After pro-Syrian regime forces broke the siege of Deir Ezzor city this month, Lebanese Hezbollah media outlet Al Mayadeen released a rare interview with Hezbollah field commander “al Haj Abu Mustafa,” crediting the gray-bearded, southern Lebanese native with playing a key role in leading the defense against the Islamic State. Read more >
An Iranian-controlled Afghan Shia militia advertises its role in the battle for Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria. Read more >
In a new message, Hamza bin Laden praises the jihadists fighting to establish an "Islamic government" in Syria. But he warns that their enemies seek to "divide" their "ranks." Read more >
The US-led coalition has announced a new offensive against the Islamic State in eastern Syria. The offensive, named “Operation Jazeera Storm,” aims to clear the so-called caliphate out of territory north of the city of Deir Ezzor. Read more >
The US-led coalition announced today that two more senior Islamic State leaders were killed near Mayadin, which has become a hub for the self-declared caliphate in eastern Syria. The US has announced the deaths of at least fourteen key Islamic State figures in the area since April. Read more >
Hezbollah forces and its militia allies can be seen parading in the streets of Deir Ezzor after lifting the siege of the city. Syrian regime soldiers, who had been under the siege since 2014, praise Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah for their role in the operation. Read more >
As US-backed forces seize the city of Raqqa, the Syrian regime moves to retake ground in Deir Ezzor, where the Islamic State has laid siege to Bashar al Assad's forces since 2014. Assad's regime has received a boost from Iranian-sponsored militias, as well as the Russians, during its recent offensive in eastern Syria. Read more >
The US-led coalition carried out an air strike to block Islamic State fighters from reaching eastern Syria after they were evacuated from Lebanon. As part of the deal, the Islamic State was to hand over the body of an IRGC fighter who has become a household name in Iran. Read more >
The US State Department announced today that Islamic State leaders Ahmad Alkhald and Abu Yahya al-Iraqi have been named specially designated global terrorists. Alkhald was the "explosives chief" for the "terrorist cell" that carried out Nov. 2015 assault in Paris and the Mar. 2016 Brussels bombings. Al-Iraqi "oversees ISIS security in Iraq and Syria." Read more >
Australian authorities say they broke up an especially "sophisticated" Islamic State plot in late July. The so-called caliphate wanted to bring down an airliner using an improvised explosive device (IED). The Islamic State even shipped the IED components to the suspects in Australia. The accused men were also allegedly experimenting with a bomb intended to disperse hydrogen sulfide. Read more >
The Shiite jihadists were freed as part of a ceasefire deal with Sunni jihadists in the Lebanon-Syria border region. Read more >
The ceasefire comes just one day after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah touted his forces imminent victory in the Jurud Arsal region of Lebanon. Read more >
The US military identified seven senior Islamic State propagandists and facilitators killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria this year. One of them, Rayaan Meshaal, founded Amaq News Agency, one of the group's most important propaganda arms. Read more >
The video offers more visual confirmation of Hezbollah's capabilities for armed commercial drones. Read more >
The Shiite jihadist group offers safety to the Sunni militants in Arsal if they "throw down their weapons and surrender." Read more >
Kata'ib Imam Ali and Kata'ib al Sabriun join other IRGC-controlled Iraqi Shia militias training inside Syria. Read more >
As the offensive enters its third day, Hezbollah has claimed several advances on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border. Read more >
"Since at least 2009," the State Department says in a recently released report, "Iran has allowed AQ [al Qaeda] facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria." Read more >
While Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri claims that the Lebanese military is not coordinating with Syria or Hezbollah near Arsal, various reports from on the ground say otherwise. Read more >
The State Department says there "are reportedly about 7,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria." They have been deployed to the country to bolster Bashar al Assad's regime. Read more >
Thomas Joscelyn's testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee's Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry into the United States on what happens to the Islamic State after it loses its territory in Iraq and Syria. Read more >
Hay'at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a coalition that includes the group formerly known as Al Nusrah Front, launched a campaign against alleged Islamic State operatives in the Idlib province earlier today. HTS has repeatedly accused Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's men of forming cells to attack their jihadist rivals in HTS and allied groups. Read more >
On July 3, Major General Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, spoke at an Iran-Iraq war veterans gathering in his home province of Kerman. Soleimani praised the Islamic Republic’s decades-long effort to take the mantle of the Palestinian cause and boasted that Tehran’s influence in the Middle East has expanded as a result of the Syrian war. He excoriated Saudi Arabia, as well as domestic Iranian critics of the Guard Corps. And the general also lamented the drop in religious observance in Iran. Read more >
The Department of Justice announced on June 29 that Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud pleaded guilty nearly two years ago to training with and fighting for Al Nusrah Front in Syria. Al Nusrah "instructed" Mohamud "to return to the US and commit an act of terrorism." He admittedly planned to kill American "military officers or other government employees or people in uniform." Read more >
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered the Old City of Raqqa after the coalition blew two holes in a historic wall the Islamic State was using as a defensive fortification. The SDF's fighters first approached the Old City in mid-June, but the wall and heavy fighting in a nearby neighborhood impeded their advance. Meanwhile, an Australian jihadi is featured in a new propaganda video recorded in Raqqa. Read more >
Al Muhajirun, a jihadist media front in Syria, recently released a video highlighting how jihadists, especially foreign jihadists, view the West. Read more >
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies abroad on Friday commemorated Qods (Jerusalem) Day, an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan and established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to express support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel. The regime has not shied away from reiterating its call for Israel's destruction during the annual event. Read more >
CENTCOM announced today that Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, a "finance emir" for the Islamic State, was killed in an airstrike in eastern Syria earlier this month. Last year, the US and Iraqi governments jointly targeted Rawi and his financial network, which handled millions of dollars for the so-called caliphate. Read more >
CENTCOM confirmed today that Turki al-Bin’ali, one of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's most important ideological supporters, was killed in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria on May 31. Mayadin has become a hub for the Islamic State's senior personnel and external operations arm. Read more >
US Central Command said that the Iranian-made drone was shot down after it "displayed hostile intent and advanced on Coalition forces." Read more >
Russia's Ministry of Defense has responded by shutting down the de-confliction hotline and warning that all US aircraft would now be considered hostile targets. Read more >
Iranian press outlets report that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has fired missiles from Iranian territory at the Syrian governorate of Deir ez-Zor in response to the recent Islamic State terror attacks in Tehran. Read more >
The US Treasury Department and United Nations designated Islamic State operative Fared Saal as a terrorist yesterday. Saal, a German-Algerian, first joined the jihad in Syria several years ago. Along with his comrade Denis Cuspert, he appeared in a July 2014 video showing dozens of corpses at the Shaer Gas field in Homs, Syria. Read more >
The photos and videos show the extent of the US presence in southern Syria near the border with Iraq. This comes as the Tanf area of southeastern Syria has largely become a flash-point between US and Iranian-controlled forces. Read more >
Today, Tasnim News Agency – a propaganda outlet affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – posted photos of Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani, allegedly by the Iraqi border in Syria. The precise location and date of the photo are unconfirmed. Read more >
The US government designated two senior Islamic State figures today, saying they are involved in the group's chemical weapons program. US officials have previously said that so-called caliphate uses a "mustard agent" in its attacks. Read more >
Ayman al Zawahiri has released another message explaining al Qaeda's global jihad. He decries those who seek to divide the jihadists' war according to national boundaries and argues that Muslims face a grand, international conspiracy. Read more >
The US military noted that it does not seek a fight against pro-Syrian regime militias, but its forces will continue to defend themselves if threatened. Read more >
One day before Tuesday's US airstrike in southeastern Syria, Iranian media announced the death of an Afghan militiaman in the vicinity of the Tanf military base, where coalition forces are training Syrian insurgents fighting the Islamic State. Read more >
The strike against pro-Syrian government militias is the second in the past month. The US military is training Free Syrian Army-branded militias in the area to battle the Islamic State. Read more >
While the US military insists that the loss of Raqqah and Mosul will deal a "a decisive blow" to the Islamic State, the group still controls a significant amount of terrain in both Syria and Iraq. Read more >
Major powers involved in the Syrian war are racing to maximize gains from the crumbling Islamic State in southern and eastern Syria. The continued advancement of pro-Syrian regime forces and Iranian-backed militias toward the US-held Tanf base – as well as the potential advance of both sides toward the Iraqi border area - raise the risk of further clashes that may draw in the US and Russia, though the latter has been unwilling to challenge US strikes against a pro-regime convoy and Syrian warplanes this year. Read more >
Major General Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Guard Corps' Qods Force, has been photographed allegedly with Iranian-backed Iraqi militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in the northwestern countryside of Iraq near the Syrian border. The photo's precise location and date are yet unconfirmed; however it surfaced on May 29. Read more >
CENTCOM announced today that "three senior foreign fighters" in the Islamic State were killed in recent weeks. Two of them were reportedly involved in the group's "external operations" and one of them was a trainer in the "Cubs of the Caliphate" program, which indoctrinates youth. The third jihadist helped oversee the Islamic State's use of small drones. Read more >
Hezbollah has repositioned its men for the ongoing battles in Syria. Read more >
The $10 million reward makes Julani one of the top five most wanted jihadist leaders in the world. Read more >
The suicide bombings show the Turkistan Islamic Party's close battlefield integration with al Qaeda's forces in Syria, as well as further highlighting its position within the overall al Qaeda network. Read more >
Salahadin al Uzbeki, a veteran of the jihad in Afghanistan and leader of the Taliban-loyal Katibat Imam al Bukhari, has reportedly been assassinated by an "Islamic State infiltrator" in Idlib. Read more >
The UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee has released its investigative report on the Aug. 21, 2015 drone strike that killed UK national Reyaad Khan. The bombing was "the first time outside participation in a military campaign that the UK had conducted a lethal drone strike against a terrorist target." Khan was one of the Islamic State's most prolific cyber planners. Read more >
In a new audio message, Ayman al Zawahiri warns jihadists that they should avoid a strictly "nationalist" agenda in Syria. He also says the jihadists should focus on waging a "guerrilla" war inside Syria and not place too much emphasis on controlling territory at this time. Zawahiri's words are likely intended to influence some of the debates occurring within jihadist circles. Read more >
