Islamic State militants in western Mosul have begun to give out children medicines to paint a picture of a stable life, but local sources say the drugs turned out to be expired, like reported by iraqinews.com.

A local source told Alsumaria news said IS-run clinics have begun to distribute children medicines as part of a media campaign run by the extremist group to give an impression of stability while the group braces for a major offensive by government forces.

But the group is actually handing out the medicines “though knowing they are expired,” according to the source.

Islamic State is still in control over most of western Mosul, where 750.000 civilians have been trapped under the extremist group’s bloody reign for more than two years.

Mid October, Iraqi government forces, backed by international coalition troops led by the United States, launched a major offensive to retake Mosul, IS’s largest base in Iraq. Operations since then have managed to retake the eastern section of the city, and the government says it is close to giving a green light to its troops to invade the west.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Tuesday the group has become effectively stuck in western Mosul, with no choice other than fighting to death.

In a special ceremony on Tuesday, over 900 Arab Peshmerga soldiers finished military training to fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the southwestern Kurdistan Region, like reported by kurdistan24.net.

Following the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani’s decision to form a special brigade for ethnic Arab Peshmerga volunteers, 950 Arab soldiers completed military courses at the Khinis base located in Duhok Province.

The brigade is under the direct command of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga Ministry and President Barzani, also the General Commander of the Kurdistan Region armed forces.

In a statement presented during the ceremony, the Commander-in-Chief of the elite Kurdish Zeravani forces Aziz Waisi praised President Barzani’s decision to form the brigade.

Waisi added Iraq needed united efforts to ensure stability and security in the region.

The brigade was formed after Arab tribe leaders in the Zumar and Rabi’a areas in north and northwest Mosul asked the President to create a distinctive Peshmerga force for Arab volunteers.

The graduated units are expected to be deployed in the Zumar and Rabi’a towns to protect the area from the threat of IS, one of the brigade commanders told Kurdistan24.

According to a Kurdistan24 correspondent in Duhok, another unit of Arab Peshmerga, containing nearly 1,000 volunteers, will begin military training soon.

Besides Arabs, the Peshmerga Ministry has previously formed brigades for Kurdish Yezidis (Ezidis), Christians, and Kurdish Shabaks to protect their areas from the threat of extremist groups.

The documents in the Islamic State file hinted at signs of rebellion within the ranks of its foreign fighters, like reported by washingtonpost.com.

A Belgian militant had a medical note saying he had back pain and would not join the battle. A fighter from France claimed he wanted to leave Iraq to carry out a suicide attack at home. Several requested transfers to Syria. Others just simply refused to fight.

The documents on 14 “problem” fighters from the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion — made up largely of foreigners — were found by Iraqi forces after they took over an Islamic State base in a neighborhood of Mosul last month.

At its peak, the Islamic State drew thousands of recruits each month and controlled about a third of Iraq’s territory, and the foreigners who poured in from dozens of countries have been characterized as the most die-hard fighters. But the group has steadily lost ground and appeal.

The militants are now besieged in the western half of Mosul, once the biggest city the Islamic State controlled and the heart of its self-proclaimed caliphate. But the group’s losses have triggered concerns in Europe that disillusioned fighters might find their way home.

“He doesn’t want to fight, wants to return to France,” said the notes on a 24-year-old listed as a French resident of Algerian descent. “Claims his will is a martyrdom operation in France. Claims sick but doesn’t have a medical report.”

He was one of five fighters in the file listed as having French residency, or as originally from France.

More citizens from France have joined the Islamic State than from any other country in Europe since 2011, when Syria’s popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad turned violent and fueled the rise of extremist groups.

The French government reported a sharp decrease in the number of its citizens traveling to Syria and Iraq to join the group in the first half of 2016 but said that nearly 700 still remain there, including 275 women and 17 minors.

The forms in the file are marked with the year 2015 but appear to have been filled out later as they specify the dates that some of the militants joined, which stretch into 2016.

In addition to each militant’s name, country of origin, country of residency, date of birth, blood type and weapons specialties, the documents list the number of wives, children and “slave girls” each had. A photo is also included. It was not possibly to verify the personal information, but Iraqi officers who found the file said they believe it is genuine.

Two men from Kosovo refused to fight and asked to move to Syria. One said he had head pain.

Of the more than 4,000 foreign fighters who have left European Union nations for Iraq and Syria, around a third have returned, according to a report from The Hague-based International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. About 14 percent have been confirmed dead, while the rest remain overseas or their whereabouts are unknown.

“People say that they are the most motivated, but there are plenty of foreign fighters that went and found that the IS experience wasn’t what they thought it would be; they thought it would be a great adventure,” said Aymenn al-Timimi, an analyst specializing in militant groups who has compiled an online database of Islamic State documents, some of which indicate similar issues of morale.

The organization keeps meticulous records, leaving clues to its inner workings as the fighters are ejected from territory.

Iraqi counterterrorism forces discovered the documents in a house in Mosul’s al-Andalus neighborhood that was being used as an administrative base for the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion.

The militants were seen removing documents and computers from the building, according to neighbors, before they set fire to the building as Iraqi forces retook the area, said Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Tamimi, whose unit found the documents unscathed in a desk drawer.

“Those foreign fighters are the most furious fighters we ever fought against,” he said. “When those fighters refuse to fight it means that they’ve realized this organization is fake Islam and not the one they came for.”

Iraqi troops faced a barrage of suicide car bombs and fierce resistance during the first month of their operations to retake Mosul last year. However, after pausing to reorganize, the forces have made rapid progress on the eastern side of the city this year.

Late last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said his forces had recaptured all neighborhoods of Mosul east of the Tigris River and that the Islamic State militants had “collapsed quickly.”

Edwin Bakker, a research fellow at the International Center for Counter-Terrorism and a professor of counterterrorism at Leiden University, said that fighters from Western European countries are largely known to intelligence agencies, but that there is less information on those from countries such as Bosnia and Kosovo.

With open borders in Europe, these fighters might return home and stage attacks on the continent, he said. But warnings of a “tsunami” of returning foreign fighters are exaggerated, he said.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the numbers that have gone to live there and die there,” he added.

Another 30-year-old French national in the file is noted as having been “involved in the departure of Abu Azzam al-Fransi and his wife from the land of the Caliphate.” “Fransi” indicates that the fighter he helped leave was also from France.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, said there are many foreign fighters in Mosul, and that foreign suicide bombers have been responsible for many of the 350 car bombs launched toward their lines.

In one Islamic State headquarters in the Dhubat neighborhood of Mosul, his forces found a stash of passports — 16 Russian and four French. There were also 20 blank Iraqi passports taken from Mosul’s passport department, he said, speculating that the militants are forging them to be able to leave the country.

Despite the recent rapid advances in eastern Mosul, Iraqi generals still expect a bloody fight ahead. The western side of the city, home to 750,000 civilians, is surrounded by Iraqi forces and the Islamic State members still there will have little choice but to fight or die.

“There are still a lot of people that are motivated,” Bakker said. “The majority is there to fight.”

As U.S. tensions with Iran rose last week, 17 ships from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Australia launched a major war game just 50 miles from the Iranian coast

Smack dab in the middle of the gulf, the ships steamed together in wedge formation in the first iteration of the exercise dubbed “Unified Trident”, like reported by breitbart.com.

HMS Ocean, a British amphibious assault ship carrying about 750 personnel, 150 of them Royal Marines, led the way.

About 500 yards behind was the French destroyer FS Forbin, and about 500 yards behind was the U.S. destroyer USS Mahan. Another 500 yards behind was the Australian destroyer HMAS Arunta. Each carried about 300 sailors.

Another destroyer, an Aegis cruiser — a supply ship — mine sweepers, patrol boats, and Coast Guard cutters made up the flanks.

The ships cast dark gray silhouettes against a light gray sky and a bluish-gray sea, which was fairly calm, though the winds started to pick up.

Although the ships moved about five football-fields away from each other, they were well within sight from the USS Mahan, where a small group of journalists, including from Breitbart News, observed the exercise.

As the Mahan neared exactly 500 yards behind the Forbin, a young sailor on deck squinted into binoculars and shouted the exact distances as it closed in.

Most of the sailors on the ship, clad in blue jumpsuits, appeared to be in their twenties. Driving the ship was 20-year old Seaman Rondo Parker, from Columbus, Ohio.

The ship’s captain, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Marc Davis, explained to the journalists that the ships, which all belonged to the battle group currently tasked with regional security, don’t normally travel so close together.

However, it was one part of the three-day exercise that began last Tuesday, focused on defeating and deterring a fictitious enemy force.

In fact, it was just weeks before that Davis had faced down four Iranian fast attack boats that had sped so dangerously close towards his ship that he directed his sailors to fire three warning shots.

One Iranian ship had gotten only 900 yards away — about as close as the HMS Ocean was at that moment, when sailors fired the warning shots from the .50 caliber guns mounted on the ship’s right side.

The noise of the shots  are “very distinctive,” Davis said. The Iranian boats then turned away.

Although he said his sailors are “trained to do this” and that he did not have to calm any of them down, a young officer onboard privately told Breitbart News that the crew was “on edge” and “freaked out” the next day when they pulled near the United Arab Emirates and saw more Iranian fast attack boats.

The incident appeared to be a part of the exercise commanders were now conducting, even as they denied it had anything to do with Iran.

“It’s not a show of force to the Iranians at all,” the exercise’s logistical planner, British Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ant Wallace, told the journalists aboard the HMS Ocean on the first day of the exercise.

“The reason we’re doing this exercise, and I’ll stress this over and over again, is because it’s easier to do here than it would be anywhere else … The fact that it’s in the Arabian Gulf is coincidental, really,” he said.

Commanders emphasized that the multilateral exercise, which had never been done before, was an opportunity to work on their mutual capabilities and enhance cooperation.

But the exercise featured two fictitious regional rivals, Redland (RL) and Grunland (GL), which bore close resemblances to Iran and the U.S.

“Historically the RL Maritime Militia (RMM) have threatened merchant traffic in the [Strait of Hormuz] to pressure GL and the wider international community; such behavior has broadly unified the international community behind GL,” an exercise briefing slide read.

“Increasing aggressive interactions between Coalition and [Redland Maritime Militia] units, including warning shots,” it said.

The day before journalists embarked on the Mahan, the crew had had an opportunity to fire all of its weapons, including a massive 5-inch turret deck gun akin to a cannon called the CIWS but pronounced “Sea Whiz.” This is a deck gun whose fire is so fast it sounds like a lawn mower engine, and its .25 mm guns are manned by one sailor.

This time, Iranian boats were nowhere to be seen, even though Iranian leaders had slammed the exercise in advance, with its navy’s commander Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari warning, “They would not dare enter Iran’s territorial waters,” according to the Tehran Times.

Although the exercise was planned eight to nine weeks ago, it coincided with an escalation in U.S. tension with Iran last week, and underscored the growing risk of a potential military flareup.

On the Sunday before the exercise began, Iran fired a ballistic missile in defiance of international law. On Monday, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea rammed a boat into a ship belonging to Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally in the region. On Tuesday, the exercise began.

On Wednesday, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said the U.S. was officially putting Iran “on notice.” On Thursday, Trump said “nothing’s off the table,” when asked about a military response to Iran.

On Friday, he slapped a new round of sanctions on Iran’s missile program, while Iran said that it would not allow U.S. wrestlers into Iran to participate in a tournament after an executive order that barred visas from Iranians and seven other nationalities.

On Saturday, Iran reversed its decision to bar the U.S. wrestlers from entering, but kicked off its own military exercises, defying the new sanctions and signaling continued defiance of the international community.

The Trump administration has warned it may take further actions against Iran for its ballistic missile development.

Some experts argued the Trump administration’s actions are putting the U.S. on a “dangerous escalatory path with Iran without any diplomatic approach or exit strategy.”

“Sooner or later, given the numerous tensions with Iran around the region, this escalatory dynamic risks spiraling into war,” the National Iranian American Council said in a statement.

But other experts argue that not responding out of fear of escalation only plays into Iranian hands.

“They want us to be self-deterred, thereby normalizing unacceptable Iranian behavior and encouraging further provocations,” said Alexander Alden, Senior Fellow for U.S. strategy at the Center for the National Interest.

“The Trump administration is telling Iran,’You’re admonished,’and conveying that there is renewed resolve in Washington,” he said.

“That’s the only way to avoid actual escalation and potential conflict — to make it abundantly clear to the Iranian regime that if push comes to shove they will be on the wrong side of the escalation dynamic and that they don’t really want to go down that road.”

Iran’s recent provocations follow a string of incidents during the last months of the Obama administration, despite the signing of a nuclear deal with Iran last year that was supposed to help improve U.S.-Iran relations.

In September, an Iranian fast-attack boat came within 100 yards of a U.S. Navy coastal patrol boat. In October, Houthi rebels in the Red Sea fired missiles twice at the USS Mason, a U.S. destroyer. And last month came the incident with the Mahan.

The number of “unsafe and/or unprofessional interactions,” as the U.S. Navy calls them, with Iran have risen in the last few years, despite the Iran deal.

In 2015, of 327 total interactions, 23 were deemed unsafe and/or unprofessional. In 2016, there were 527 interactions, with 35 deemed unsafe and/or unprofessional.

Officials say so far this year, there have already been eight interactions with the Iranians, with at least one unsafe and/or unprofessional interaction.

So far, there have been no new guidelines for dealing with Iranian vessels at sea since Trump took office, according to U.S. officials.

Uncertainty is now even higher, with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels showing willingness to ram into enemy boats.

But despite the uncertainty, the sailors aboard the HMS Ocean, USS Mahan, FS Forbin, and HMAS Arunta kept busy with routine activities — working, doing Crossfit-like workouts in loading bays and empty hangars, eating, sleeping, watching TV, and socializing in recreational rooms.

And across the different ships, every time a message would go out on the public announcement system, sailors would stop and listen, in case it applied to them.

One message, on the Mahan, barked “Combat system casualty!” A sailor explained that despite the alarming message, it could mean something as mundane as a broken printer.

While naval commanders say their presence in the Gulf is to maintain stability in a tense region, they also acknowledge it leaves them ready to respond in case something happens. For example, one U.S. destroyer that was scheduled to be part of the exercise, the USS Cole, was sent down to assist the Saudi ship that was attacked by Houthis.

“We both know it’s an unstable part of the world. But one of the reasons for operating here in the Arabian Gulf is to make sure the instability we see on land doesn’t spill over into the maritime domain,” said Royal Navy Commodore Andrew Burns, who oversaw the exercise.

“As we all know, things can change very, very quickly and without much warning, and that’s why we have to continue a permanent and continuous presence in this part of the world,” he said.

When Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was ordering the recent ballistic missile test, he most probably didn’t forecast a widespread international reaction and the heavy consequences afterward, like reported by thehill.com.

Eight years of appeasement policy under the Obama administration has placed Iran facing a serious miscalculation, thinking there is still room for its policy of threats and export of terrorism. The Jan. 29 missile launch has rendered a grave backfire on the mullahs, resulting in disastrous political and strategic consequences for Tehran.

In the meantime, Die Welt revealed the mullahs also test-fired a cruise missile dubbed “Sumar” on the same day.

“The missile is believed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons and may have a range of 2,000 to 3,000 km, the paper said, citing intelligence sources,” Reuters reported.

While the mullahs’ regime has attempted to cloak this missile test launch, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) published related images in its affiliated news agency.

The Obama “golden era” and Tehran taking advantage of his engagement, and concessions from the U.S., has come to an end.

Shortly after Iran’s test-launch officials in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the European Union and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the measure and considered it in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The UNSC held a closed-door session on Jan. 31 and issued a statement referring the dossier to the Resolution 2231 committee for further investigation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also tasked to follow up on the matter and file a report on this matter.

U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn used strong criticism at a White House briefing lashing at the Obama administration’s flawed policy for not responding adequately to Iran’s arrogance.

“The recent ballistic missile launch is also in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231,” he said, adding “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.”

To this end, recent developments show Tehran’s recent missile test has triggered strategic policy changes in the region and across the globe against the religious fascism ruling Iran.

Of course, senior Iranian officials and media outlets resorted to saber-rattling to cloak their concerns over such unexpected global reactions.

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan described the missile test as in line with previous plans and claimed such launches will continue with “enhanced speed and precision…”

The Kayhan daily, the known Khamenei mouthpiece, revealed the Iranian regime’s terrified status quo, describing this as a “historic turn.”

“There are times when developments take such an unprecedented pace, making any forecasting about the future quite difficult,” the piece reads.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a recent TV interview Tehran’s foreign policy will face serious crises with Donald Trump coming to the White House.

Ali Khorram, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official, suggested the mullahs’ regime should use “common sense” and keep a low profile during such times.

The state-run Iran daily wrote, “This measure by Iran provides an excuse for Trump to take actions against Iran, increasing his intention to disrupt the status quo resulting from the Iran nuclear deal.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described Trump as “inexperienced” in an attempt to cloak his concerns and belittle such harsh reactions.

The mullahs ruling Iran are seemingly already missing the Obama years.

The IRGC and other entities loyal to the regime are extremely concerned over a change in international policies after Obama left office. Khamenei, the leader of a regime dependent on the IRGC for its very survival, is resorting to missile launches and hollow threats against America and the West in an attempt to lift their spirits.

Without a doubt, the most effective measure targeting the mullahs’ Achilles Heel is found in the West adopting a firm policy against Tehran aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program and destructive meddling in the Middle East.

“The clerical regime must be evicted from Syria, Iraq, and, the IRGC must be placed on the list of terrorist organizations,” said Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), to a recent conference at the Unites States Senate.

To this end, the U.S. and the European Union should blacklist the IRGC.

The Iraqi Security Forces on Sunday called on the US-led coalition to provide them with anti-drone weapons to protect their troops from Islamic State’s (ISIS) bomb-dropping drones in the Mosul operation, like reported by aranews.net .

In the meantime, the US-led coalition said in a statement that they have sent a DroneDefender and additional advanced anti-drone systems in support of the Iraqi forces fighting ISIS in Mosul, in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate.

ISIS is using small drones with small munitions, similar to grenades, in Mosul that indiscriminately kill and injure civilians and Iraqi soldiers on the ground.

The Islamic State has recently released a video showing its fighters using attack drones to carry and drop bombs on Iraqi troops fighting in Mosul.

“The ISIS drones have evolved over time,” the US commander Colonel Brett Sylvia previously said in a press conference. “It is a capability that they have had for pretty much the duration of the time that we’ve been here.”

“As we’ve made our way into Mosul now, what we’ve seen is that they [ISIS] use the smaller drones, the quad copters things, with a much shorter ability to project them out,” he added.

NATO has begun training Iraqi soldiers on how to neutralize bombs planted by ISIS jihadist group, the alliance said like reported by aawsat.com.

About thirty soldiers are taking part in the first five-week course on countering the deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

According to Agence France Presse, alliance members had agreed to the expanded training at their summit meeting in Warsaw last July.

“The best weapon we have in the fight against terrorism is to train local forces”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was quoted as saying in a statement from the alliance.

“A more effective Iraqi military means a safer Iraq, and a more stable Middle East.”

Since October, NATO has also deployed its AWACS surveillance planes in the region to bolster the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, a move also decided at the Warsaw summit.

The planes are one of the few concrete assets that NATO has, with most of its military hardware belonging to individual member states.

“Al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Arabian Peninsula woke up to the victory achieved by the legal government and the Arab Coalition as well as international changes including the new U.S. stance towards the Iranian policy and its allies in the region,” commented Yemeni writer Najib Ghallab on the latest movements of the terrorist organization in Yemen.

Residents of Lawdar district took action on Saturday and killed at least 23 members who tried to take over some security locations in the city, like reported by aawsat.com .

Abdul Latif al-Sayed, an official in “Security Belt Forces”, said that the organization members took the bodies of their militants after their losses. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group’s attempt to storm into the town of Ahwar was also foiled.

“They spread chaos in the liberated regions to confuse the military scene that will liberate Sana’a soon with the advance of the army and resistance,” added Sayed.

Furthermore, Ghallab warned of repeating the Syria scenario through exploiting terrorist groups to run the battles. He explained that the new U.S. approach has pushed the rebels to publicize themselves and to claim that of the biggest danger in Yemen is “al-Qaeda”.

In Aden, Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher addressed relevant ministries, leadership of the fourth military zone and the local authority in Abyan to provide the required security equipment and tools, affirming that the government will not hesitate to perform its duties in combating terrorist members under any cover or name, especially the Houthi and Saleh militias.

PM stressed that an urgent security plan should be set to foil any attempt for terrorist members to spread in Abyan again.

“Fighting al-Qaeda will most probably impact the ‘legitimacy’ in some regions”, added Yemeni writer Ghallab as he warned that the insurgents are taking advantage of al-Qaeda.

Jordan said its warplanes bombed Islamic State (IS) group positions in southern Syria two years after one of its pilots was captured and killed by the militants, like reported by middleeasteye.net.

The kingdom, part of an international coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, has intensified its strikes since IS captured Maaz al-Kassasbeh when his plane crashed in Syria in December 2014.

On 3 February 2015, the group released footage showing the pilot being burned alive in a cage, and Friday’s strikes came on the second anniversary of the video’s release.

“Jordanian Air Force planes, in memory of our martyrs who have fallen in our war against terrorism, on Friday evening targeted various positions of the terrorist gang Daesh in southern Syria,” the military said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

It said that the strikes against targets including a captured former Syrian army base killed and wounded several IS members and destroyed an arms depot, a car bomb workshop and a barracks.

Jordanian forces used drones and precision-guided munitions in the operation, which was part of the “kingdom’s efforts to eradicate the terrorist group,” it said.

Turkey kills 51 IS militants

Turkey, meanwhile, hit 59 IS targets and killed 51 militants in northern Syria as part of its ongoing incursion, the Turkish military said on Saturday.

Turkish forces have surrounded the IS-controlled town of al-Bab for weeks as part of an operation that has been going on for more than five months.

Four of those killed were so-called emirs, or local commanders, the Turkish military said, adding that its jets destroyed 56 buildings and three command control centres in the al-Bab and Bzagah regions.

Coalition forces also conducted eight air strikes in the al-Bab region, destroying two defence positions and two armed vehicles.