The Coalition Command to Support the Legitimacy in Yemen has announced that the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted four ballistic missiles launched by the Yemeni Houthi militias towards the cities of Khamis Mushayt and Abha at 06:30 on Tuesday, wam.ae.

The Command said in a statement today that coalition air forces immediately targeted the launching sites, and that the missiles were intercepted and destroyed without causing any damage, reported the Saudi Press Agency, SPA.

The statement also stressed that the continuous targeting of cities with ballistic missiles by militias is evidence of their continuing smuggling operations of weapons to Yemen by various means, especially from the port of Hodeidah, added the state agency.

At least six security personnel were killed yesterday in a suicide car bomb attack in Yemen’s southern Lahj governorate, according to an Al-Qaeda statement obtained by MEMO and reported by middleeastmonitor.com.

“A martyrdom operation on the government compound in the city of Houta, the capital of Lahj province, has been launched by the Mujanadeen,” the statement from Al-Qaeda’s affiliated Ansar Al-Sharia said.

“The UAE forces and their dogs” were the target of the attacks, the statement said in reference to allied Yemeni security forces.

“The attackers targeted a government building before being intercepted by security personnel guarding the building,” a statement issued by the governorate’s public information office said.

“The car bomb exploded outside the building before Al-Qaeda gunmen sprayed the area with machinegun fire,” the statement added.

Six security personnel and three attackers were reportedly killed in the melee.

“The security services are now pursuing the remaining Al-Qaeda elements who fled towards the nearby city of Al-Houta,” the statement read.

Pro-Syrian government paramilitary groups captured around 500 Kurdish civilians from Afrin in the town of Mayer on the Aleppo-Afrin road, local sources reported to aranews.net.

Bus drivers in Afrin told ARA News that the ‘Syrian government security forces’ stopped 50 buses full with passengers from Afrin.

“500 passengers were detained, with only one has been released, while others were transferred to the town of al-Zahra,” an eyewitness said, speaking to ARA News on condition of anonymity.

Until now the fate of the citizens is unknown.

A source from Afrin told ARA News that most likely Shia paramilitary groups kidnapped the Kurdish civilians.

“They are pro-regime militias from Nubul and al-Zahra, they are Shias. These two villages are allied to Iran,” the source said. “This happens every once in a while.”

However, the local source said “this doesn’t mean that the Syrian government is against the Kurds.”

“The regime is also upset with the activities of those [Shia] militias. These two villages [Nubul and al-Zahra] consider themselves more as Iranian than Syrian,” he said.

The Islamic State has killed its judge of the so-called Tigris State for refusing to partake in an attack on security forces, a local source from Nineveh has said, like reported by iraqinews.com .

Speaking on condition of anonymity to Alsumaria News on Tuesday, the source said “such groups beheaded the judge in front of the people after he refused to take part in an attack against security troops in Mosul.

This step comes within a new strategy adopted by IS to force its leaders to fight and to encourage local people to fight in the battle of Mosul, which is the biggest IS stronghold in Iraq. Reports of IS executing members for slack fighting or attempts to escape battlefields have been recurrent since the start of the security campaign in Mosul in October.

Eastern Mosul was recaptured from IS in January, after a US-backed offensive was launched in October. A new offensive started in February to retake the west. The government troops have recently pushed deeper into the Old City, a densely-populated and -structured area which military officials view as central to the desired victory over IS militants.

Battles in the west are believed to be much more difficult due to the density of residential areas and the high number of civilians

The Islamic State has released a threatening video to Iran in Farsi language, urging an uprising against its rulers through apparently Iranian militants affiliated with the group, like reported by iraqinews.com.

The video, titled “Persia: the Past and the Present,” which started with a glimpse of Persian history, showed fighters belonging to an apparently new division formed by the group, named “Salman al-Farisi”, while practicing with gunfire at a location in Diyala province.

A later part of the video featured the fighters beheading four Iraqi soldiers, presumably Shias, one of whom belonged to Badr Brigades, a prominent Shia paramilitary group fighting IS alongside the Iraqi government troops.

The three fighters were identified in the video with their nom de guerre as Abu Mujahid al-Balushi, Abu Saad al-Ahwazi, Abul Farouq al-Farisi.

A voice commentary describes Iran as “a shelter for apostates and infidels”, and said it backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, established Lebanon’s Shia militia Hezbollah and persecuted Sunnis. another fighter addressing viewers accused Iran of giving protection to Jews on its soil.

Iran has been a generous backer of the Shia-led Iraqi and Syrian governments, as well as Shia militias fighting IS in both countries since the Sunni extremist group emerged in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”.

The Raqqa governorate cracked down on ISIS Monday as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advanced in the western city of Raqqa after controlling the military airport in Tabqa and currently getting closer to tighten the noose on the main stronghold of the organization in Syria, like reported by aawsat.com.

The military advancement accompanied the comments of a leading Kurdish politician, who said that after its liberation from ISIS, Raqqa could join a self-administrated regime currently being established by Syrian Kurdish groups.

“It would be up to the people of Raqqa to decide their future once the city is removed of ISIS,” Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, adding that he thinks the city will join the “North Syria democratic federal” system.

Meanwhile, the US-backed SDF forces temporarily halted their military operations on Monday near the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River to allow engineers to carry out urgent maintenance work following concerns that the damaged dam could collapse.

The Combined Joint Task Force said on Monday the dam has not been structurally damaged and that it had not been targeted with air raids.

Leading Kurdish sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that the dam works normally, saying it was “lightly damaged.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said technicians inside the ISIS-held Tabqa did not reach the dam during the ceasefire to reactivate its main power controls, adding that the technicians needed at least 48 hours to complete their mission.

At the political level, Syrian delegations and diplomats currently present in Geneva were eager to know whether the mission of UN Special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura will be renewed or terminated.

Western sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday: “What is happening in Geneva should not be the hostage of the presence or departure of the UN envoy.”

The sources added that in both cases, “talks on the Syrian crisis should not stop.”

The US base in Bahrain was among the targets of a terror cell linked to Iran that was plotting attacks against Bahrain’s security and stability, like reported by aawsat.com.

“The terrorist cell was trained to target important figures and high-ranking officials, bomb a security convoy and attack the US base in Bahrain,” Bahraini Interior Ministry Undersecretary Major-General Tariq Al-Hassan told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday.

Al-Hassan said the cell had started to monitor the US base and closely document the movements of soldiers and vehicles.

“The US side is informed about the plan,” the general said.

On Sunday, Bahrain said it had dismantled an Iranian-linked “terrorist cell” suspected of involvement in a bomb attack on a police bus on February 26 and plotting to assassinate senior officials.

Al-Hassan said that contact between the terrorist cell and its leaders in Iran was conducted through specific applications using encrypted messages on social media networks.

“Members of the terrorist cell made 66 visits to Iran,” he said.

The Bahraini official also said that the cell works under the supervision and leadership of Bahraini terrorist members currently present in Iran, and that its members move freely between Iran and Iraq. He added that those members have strong ties with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“Members of the terrorist cell use religious cover in their visits to transfer information and messages, in addition to recruiting new members or leaders of the cell,” Al-Hassan said.

On Sunday, the Bahraini Interior Ministry said that 14 individuals had been arrested, 11 of whom are suspected of receiving overseas military training under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah in Iraq.

Investigations into the bomb attack on the police bus last February also revealed that members of the cell were recruited by fugitive leaders of the terrorist Al-Ashtar Brigades living abroad, and were part of their ongoing terror activities in Bahrain.

The Islamic State group has reportedly kidnapped nearly 200 children to use as human shields in Iraq during a battle between Iraqi forces and the extremists in west Mosul, like reported by ibtimes.com. The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights reported that 197 children were held hostage by ISIS near the al-Nouri Grand Mosque in western Mosul.

More than 270,000 civilians were relocated due to the battle in Mosul. Of those displaced, 110,000 fled before the fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. The escapees, doctors and troops confirmed that women and children were the ones being targeted on the battlefield, adding that ISIS militants would open fire as they attempted to flee or used them as shields if they were around, according to Stars & Stripes. Coalition officials said “in some incidents causalities are unavoidable,” because civilians aren’t warned before a strike.

The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement Saturday since the beginning of the operation where children were used as human shields, about 2,700 to 4,000 civilians have died in coalition strikes during the battle between the Iraqi forces and IS extremists. Since the number of civilian deaths in Mosul was extremely high, Iraqi forces have halted the operation in the interim as they come up with a strategic way to retake the city without causing any more collateral damage, according to local reports.

“Our goal has always been for zero civilian casualties, but the coalition will not abandon our commitment to our partners because of ISIS’s brutal tactics terrorizing civilians, using human shields, and fighting from protected sites such as schools, hospitals and religious sites,” U.S. Army Col. Joe Scrocca, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the coalition told the Los Angeles Times.

Syrian opposition factions destroyed a Hezbollah military position and killed a number of its commanders and fighters in the town of Qamhana in central Syria’s Hama district on Sunday, Sky News Arabia reported Monday according to naharnet.com.

According to field sources, the opposition fighters targeted the position with guided missiles, which led to the destruction and the killing of all Hezbollah fighters inside, asserting that among them were field commanders, according to Sky News.

On Saturday, opposition factions managed to counter a large-scale military offensive by Iranian government and armed forces in the northern Hama countryside.

The opposition said in a statement that the government forces tried to regain control of al-Sakher checkpoint but turned back after suffering heavy losses.

The opposition pointed out that the clashes resulted in the death of a number of government forces, and the destruction of a tank.

The developments coincide with the battle in Raqqa, led by Syria’s Democratic Forces, to restore the city from the grip of the Islamic State group.

On Sunday, the US-backed Democratic Forces of Syria controlled a military airport, which was subordinate to the IS, and is located near the largest dam in Syria on the Euphrates River.

Iraq’s future stability will depend on how it manages its various militias, like reported by aljazeera.com

This week Iraqi prime-minister Haider al-Abadi concluded his first meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, with Trump praising the “unprecedented cooperation” between the two countries in combating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Trump had promised to finish off ISIL thirty days into his presidency, but the battle for Mosul itself has dragged on longer than he anticipated. Trump’s account of his meeting with Abadi indicates that he was focused on the military aspect of the conflict, however, little was revealed about what post-conflict strategies, if any, the leaders discussed, such as the humanitarian crises and reconstruction of formerly ISIL-held territories.

A pressing issue that looms on the horizon related to Iraq’s post-ISIL recovery is the number of various Iraqi armed forces and the possibility of these forces turning on each other. What will happen to the myriad Iraqi Shia militias that emerged in response to the ISIL invasion of 2014?

Ironically, a call to demobilise all these militias has recently come from an unlikely source – Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who was the first to establish a Shia militia in Iraq in 2003. As of 2017, he is now trying to dismantle the numerous Shia militias that are active in the country. He is unlikely to succeed, but a need for reforming Iraq’s security forces is pressing.

The need for security sector reform

It was the arbitrary behaviour of the Iraqi security forces that alienated elements of Arab Sunni society before ISIL’s 2014 expansion, and the implementation of security sector reform (SSR) will be ever more salient after the liberation of Mosul.

Since 2003, elements among the security forces have been a threat to certain members of Iraq’s population. SSR refers to strategies that inculcate a professional ethos in these security institutions, where they would protect all of Iraq’s communities.

SSR would seek to curb behaviour such as arbitrary arrests, the abuse of Iraqi citizens at checkpoints and reprisal attacks, as wellm as countering pervasive corruption within security institutions.

The problem is that Iraq’s military forces are numerous, ranging from the regular army, the Ministry of Interior forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, to the myriad of Shia militias and Arab Sunni tribal militias that have emerged since 2014, subsumed under the al-hashd al-shaabi or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

In terms of Iraq’s long-term stability, SSR is crucial for dealing with the immediate problems of internally displaced people, creating security for the reconstruction of the country and integrating areas formerly held by ISIL.

Many of the refugees, mostly Arab Sunnis, are wary of returning to a post-conflict Iraq where the Shia militias are in control of their towns and cities.

As of 2017, Iraq’s Arab Sunnis, who have been traumatised by both the ISIL rule and the behaviour of Iraq’s security forces towards them in the past, will need to reconcile with the forces representing the Iraqi state and nation. For this to happen, Iraq’s security forces need to be reformed.

The Sadrist challenge to the Shia militias

The Iraqi Shia militias, or PMUs, mobilised in response to the fall of Mosul in 2014, and the question remains, as to whether they will stand downd once ISIL is expelled from this city.

Some Shia PMU leaders have said that their militias will continue fighting ISIL until they reach its capital in Raqqa.

Others will stay in Iraq and increase their power through the political process. However, militia commanders are precluded by Iraqi law from running for a parliamentary or cabinet position. A law passed in November 2016 established the PMU as an official security force, thus allowing these militia figures to take part in politics.

While it came as no surprise that Arab Sunni politicians opposed this law, so did Sadr. As of this month, his interpretation of SSR has been to call for the dismantlement of Iraq’s militias entirely.

Sadr had been one of the most polarising figures in Iraq, and members of his militia, the Mahdi Army, have been implicated in some of the worst sectarian bloodletting during the 2006-2008 civil war. He has now evolved into one of the few nationalist voices in Iraq, uniting with Iraqi communists and leftists in street protests, demanding reform of a Shia-dominated government.

While Sadr was the first to establish a Shia militia in 2003, he eventually lost control of the force he created, which splintered in numerous factions. Without saying it explicitly, he is trying to rein-in the hydra he created.  

Sadr has weighed in on SSR, which in his opinion would ideally demobilise all militias. Demobilisation does not seem to be a possibility. While the Shia militias are villains to some, they are heroes to many.

SSR might simply become another elusive goal in Iraq, like national reconciliation, but for Iraq’s long-term stability it will be essential for restoring security and combating ISIL’s remnants.

The role of the US

There have been successes in regards to SSR in Iraq. The Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), otherwise known as the Golden Division, was derogatorily referred to as former prime-minister Maliki’s “private army” in the past. But since the ISIL invasion, the force has reformed itself, bearing the brunt of most of the urban fighting in cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, and emerging as one of the few professional, inclusive Iraqi military institutions.

The CTS owes its success to the US military training it received in Iraq. This training mission has become more robust after the ISIL invasion. Washington will need to use this leverage to pressure for continued SSR, even after a military victory against ISIL. 

However, SSR can only work with a combination of local pressure from inside Iraq, and by also bringing in regional players such as Iran, and Turkey, which has trained its own militia in its base in Bashiqa. Each of these neighbours have contributed to Iraq’s problem and will need to be part of the solution.