The United States is providing reconnaissance support for Iraq’s operation to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group, a senior military official from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition said on Tuesday.

The coalition has targeted IS with air strikes and provided training and equipment to Iraqi forces, but this is the first confirmation of its direct involvement in the Tikrit operation, the largest Baghdad has launched against the jihadists.

“The coalition began providing ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) support on March 21, 2015 at the request of the government of Iraq, and the US is now providing that support,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official added that this support is in the form of “an eye in the sky”.

The ground operation involving thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police and allied paramilitaries began on March 2.

It has succeeded in retaking towns leading to Tikrit, and also in surrounding several hundred jihadists in the city.

But capturing Tikrit itself has proved more difficult because of the jihadists’ extensive defensive works including a huge number of bombs planted in streets and buildings.

Iraq’s interior minister announced last week that the operation had been halted temporarily to avoid casualties and protect infrastructure in the city.

Christian MP in Baghdad Joseph Slewa claims that since 2003, 2.5 million Christians have fled Iraq.

“The number of Christians who have left Iraq since 2003 has reached 2.5 million. Due to the current situation in the country, five Christian families leave Iraq every day,” said Slewa.

“According to our information, every day between 3 and 5 Chaldean and Assyrians families leave Iraq for neighboring countries.”

“These families fly to those countries, before trying to emigrate to Europe or the US.

“There are less than 1.3 million Christians remaining in Iraq,” he added.

Slewa said instability and a lack of implementation of legal protection had contributed to the exodus, alongside the current conflict with Islamic State.

The Nigerian army announced on Tuesday that it had liberated Pulka in the northeastern Borno State, dislodging Boko Haram militants from the town.

“Troops yesterday evening took full control of Pulka, Borno, after a fierce battle with terrorists who have been operating in the town,” Nigeria’s defense headquarters said via Twitter.

The army gave no further details.

A senior military official, however, told The Anadolu Agency that “several terrorists were killed, while dozens had escaped with bullet wounds.”

He said one soldier had been killed in the encounter.

Nigeria is waging a six-week counterinsurgency operation in its Boko Haram-infested northeastern region to weaken the militant group ahead of March 28 general polls.

The election, initially scheduled for Feb. 14, was postponed to March 28 because of the insurgency.

Nigeria is fighting a six-year Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over one million people from the northeastern region, where the militants have been the most ruthless.

Last year, Boko Haram went from attacking communities and planting bombs to capturing entire towns.
In mid-2014, the group declared a self-styled “Islamic caliphate” in areas seized in the northeastern Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

All but two major local government areas hitherto controlled by the militants have been liberated in the operations, which have involved troops from neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

At least 30 people have been killed in clashes between pro- and anti-government forces in central Yemen, tribal sources said today.

The Shiite Huthi militia, backed by troops allied to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, clashed with armed tribesmen in Baida province late yesterday, the sources said, adding that nine tribesmen and 15 Huthi fighters were killed.

The tribesmen booby-trapped two houses used as bases by Huthi fighters and ambushed several patrols, the sources added.

Meanwhile, clashes raged late yesterday in Marib, east of Sanaa, where tribesmen loyal to Yemen’s internationally backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi confronted advancing Huthi fighters and pro-Saleh troops, tribal sources said.

Six tribesmen, including a tribal chief, were killed in these clashes.

The sources said that many Huthis had also been killed.

The advancing forces included units from the former presidential guard, an elite force that Saleh built during his three-decade rule, the sources added.

The gunfights took place as the Huthis, who seized control of Sanaa last year, sent additional reinforcements south, upping pressure on Hadi, who is refuged in the southern port city of Aden.

Hadi last month escaped house arrest in Sanaa imposed by the Shiite militia, fleeing to Aden where he retracted an earlier resignation tendered under pressure from the Huthis.

He has since tried to cement his position as Yemen’s legitimate president, but Hadi faces growing pressure from the Huthis and Yemeni army troops that have remained loyal to Saleh.

Although Saleh resigned in 2012 following nationwide protests, he has continued to enjoy widespread support from the armed forces, and is accused of aiding the Huthis in their advance south from their northern mountain stronghold.

Military sources in south Yemen said that reinforcements from the army’s Al-Hamza Brigade – under Saleh’s command – had been mobilised from central Ibb province to Qatabah, in Daleh, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Aden.

Dozens of tanks belonging to the 133rd Brigade, also loyal to Saleh, were also sent to Qatabah, military sources and witnesses said.

The reinforcements came as anti-Hadi forces deployed south of the key city of Taez, which lies strategically on the road between Sanaa and Aden.

Demonstrations continued today in Taez against the arrival of pro-Saleh forces and militiamen in the city, after security sources said they seized the airport.

The head of Taez police denied late yesterday that the airport or other government installations had been taken over.

In a statement carried by Saba state news agency, which is now controlled by anti-Hadi forces, General Mutahar al-Shuaybi said air traffic at Taez remained “normal”.

The United Nations Security Council voiced support for Hadi yesterday, as UN envoy Jamal Benomar warned that Yemen was facing the prospect of a protracted civil war.

Islamic State continue to attract and recruit children within its ranks under what so called “Ashbal al- Khilafah” (cubs of lions of the caliphate), where SOHR could document joining of at least 400 children to IS Organization since the beginning of this year until March 23 within IS- held areas in Syria. 

Meanwhile, the organization has witnessed joining of at least 120 new jihadists since the beginning of this year. The last three months are considered the least in terms of proportion of joining to IS by fighters from all nationalities since the declaration of its own alleged “Caliphate” in June 28, 2014.

Syrian regions like the two cities of al- Mayadin and al- Bokamal had witnessed opening what so called offices of “Ashbal al- Khilafah” that recruit children to IS. 

These offices work on convincing and attracting the children who live near IS posts and who go to schools and mosques, the children who want to join IS without the approval of their parents and the children who come to the squares where the operations of executions, whipping, crucifying and beheading, and stoning carried out. 

The organization also induces the parents and guardians to send their sons to these camps where the children undergo to Sharia and military courses. The Shariaa course firms IS ideology inside the brain of those children while the military one teaches them how to use weapons and fight the enemies during clashes, battles and storms. 

IS also tries to lure the children by money, weapons and cars in order to convince them to join its own camps. In addition to, IS receives and takes care of children who suffer from congenital malformation. IS uses children to work as spies and agents to gather news and as guards on its own posts.

In January 25, 2015, SOHR documented that IS organization sent a battalion consisting of about 140 members, vast majority under the age of 18 and newly joined the training camps of Islamic battalions, to the battlefronts in the city of Kobani, where SOHR could document death of 6 members who are under the age of 18.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the children, all aged under 18, were recruited near schools, mosques and in public areas where Islamic State carries out killings and brutal punishments on local people.

One such young boy appeared in a video early this month shooting dead an Israeli Arab accused by Islamic State of being as spy. A French police source said the boy might be the half-brother of Mohamed Merah, who killed three soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children in Toulouse in 2012.

“They use children because it is easy to brainwash them. They can build these children into what they want, they stop them from going to school and send them to IS schools instead,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Observatory.

Islamic State declared a caliphate last year in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes in both countries.

It has beheaded or shot dead Syrian civilians, combatants, foreign aid workers and journalists and has released videos appearing to show children witnessing or participating in some of the killings. The group persecutes people across sects and ethnicities who do not adhere to its ultra-hardline doctrine.

The group may be resorting to children because it has been having difficulties recruiting adults since the start of the year, with only 120 joining its ranks, Abdulrahman said.

This was partly due to tighter controls on the Turkish border, where foreign fighters tend to enter, he added.

Islamic State has encouraged parents to send children to training camps or has recruited them without their parents’ consent, often luring them with money, said the Observatory, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground.

At the training camps, the children learn to fire live ammunition, fight in battles and to drive, it said. Islamic State also recruits children as informants and as guards for its headquarters as well as welcoming children with birth defects into its ranks, the Observatory added. – See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Islamic+State+recruits+400+children+since+January%3A+Syria+monitor&NewsID=449193#sthash.XUDA83c1.dpuf

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the children, all aged under 18, were recruited near schools, mosques and in public areas where Islamic State carries out killings and brutal punishments on local people.

One such young boy appeared in a video early this month shooting dead an Israeli Arab accused by Islamic State of being as spy. A French police source said the boy might be the half-brother of Mohamed Merah, who killed three soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children in Toulouse in 2012.

“They use children because it is easy to brainwash them. They can build these children into what they want, they stop them from going to school and send them to IS schools instead,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Observatory.

Islamic State declared a caliphate last year in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes in both countries.

It has beheaded or shot dead Syrian civilians, combatants, foreign aid workers and journalists and has released videos appearing to show children witnessing or participating in some of the killings. The group persecutes people across sects and ethnicities who do not adhere to its ultra-hardline doctrine.

The group may be resorting to children because it has been having difficulties recruiting adults since the start of the year, with only 120 joining its ranks, Abdulrahman said.

This was partly due to tighter controls on the Turkish border, where foreign fighters tend to enter, he added.

Islamic State has encouraged parents to send children to training camps or has recruited them without their parents’ consent, often luring them with money, said the Observatory, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground.

At the training camps, the children learn to fire live ammunition, fight in battles and to drive, it said. Islamic State also recruits children as informants and as guards for its headquarters as well as welcoming children with birth defects into its ranks, the Observatory added. – See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Islamic+State+recruits+400+children+since+January%3A+Syria+monitor&NewsID=449193#sthash.XUDA83c1.dpuf

Military Intelligence officials, the IDF, and the defense establishment are all preparing for an inevitable full-fledged war with Hezbollah, Walla! News reports Tuesday – due, at least in part, to the increasing boldness of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“Today more than ever, Nasrallah is willing to take risks with Israel that could get out of hand, instead of being perceived by Israel as weak,” a senior defense official told the daily.

As such, Hezbollah has become more brazen in its open readiness to attack Israel, military sources stated. According to several IDF reports, Hezbollah terrorists have begun openly patrolling up and down the border – sometimes in civilian clothing, sometimes wearing Lebanese Army uniforms – and documenting on camera what happens each day on the border fence and documenting “engineering work.”

Foreign sources have stated that Hezbollah terrorists have begun openly walking through Shi’ite villages in Lebanon as well – despite the patrol of Lebanese Army soldiers and UNIFIL peacekeepers.

The organization has become involved in a drug smuggling trade between Lebanon and Israel as well, in order to perform useful reconnaissance for future battles with Israel.

“Nothing has been done in southern Lebanon, and probably on the Gaza border, without the organization knowing it,” a senior military source in the Northern Command told Walla!. 

The IDF is preparing for the possibility of another war, attempting to match the IDF’s strength to intel gathered on Hezbollah’s firepower.

But it is also prepared for specific scenarios – including the likelihood of Hezbollah’s special forces, consisting of 100-200 terrorists, raiding communities near the Lebanese border fence and occupying them for short periods. The group has changed tactics to be more on the offensive, the source added.

Rumors have persisted for months that terror tunnels are being dug into Israel. In January, residents along the Lebanon-Israel border stated that they would fund their own investigation team to examine the possibility of Hezbollah digging terror tunnels into Israel, after the IDF reportedly denied repeatedly that there was any evidence of digging.

When asked about the digging noises earlier this year, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) claimed “no tunnels have been located on the northern border. Noises that were heard beneath a home turned out to be a neighbor’s horse stomping with its hooves.”

But a video posted on YouTube shortly thereafter, said to have been filmed at night in Shtula on the border with Lebanon, had many seriously doubting Ya’alon’s claims.

The security establishment has not found any evidence of tunnels so far – or so it claims publicly – but the IDF assures that it is preparing for the scenario of a surprise attack.

However, Division 91 sources stated that Hezbollah may not even need tunnels to infiltrate Israel; if the group decides to storm the border, it could reach Kibbutz Misgav in minutes – tunnels or not.

If necessary, a war against Hezbollah will be costly – to the tune of 1.5 billion shekels ($378 million) per day of fighting, security forces say. Thus, Israel’s political system will be forced to decide – and soon – whether to choose increased deterrence or wait until war along the borders to prevent the most casualties and crippling economic damage.

Libya Dawn forces and Islamic State (IS) followers have been fighting in Sirte since 14 March and the battle is getting closer and closer to the downtown area. Both sides appear to be ready to fight to the end.

“I’m a military man. There is no more dialogue. My order is to free Sirte of Daesh (Islamic State) people. Then we will free Nawafilya. Then wherever they try to hide.”

Mohamed Lhassan, commander of the Misrata-based 166 Brigade, knows exactly what he is expected to do. His brigade, plus units from Operation Sunrise (formed to capture the oil terminals) and members of Misrata’s Third Force have joined together to recapture Sirte.

“We are isolating Sirte from Nawfaliya to prevent Daesh from getting supplies and to weaken the [IS] fighters in Sirte. We control the main roads going to Sirte,” Lhassan added.

So far, the clashes have happened away from the Sirte downtown area, but they are getting closer.
Despite the fact that some Misratan forces have been sent to reinforce Libya Dawn in the Aziziya area following the LNA’s operation there late last week, the Misrata Operations Room is confident that it has enough fighters to take Sirte. “We can rely on 20,000 fighters in Misrata”, a Misrati official said. It has been reported that Misrata could mobilise as many as 40,000 fighters.

Currently, IS is controls the main buildings in Sirte : the Ougadougou Centere (built by Qaddafi to host African Union meetings), the Mahari Hotel, a food factory, a military prison which could be used as a weapon storage by IS. The jail was targeted in airstrike just over a week ago. IS also has snipers in on top of buildings in the downtown area.

Libya Dawn say they have not yet started a major downtown offensive because of so many families still there. The military alliance seems to want to avoid major collateral damage but Lhassan admits that, at some point, a “big battle” will occur.

In total, it is claimed that more than 500 armed vehicle have been sent to join the fight against IS. However, many of the fighters are far from being professionals.

Abdulhamid, only 21, sits behind a 12.7mm machine gun in a pick-up car on the frontline only few kilometres east of Sirte power plant. “I am here to fight Daesh. We want to take control of Sirte. Last week, I was fighting in Sidra with Operation Sunrise before I was sent here..

Abdulhamid is quickly interrupted by Ahmed, 17. “Don’t say Daesh. We’re here fighting Azlam [Qaddafi supporters] as in 2011. Misrata is fighting for the revolution,” he proclaims.

IS, Qaddafists, Haftar. Since February, Libya Dawn has had difficulties in clearly identifying the enemy in Sirte. But it has changed for the last few days. “We have proof that Daesh is in Sirte from radio conversations we intercepted,” an official from the operations room in Misrata said. “The leaders are foreigners from Tunisia, Egypt and the like. But Qaddafi followers are with them – like the Warfallah and the Qadhadfa living in area Number 2,” he adds.

The accusation about foreign fighters among IS has been borne out by the facts. A journalist recognised the body of Tunisian jihadist Ahmed Rouissi in a Misrata mortuary last Tuesday. Rouissi had been accused of the murders of Tunisian political activists Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013.

Fifteen other bodies from IS camp were brought the same day following a battle between Misratans and IS. “They had no papers but from the faces I could say that only two were Libyans. The others are foreigners,” a medical worker said.

Pointing to the serious danger of IS presence only a two-hour drive from Misrata, Ali Omar Busitta, a member of Misrata Municipal Council, stressed the need for national unity and an end to political divisions. “Daesh is not only a threat to democracy, it is a threat for the existence of Libya. We have to explain to all Libyans that if we continue to fight each other, we will face a great danger. We have to unify like in 2011.”

A U.S. drone strike killed at least nine Pakistani militants in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province early Tuesday, intelligence officials said, part of an intensifying drone campaign against Pakistani militants in Afghanistan.

Tuesday’s drone strike was near the site of fierce fighting on the Pakistani side of the border in recent days.

Fighter jets have been pounding positions in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber region, and the military says it has killed scores of militants. At least seven soldiers have also been killed.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed Tuesday’s strike in the Nazyan area of Nangarhar near Pakistan’s Khyber Agency. They said the nine militants belonged to the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam, which announced an alliance with the Taliban earlier this month.

No one tracks drone strikes in Afghanistan – many of them take place in remote regions and are not reported – but Taliban commanders say that fighters there are being increasingly targeted since late last year.

The strikes come amid warming relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, traditionally hostile neighbours who each accuse the other of harbouring insurgents to act as proxy forces.

Diplomats hope Pakistan can pressure Afghan Taliban with bases in Pakistan to negotiate. But Pakistan has also said it wants to see action taken against Pakistani insurgents with bases in Afghanistan.

Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Monday asked the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone from the airports seized by rebels, as well as urging Gulf Arab countries to intervene militarily against Houthi fighters.

“We are requesting an intervention by the Gulf Shield forces to stop this Iranian-backed Houthi expansion,” Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said on Monday.

Yassin told to the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the UN that there should be a no-fly zone for rebels who control some airports in the country in the meantime.

The use of military aircrafts by Houthis was necessary, the foreign minister underlined, after warplanes struck near the presidential palace in Aden over the weekend.

“Time is not on our side,” Yassin said, without elaborating on whether Yemen wanted Gulf military intervention to entail. “Any fast intervention will be less costly and will lead to good and satisfactory results,” he added.

There was some support from Riyadh. “If this issue does not end peacefully, we will take necessary measure to protect the region from their aggression,” Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said in response to Yassin’s plea.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Yassin accused Iran of trying to build up its power in the region by backing Houthi fighters.

Yemen has been in political turmoil since a year-long popular insurrection forced former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in early 2012, leading to a situation of instability used by different powerful armed groups to assert their power.

The country is now in the grips of a growing conflict between the Shiite Houthis and Sunni tribes, partly aided by the Sunni terror network al Qaeda, who are trying to stop the rebels’ advance toward the south.

The Houthis, from Yemen’s north, allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, launched a takeover of the capital city, Sanaa, in September.

By January, President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to resign and placed under house arrest. He subsequently escaped to the southern city of Aden, which he has declared a temporary capital.

Two informed sources said that Canada plans to expand its mission against ISIS by sending fighter-bombers to attack targets in Syria as well as Iraq.

The expansion means that Canada will become the second country after the United States bombed militants in Syria.

The sources said that Prime Minister, Stephen Harper officially announced the plan on Tuesday. And will also announce that Canada plans to extend the military mission determined by six months for another year until April 2016.

Canada has about 70 soldiers from the Special Forces operating north of Iraq and has provided also six aircrafts to participate in the shelling mission led by the United States against ISIS Iraq.

Harper has taken a tough stance on ISIS by saying it is a fundamental threat to Canada.

Harper will present his plan to lawmakers to vote to ensure approving it because the Conservative Party to which it belongs and have a majority in the House of Commons.

The expansion of the mission will include Syria and cause political division as critics say that this means that the bombing would need the approval of Syrian President ,Bashar al-Assad