Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister of Turkey, outlined Turkey’s support for the US’ proposed plan for Mosul, a Daesh stronghold in Iraq, at a press conference on Sunday:

The U.S. has a plan [for an operation] led by the Iraqi government to clear the city of Daesh elements. We say, we support this plan… Turkish military forces are training locals in fighting Daesh, it is very clear

Going on to say,

Mosul belongs to the [people of Mosul]. Do not let outsiders in and ruin the original demographic fabric [of the city], which might lead to a new civil war. We follow this attentively

According to a variety of media reports, the US military has stepped up its footprint in Iraq over recent weeks to around 6,000 troops and special forces in preparation to support an assault on Mosul, led by local forces.

Daesh captured Mosul, a large historic city in the North of Iraq, in 2014. It has been the cite of serious violence and the cleansing of numerous minority groups.

middleeastmonitor.com

Two missiles were fired at a US warship from territory in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebel group, the US military has said.

Neither missile hit the USS Mason, a naval destroyer, but the attempted attack came just a week after a United Arab Emirates vessel came under attack from Houthis and suggests growing risks to the US military from Yemen’s conflict.

The US government, which has become increasingly vocal about civilian casualties in the war, this weekend announced a review of its support to a Saudi Arabia-led coalition battling the Houthis after a strike on mourners in the capital Sanaa that killed up to 140 people.

The failed missile attack on the USS Mason began around 7pm local time on Saturday, when the ship detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period in the Red Sea off Yemen’s coast, the US military said.

“Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. “There were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship.”

Saudi Arabia and the United States blame Shia Iran for supplying weapons to the Houthis. Tehran views the Houthis, who are from a Sha sect, as the legitimate authority in Yemen but denies it supplies them with weapons.

A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first missile triggered counter-measures from the USS Mason. It was not immediately clear whether those defenses may have helped prevent a direct hit on the ship.

The USS Mason did not return fire, the official said, adding that the incident took place just north of the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen’s southern coast.

Last week’s attack on the UAE vessel also took place around the Bab al-Mandab strait, in what the UAE branded an “act of terrorism.”

In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil passed through the 12 mile-wide Bab al-Mandab each day, the US Energy Information Administration says.

It was unclear what actions the US military might take, but Davis stressed a commitment to defend freedom of navigation and protect US forces.

“We will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of our ships and our servicemembers,” he said.

The attack also came the same day that Yemen’s powerful former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key Houthi ally, called for an escalation of attacks against Saudi Arabia, demanding “battle readiness at the fronts on the (Saudi) border”.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s war. The United Nations blames Saudi-led coalition strikes for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since they began in March 2015.

telegraph.co.uk

A main Islamist group in Syria pledged allegiance to former al-Qaeda branch Jabhat Fateh al-Sham on Sunday.

The militant group of Jund al-Aqsa said in a statement that its fighters swore allegiance to Fateh al-Sham.

Jund al-Aqsa, which has been listed by the United States as a terrorist group, has been involved in fighting in Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo.

This comes after heavy fighting between Jund al-Aqsa and other Islamist groups in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

The group said it was trying to end rifts with other jihadi factions, mainly the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham, after fighting killed dozens on both sides over the past few days.

“Settling those differences was important to avoid weakening the rebel fighting against the Assad regime,” Jund al-Aqsa said, adding that it would work side by side with other rebel factions in northern Syria as part of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham was previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra. In July the extremist group announced that it had split from al-Qaeda and was rebranding.

aranews.net/

iran-daily.com

The armed forces of Iraq will directly attack their Turkish counterparts if the government of Turkey decides to deploy more troops to fight the Islamic State within that country, Iraqi officials have reportedly said, following blistering statements from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

A “senior Iraqi security official” told the U.K.-based outlet Middle East Eye that the Shiite government in Baghdad would not hesitate to attack Turkish troops deployed there if they veer too close to Iraqi government strongholds.

“The Iraqi government seeks to make clear that there is absolutely no role for Turkish forces in the Iraqi sphere. Any movement or intervention by Turkish forces during the military operations [to re-take Mosul] would be faced with a very strong response,” he stated.

Ankara has expressed an enthusiastic desire to participate in the liberations of both Mosul and Raqqa, Syria, the “capitals” of the Islamic State in either country. “We are ready to give all kinds of support in the fight against Daesh [ISIS] in Mosul,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday, referring to the troops currently stationed in Iraq, against the wishes of the Iraqi government.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in turn, has said that “Obama particularly wants to do something together [with us] about Raqqa. We have told him that this is not a problem for us.”

“From now on, we have to show that we exist in the region. We do not have an option to step back at this point,” Erdogan added, in statements last month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said earlier this week that Turkey’s presence could spark a “regional war” in Iraq, and the Foreign Minister referred to Turkish troops as a “hostile occupying force.” Both nations summoned each other’s ambassadors over the incident. Middle East Eye quotes Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus dismissing Iraqi protests, arguing, “No one has the right to object Turkey’s presence in Iraq when the country is fragmented that much.”

Iraq is currently divided among the Shiite government in Baghdad; the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north; the Islamic State in Mosul; and a variety of both Sunni and Shiite roving jihadist militias.

The Shiite militias also told Middle East Eye that they will attack Turkish troops, with one leader saying, “we consider them an occupation force and we will deal with them on this basis.”

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has called the Iraqi government’s opposition to the Turkish presence in the country “dangerous and provocative.”

Turkey insists its troops are in Iraq at the behest of the KRG in Erbil. “It is clear from the very beginning that the [President Massoud] Barzani administration wanted the support of Turkish forces to train local forces to liberate Mosul,” Turkish government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said earlier this month. “We will not allow this to be a matter of debate.” Al Monitor notes that the KRG has neither denied this nor enthusiastically embraced a Turkish presence in the region, stating only that they were aware of the troop deployment and did not object.

While Turkey is currently embroiled in a conflict with the Syrian Kurdish militias, which it claims are a wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group, it has enjoyed friendly relations with the Iraqi Kurdish government. Turkey fears that Syrian Kurdish groups will attempt to establish a sovereign Kurdistan using Turkish territory; a sovereign Kurdistan in modern-day Iraq would, on the other hand, not threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. The KRG has long opposed the PKK and requested it evacuate Iraq.

The United Nations has weighed in on the conflict on behalf of Iraq. The Security Council – now led by Russia, an ally of Iran and Syria, the regional Shiite governments – issued a statement demanding Turkey respect “the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-interference.”

Turkish-Russian diplomacy collapsed last year after the Russians repeatedly violated Turkey’s territorial integrity, flying fighter jets meant to be targeting ISIS deep into Turkish airspace.

Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have attempted to restore the bilateral relationship, however, and Putin will be traveling to Ankara on October 10.

breitbart.com

alalam.ir

thestar.com

The Islamic State (ISIS) executed two of its own militants on charges of “high treason.” Activists and eyewitnesses reported that the executions took place on Thursday in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor city.

ISIS detained two members of its Islamic Police, also known as Diwan al-Hisba, after they left their post without permission.

Firas al-Ahmed, a local media activist, told ARA News: “They tried to escape Deir ez-Zor, but the group was able to arrest them near the southern exit of the city.” An ISIS-controlled Sharia court decided to execute them.

“The two Hisba members were executed by firing squad in the Sabha District,” al-Ahmed reported. He added that hundreds of people witnessed the execution.

In July, ISIS executed six of its own militants on charges of “treason,” after accusing them of leaking security information to the US-led coalition. Local sources told ARA News at the time that the executed men were members of the al-Hisba police in the city of Mosul, in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate.

Abdullah al-Malla, a media activist, told ARA News in Mosul: “The ISIS leadership suspected that the al-Hisba members were leaking confidential information to the western coalition–whose airstrikes have recently killed top jihadi officials.”

“After interrogation, the Mosul Sharia Court issued a decision to publicly execute the six suspects,” al-Malla reported. “The six jihadists were beheaded in front of dozens of ISIS officials in central Mosul.”

aranews.net/

One day after the Turkish parliament voted to extend the army’s military mandates in Bashiqa camp in Iraq, the Iraqi parliament rejected the extension in a majority vote and called for a review of relations with Turkey.

The lawmakers also asked the government of Iraq to file a complaint against Turkey and demanded the Turkish ambassador be summoned to receive a letter critical of Turkey’s presence in Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Jamal said that the ministry decided to summon Turkish Ambassador Faruk Kaymakci, but according to Asharq Al-Awsat’s sources, the diplomat is abroad on vacation.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also summoned Iraq’s Ambassador to Ankara Hisham Ali Akbar Ibrahim voicing Ankara’s protest over the Iraqi parliament’s rejection. The ministry said that the announcement includes accusations against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Defense and Security Committee of the Iraqi Parliament confirmed that Iraq doesn’t want to escalate the situation with Turkey.

MP Iqbal Abdl Hussein told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the Turkish behavior is rejected. She added that Iraq is fighting ISIS and this requires Turkey’s support and not using internal problems to impose a situation.

The MP explained that Baghdad’s summon of the Turkish Ambassador is conventional diplomatic behavior. She stressed that Iraq doesn’t want to cause any strife with neighboring countries, but the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil is an invasion and rejected by all Iraqis expect for a few political blocs linked to Ankara.

Abdl Hussein, who is also member of the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, said the Security Council and Arab League are required to stand with Iraq against this breach of sovereignty.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said on Wednesday that Turkey is ready to cooperate with Iraq’s central government in Bashiqa camp if it focuses on keeping the country’s territorial integrity and defeating terror groups including ISIS.

“No one has the right to object Turkey’s presence in Bashiqa when the country is fragmented that much,” Kurtulmuş said, adding that Turkish troops are not an invading force and their presence were both known by the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq’s north.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson condemned the Iraqi parliament’s decision to remove the troops from Bashiqa camp, while the Iraqi envoy to Ankara was summoned to the ministry.

During an interview, President Erdogan claimed on Sunday that once Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was liberated from ISIS, it should be for Sunnis only.

“After Mosul will be rescued from ISIS only Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Sunni Kurds should remain there,” he said.

The Turkish foreign Ministry urged Iraqi officials to hold onto the aid that Turkey is providing Iraqis in its war on terrorism. The ministry also stated that many Turkish citizens died due to terrorist threats from Iraq, while Iraqi territories were never under any imminent threat from the Turkish side.

aawsat.com

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned Saudi Arabia’s naval ships not to trespass into Iranian waters during its military exercises in the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia’s exercises in the Gulf involve naval vessels, aircraft and marines with live firing war games, a clear message to regional rival Iran about its military capabilities.

Iran has been keeping a close eye on the war games, which come on the back of rising tensions between the two regional powers.

“The naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps believe this military exercise is a clear instance of creating tensions and undermining the stable security of the Persian Gulf,” it said in a statement published by Iranian newspapers on Thursday.

“None of the naval vessels participating in this drill are permitted to trespass into Iranian waters and under no circumstances should they approach Iranian territorial waters.”

It said any trespassing on Iranian waters would “not be considered a harmless aberration”.

Saudi Arabia began live-fire drills in the Gulf on Tuesday, with manoeuvres also taking place in the Sea of Oman and the narrow Strait of Hormuz that links the two – the primary route for oil exports from the region.

The Guards’ naval forces “will take proportionate and immediate action against any kind of movement, attempt or action to disrupt the peace and security of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman”, the statement added.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have been on opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.

Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz during periods of tension with Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies in the past.

In recent months, Washington has repeatedly accused Tehran of dangerous encounters with US naval forces in and around the strategic waterway.

alaraby.co.uk