Four Bahraini policemen were wounded in a bomb attack on Sunday near a village south of the capital Manama, like reported by thenational.ae.

“Terrorist blast in police bus near Jua village. 4 policemen injured and they are in a stable condition. Necessary steps are being taken,” the ministry said on its Twitter account.

It gave no further details.

On January 1, gunmen attacked the prison near the village, killing a policeman and allowing 10 inmates to escape. The prison held Shiites convicted over anti-government protests in 2011.

Bahrain has witnessed unrest since a crackdown on the protests, mainly by members of the island’s Shiite majority, to demand a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.

Hundreds of Shiites have been arrested and many have faced trial over their role in the demonstrations.

One of those on trial is Sheikh Issa Qassem, the spiritual leader of the country’s Shiites.

He was stripped of his citizenship last year for “serving foreign interests” – a reference to Shiite Iran.

On Sunday, clashes broke out between security forces and protesters in several Shiite villages as a new hearing in Qassem’s case was under way, witnesses said.

Protesters chanted anti-government slogans and carried portraits of Qassem, they said.

The Islamic State has deployed death squads to target civilians fleeing areas under its control in western Anbar, iraqinews.com  reports.

Quoting a local source, the agency said tens of IS snipers, armed with medium weapons, were relocated from the IS-held town of al-Qaem, near the western borders with Syria, to a desert area reaching to the government forces-held region of Rutba.

The special squads tour the deserts around al-Qaem, Annah and Rawa, with trucks and motorbikes, and had killed more than one escaping family, including women and children, according to the source.

Islamic State has maintained pockets in the three western towns in Anbar since it emerged in 2014. It holds thousands of civilians as potential human shields against any possible assault by Iraqi forces. Reports about fleeing civilians being targeted by the extremist group have become common since the government launched a major offensive against the group’s strongholds in October.

There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again. It is believed that the Iraqi government will not aim at western Anbar before its forces are done with retaking Mosul.

However, fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the allied, U.S.-led coalition have regularly pounded IS locations in Anbar. On Monday, Nazem al-Jugheifi, a senior commander at Anbar’s pro-government popular militias, said 15 IS members, including senior commanders, were killed in an Iraqi airstrike targeting the western regions.

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A video posted by Iraqi pro-government militias fighting the Islamic State in Mosul claims that the extremist group is tying stray dogs with improvised explosives to use them against advancing security forces in western Mosul.

The video shows three members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) crouching near a small dog which Islamic State, according to the men featured in the clip, wired with three bottles filled with explosive materials.

“This is the latest from Daesh (Islamic State), abusing an animal,” one fighter said, pointing to the dog. “What sin did it commit?,” another one wondered.

The authenticity of the video, published by PMU’s media, could not be verified.

Iraqi government forces, backed by PMU and U.S.-led troops and advisers, began a major offensive on February 19th to clear western Mosul from Islamic State militants. The government declared late January its forces had recaptured the eastern section after three months of fighting.

Islamic State has largely relied on booby-trapped vehicles, landmines, weaponized drones and human suicide bombers in facing Iraqi troops, but it has also resorted to other extraordinary deceptive tactics such as using decoy military equipment and camouflage-dressed mannequins, and lately, booby-trapped animals. Some local observers believe the tactics signal desperation and the waning combat resources on Islamic State’s behalf.

ِA few days after the western Mosul offensives launched, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said IS fighters booby-trapped sheep to hinder assaults by PMU troops on Ein al-Tallawi village, which is near to the group’s stronghold town of Tal Afar.

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Iran’s navy has test-fired the latest versions of the Nasr and Dehlaviyeh missiles during military exercises in the Gulf, local media reported on Monday.

“The latest naval cruise missile called Nasr was test-fired during Velayat 95 naval manoeuvres in the southern waters of the country,” said Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan, according to the Fars news agency, adding that the missile had successfully hit its target.

Tasnim news agency said the Dehlaviyeh, a laser-guided missile, had also been successfully tested.

It was reported back in 2012 that Iran had based the Dehlaviyeh on a Russian anti-tank missile.

The ranges of the latest versions were not given.

Iraqi security forces recaptured on Sunday two major districts in western Mosul from Islamic State fighters, both near the city’s airport which the troops conquered a few days earlier, like reported by iraqinews.com.

Sky News Arabia quoted Haider al-Maturi, an Iraqi army commandos chief, as saying that the forces invaded al-Tayaran. He said the forces detonated nine booby-trapped cars planted by IS militants, but a tenth vehicle exploded, killing two police members.

Meanwhile, Abdul-Amir Yarallah, commander of the Joint Operations Command’s operations in Nineveh, said in statements that troops also retook al-Maamoun district, with the forces arresting several militants of diverse nationalities.

Iraqi police forces also said Sunday they had killed three snipers from the Islamic State group in southern Mosul, and took control over the Baghdad-Mosul road.

Bas News quoted Cap. Karim Gamal, from the Iraqi Federal Police service, saying that the force killed three IS snipers, including a Russian national, at Wadi Hajar region, south of Mosul. The troops also ran into a weapons stashes in the area.

Meanwhile, Aziz al-Aaraji, a colonel at the Federal Police, said the forces also took over the southern road linking Baghdad with Mosul. He said the takeover followed encounters with IS militants which left 20 extremists dead. He added that seven others were arrested while attempting to escape the area after police captured it.

Regarding the situation with refugees fleeing battles in Mosul, the Migration and Displacement Ministry said Sunday that 2380 people fled western Mosul in 24 hours.

Aaraji said security forces had invaded al-Mansour area in southern Mosul, and had opened safe exit routes for civilians fleeing southwards from IS-held areas.

Iraqi government forces pushed deeper into western Mosul until late Saturday, announcing the recapture of the Mosul Airport and the nearby Ghizlani military camp, with several senior IS commanders announced dead. They pushed further to announce later the takeover of al-Tayaran and Maamoun districts near the airport.

Iraqi forces recaptured eastern Mosul late January after three months of fighting, and are carrying on with U.S.-led coalition-backed operations to retake the west since last Sunday.

Iraqi and coalition generals estimated the time needed to retake that area by six months.

The United Nations fears fighting in western Mosul could displace at least 250.000 civilians.

Just days after ending its military drill, Iran launched naval drills Sunday at the Gulf and the Indian Ocean junction, a naval commander told Reuters. The event comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran as President Donald Trump vowed to get tough with Tehran, like reported by ibtimes.com.

Iran’s annual exercises, which will be held in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, the Bab el-Mandab and northern parts of the Indian Ocean, are aimed at training the navy in the fight against terrorism and piracy, Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said, according to state media IRNA. The drills will include navy ships, submarines and helicopters, as they would showcase their skills along Iran’s southeastern coast. The area of the drills covers over 770,000 square miles.

Last month, Iran conducted a ballistic missile test sparking concern and resulting in Trump warning Tehran it had been “put on notice.” The U.S. also has been considering fresh sanctions on the country, while Trump blamed former President Barack Obama’s administration of being too easy on Iran.

Also last month, a U.S. Navy destroyer fired warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels, which belonged to the country’s Revolutionary Guards, near the Strait of Hormuz, for closing in at high speed. These vessels will not be participating in the current war games, Reuters reported.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that imposing sanctions will not get any results.

“We don’t respond well to coercion. We don’t respond well to sanctions, but we respond very well to mutual respect. We respond very well to arrangements to reach mutually acceptable scenarios,” Zarif said.

Tehran has agreed to limit its nuclear development program in exchange for a multilateral nuclear treaty signed by Iran, the U.S. and several other nations that freed billions of dollars of Iranian assets previously frozen by Washington.

Islamic militants attacked two Syrian security offices in the western city of Homs on Saturday with guns and suicide bombers, killing at least 42 people including a senior officer, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said

The attackers killed the head of military security and 29 others at one of its headquarters in the city and 12 more people at a branch of state security in attacks that began early in the morning, the source added.

Syrian state television reported that clashes had rocked the districts of al-Ghouta and al-Mohata, where the two targets were located, before three suicide bombers detonated their explosives at each place.

It said that the attacks had killed 32 people including General Hassan Daaboul, the head of the military security branch.

The 63-year-old Iraqi veteran of five wars is determined to rid his country of jihadis; the sniper has fought in the Yom Kippur war, Iran-Iraq war, Invasion of Kuwait and Gulf War

A veteran sniper has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 300 ISIS fighters in two years after volunteering to join the fight against jihad in his home country.

Abu Tahseen, 63, who has previously fought in five conflicts, volunteers with Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units, like reported by dailymail.co.uk .

Now the silver-haired sniper has killed 321 militants since 2015, according to military.com.

Mr Tahseen is a legend among his comrades and is so committed to the cause that he even spends his time off tracking down ISIS fighters.

In videos the sniper appears calm and focused as he talks about using his deadly skills to kill the enemy.

Following his 173rd kill last year, the fighter released a video in which he appeared to take out an enemy sniper.

And the soldier has spoken of how ISIS militants live in fear of entering the area he patrols.

As he gazes over the Makhoul Mountains, in North Baijiin, Mr Tahseen says: ‘You see this area? I guarantee to God no one would come up it.

‘I’m relaxed. My mind is relaxed.

‘When I get my rotation I just want to get back here.

‘Last time they gave me a month off and after 12 days I came back.’

The pensioner, who has bullets longer than his fingers strapped to his belt, talks about what his powerful weapon does to his targets, saying it ‘pushes him back one meter before putting him down’.

Mr Tahseen has fought in the Yom Kippur war, Iran-Iraq war, Invasion of Kuwait and Gulf War.

Gunmen, suicide bombers target border guards deployed in Iraq’s western Anbar province

At least 15 Iraqi border guards, including two officers, were killed Friday morning in an attack by the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq’s western Anbar province, according to a military source like reported by aa.com.tr.

Daesh gunmen and suicide bombers targeted a border guards HQ near Anbar’s Trebil border crossing with Jordan, Army Colonel Walid al-Deleimi told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Deleimi said that reinforcements — including army troops and border guards — had since been dispatched to the area to help repel the attack.

War-torn Iraq has suffered from a devastating security vacuum since June 2014, when Daesh overran vast swathes of territory, including the northern city of Mosul.

Last October, the Iraqi army — backed by a U.S.-led air coalition and local allies on the ground — launched a wide-ranging offensive aimed at recapturing Mosul, once considered Iraq’s second most populous city.