The Obama administration is making its case for an expansive war measure against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the proposal before Congress could allow strikes against ISIS affiliates in Libya and Nigeria.

ISIS “has established more than a foothold in this Mediterranean port,” mentions the article. “Its fighters dominate the city center so thoroughly that a Libyan brigade sent to dislodge the group remains camped on the outskirts, visibly afraid to enter and allowing the extremists to come and go as they please.”

The NYT report echoes comments Libyan diplomat, Dr. Aref Nayed, recently made during an interview with David Webb, a Breitbart News contributor.

Mr. Nayed said ISIS was in control of Sirte (also spelled Surt) and warned that the jihadist group could use the coastal city to launch attacks against Europe, namely Italy.

NYT notes:

Nearly four years after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s warring cities and towns have become so entangled in internal conflicts over money and power that they have opened a door for the Islamic State to expand into the country’s oil-rich deserts and sprawling coastline. Libya has become a new frontier for the radical group as it comes under increasing pressure from American-led airstrikes on its original strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

The Obama administration backed the overthrow of Qaddafi in 2011.

Unlike jihadists in Afghanistan, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, and Libya’s southern and eastern provinces, who have pledged their allegiance to ISIS, the ISIS faction in Sirte coordinates closely with the parent organization based in Syria, explains NYT. 

A recent video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians taken captive from Sirte appears to have been filmed on the Libyan coast with the blessing of the parent ISIS organization, adds the newspaper. 

Mohamed Omar el-Hassan, a 28-year-old who leads an anti-ISIS Libyan brigade, and other local militia leaders told NYT that there may be 200 or fewer ISIS fighters inside Sirte.

ISIS uses its control of the local radio station to attract fighters, according to Mr. Hassan.

“Surt, near Colonel Qaddafi’s birthplace, was the site of his last stand in 2011, when rebels from the city of Misurata joined a battle that destroyed much of the city,” mentions the article. “They ultimately captured Colonel Qaddafi and killed him.”

The Misuratan brigades that moved into the port city in 2011 eventually became the extremist group Ansar al-Shariah of Sirte.

That group eventually split up over pledging loyalty to ISIS. Those who did emerged as the dominant players, explains The New York Times.

Suliman Ali Mousa, a 58-year-old fighter, suggested that ISIS in Sirte was made up of Qaddafi loyalists.

Thousands of Houthis, the Shi’ite Muslim militia which controls much of Yemen, are holding military exercises in the northern part of the country near the border with Saudi Arabia, local tribal and Houthi sources said on Thursday.

The drill in al-Buqa area, which lies in the Houthis’ home province of Saada, involves using different kinds of weaponry, including heavy weapons acquired from the Yemeni army, the sources said.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, regards the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group which seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September as a terrorist group.

In 2009, Riyadh carried out a military operation including air raids against the Houthis after a number of cross-border incursions.

Supported by coalition airstrikes, Kurdish forces cleared a key ridgeline and pushed Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants away from oilfields in Kirkuk, the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said Wednesday.
“The Peshmerga forces overcame ISIL resistance in this section of Iraq and denied the terrorist group its freedom of maneuver in the area,” the US-led coalition said in a statement.  “The March 9 operation also pushed ISIL further away from the Kirkuk oilfields,” it added.
Earlier this week, Kurdish forces launched a large-scale military operation to further push back ISIS and eliminate threats on the city of Kirkuk and its oilfields.
“Peshmerga forces seized critical portions of Route 80 in Iraq. In addition, the Peshmerga forces pushed ISIL two to three miles back over a wide front, liberating about 30 square miles (48 kilometers) of terrain formerly held by ISIL,” the statement added.
“Coalition forces conducted supporting airstrikes, resulting in the destruction of 10 enemy fighting positions, five tactical units and 10 ISIL weapons systems,” it said.
“This operation is another step on the path to ultimately defeating Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIS). It clearly demonstrates the ability of Peshmerga forces to degrade Daesh influence in Northern Iraq,” Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of CJTF-OIR was quoted as saying.

France is to boost its military presence in the Sahel region of Africa to support the fight against Boko Haram, whose insurgency has spread from Nigeria to Chad and Niger. 

A French desert base to combat the flow of arms from Libya should be up and running in July, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced on Wednesday.

 Without giving a specific number, Le Drian said France will “slightly increase” the number of soldiers in its Barkhane anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel.

The number of troops in the Central African Republic (CAR), where it intervened in 2013, will be reduced to “give us the means to support” the fight against Boko Haram, Le Drian said.

At the height of its intervention in CAR, France had 2,600 troops there and it aims to reduce that number to 1,000 by the end of the year.

It already has about 3,000 troops in the region and set up Barkhane to fight jihadist violence along with Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad.

But it will only give “indirect support”, that is logistics and intelligence, to the fight against Boko Haram, Le Drian claimed.

“What is reassuring on Boko Haram is that there is a real will from the countries involved to organise themselves and lead the fight,” he said.

The Madama base in the desert in northern Niger should be “fully operational” in July, the minister added.
France is, which is chairing the UN Security Council in March, is working for the adoption of an African Union-backed resolution to finance a 10,000-strong multinational force to fight

Two French soldiers were seriously wounded in northern Mali on Tuesday when there armoured vehicle ran over a landmine, Le Drian said, adding that the incident proved “the persistence of the threat”.

An Afghan official says Taliban gunmen have killed seven policemen in an ambush in the northern Kunduz province.

Nasruddin Khan, governor of Dashti Archi district, said the policemen were travelling to a neighboring province to collect their salaries when they were ambushed by up to 30 militants.

In Parwan province, north of the capital Kabul, four policemen were killed while manning a security post on Wednesday night in Syagurd district, Gov. Mohammad Sayed Sediqi says.

Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgency is spread thinly across the country but continues to prey on police manning checkpoints, which are easy targets.

In 2014, more than 5,000 policemen were killed by insurgents, raising concerns about the force’s sustainability.

 

Isis is allegedly attacking Iraqi soldiers with roadside bombs containing chlorine gas as allied forces continue a huge assault against the group in Tikrit.

Footage captured by an Iraqi bomb disposal team shows plumes of thick orange gas emerging from a detonated roadside bomb.

The team told the BBC it has diffused “dozens” of chlorine bombs left by Isis militants, which it says are used more as a means to create fear than harm.

“They have resorted to this new method. They are putting chlorine inside these homemade roadside bombs, which is toxic for those who inhale it,” Haider Taher, a member of the bomb disposal team, said.

It is not the first time claims have emerged that the group uses bombs filled with chemical agents. In October last year, Kurdi

sh officials and doctors said they believed toxic gases had been released in an eastern district of Kobani.
The bombs are being used as Iraqi soldiers and allied Shia militiamen backed by local Sunni tribes continued their offensive to reclaim Tikrit from the clutches of the extremist group.

Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, was overrun by militants during Isis’s rapid advance across northern Iraq in June last year. Now, Iran is helping to co-ordinate the 20,000 soldiers attempting to drive out militants in the biggest assault led by the Iraqi Government yet.

Allied Iraqi forces first entered the Isis stronghold through its northern Qadisiyya neighbourhood, according to video obtained by The Associated Press. Iraqi officials say the offensive was aided by helicopters firing missiles from above, while another force pushed in from the south of the city.

Isis fighters were reportedly using civilian vehicles to try and flee the city.

Forces are now attempting to advance towards the centre of Tikrit. The US says coalition airstrikes are not involved in the operation to take back the city.

Draft legislation aimed at boosting a flagging birth rate threatens to reduce Iranian women to “baby-making machines” and set their rights back by decades, Amnesty International warned on March 11.

The London-based human rights group said that a first bill, which has already been approved once by parliament, would restrict access to contraception, forcing women into unsafe backstreet abortions.

It said the second draft law, which is to go before parliament next month, would close many jobs to women who choose not to or are unable to have children.

“The proposed laws will entrench discriminatory practices and set the rights of women and girls in Iran back by decades,” said Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“The authorities are promoting a dangerous culture in which women are stripped of key rights and viewed as baby-making machines rather than human beings with fundamental rights to make choices about their own bodies and lives.”

The draft legislation comes in response to a call by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to double Iran’s population to 150 million within 50 years.

Iranian officials have expressed alarm at its ageing population, with an official at the national birth registry, Mohammad Nazemi Ardekani, warning last April the population growth rate could fall to zero “within 30 years”.

The bill, which is now undergoing amendment, would ban voluntary sterilisation and end state subsidies for contraceptive services.

Amnesty said it would inevitably lead to an increase in backstreet terminations in a country where abortion is illegal except in very limited circumstances.

The second bill would require both public and private employers to give priority to men and women with children when hiring for certain jobs.

It would also make divorce more difficult and restrict intervention by the state in family disputes, which Amnesty said would expose women to increased risks of domestic violence.

Women currently make up around 60 percent of university students in Iran and 10 percent of economically active women are employed, according to official figures.