distant provinces of Iraq anytime soon.
Syria hands over remaining chemical weapons for destruction
The recent hostage crisis in Mosul is only the latest sign that Turkey’s new neighbor, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, poses a serious threat to Turkey’s national security.