Iraqi Foreign Minister said that government forces have liberated all but 16 of the districts in Mosul from the ISIL militant group, according to farsnwes.com.

Iraqi government forces have liberated all but 16 of the districts in Mosul from the ISIL militant group, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jafari, Sputnik reported.

“Most of Mosul and its surroundings in Nineveh province have been liberated. This is 40 out of 56 districts. Work is beginning to liberate the remaining 16 districts,” Jafari said.

The Iraqi diplomat attributed a slowdown in the campaign to the terrorists’ use of civilians as human shields, as well as “vast stocks of modern weapons.”

Hundreds of Displaced Families Return Liberated Areas in Mosul

A member of Iraq’s Nineveh provincial council announced the return of hundreds of displaced families to their liberated areas in the left coast of Mosul city after being guaranteed by members of the provincial council.

“Hundreds of Nineveh’s displaced families, who had taken refuge to the camps of Cham Hassan and Khazar as housing, have returned to the liberated areas in the Eastern side of the left coast”, said the Iraqi official Hossam al-Din al-Abbar, Badr News reported.

He added that those families had been returned to their homes in the left coast after being guaranteed by members of the provincial council to prevent the presence of any collaborator with ISIL terror group.

Iraqi PM: Three Months Needed to Rout ISIL Terror Group

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it would take three months to rout ISIL militants, as Iraqi forces and their allies continue to fight against the terror outfit to dislodge the group from Iraqi city of Mosul.

Abadi previously said the city would be retaken by the end of this year but commanders say the operation has been slowed by the need to protect civilians who have mostly stayed in their homes rather than fleeing as was expected, Iraqi News reported.

Responding to recent comments by a commander of the US-led coalition that it would take as long as two years to eliminate ISIL and its cells in Iraq and Syria, Abadi said that the Americans were “very pessimistic”.

ISIL Chief’s Top Aide Captured by Iraqi Forces in Mosul

Iraqi security forces detained at least 15 top ISIL members, including a top aide to the terror group’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during an operation on the western banks of the Northern city of Mosul, a security source said.

The security source in Nineveh Province said Iraqi security forces, tipped off by local residents about the terrorists’ hideout in al-Bakr neighborhood, managed to capture Abu Harith al-Matyooti along with fourteen other ISIL members, including some of the group’s informants and intelligence elements during the raid.

Kingdom’s interior ministry says 70% have joined Islamic State in Syria, with others in Yemen, Afganistan, Pakistan, Iraq

More than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria, the kingdom’s interior ministry was reported as saying.

“The number of Saudis proven to be in conflict areas is 2,093,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told daily newspaper Al-Hayat.

He said that 1,540 of them were in Syria, where jihadists have flocked since the Islamic State group seized control of vast areas in mid-2014.

Another 147 were in Yemen, which is the base of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the global terror network.

Another 31 were believed to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan, Turki said.

Only five were believed to be in neighboring Iraq, where IS also seized significant territory in 2014.

Turki said 73 Saudis had also been detained abroad “on charges related to acts of terrorism.”

The Iranian Air Defense has warned several fighter jets and drones belonging to the US Navy not to approach the airspace of a military exercise underway in Iran’s southern areas, spokesman for the war game said

tasnimnews.com

A senior Islamic State commander has likely been killed by a coalition airstrike, according to a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The report claims Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti was targeted by strikes in the al-Tabaqa countryside in western Raqqa, Isis’ stronghold in Syria.

Isis militants were reportedly battling fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces when the strikes took place.

The SOHR emphasised that the fate of al-Kuwaiti has still to be confirmed, although sources have reported his death.

Al-Kuwaiti has reportedly led several battles for Isis in Hasakah and Khanaser, and moved between Syria and Iraq in recent months.

The news comes amid claims that the British Royal Air Force is planning  a major offensive against Isis in Raqqa in 2017, in the hope of crushing the jihadist group’s last remaining stronghold.

Rebels have been accused by the Syrian government of poisoning the capital’s water supply in Wadi Barada

The Syrian army escalated aerial bombing of a rebel-held valley northwest of Damascus in an offensive that began last week to recapture the strategic area where a major spring provides most of the capital’s water supplies, rebels and residents reported to middleeasteye.net.

They said the army shelled and bombarded several towns in Wadi Barada valley about 18 km northwest of the capital in a major offensive launched since Friday. The roads leading to the towns in the valley and the mountain cliffs surrounding the area are under the control of elite Republic Guards and the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah group, they said.

Residents said fighting on Monday focused on Baseimeh village at the edge of the valley where the army and its allies are pushing to advance deeper in an enclave where 10 villages are inhabited by an estimated 100,000 people.

The rebels said the army was emboldened by gaining full control of Aleppo city and was seeking to force the rebels to either leave or face all out war.

“They are seeking to push us into a surrender deal to and we will not hand over our land,” said Abu al-Baraa, a commander in Ahrar al Sham, a rebel group present in the area.

Through a series of so-called settlement agreements and army offensives, the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, has been steadily suppressing armed opposition around the capital.

Water supply in Wadi Barada

Alongside the main spring in Wadi Barada, the area lies on the road from Damascus to the Lebanese border that is used as a supply line for the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah group which is heavily involved in fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army.

A resident and rebels said the aerial bombing has put out of commission the main Ein al Fija spring’s water pumping station where an underground pipeline normally provides around 65 percent of the water to the capital’s neighbourhoods.

A picture taken by a rebel and seen by Reuters showed the pumping station’s ceiling had collapsed. Several videos uploaded on social media show damage and fires with plumes of smoke near the pumping station. Others show damage to houses.

Rebels and residents said the bombing had also killed 14 civilians and hit a medical clinic and civil defence unit in the area that has been besieged with limited access to food and fuel.

The army said it was targeting “terrorists”.

The Syrian army has blamed rebels for polluting the springs with diesel fuel in a move the water authorities said had forced them to cut supplies coming into the capital and resort to reserves to temporarily cover the shortfall.

The rebels have allowed the government’s water authority engineers to maintain and operate the station and supply the capital since they took control of the area in 2012. The rebels draw from both Islamist and Free Syrian Army factions.

Fighters from the area have cut water supplies several times in the past as a pressure card to prevent the army from overrunning the area.

But they deny poisoning the water as they say it would harm them before anyone else.

Backed by the US-led coalition’s air support, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday expelled ISIS militants from the strategic town of Jaabar in western Raqqa Governorate, like reported by aranews.net

After days of heavy clashes with militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), the Kurdish-led SDF troops were able to liberate the Jaabar town on Monday evening.

“The liberation of Jaabar will pave the way for our forces to accelerate the anti-ISIS operations in western Raqqa,” SDF officer Habun Osman told ARA News.

“The town contained a main weaponry storage centre for ISIS. The facility is now controlled by the SDF,” the Kurdish official said.

Jaabar was also used by ISIS as a supply route between the city of Raqqa and its northwestern countryside.

At least 53 ISIS militants were reportedly killed in the fight for Jaabar.

The progress comes as part of the SDF-led Euphrates Wrath Operation that aims at isolating ISIS in Raqqa and eventually liberate the city, which is deemed a de facto capital for the radical group.

Iranian Army successfully testfired mid-range missiles against hypothetical enemies that invaded some sensitive sites in southern parts of the country

The operation, irna.ir reported, took place in the second day of drills called ‘Modafe’an-e Aseman-e Velayat 7’ which is underway in south of the country.

The missiles were successfully countered by the air defense systems used by Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base which is also present in the war game.

Talking to reporters on Tuesday, the spokesman for the drills Brigadier Abbas Farajpour said the home-made Mersad and Ya Zahra-3 missiles were used today to track and target hypothetical enemies.

Iran’s 3-day joint and massive air defense drill called ‘Modafe’an-e Aseman-e Velayat 7’ is scheduled to start work on Monday in South of country.

On Sunday, Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli said that the drills are to take place in a wide scale in South of Iran.

‘The drills will be held for three days in an area covering 496,000 km and with the attendance of Army and IRGC Air Defense Forces and navy Force support units, the Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (AFAGIR), Army and IRGC Ground Forces artillery and picket forces’, he added.

‘F-4 Phantoms and S300 missile system will be testfired during the event’, he said.

‘The event is characterized by large volume of artillery fire and missiles shut when passenger planes are simultaneously flying overhead’ he noted.

After a video started doing the rounds showing abducted Indian Christian priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil — who was earlier kidnapped in Yemen by ISIS militants — purportedly blaming the Indian government and the Vatican for alleged lack of action in securing his release, India on Monday said it was in regular touch with the Yemeni authorities and Saudi Arabia regarding the safe release of Father Tom Uzhunnalil.

The priest hails from Kerala and was abducted nearly nine months ago from war-torn Yemen. The video of him showed him pleading for help and it became viral.

“You are aware of the circumstances currently prevailing in Yemen where fighting is going on with no central authority in that country. With regard to the safe release of Father Tom, who was abducted some months ago, we have been in regular touch with countries in the region, especially Saudi Arabia as also the local Yemeni authorities. Efforts continue in this regard,” ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The priest purportedly said in the video that “several months have gone by and my captors have made many contacts with the government of India to get me released. Honourable President and Prime Minister of India, I am very sad that nothing has been done seriously in my regard. Reports have been in news that everything is being done to get me released quickly but in reality nothing seems to have happened.” He added had he been “a European priest, I would have been taken more seriously by authorities. I am from India and therefore, I, perhaps, am not considered as of much value”. He also referred to a kidnapped French journalist, who was released and said this had happened because the journalist was from France.

Mr Uzhunnalil was abducted from the port city of Aden in March 4 by militant group ISIS.

A clear defeat of Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria could require to more years of strenuous fighting, according to the commander of the US-led Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said, in an interview with The Daily Beast, published Monday, that the fight against the extremist group in both countries would could need two more years.

Predictions regarding the end of the Mosul battle have varied among Iraqi and international coalition commanders. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had recently voiced confidence that the battle could end before year’s end. His optimism has occasionally find echoes at statements by several local officials.

On Sunday, Fadel Barwari, a commander of the Golden Division, an elite Iraqi security force involved in the operations, said in a press interview, however, that the battle for Mosul could need two months to end.

The US-led coalition is backing Iraqi government forces and paramilitary groups in their major campaign against IS in the city of Mosul, an operation that has entered its third month. Iraqi and US commanders had estimated the number of militants killed by nearly 4000 since the launch of the campaign for Mosul in October.

The extremist group, however, has exhibited fierce resistance in its fight against the advancing forces whose commander say they became in control over 40 districts in the eastern section of the city. IS reliance on a network of underground tunnels, booby-traps, suicide attackers and barracking among densely-populated areas ha slowed down operations progress over the last few days, prompting Iraqi forces to take a recess for refit.

“Iraqi forces had indeed paused in their charge into Mosul over the past week or so, 60 days into their campaign, to take stock and resupply, with casualties in some units as high as 30 percent. It’s something U.S. advisers had warned them they might have to do,” the website quoted Townsend as saying.

“People need to rest. They need to assess how things are going because they are not going as fast as we thought,” he said.

An Iranian Army Ground Force commander said the country has developed an advanced generation of military tank armor, according to tasnimnews.com