An Israeli technology firm said it was contacted by the Saudi royal family who asked it to help identify terrorist threats in the country, Bloomberg Business Week reported on Thursday.

Israeli Shmuel Bar, the founder of IntuView, a company whose software can scan four million Facebook and Twitter posts per day, said he was contacted by a Saudi official two years ago asking him to a Skype call. The official said the government wanted to use Bar’s software to “identify terrorists” on condition he setup a sister company which was not based in Israel.

“It’s not as if I went looking for this,” Bar explained. “They came to me.”

In the interview with Bloomberg, Bar said he now works freely with a number of Arab countries, all be it quietly.

“If it’s a country which is not hostile to Israel that we can help, we’ll do it,” Bar said. Only Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq are off-limits.

“The Arab boycott? It doesn’t exist.”

An alliance of US-backed militias said it had begun a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa on Saturday and aimed to complete its encirclement, like reported by jpost.com.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement the action was being undertaken with “increasing support from the (US-led) international coalition forces through guaranteeing air cover for our forces’ advances, or via the help provided by their special teams to our forces on the battle ground”.

A document attributed to the Qatari Embassy in Ankara claimed that Doha sent Special Forces to protect Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the failed coup attempt on July 15 last year upon his request, like reported by middleeastmonitor.com .

The document, which was signed by Qatari Ambassador in Ankara Salem Bin Mubarak Al-Shafi, claimed that Erdogan sent a letter a day after the failed coup to the Qatari Embassy in Ankara asking it to send Special Forces to protect him and prevent any assassination attempts against his life.

According to the document, the Qatari government sent 150 members of its own troops to Ankara’s military airport aboard private aircrafts.

The Qatari Special Forces secretly left on 19 July, four days after the failed coup attempt, the document claims.

The Qatari Embassy confirmed that the “Special Forces sent to Ankara played an important role in guarding President Erdogan’s life” noting that “this cooperation encourages relations between the two countries”.

Iraqi and international coalition fighter jets pounded Islamic State locations in western Mosul on the dawn of Friday in preparation for a wide-scale invasion of the region to drive out Islamic State militants, according to iraqinews.com.

Artillery forces also shelled the region, according to a report by Dijlah TV, which quoted a security force in Nineveh.

Besides several other pockets in Iraq, Islamic State militants had held Mosul since 2014 and proclaimed it the capital of their self-styled “Islamic State”.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and popular militias, launched a major offensive in October to retake the city, and operations have so far recaptured the whole of the eastern side and left at least 3300 militants dead. Forces are awaiting a green light from the supreme command to start a ground invasion against the extremist group in the west, which is close to the borders with Syria.

The conflict in Mosul has forced at least 191.000 civilians to flee homes to refugee camps, and many of those are targeted by IS extremists while attempting to flee areas under their control.

On Thursday, the U.S. army said in a statement that 11 civilians were killed during operations against Islamic State between October 25th and December 9th.

On Feb. 2, 2017, in a tweet, Pres. Donald Trump put Iran “on notice” for testing a new ballistic missile. On Jan. 29, 2017, Tehran test fired what was thought to be a Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile from its test site near Semnan, like reported by warisboring.com.

The weapon apparently exploded after flying 600 miles, according to Fox News.

“Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!”

Trump’s tweet echoed similar sentiments expressed by his national security advisor Michael Flynn. It is not exactly clear what the Trump administration plans to do in response or what being put “on notice” means precisely, but experts noted that it is highly unusual for a U.S. president to make such a proclamation on social media.

But what kind of missile is the Khorramshahr? And how much of a danger does it pose to the United States and its allies?

The answer is that, right now, Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. Thus, the danger primarily comes from conventional warheads.

“They don’t have a nuke,” Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey said. “If they did, it would be compact enough for a Musudan.”

In June 2016, the North Korea successfully test fired a Musudan — also known as the BM-25 or Hwasong-10 — for the first time. The Khorramshahr is likely a derivative of the North Korean missile.

“That missile name [Khorramshahr] has been used exactly once, by the Defense Minister if I recall correctly,” Lewis added. “He provides no details in September, but said the missile would enter production in March [2016].”

“Now, another — presumably different — official told Reuters that the missile was the same type as Iran tested in July [2016]. What did Iran test in July?”

“At the time, an official told Fox that it was a BM-25, which is the export name that North Korea gave the variant of the Musudan that it sold to Iran,” he continued. “So, if everyone is right — and let’s keep in mind that humans are frail things — then the Khorramshahr is a variant of the Musudan family.”

Assuming that Lewis is correct, if Iran possessed a compact nuclear weapon, a Musudan variant could carry such a warhead.

“All missiles are nuclear capable,” Lewis noted. “The only question is can you make the bomb small enough.”

“In this case, no question. The U.S. I.C. [intelligence community] estimated the range of the Musudan at 4,000 kilometers with a 500 kilogram payload,” he explained.

“Now, the version sold to Iran had a 2,500 kilometer range — that’s the 25 in BM-25,” he said. “But the Iranians might be testing an Iranian variant — so 2,500 kilometers is not certain.”

“However, the Soviet and North Korean versions are both nuclear-armed — or will be in the North Korea case.”

In addition, Lewis said it is important to note that North Korean and potential future Iranian nuclear bombs are better referred to as “compact” rather than “miniaturized” weapons.

“Two reasons. We’re talking about a first generation fission device that is physically small and compact distinguishes that from miniaturized thermonuclear weapons, which can be much smaller,” Lewis said. “Second, North Korea uses ‘lightweight’ to mean physically small — when they say miniaturized they mean lower yield.”

But in this case, the threat from the Khorramshahr is relatively limited for the time being since Iran does not have nuclear weapons. If and when Tehran does eventually develop a nuke, then it would become a more serious problem.

The US-backed campaign against Daesh is closing in on Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, like reported by albawaba.com.

The offensive is being waged by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who say that under President Donald Trump they have seen signs of increased American support.

They aim to fully encircle Raqqa, severing it from Daesh strongholds in Deir Ezzor where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped by the militants.

Air drops of food by the UN’s World Food Programme, halted in mid January, have resumed, adding to those carried out since last spring.

“We have done a total now of 179,” WFP Spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a news conference in Geneva.

“We restarted them on Sunday and we are glad that we can continue to bring life-saving food and other aid supplies to this besieged town.”

There is also a desperate need in eastern Aleppo where civilians have been returning to what remains of their homes.

The WFP has stepped up its help there too, providing hot meals and other rations to families trying to rebuild their lives.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said the alliance should develop its own missile systems after reports Iran had conducted ballistic missile tests, like reported by thepeninsulaqatar.com.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, Stoltenberg said NATO was “looking into the nature of what happened and the details surrounding the ballistic missile launch”.

Iran had carried out a medium-range ballistic missile test over the weekend, a Pentagon official confirmed to Anadolu Agency on Monday.

The official declined to detail the location of the test, or what type of missile was fired, but said it failed upon re-entry.

If confirmed, the Iranian test could amount to a violation of UN Resolution 2231, which calls on Tehran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon,” according to the Security Council.

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council will take place later on Tuesday at the request of the U.S., a permanent member of the body.

Stoltenberg said NATO could see “several nations, including Iran, are developing different kinds of ballistic missiles and are testing and strengthening their systems”.

“And that just underlines that NATO has to continue to develop a ballistic missile defense system,” he added.

The NATO head also rejected suggestions such systems were directed against Russia.

“We have previously offered Russia to work together with them on this, then Russia rejected and NATO has continued to develop our system which is a defensive system and it’s a way to protect Europe against missile threats,” he said.

Yemeni security forces killed an Al-Qaeda leader in the province of Lahj during a raid on Tuesday, police said

Ammar Qaid, known as Al-Qaeda’s “emir” in Lahj, was killed in an exchange of fire with “counter-terrorism” forces after refusing to surrender, said provincial police chief Saleh Sayed.
The raid in the provincial capital Huta was carried out as part of a vast operation backed by an Arab military coalition against the jihadists in Aden, Abyan and Lahj, in southwestern Yemen.
They are three of five provinces under the control of government forces at war with Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels.
In southern Hadramawt, meanwhile, suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot dead policeman Ali Al-Bekri on Monday night in the town of Qotn before fleeing, a security source told AFP.
In the north of the country, heavy clashes on Monday killed 21 loyalist soldiers and seven rebels in Midi and Haradh, military sources said.
The pro-government forces had come under fire in a minefield as they advanced, said one source.
Yemen’s long-running conflict escalated in March 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition began bombing raids against the Houthis who had stormed the capital and taken swathes of central and northern territory.
Around 7,400 people have died in air strikes and clashes since then, the UN says, and aid agencies have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s poorest nation.

The Iranian government launched a medium-range ballistic missile that traveled nearly 600 miles before detonating Sunday, Fox News reported Monday morning, citing unnamed U.S. officials. ABC News later confirmed a test occurred in a tweet, noting the missile flew over Iranian territory before exploding, like reported by rawstory.com .

If true, the missile test would likely be in direct violation with United Nations resolution 2231, signed July 20, 2015. The order was meant to restrict Iranian missile tests for at least eight years after former President Barack Obama’s White House administration Iranian nuclear deal initiative was passed.

Iran was one of seven Muslim-majority nations included in Trump’s immigration ban executive orders, which have since been blocked by four federal judges after Muslim visa and green card holders were detained in airports across the country over the weekend. Iran has vowed to take “proportionate legal, consular and political action and … will take reciprocal measures in order to safeguard the rights of its citizens until the time of the removal of the insulting restrictions of the government of the United States against Iranian nationals.”

What exactly Iran’s U.N. resolution breach means for American-Iranian relations under President Donald Trump, however, remained unclear. Sunday’s reported launch was the second apparent ballistic missile test Iran has conducted since the resolution passed. It followed increased hostile relations between Iranian and U.S. vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the disputed territory planted between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. A U.S. navy destroyer fired warning shots at four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships after they began speeding toward the ship while failing to respond to American officials over radio communications Jan. 8.

Trump could seek to renegotiate Iran’s nuclear deal – or scrap Obama’s initiative entirely – should the White House administration or United Nations respond to Iran’s latest apparent missile test. Repealing the Iranian nuclear deal could create a space for the U.S. to further restrict the nation’s ongoing nuclear efforts with tougher sanctions.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has consistently claimed the U.S. was simply targeting its current policy to cast the nation as a global threat while vowing to stay on course with its current nuclear efforts.

“(Trump) wants to do many things, but none of his actions would affect us,” Rouhani said in December. “By capitalizing on the dispute over Iran’s nuclear issue, they want to persuade others that the Islamic Republic establishes a threat against security and stability of its neighbors as well as Europe and the global peace.”

A senior Islamic State bomb expert died Tuesday along with a companion while planting an explosive device in Salahuddin province, like reported by iraqinews.com.

The militant, nicknamed Abu Abdullah, died with a comrade when a bomb they were trying to plant at a road in the town of Shirqat went off, a security source told Alsumaria News.

He was a second-tier leader and a bomb expert at of the most outstanding booby-trapping cells in the extremist group who was involved in recent bombings over the past months, according to the source, who asked not to be named.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition and popular troops, have been battling Islamic State out of Iraqi cities it took over in 2014, most notably Mosul, its biggest stronghold, the half of which was recaptured by security forces on January 24th.

In december 2016, joint government forces said they recaptured several villages in the eastern side of Shirqat. IS still maintains a few pockets in the province, and has carried out a number of bloody attacks against security forces in the recent weeks.

Earlier on Tuesday, security and popular mobilization forces reportedly killed 42 Islamic State extremists after they foiled attacks by the group at Tal Kusaiba and Mutaibija regions.