A group named the Intelligence Hawks affiliated to the Iraqi interior ministry announced in a statement on Wednesday that the Belgian commander of the ISIL was killed in al-Qa’em town in al-Anbar province.

The slain terrorist was expert in surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Late in July, at least 13 notorious ISIL leaders, including a deputy of ISIL Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were killed by Iraqi warplanes near the Syrian border.

The Iraqi fighter jets launched an airstrike on a gathering center of ISIL commanders in al-Qa’em town, which is located nearly 400km Northwest of Baghdad near the Syrian border, an army statement said.

The statement said that the airstrike also led to the destruction of two booby-trapped cars and a bomb-making plant.

The statement also pointed to massive explosions at the site “which means the high quantities of ammunition and explosive belts which were destroyed”.

farsnews.com

On Tuesday August 16, Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) targeted the Qatif police station in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia killing a police guard. This attack is a continuation of Daesh’s operations in the Gulf where they have become increasingly active in targeting security forces and the Shiite community in an attempt to disrupt the national unity and security of the country. The local branches of Daesh have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.

I believe that the intensification of attacks on Gulf states by this terrorist organization is aimed at achieving two goals.

First, the legitimization of savagery. Daesh fights in Syria and Iraq, but its ultimate target is Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a highly symbolic significance for Muslims as it is the Qibla of all Muslims, the origin of Islam, the birthplace of the Message, the place of revelation. It is also the only authority in the world that has the religious legitimacy to overthrow Daesh and its savage ideology, which involves killing, judging people to be unbelievers and committing acts of unspeakable affront to humanity.

Daesh makes use of the weakness of official and non-official religious establishments that are unable to engage youth in religious discourse that meets the contemporary needs of young people, and which have also failed to subjectively, truly, rationally and logically refute Daesh’s dubious misconceptions. Daesh has made use of these factors to present itself as an alternative establishment to legitimize the obscurant ideas that it promotes. One of the main reasons for the proliferation of extremism and terrorist groups in recent years is the weakness of traditional religious establishments in the Arab world which has allowed these extremist groups to introduce their own alternative establishments.

Secondly, the financing of savagery. From the start, Daesh’s key strategy has always been “money before fighting”. Hence, when it first emerged in Iraq and Syria, it pushed hard to take control of Iraqi and Syrian oil resources. Oil is one of the principal means by which Daesh remains self-funded and capable of expanding its operations with no reliance on any external funding.

When Daesh took control of 60 percent of the oilfields in Syria, in addition to a number of oilfields in Iraq, profit from its export operations reached three million dollars a day. This terrorist organization has now been forced to follow other routes to finance its operations, i.e., laying its hands on Gulf oil, as its financial nerve has been targeted by the international coalition led by the United States and Arab countries including the Gulf states, in an attempt to bring an end to it by imposing financial strangulation.

A report published by Time Magazine titled “In the End, the Target for ISIS is Saudi Arabia” states that “in order for survival and prosperity, this organization is known for having no choice but to draw attention to the grand prize: Saudi oilfields”. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are in prominent positions among the top 10 oil producing companies in the world according to the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies. If Daesh can take control of these oil facilities, it will mark a shift in the strategy of the organization and its expansion capabilities.

Finally, terrorism represents a renewed worldwide threat that remains a serious concern to the entire international community. Therefore, all Gulf states, Arabs and even the international community must unite and cooperate to counter terrorism as it is a task that will have to be carried out collectively. It cannot be achieved by a single country.

saudigazette.com.sa

Photos published in social media, show two sharp shooters from Afghanistan’s Fattemioun Division holding a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, while resting after supporting Syrian army in counter-terrorism operations, probably in Aleppo.

alalam.ir

Iraqi forces closed in on the centre of Qayyarah, officials said, on the second day of an operation to recapture the town from ISIL terrorists.

Qayyarah lies on the western bank of the Tigris river, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) south of Mosul, the ISIL group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

Brigadier General Najm al-Juburi from the operations command for Nineveh, the province in which both Qayyarah and Mosul are located, said the town was now encircled.

“There are only a few meters left before troops advancing from the west and troops coming from the east meet and complete the siege around Qayyarah,” he told AFP.

He said the vast majority of villages around Qayyarah had been retaken since special forces launched the operation on Tuesday.

Juburi and other military officials in the area confirmed the progress and said that a nearby oil field and refinery had also been recaptured from ISIL.

“Liberating Qayyarah will mean cutting off Mosul from the southern areas, which will make liberating Mosul much easier,” Juburi said.

“This is a blow to the organization of ISIL because it affects their economy, and this after we retook an air base that is now going to be used to attack them,” he said.

Iraqi security forces have been operating in the area for weeks, as part of shaping operations for a major offensive on the city of Mosul in the coming weeks or months.

They had already retaken the Qayyarah air field, which ISIL was not using because it has no air force but which Iraqi aircraft will soon be using against the ‘takfiris’.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday reiterated his promise that Mosul would be retaken and the country rid of ISIL by the end of 2016.

abna24.com

ISIS launched a bomb and gun attack on a Western-backed Syrian rebel camp near the Jordanian border on Wednesday, according to the rebels, who said they had killed at least 30 of the attackers and suffered at least three casualties themselves.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the camp belonging to the Forces of Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo rebel group in a sparsely populated desert area near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet, the rebels’ spokesman, Saeed Saif, said. They then attacked several rebel outposts.

“We repelled the attack by Daesh (ISIS) on several areas, and they failed to make any progress and have retreated,” Saif told Reuters.

ISIS later said in a statement by its Damascus province that a suicide bomber named Abu Hafs al-Damashi had driven his car into the headquarters of those who it called Sahwat, a term used for forces backed by the West who are viewed as apostates by the ultra-hardline Sunni militants, killing at least 19 of them.

The group said simultaneous attacks on several locations within the camp also killed another seven FSA fighters and were also able seize weapons before ending their operation.

ynetnews.com

Syrian rebels, backed by Turkey, have retaken control of Jarablus from Islamic State, a rebel group claims.

“The town of Jarablus has been fully liberated from the gangs of terrorist Daesh,” the rebel Sham legion says in an online statement, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

aboutcroatia.net

Yemeni witnesses say five al-Qaida militants were killed in an alleged U.S. drone strike in southern Yemen.

The witnesses say a missile struck the militants’ vehicle on Wednesday in the southern Shabwa province, completely destroying it. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

U.S. drone strikes have killed dozens of suspected militant in Yemen over the past decade.

Yemen is embroiled in a civil war pitting the internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against Shiite Houthi rebels and army units loyal to a former president. The fighting has allowed al-Qaida and an Islamic State affiliate to expand their reach, particularly in the country’s south.

ap.org

The US State Department has approved the sale of five Mk V fast patrol boats to Qatar, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on 23 August.

It said the prime contractor for the Foreign Military Sale (FMS) will be United States Marine Inc (USMI) and that the estimated cost of the five boats, related equipment, training, and support is USD124 million.

The boats will be fitted with infrared cameras and armed with 27 mm gun systems and .50 cal M2 machine guns, it said, but provided no further details.

The Mk V is becoming one of the more popular fast patrol boats in the Gulf region.

janes.com

Clandestine negotiations under an Iranian mediation were held between officials from the Bashar Assad regime and Turkish figures with a possibility to reach reconciliation between Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan, sources in Tehran and Ankara said.

On Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari, heading an official delegation, arrived in Ankara to discuss the latest developments at the Syrian level. His trip to Turkey coincided with news leaked about Turkish-Syrian meetings under the mediation of Iran, which is trying to normalize relations between both Ankara and Damascus.

Iran’s news agency IRNA reported Ansari was in Ankara to discuss developments in Syria with Turkish officials.

IRNA said: “A new development was seen lately in the policies of the Turkish government towards the crisis in Syria, when it announced its readiness to cooperate with Iran and Russia to solve the Syrian crisis.”

Sources expect that Erdogan lowers his harsh positions towards the Assad regime, in exchange for a Syrian cooperation to prevent the creation of any Kurdish entity in northern Syria.

The source also revealed that Ismail Hakki, one of the most leading Turkish diplomats, is the person conducting the negotiations on Ankara’s behalf. Hakki is a retired general who had supervised an agreement reached between Syria and Turkey in 1998 during the crisis with head of Kurdistan Workers’ Party Abdullah Ocalan, who was imprisoned 17 years ago in the Turkish Imrali Island.

In a sign of rapprochement, an official from the media office of the Kurdish self-administration in North Syria said: “A final agreement has been reached under a Russian patronage to stop the fighting between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and regime forces in the city of Hasakah.”

Meanwhile, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which are mainly formed by the People’s Protection Units, threatened on Tuesday to face any aggression launched by the Turkish Army or the Ankara- allied Syrian opposition factions to control the city of Jarablus, in the countryside of northeast Aleppo, the last ISIS-controlled town on the Turkish border.

aawsat.com

Turkish special forces have crossed into Syria as part of a Turkish operation to rid a Syrian border town of Islamic State group militants.

Private NTV television says the Turkish special forces entered Syria on Wednesday in what it described was an “intruder mission” to carry out “pinpoint operations” against IS as part of the mission to clear the town of Jarablus of the extremists.

The London-based Syrian Observatory also said the Turkish troops had entered Syria.

Turkish government officials could not immediately confirm the report.

foxnews.com