The Counter-Terrorism Service arrested one of ISIS leaders, known as “Abu Nabaa”, at Baghdad International Airport. The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces announced, on Monday, like reported by shafaq.com.

“The intelligence service carried out an operation and arrested an ISIS leader who was trying to reach the country for holding meetings with terrorist gangs on the outskirts of the capital Baghdad.” Yahya Rasool said in a statement.

The so-called Abu Nabaa has been involved in terrorist activities since 2003, he belonged to al-Qaeda and ISIS, and was a responsible of terrorist gangs in Iraq within the district of Baghdad governorate, according to the statement.

In the context of combating terrorism, Tuz Khurmatu Kaimakam, east of Saladin, Hasan Zain al-Abidin, stated on Monday that the intelligence and security services are prepared for any possible attacks by ISIS as a reaction of Al-Mashak incident north of Baiji district, which killed and wounded 18 security and civilian personnel.

Zain Al-Abidine told Shafaq News; “All areas of Tuz Khurmatu are completely secured.”

Iraq has declared victory over ISIS in 2017, after a year that saw the country army, a range of foreign allies and various local forces drive the fighters out of all the towns and villages that once made up their self-proclaimed caliphate.

The United States has led an international coalition conducting air strikes against ISIS since 2014 when the group swept across a third of Iraq.

U.S. troops have served as advisers on the ground with Iraqi government forces.

Despite fresh comments from Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah that Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. elections would not dramatically alter America’s pro-Israeli foreign policy in the Middle East, Hezbollah appears largely optimistic of its future under the new administration, like reported by mei.edu. The Party of God seems wary of the next few months, however, until President Donald Trump leaves the White House in January. While Hezbollah will certainly benefit from a reboot in diplomatic relations between the U.S and Iran, which could translate into much-needed liquidity for the organization and a strengthening of its internal position, it still faces numerous domestic challenges that money alone cannot solve.

Signs of optimism

In Dahieh, the party’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah supporters and militants alike appeared to rejoice at the news of Biden’s election. “People believe that Biden will be more lenient on Iran and will go back to making a deal with Tehran, which will be consequently good for Hezbollah. Less sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah will mean more money for the group, which in turn will be able to reinstate services and aid it had to cut in the last few years because of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy,” adds a source close to Hezbollah commanders who spoke to the author. Trump’s policy has seriously hindered Hezbollah’s money laundering activity, severely cut Tehran’s yearly $700 million allocation to the group, and shut down Lebanese banks that dealt with the organization, while also designating the group’s political allies for abusing their government position.

Similarly, Nasrallah seemed to celebrate U.S. President Trump’s loss, describing it as “the humiliating downfall” and his administration as “among the worst, if not the worst.”

Hezbollah’s media has adopted a tone of cautious optimism. In one article in Al-Akhbar, Hezbollah’s mouthpiece, titled “Cautious optimism in Iran,” the author explains that Biden will be a more reliable negotiator than Trump given his contrarian relationship with Saudi Arabia and Israel, Iran’s nemesis. However, another article in the same paper warns that the new Biden team will include “hawkish” figures from the Obama administration, namely Susan Rice and Tony Blinken. Susan Rice is a former U.N. ambassador and Obama national security adviser, while Tony Blinken is a former deputy secretary of State, deputy national security adviser, and a longtime Biden adviser.

What appears to worry Hezbollah the most is the transition period. In another article from Al-Akhbar, titled “Two uncertain months,” the author warns of an American attack against Iran. Recent reporting by The New York Times suggests President Trump has considered the idea. This is a theory that sources close to Hezbollah say is possible, given that Biden’s win has emboldened the group. They are now more likely to respond to any new Israeli attacks, given Biden’s less sympathetic position toward Israel, but Trump still holds power until January.

Possible implications

Generally speaking, Hezbollah experts close to the organization are bullish about its prospects under the new administration.

“Biden’s victory benefits Iran and Hezbollah,” says Kassem Kassir, an expert on Hezbollah who is close to the party. “A Trump victory would have been catastrophic and would have translated into military escalation and possibly into a (Middle East) war,” he adds.

For Brahim Beyram, a Lebanese journalist and analyst close to the group, Biden will definitely come back to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran nuclear deal is officially known. “This opens a new horizon for Hezbollah and Iran, because any new negotiations will result in relieved pressure on Hezbollah,” he explains.

Engineered by the Obama administration, the JCPOA was a deal reached by the P5+1 — the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany, and the U.K. — in 2015 that aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear activity. In May 2018, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the JCPOA and reinstate U.S. nuclear sanctions on Tehran. Biden has stated that he would end Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran and re-enter the JCPOA. A revisited deal with Iran would allow it to sell oil on international markets, and Iranian dollars would eventually trickle down into Hezbollah’s hands. Currently, the organization is strained for cash because of U.S sanctions and Lebanon’s disastrous financial situation, making this a very welcome change.

The group has been hard hit by the economic crisis in Lebanon, which has gone from bad to worse over the course of 2020. In March, the country defaulted on its debt of $90 billion. Since then, currency devaluation has disproportionally affected the poor and middle class, and over half of the population is now under the poverty line. Moreover, since October 2019 a large protest movement has denounced political parties, including Hezbollah and its closest allies.

A new deal with Iran and relief from sanctions would mean a boon for Hezbollah. An improvement in Iran’s financial situation, even minute, would provide it with a big advantage compared to its political rivals, whose economic means have shrunk due to the state’s bankruptcy. This economic trouble also reflects on their limited ability to maintain a base, as people are disenchanted by years of mismanagement and corruption. In the short term, Biden’s victory emboldens Hezbollah politically and will make it less willing to compromise on forming a new government, especially when it comes to its allies’ demands for certain ministries. Sanctions imposed by President Trump on Hezbollah’s ally, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil, will only make the organization more receptive to his demands for certain ministries.

However, Biden’s election may conversely give Hezbollah a false sense of confidence. Any return to the negotiation table with Iran will take time and may not result in the removal of sanctions, given that this issue has garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. Additionally, Lebanon has also been affected by sanctions under the Caesar Act, which mainly targets the Assad regime in neighboring Syria, but also indirectly impacts its Lebanese partners, who are often close business associates of Hezbollah and its political allies. As such, sanctions independent of Iran will continue to further choke the organization and its cronies financially.

Challenges at home

At the national level, Hezbollah faces another set of obstacles that money alone cannot solve. The party has largely been discredited due to multiple governance scandals since it and its allies won a comfortable majority in the Lebanese Parliament. In the last three years, the country has gone broke and corruption scandals have multiplied, focusing on the party’s two main allies, Bassil and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri. The organization is now perceived as the guardian of a deeply corrupt political system, which has been denounced by a large portion of the Lebanese population in what was dubbed the October revolution in late 2019. Furthermore, wealthy members of the party’s base who had deposited millions in the banking sector have now lost their savings due to the country’s financial meltdown, which resulted from banks’ exposure to the bankruptcy of the state. Moreover, Hezbollah’s raison d’être, the war against Israel, appears to be more and more a thing of the past, as the movement has failed to engage in a conflict with its southern neighbor for nearly 15 years and has avoided responding to hundreds of attacks in Syria and Lebanon, despite numerous threats. Together with Arab normalization with Israel and Gulf countries’ efforts to capitalize economically on fresh ties with Tel Aviv, this is slowly making Hezbollah’s supposed fight against the “Zionist enemy” irrelevant.

While a Biden presidency and the return of support for the JCPOA might appear like a godsend for Hezbollah, this is not 2015. Lebanon and its people are not in the same situation, nor is Hezbollah, or even the region. Five years have passed and a lot has changed — and not necessarily in the party’s favor.

All terrorist members in Radwaniyah act were killed, like reported by shafaq.com.

“Based on intelligence, Baghdad Operations Command killed all members of terrorist group that targeted Al- Sahwa fighters and Iraqi soldiers in Radwaniyah area.” Lt. Gen. Qais al-Muhammadawi said in a statement.

“All terrorist cells threat the security of our people and forces will be pursued.” He confirmed.

On November 9, four killed and three wounded in a terrorist attack in Radwaniyah area, west of Baghdad. The security media cell.

The Sahwa is composed of Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs in Anbar Governorate in western Iraq rose up against al Qaeda in late 2006.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraq fully defeated the ISIS militants across the country late in 2017.

However, the remnants have since melted in urban areas, deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent attacks against security forces and civilians.

Two of the perpetrators of the Al-Khailania massacre in Diyala were arrested, the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s intelligence services said on Monday, according to shafaq.com.

“Under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior, the intelligence carried out an operation resulted in the arrest of two terrorists who participated in Al Khailania massacre, Al-Miqdadiyah district, in which Sheikh Ali Fadel Al-Kaabi and four members of his family were killed.” A statement by the intelligence said.

“The two detainees belong to ISIS and will be referred to the judiciary for investigation and accountability.” It added.

On October 28, ISIS booby-traps corpses to blow up killing five members of one Iraqi tribe, including the sheikh, in Al-Miqdadiyah district, Diyala.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish Armed Forces may carry out a new operation in Syria if ‘terrorists’ do not move away from the Turkish border, like reported by syrianobserver.com.

“The threats from Syria against our country continue, and recently the terrorists who were planning terrorist attacks on our lands have been neutralized,” Erdogan said in a parliamentary speech in Ankara on Wednesday.

“It is clear that the United States is trying to create a new war zone along the Syrian-Iraqi border. A harbinger of new tragedies,” he continued.

The Turkish President added that, “the Turkish Armed Forces are able to cleanse Syria of all terrorist organizations.”

According to the decision of the Turkish Parliament, the mandate to use the Turkish Armed Forces in Iraq and Syria was extended until October 2021.

Earlier, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed that the withdrawal of Turkish forces from the observation points located in the de-escalation zone in Idleb Governorate is unthinkable and non-negotiable.

At least 56 rebel fighters were killed and 100 more injured in airstrikes by Russian warplanes on a military training camp in northwestern Syria on Monday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The camp is located in Idlib province, close to the Turkish border and belonged to Faylaq al-Sham, an alliance of Sunni Islamist rebels aligned with Turkey, the war monitor said.

Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, brokered a fragile truce alongside Turkey in March aimed at curbing the Damascus-led military offensive against the country’s last remaining rebel stronghold in Idlib. The fighting has displaced nearly a million people.

The March truce has largely held, apart from intermittent airstrikes and bombardment in the area. A US drone strike on Thursday killed five civilians and 17 jihadi fighters according to the Observatory.

A decade of war
Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power, have driven rebels in a pocket of territory near the border with Turkey.

Ankara sent thousands of Turkish troops into the region this year in an effort to halt the Syrian military and stem the flow of refugees into Turkey.

Syria has seen more than nine years of conflict between government and rebel fighters since the 2011 protests against President Bashar Assad.

Kirkuk Police Directorate dismantles on Thursday a terrorist network of ISIS terrorists in the governorate, like reported by shafaq.com.

The police directorate of the governorate said in a statement released earlier today that the security forces arrested five members of ISIS terrorist gangs in the so-called state of Tigris.

The statement added that one of the members was the group’s supplier of military equipment, food and electronic devices, while another provided ISIS with information on the movement of security forces.

For the second time in three days, the US denounced the Popular Mobilization Forces, known in Arabic as the Hashd al-Shaabi, for their assaults on other Iraqis and called on the Baghdad government to establish control over the rogue groups, like reported bykurdistan24.net.

“The United States strongly condemns the massacre of innocent civilians by Iran-backed militias in [Salahuddin] governorate,” State Department Spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, said in a statement issued on Monday.

“This occurred within hours of an attack by Iran-backed militias on the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s branch office in Baghdad,” she continued.

On Saturday, Hashd al-Shaabi supporters set fire to the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Baghdad office—while Iraqi security forces stood by.

Ortagus strongly condemned that attack on Sunday, affirming, “The destabilizing activities of Iran-backed militias operating outside of Government of Iraq control are inflaming ethnic and sectarian tensions and undermining democracy.”

The murders in Salahuddin occurred later on Saturday “within hours” of the attack on the KDP office, as Ortagus noted.

Police in the Balad district of Salahuddin province discovered the bodies of eight people out of a group of 12, all apparently Sunni Arabs, who had earlier been kidnapped. The Kurdish leadership immediately condemned those murders.

The governor of Salahuddin province blamed Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, one of the more notorious Iranian-backed militias, for the assault.

Ortagus’ statement called on the Baghdad government “to immediately exert control over the Iran-backed militias,” which, as she charged, listing their serial aggressions against both Iraqis and foreigners alike, “are lawlessly attacking religious and ethnic minorities; peaceful protesters and activities; political party headquarters; and diplomatic missions.”

“The perpetrators of this violence must be brought to justice,” she affirmed. “The actions of these groups are preventing the international community from helping Iraq and are leading Iraq toward sectarian violence and instability.”

Tough US line on Iranian-backed militias

In response to militia attacks on US and Coalition targets, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently issued an extraordinary threat to the Iraqi government and those militias.

Pompeo warned both the Iraqi President, Barham Salih, and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, that the government had to stop the attacks or else the US would close the embassy in Baghdad and launch a massive assault on the militias, singling out Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata’ib Hizbollah.

Notably, the militias responded with a ceasefire. They said it was for 40 days and conditional on the Iraqi government producing a timeline for the withdrawal of US forces.

However, since there has been no indication from Baghdad or Washington that such a plan is even being considered, the militias’ condition is likely a face-saving measure.

Moreover, the Hashd al-Shaabi recently suffered another setback. On Friday, the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reached an agreement on a plan for coordinated security and administration in Sinjar, where the Shia militias, along with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have been dominant.

That agreement is a blow to both the Hashd al-Shaabi and the PKK. The PKK responded by assassinating a KRG border official in Duhok province.

Quite possibly, Saturday’s attacks by the Hashd al-Shaabi, both in Salahuddin province and on the KDP’s Baghdad office, are, at least in part, a response to that most recent setback.

Iraqi armed forces launched an operation on Monday to capture the last Daesh enclave in Mosul, the center of Nineveh Governorate, like reported by shafaq.com.

“The joint forces have begun liberating the Kanous Island from Daesh by using artillery and airstrikes”. A military source told Shafaq News agency.

There are also plans to erect a floating walkway to cross to the island and to drive Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, a high-stakes battle to retake the militants’ last major stronghold in the country.

Daesh has been informally controlling much of Nineveh governorate and has attacked cities and towns in western and northern Iraq, killing scores of people.

On June 10, 2014, Daesh launches an offensive against Iraqi forces south of Mosul, and took control of it.

On July 2017, Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul, three years after the militants seized the city and made it the stronghold of a “caliphate” they said would take over the world.

However, the terrorist organization still has sites on the outskirts of the governorate including Kanous Island.

The U.S. military carried out a drone strike Thursday, killing two senior Al Qaeda operatives in northwest Syria, like reported by foxnews.com.

“U.S. forces conducted a strike against Al Qaeda in Syria in the vicinity of Idlib, Syria, Oct. 15. AQ-S continues to present a threat to America and our allies,” Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said in a statement to Fox News.

Officials say the strike was carried out by the U.S. military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command.

It’s the first drone strike by the U.S. military against Al Qaeda in Syria since mid-September.

The U.S. military has been using a new missile to kill terrorists in the past year dubbed the “flying Ginsu” for the knives released by the specially modified Hellfire missile carried on MQ-9 Reaper drones. The missile does not carry a high explosive warhead greatly reducing collateral damage and killing innocent civilians. The GPS-guided “Ginsu” missile falls from the sky with enough force to shred through car roofs and human flesh while terrorists are traveling by car. Anyone nearby has a greater chance to live due to the lack of explosive in the missile.

It’s not clear if this type of missile was used Thursday, officials say.

Idlib is the same area in Syria where nearly a year ago President Trump approved a raid by U.S. Special Operations forces to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The names of the Al Qaeda leaders killed were not immediately known.

Idlib is home to some of the last remaining opposition fighters who have been battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for nearly a decade. Over 400,000 civilians have been killed since the civil war began in 2011.

Roughly 500 American troops remain deployed in eastern Syria to help Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces stamp out the remnants of ISIS after its caliphate was wiped out last year