Khamenei’s circles did not hide their outrage at Hamas because of the movement’s position on Aleppo’s battle. It was clearly expressed by Hezbollah’s newspapers and media outlets in Lebanon, as well as by some Iranian newspapers and media sites, in addition to statements by Iranian officials, like reported by middleeastmonitor.com.

The attack came after a statement that was issued by Hamas regarding the Battle for Aleppo and after events were held in the Gaza Strip in support of the Syrian people during the movement’s anniversary commemoration festival. This was in addition to the steps Hamas took against some new Shia groups in the Gaza Strip – the so called Al-Sabirin group – which went too far with their insolence when they expressed their joy and celebrated the occupation of Aleppo by Iranian militias under the cover of Russian aviation.

The fact is that the debate over the relationship with Iran did not stop within Hamas, and of course that depended on the presence of remnants of support from Iran to the military wing of the movement. But the clarity of the Arab and Muslim masses’ choice during the battle of Aleppo did not give the movement a chance to stand silent; whether that was in response to its guidelines, or in response to the Sunni Arab masses, which the movement could not risk losing, or for a principled position, which is the same position that pushed the movement to leave Syria after the revolution.

There is no doubt that the blockade imposed by official Arab circles and suffered by the movement is still weighing on it and it is what has been pushing it to keep at least minimum relations with Iran. Iran also needs that relationship, not only to use as cover up for its ideological attack on the nation, but also to keep promoting the story of resistance and opposition, although it is no longer compelling to anyone, except for a few who wish to convince themselves to justify their positions.

There is no doubt that Hamas’ last position was correct and far-sighted. The movement’s loss of Arab and Islamic masses, including Palestinian ones which are in line with the nation, cannot be compensated by any benefits it can obtain from Iran, not to mention they’d be temporary benefits that are going to stop in the upcoming stage where Iran may have to change its rhetoric to face US President-elect Donald Trump’s pressure and the new equations of blackmail regarding the nuclear agreement and sanctions.

The fact is that the remnants of Iran’s support for the movement; the support that had stopped for years before shyly coming back in the last two years, is not related to the principle mentioned, but rather involves clear political intentions and anyone who embraces the Egyptian regime, ignoring its intimate relationship with the Zionist entity, and besieging of the Gaza Strip for no other reason but to collude with its aggression, does not really care about resistance in any way.

In light of this, we can say that the movement was successful in its last position, and should not hesitate in confirming it; in loyalty to its audience first, and in loyalty to the popular Arab and Islamic crowds which never kept any material or moral support from it, including the Syrian people themselves.

The Iranian anger, and the anger of the followers, is happening anyways, and as long as the movement sees itself as part of the majority and insists on it, it will continue to be in a hostile position, even if it was complimented with some support.

What needs to be said here is that countries concerned with confronting Iranian aggression must take a different stance from the movement, whether on the political level, or at the level of financial support in order not to leave it in a position where it has to ask for Iran’s support.

Sources close to the dissident groups in Northwestern Syria said that Al-Nusra has prepared war plans to capture the entire Idlib province and force Ahrar al-Sham back across the border into Turkey after the latter militant group joined the ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the so-called moderate dissidents that tasks Ahrar al-Sham to assign a new mission to all its militants that used to fight against the Syrian government to stand against the Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist group and open war on the Al-Qaeda offshoot in Idlib, according to farsnews.com.

Meantime, media sources reported that Turkey has warned all militant groups in Idlib that merger with al-Nusra would amount to “suicide” as Ankara has agreed to separate al-Nusra Front and extremist commanders from other groups in Northern Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that around 51,500 militants from seven different militant groups have joined the ceasefire initiated by Moscow and Ankara to halt hostilities across Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry has released the hereunder list of militant groups which have joined the ceasefire in Syria till December 30, 2016:

1. Faylaq al-Sham with over 4,000 militants

The militant group is active in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Homs provinces.

2. Ahrar al-Sham with about 16,000 fighters

The full name is Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyah.

The militant group has been carrying out combat operations against government forces in Aleppo, Damascus, Dara’a, Idlib, Lattakia, Hama and Homs provinces.

3. Jeish al-Islam with around 12,000 fighters

The militant group has been fighting against the Syrian army in Aleppo, Damascus, Dara’a, Deir Ezzur, Lattakia, Hama and Homs provinces.

4. Thuwar al-Sham with around 2,500 militants

The militant group has been clashing with the army men in Aleppo, Idlib and Lattakia provinces.

5. Jeish al-Mujahedeen with about 8,000 militants

The militant group has been battling the army soldiers in Aleppo city and the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama.

6. Jeish Idlib with more than 6,000 fighters

Jeish Idlib conducts combat actions in the Idlib province.

7. Jabhat al-Shamiyah with about 3,000 people

The militant group has been fighting government forces in Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus provinces.

Though posts on social media in recent weeks suggest Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has died, comments by a U.S. official and reports of his actions in Iraq suggest otherwise.

CNN reported there have been few signs of Baghdadi in months and in recent weeks there have been unverified social media reports that he was killed or injured.

But on Thursday, an anonymous U.S. official who has access to the most recent U.S. government reporting on the Islamic State told CNN that “in the last few weeks we’ve been aware of some of Baghdadi’s movements.”

The source said the report of Baghdadi’s movements was not a “real time” report. The U.S. assessment indicated where Baghdadi had recently been — not where he is now. The U.S. government’s leading theory is that Baghdadi is stationed in Raqqa, Syria — the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital.

Meanwhile, Iraqi media reported Thursday that Baghdadi appointed a new Islamic State leader in Iraq’s Tal Afar district.

“The Islamic State’s Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appointed one of his local leader, known as Abu As’ad al-Iraqi, as the new Emir of Tal Afar,” a local source in Iraq’s Nineveh Province told Al-Sumaria News.

The new Emir will lead the Islamic State in battle against Iraqi security forces and the Shiite-led Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces, umbrella militia.

“The new Emir is a 40-year-old mathematics teacher, and was a prominent leader of IS sleeper cells in Mosul before moving to Tal Afar,” the source said. “The decision of Baghdadi is expected to prevent any internal conflicts between the members of the Islamic State due to the disputes between its Arab and foreign leaders.”

Earlier this month, the United States more than doubled a reward for information leading to Baghdadi’s capture to $25 million, saying he is responsible for thousands of deaths and poses an increasing threat. The initial reward offered in 2011 was $10 million.

upi.com

Mario Sciannimanica’s mother was contacted by terrorists in Syria earlier this year to say he had been killed in an American air strike.

But now it is revealed he was executed by the fanatics he converted to Islam for. Accused of treason, he was either beheaded or shot.

The boy from Leverkusen who fell into radical Jihadism three years ago was a member of the Isis security police Shurta Askeriya.

He fell into the ranks of Jihadists after an apprenticeship as a mechanic failed to land him a job. His parents spoke of false friends, rap, girl-chasing and dreams of getting rich before he started attending a radical mosque.

According to media reports, he was preached to down the phone by a Salafist called Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, recently banned from handing out Korans on German streets.

He became so fanatical that he abandoned his faithful pet dog Luna because it was “unclean.” It was not long afterwards that he dreamed of joining the ranks of Isis.

“He said often he wanted to go there and help Muslims,” said his mother Heike Sciannimanica to German newspaper Bild. “He asked his girlfriend to go with him but she decided to remain in Germany.”

In northern Syria in 2013 he trained in a military camp and registered as an Isis fighter. He stayed in contact with his parents back home via Skype – but only on the condition that they swore allegiance to Islam.

“We did because we did not want to lose contact with him,” said Frau Sciannimanica. “But it meant nothing to us.”

He called himself Lionheart on social media postings to friends back home. But he begged his parents for money and, again fearful of losing him forever, they obliged.

His home was searched many times by intelligence officials and police, the last time in March this year when they believed he had returned home. The following month they heard from him for the last time when he again wrote seeking money.

In June they heard that he had been killed in the air strike on an Isis convoy. But Bild says it has received information from an Isis source that he was accused of spying against them in Mosul, received a hurried trial and was put to death by his former comrades.

express.co.uk

Syrian government forces and their allies clashed with rebels near Damascus on Friday, and used helicopter gunships in raids in the area in the latest violence to disrupt a nationwide ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold, monitors said.

The clashes took place in a rebel-held valley northwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A rebel official also reported clashes in the area, where the Syrian army began an offensive last week to recapture the area which provides most of Damascus’s water supplies.

The Iranian authorities launched a renewed campaign of arrests, targeting dozens of Kurdish activists, local sources reported.

Iranian security forces broke into dozens of houses in the Kurdish-majority northwest, and arrested at least 20 activists.

The campaign targeted the Kurdish cities of Mahabad, Sardasht and Piranshahr in northwestern Iran.

“The arrestees included students, media workers and human rights activists,” Kurdish journalist Saman Zeredashti told ARA News in Mahabad.

“The Iranian authorities claimed that the arrestees are suspected of having ties with terrorist organisations,” Zeredashti said. “Under such a pretext the Islamic Republic of Iran has been arresting, torturing and executing peaceful Kurdish activists for years.”

In October, the Iranian security detained over 30 Kurdish activists for organising an anti-government protest in the cities of Mariwan and Mahabad, where hundreds of Kurds took to street to condemn “suppression by the Iranian authorities.” The protests then spread to other cities, including Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan Province.

“Kurdish citizens in Mahabad, Mariwan and Sanandaj raised anti-regime banners, condemning the oppressive practices by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and calling for the release of all political prisoners,” local sources told ARA News at the time.

Halmand Mihemendi, a Kurdish political activist and former prisoner in Iran, told ARA News that most of the arrestees are being tortured regardless of the charge.

“A majority of those detained by the authorities are being executed. This has been taking place in Iran on a daily basis,” Mihemendi said.

aranews.net

Syrian Islamist rebel officials said on Thursday that a ceasefire deal agreed with the government included Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, although the army said that was not the case, like reported by timeslive.co.za

The Syrian army has announced a nationwide halt to military operations to begin at midnight on Thursday, excluding Islamic State as well as the former Nusra Front and all groups linked to them.

But several rebel officials told Reuters the deal included the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group.

A spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel faction present at the ceasefire talks told Reuters that only Islamic State was excluded. The deal is to be monitored by Russia and Turkey and includes establishing humanitarian corridors, he said.

Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of rebel group Fastaqim, also said the truce only excludes areas under the control of Islamic State.

The Jaish al-Nasr spokesman said the other side had wanted to exclude the ex-Nusra Front, and to exclude the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta from the agreement. But he said the rebel groups at the meeting refused.

Fastaqim’s Malahifji said: “Rebel groups said it is not about covering for (the ex-Nusra Front), but because we can’t separate them out, because the territory is overlapping.”

Malahifji, who was not present at the talks, said rebels had agreed to three main points: one about the truce, one about how it would be monitored by Russia and Turkey and one about a political process to begin after one month of ceasefire.

Several other rebel officials also said if the ceasefire holds for a month, political negotiations will begin.

Mamoun al-Haj-Mousa, a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army’s political council and spokesman for the Suqur al-Sham rebel group, told al-Arabiya al-Hadath television channel that rebels had asked that no group be excluded.

“We saw recently how Aleppo was annihilated because of 200 fighters from Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. This is a fundamental condition for us that no group is excluded be it Fatah al-Sham or not,” he said.

The ceasefire deal was first announced by Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after Moscow, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to broker a peace deal in the nearly six-year-old Syrian war.

Russia’s defence ministry said the insurgent groups which signed the agreement were: Failaq al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Islam, Suqor al-Sham, Jaish al-Muhajidin, Jaish Idlib and al-Jabha al-Shamia.

The Islamic State executed one of its leading commanders in western Mosul for unknown reasons, a local source said to iraqinews.com, as reports increase regarding rifts within the group’s ranks.

“Daesh (Islamic State) have executed their emir of Zangili, west of Mosul, after storming his residence, dragging him out to a public square and shooting him dead,” the source told Alsumaria News, claiming that the the execution was carried out as per directives by the group’s supreme commander, Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Dash blocked the entrances to Zangili to search for the three sons of the executed Emir,” said the source, who requested anonymity. He said the executions highlight the growing division within the group.

IS still maintains several strongholds in western Mosul, close to its Syria hideouts. Iraqi government forces are struggling to clear the east of the city as soon as possible to move westwards.

Local sources had said earlier this month that divisions grew among IS fighters as Baghdadi excluded Iraqi fighters from commanding the current battles with Iraqi government and popular forces, instead assigning foreign fighters to the lead.

Tensions flared further on Wednesday when the son of a senior commander was assassinated in Tal Afar, IS’s outstanding western Mosul’s stronghold, with local fighters within the group suspected to be behind the killing.

Oman, which generally stays neutral in the face of regional disputes, has joined a Saudi-led military coalition aimed at “fighting terrorism,” official media in Riyadh said according to digitaljournal.com.

The Gulf sultanate, which maintains good ties with rival powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, becomes the 41st nation in the alliance announced last year by the Saudi defence minister, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The official SPA agency said Mohammed received a message from his Omani counterpart praising Saudi efforts in showing “leadership in the Islamic military coalition in fighting terrorism”.

Oman is one of the few Arab states not to have joined a Saudi-led military coalition battling rebels in Yemen and has hosted several rounds of talks aimed at ending the conflict raging there since March 2015.

Little information has been provided on the anti-extremist alliance since Riyadh announced its formation in December 2015.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/oman-joins-saudi-anti-terror-coalition/article/482578#ixzz4UDkbWOK6

The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Services (CTS) announced the start of second phase of Mosul operation according to kurdistan24.net.

Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, the CTS commander announced the beginning of the second phase of Mosul operation that aims to retake the western side of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) control.

Al-Assadi speaking to a local Iraqi media outlet said that “the operation started at 7:00 AM (local time),” adding that “Counter Terrorism forces are making advancement towards al-Quds neighborhood in east of Mosul city.”

“The 9th Armored Division will advance from the north of Mosul and the 16th Infantry Division fight in the southern front,” al-Assadi added.