The United Nations said one of its convoys was hit by an explosion Wednesday in northern Iraq; there were few other details. Two UN employees were reported injured, like reported by al-monitor.com.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who heads the UN’s Iraq mission, told the UN Security Council via videoconference that an improvised explosive device had detonated near the convoy. “Conditions for humanitarian actors are also hazardous in certain areas as was starkly highlighted Wednesday by the IED explosion that impacted a World Food Program convoy in Ninevah,” she said.

Ninevah province is in northern Iraq and includes the city of Mosul. The Islamic State (IS) took the area in 2014. Ninevah has a large amount of religious and ethnic diversity and parts of it are disputed between the federal and Kurdistan Region governments. The Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units control much of the province post-IS.

Hennis-Plasschaert spent the rest of her briefing discussing other humanitarian matters in Iraq and did not offer further details on the explosion. The World Food Program’s Iraq office did not respond to Al-Monitor’s request for comment on the incident.

The US government-funded Al-Hurra news outlet obtained a video Wednesday showing an explosion hitting a sport utility vehicle. Pictures published by the outlet also showed damage to a vehicle. The explosion took place on the road between Mosul and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.

Al-Hurra and the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that two UN employees were injured, citing the Iraqi military’s Security Media Cell. The cell, which communicates security news, did not issue a statement on the incident on its social media.

It is unclear who was behind the attack. IS remains active in northern Iraq since its territorial defeat in 2017. Kurdish security forces discovered an IS sleeper cell in Erbil last week.

Despite Daesh losing its territory in the Middle East around two years ago, over 10,000 of the group’s fighters remain active “in small cells” between the countries of Syria and Iraq, according to new statements from Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov.

Speaking before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday, Voronkov detailed that not only are there more than 10,000 Daesh fighters between Syria and Iraq, but attacks committed by Daesh personnel have also increased within the past year.

Voronkov expressed that “there is a continued trend of attacks by individuals inspired online and acting alone or in small groups, which could be fueled by [Daesh’s] opportunistic propaganda efforts during the COVID-19 crisis,” as reported by the Associated Press.
Voronkov’s remarks to the UNSC follow a recent report issued from the US Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office, which detailed that Daesh militants “conducted a surge of attacks during Ramadan and exploited restrictions placed on security forces due to COVID-19 to conduct more attacks.”

Despite a ramping up of attacks in the region, the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve asserted that Daesh “is not resurging.”

“In non-conflict zones, the threat appears to have decreased in the short term,” Voronkov told the UNSC. “Measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19, such as lockdowns and restrictions on movement, seem to have reduced the risk of terrorist attacks in many countries.”
According to the under-secretary-general, Daesh and other terrorist organizations are looking “to exploit the far-reaching disruption and negative socioeconomic and political impacts of the pandemic.”

Ambassador William Roebuck, the US deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, recently warned Washington officials that northern Syria’s al-Hol refugee camp, an area that houses those displaced by wars in Iraq and Syria, as well as captured Daesh militants, could be a breeding ground for terrorism, adding that Daesh “remains a significant threat.”
“And that’s why the military presence is still there and that’s why the coalition remains engaged, to prevent [Daesh] from resurging,” he said, as reported by 13 News Now.

Al-Qaeda blew up a medical center in war-torn Yemen on Tuesday, 10 days after executing a dentist it accused of guiding US drone strikes against its militants, like reported by thedefensepost.com.

The clinic in the Somaa district of Al-Baida province was where the dentist worked before his execution, a local official told AFP.

The jihadists shot Motthar al-Youssoufi, then crucified his body and left it outside the health center on August 15.

On Tuesday, they blew up the clinic.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is active in Yemen, is considered by the United States as the radical group’s most dangerous branch.

Washington has carried out a drone campaign against its leaders for the past two decades.

But the Sunni extremist group has thrived in the chaos of civil war between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

Members of the so-called Islamic State late Monday carried out multiple attacks on members of the Iraqi security forces in territories disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, leading to several casualties, like reported by kurdistan24.net.

The Iraqi army confirmed in a statement that “ISIS launched an attack on a federal police station in the Obour complex area, south of Daquq district, in Kirkuk province,” adding that it killed four officers and wounded four others.

The assault came a few hours after a similar incident that targeted a military post in al-Azim district, 60 km north of Baquba, Diyala province, wounding an Iraqi soldier.

According to the head of the district, Abdul Jabar al-Obaidi, “the terrorists” tried to target agricultural pumps and an electrical transformer near the military outpost, resulting in clashes with the army.

Over the past few months, al-Azim has been the site of a series of Islamic State attacks, with suspected terrorists infiltrating the area from the border areas with Salahuddin province.

Earlier on Monday, members of the terrorist organization attacked a village north of Qara Tapa district, Diyala province, and kidnapped three people and wounded a fourth who tried to resist them.

The head of the Qara Tapa subdistrict, Wasfi al-Tamimi, told local media that Islamic State members, in four vehicles, attacked the village of Safsafa, 12 km north of the district center. They kidnapped three fishermen and wounded a fourth person, who tried to prevent them from kidnapping his son. The gunmen then fled to an unknown location.

Qara Tapa includes 66 villages and is considered one of the disputed areas covered by Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution. It is a diverse area inhabited by Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen.

The Islamic State has routinely held captives from rural areas for ransom, often killing them even after family members had followed their demands for large amounts of money.

They have also carried out hundreds of bombings in different parts of the country as they continue to wage an insurgency following their territorial collapse in Iraq in December 2017.

Kurdish officials have warned that the security vacuum in disputed areas created by the lack of coordination between Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces offers terrorists the opportunity to regroup and stage attacks in nearby populated areas.

Kirkuk’s security remains precarious after the Hashd al-Shaabi assaults, pushing Kurdish Peshmerga forces from them on Oct 16, 2017.

Though recent steps have been taken to increase coordination between the two governments on security matters, a burgeoning partnership remains to be seen to provide a more stable environment for the citizens of the majority Kurdish but ethnically diverse province.

At least five Houthi rebels were killed in clashes with government forces in Al-Hudaydah province in western Yemen, the Yemeni army said Monday.

The rebels were killed after they tried to infiltrate Al-Tuhayta district south of Al-Hudaydah, according to a military statement.

No information on casualties from government forces has been reported so far.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis, including civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, which has led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as millions remain at risk of starvation.

The Middle East needs an uprising similar to the Islamic Revolution in Iran that will unite the “resistance” of the Islamic community against a “culture of defeat” that has affected Arab regimes, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s representative to Iran recently said. Mehr News in Iran reported the discussion with Naser Abu Sharif of Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran. A Hamas representative named Khalid al-Qaddumi was also present, the report said according to jpost.com.

The Mehr News discussion attacked the “betrayal of the UAE in the signing of the agreement to normalize relations with the Zionist enemy.” Qaddumi said that the agreement has crossed a red line and that Israel is now more secure than in the past.

The extremists asserted that Israel was a like a criminal running free without anyone to put it on trial. He pointed out that when Egypt had signed a peace deal with Israel the Arab League had suspended Egypt and moved its headquarters temporarily from Cairo. Egypt was readmitted to the Arab league in 1989.

Hamas is outraged, the representative told Iran. “Nations and our educated class have a great responsibility in questioning friendly countries for normalizing relations.” He said that the “Zionist regime is an enemy and will remain an enemy. The destiny of the [Zionist] regime is destruction and decay and whoever has a relationship with it will be transferred to the dustbin of history.”

The Islamic Jihad representative connected the current state of affairs in the Arab world to the era of 1979 prior to the Islamic Revolution in Iran and also said the region needs a revolution like the one brought by “Imam Hussein,” who is venerated by Shi’ites. Islamic Jihad is a Palestinian group but often acts as an Iranian proxy and although it is made up of Sunnis it has adopted Iran’s Shi’ite iconography in these statements.

“Today the American project is a project of infidels,” said Abu Sharif. “Unfortunately the Arab governments are being won over by the projects of the United States and the Zionist regime….the governments are corrupt without exception.” He called for a revolution in the region against the recent trend of normalization of ties.

Overall the comments appear to represent desperation on behalf of Iran and its allies among the Palestinians. The attempt to try to rekindle a revolutionary spirit like in 1979 or to encourage the Arab League to react as it did in 1979 is far-fetched. Nevertheless the interview represents Iran’s attempt to spread slander against the UAE and also to encourage discord or protests in the region. So far there have been few protests against the UAE-Israel agreement.

The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces announced, on Tuesday, a military operation in Makhmur which separates the governorates of Erbil and Nineveh, like reported by shafaaq.com.

Major General Yahya Rasool said in a statement, “At the direction of the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the Counter-Terrorism Service, with the support of the Iraqi Army and the International Coalition Aviation implement a military operation in Makhmur .”

“This operation resulted in killing 10 members of ISIS and destroying 9 hideouts and a warehouse for food and medicine,” he added.

The U.S.-led military coalition in Syria likely used a unique variant of the beloved Hellfire missile to kill a mercenary trainer who recently worked with an al Qaeda-affiliated militant group there, according to photos from the scene of the strike, like reported by taskandpurpose.com.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported last week that a drone strike likely affiliated with the U.S.-led international military coalition in the country was responsible for killing Abu Yahya al-Uzbeki, an independent “military trainer” recently affiliated with the al Qaeda-linked Hurras Al-Din organization, while he was traveling in Syria’s Idlib province.

Photos of the aftermath of the strike on al-Uzbeki’s vehicle show a relatively intact car rather than a fiery wreck, suggesting that, as with similar strikes in the region, the coalition employed the notorious R9X variant of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a non-explosive weapon that can best be described as a 100-pound flying switchblade.

First publicized by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 and colloquially known as the “flying Ginsu” or “ninja bomb,” the R9X forgoes an explosive payload in favor of a kinetic warhead containing a halo of blades that deploy moments before impact, eviscerating a target and, ostensibly, reducing the potential civilian casualties that might otherwise accompany a large explosion from a traditional warhead.

Developed in a collaboration between the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, the R9X Hellfire variant technically a secret. However, the distinctive effects of the munition have become increasingly recognizable since the U.S. government reportedly started deploying it downrange in 2017.

Indeed, the impact patterns on al-Uzbeki’s vehicle appear to match those on the car belonging to Qassam al-Urduni and Bilal al-Sanaani, two leaders of Hurras Al-Din who were killed in a similar drone strike in June of this year in northwestern Syria.

That same pattern also appeared on the vehicles of Abu Ahmed al-Jaziri, a foreign fighter for al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who was killed in a drone strike in December 2019, and Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, the al Qaeda second-in-command who, according to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA allegedly killed in in February 2017.

While all three of those strikes, like the al-Uzbeki one, took place in Syria’s Idlib province, the weapon has also been deployed in Yemen in recent years, according to the Wall Street Journal. And according to The War Zone, photos from the aftermath of a January 2019 airstrike against a suspected Taliban commander in Afghanistan suggest the use of the missile there as well.

It’s unclear how many R9X missiles the Pentagon has in its arsenal: the Army and Air Force’s fiscal year 2021 budget requests for missile procurement make no mention of this specific Hellfire variant, although the Air Force’s budget request does note that multiple variants “may be procured based upon operational requirements for various warheads and the enhanced weapon engagement zone.”

But as I previously wrote, the reported deployment of the R9X against suspected terrorists downrange suggests the Pentagon is increasingly embracing the Hellfire variant as a low-collateral precision strike weapon — a move that suggests the Pentagon’s flying switchblade is moving from high-profile oddity to a conventional staple of the DoD’s arsenal.

The Arab Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen today destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, like reported by wam.ae/.

A statement by the Official Spokesman of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen Col. Turki Al-Malki said, “The Joint Coalition Forces have intercepted and destroyed this afternoon (Sunday) a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward civilians and civilian objects in the (Southern Region).”

Iran is engaged in transferring new generations of advanced centrifuges used to enrich uranium from a warehouse to the main production center at Natanz, according to a classified document compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was obtained by the Bloomberg website.

The document shows that Iranian engineers recently installed special pipes in the reactor that are reinforced in order to withstand the high pressure of uranium production created when using advanced centrifuges.

This transfer of the centrifuges takes place about a month after the explosion at the Natanz reactor, which is estimated to have caused a delay of one to two years to the Iranian nuclear program.