The latest indigenous drone, named ‘Naseh’, unveiled in a ceremony attended by Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan here on Tuesday

The Naseh drone has been manufactured by Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base.

Dehqan also toured the exhibition of Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base defensive achievements.

Commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili and several high-ranking military officials also were accompanying Dehqan during his tour.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly said that its military might poses no threat to other countries, reiterating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

irna.ir

The Iraqi army recaptured the town of Makhmur fromIslamic State militants as part of the military’s overall plan to neutralize the insurgent stronghold of Mosul, officials said Monday.

Coalition forces targeted militants in the town with airstrikes, news media reported Monday.

“The coalition forces did not participate in strikes inside the village but conducted airstrikes against the [Islamic State] militants when they escaped the village,” Iraqi officer Amin Shekhani said.

“We asked the coalition forces to keep the Daesh snipers in check but were told that, due to the large numbers of civilians involved,” he said previously.

Shekhani told Rudaw that 123 families were believed to be inside the village, with only 25 Islamic militants. At least three Iraqi soldiers were reportedly wounded.

Thousands of soldiers have been fighting on the Makhmur front for about three months, trying to oust Islamic State militants there near a U.S. Marine base called “Fire Base Bell.” Last month, the U.S.-led coalition provided air cover for the Iraqi army in the area.

In March, a U.S. soldier was killed there during the support operation.

The operation in Makhmur is part of Operation Inherent Resolve, which reportedly includes a planned future offensive in Mosul — a major Islamic State stronghold — which has been under the group’s control for two years.

Officials also said Monday that operations against militant targets in Syria were also carried out over the weekend.

upi.com/

According to Washington Post, the Pentagon has placed a small number of U.S. advisors on the ground in Yemen to support Arab forces battling al-Qaeda, military officials said on Friday, signaling a new American role in that country’s multi-sided civil war.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. personnel had been in the country for about two weeks, supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces that are fighting a pitched battle against militants near the southeastern port city of Mukalla.

“We view this as short-term,” Davis told reporters.

Officials said the U.S. military is also providing Emirati forces with medical, intelligence and maritime support, and is flying surveillance and aerial refueling missions. It has also staged a ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit off Yemen’s coast. The flotilla includes the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.

Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the United States was helping the Arab forces plan operations as part of its “limited” mission in and around Mukalla.

“We welcome operations undertaken by Yemeni Forces, with the support of Arab Coalition Forces, to liberate the Yemeni port city of Mukalla from control by al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” Ryder said in an email.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said that the U.S. presence, approved at the request of the United Arab Emirates, was “way small.”

Even a tiny military footprint marks a milestone for U.S. involvement in the Yemeni conflict, which brought an end a year and a half ago to a long-running U.S. mission there against AQAP.

After the internationally recognized Yemeni government, unable to contain Shiite Houthi rebels, collapsed at the end of 2014, the United States was forced to pull out Special Operations troops who had been training and advising their Yemeni peers.

The departure was a blow to U.S. efforts to battle AQAP, which has long been considered the most menacing al-Qaeda branch and which has seized on the chaos of the ongoing conflict to strengthen its military position.

Since then, the United States has confined its military activities mostly to supporting a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels, which the Kingdom sees as an Iranian proxy force. The Pentagon has provided some intelligence and aerial support to the Saudi-led air war.

The new American advisory team will support the Emirati troops and Yemeni forces loyal to the old government as they seek to capi­tal­ize on recent headway against AQAP in Mukalla, which was seized by militants last year. Saudi Special Operations forces have also been taking part in the campaign against AQAP around Mukalla.

Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the U.S. presence would reinforce an encouraging trend. “This is exactly the type of [situation] where a little bit of American support goes a long way,” he said.

President Obama’s preference for using small Special Operations teams to conduct targeted operations or advise partner forces has been a hallmark of his global security strategy.

American officials also considered the Mukalla offensive a success because it marked an unprecedented coalition action against AQAP. U.S. officials have long encouraged Saudi Arabia to broaden its focus in Yemen beyond the Houthis, and have also complained of high civilian casualties in a conflict that has killed at least 6,000 people.

The United Nations continues to seek a political solution in peace talks in Kuwait City.

Military officials declined to say what type of U.S. personnel were on the ground in Yemen or provide their exact location. “They are not in harm’s way,” the U.S. official said.

Even after the end of its training mission, the United States has tried to contain AQAP’s growth using periodic airstrikes of its own.

Davis said the United States has conducted four strikes against al-Qaeda militants since April 23, killing 10 militants and wounding one. In March the Pentagon announced it had killed more than 70 al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen in one of the largest U.S. strikes conducted in the country since the beginning of operations there.

According to a Long War Journal database, the United States has conducted roughly 140 airstrikes in Yemen since 2002.

The sources said on Monday that the extremists launched several mortar rounds containing chlorine gas at the village of Bashir some 20 km (12 miles) south of Kirkuk the previous night, a newspaper reported.

Scores of Peshmerga fighters suffered temporary respiratory problems and nausea in the wake of the assault, and were transported to the Kirkuk hospital.

The development came only a week after fighters from pro-government Popular Mobilization units recaptured Bashir from Daesh terrorists.

Head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front Arshad Salihi said in a statement on May 6 that Daesh militants had lobbed a barrage of mortar shells containing chemical agents on Taza Khurmatu south of Kirkuk.

Three civilians lost their lives in the attack and hundreds more suffered injuries.

Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ahmet Uzumcu said on Tuesday that fact-finding teams from The Hague-based watchdog have discovered evidence suggesting the use of sulfur mustard in Daesh attacks.

Meanwhile, Daesh militants have reportedly executed eight civilians in Iraq’s embattled northern province of Nineveh.

A local source, requesting not to be named, said Daesh members carried out the execution by firing squad at the Ghazlani military base near the militant-held city of Mosul, on Sunday evening.

The victims had been accused of “espionage” and collaboration with Peshmerga fighters, Kurdish security forces known as Asayesh, and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the country in June 2014, and took control of portions of Iraqi territory.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and others.

Iraqi army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Mobilization units are seeking to win back militant-held regions in joint operations.

albawaba.com

Iran’s Navy is working on a series of new military hardware, including a submarine and a destroyer that enjoys state of the art equipment, a top commander said.

tasnimnews.com

No previous US president had been made to suffer such an indignity when visiting America’s supposedly closest ally in the Arab world: When Barack Obama touched down at the airport in Riyadh in mid-April, King Salman opted to remain in his palace. The most powerful man in the world was received by the governor of Riyadh instead. There was no pomp or ceremonial reception and state-controlled television declined to broadcast the arrival. Obama seemed slightly at a loss on the tarmac before trying to cover up the affront with a broad smile.

The message was clear: Saudi Arabia feels as though it has been left in the lurch by America and is not afraid to show that it isn’t happy.

The story of the failed reception is more than just an anecdote from the international diplomatic stage. It serves to illustrate the massive geo-political shift and the growing conflict that has gripped the entire Middle East. It has become the Cold War of our era, pitting Saudi Arabia against Iran, the two rivals that are striving for supremacy in the region. And it is not entirely clear which side the US is on.

Uncertainty and Rapid Change

The Middle East as we have long known it is changing dramatically. And no matter where one looks, Tehran and Riyadh are standing behind at least one of the parties involved in the conflict. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, host and protector of the holy sites in Mecca and Medina, sees itself as the home of Sunni Islam, to which the majority of the world’s Muslims belong. The Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shiite theocracy, claims leadership of the Shiites, which make up roughly 13 percent of Muslims worldwide. For both regimes, religion is an important tool of power.

Today’s bloodiest civil war, the conflict in Syria, is entering its sixth year and has thus far cost the lives of more than 250,000 people — and the cease-fire that has been in place for the last two months doesn’t look as though it will last much longer. In Syria, and also in the conflicts in Iraq and in Yemen, the fighting fronts run primarily along confessional lines: Sunnis against Shiites. A fragile peace holds in Lebanon and Bahrain, but it is one that could be shattered at any time by confessional unrest.

All of these proxy wars and confessional conflicts have unleashed a wave of migration among those who have been displaced: more than 6 million people from Syria and Iraq along with almost 3 million from Yemen. And out of the rubble of the Middle East, hydra-headed monster has risen that seeks to terrorize Brussels, Paris, Istanbul and the rest of the world: Islamic State. In an irony of history, the Sunni terror militia sees both Iran and Saudi Arabia as its enemies.

At its essence, the escalation in the Middle East also has to do with America and its changing role in the world. After decades of enmity with Iran, US President Barack Obama wanted to restart a dialogue with the country and he negotiated a nuclear treaty with Tehran. The hope is that the deal will limit Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon while making it possible for the country to do business with the West in return.

At the same time, though, the US would prefer to withdraw from this complicated, crisis-plagued region of the world. Current developments are also a product of this trend.

Iran, meanwhile, following decades of isolation, would like to revert to its former position of regional importance. The more Middle Eastern countries there are under the control of Shiites, the stronger Iran feels — and the more hard-pressed Saudi Arabia feels, a country whose rulers once rose to power by way of a pact with Sunni fundamentalists, the Wahhabis.

This new Cold War affects the entire world, making it vital to search out its causes and to scrutinize what is pushing Saudi Arabia and Iran to continue on the path of escalation. A team of SPIEGEL reporters went to both countries to investigate and spoke with politicians, religious leaders, activists, intellectuals and normal people on the streets.

The Saudi Shiite-Paranoia

Awamia is a dusty town on the shores of a body of water one side calls the Arabian Gulf and the other the Persian Gulf. In Awamia, it looks as though Saudi Arabia itself were involved in a civil war. A checkpoint marked by high protective walls marks the entrance to the town and an armored vehicle is parked in front of it. At night, spotlights illuminate the checkpoint.

Thick concrete walls are also to be found on the main square of Awamia surrounding the police station, the electrical substation and the municipal office. The walls are covered with graffiti:

“They’re killing us because we’re Shiite!” “Go to hell you cheats!” “We’ll never give up!” “We’ll never forget you, Nimr!” “Our Nimr hasn’t died!”

On the night of Jan. 1, Saudi Arabia had the cleric and preacher Nimr al-Nimr, who was based in Awamia, executed — along with 46 other prisoners, most of whom had been convicted of terrorism. It was the largest wave of executions the country had seen in more than three decades.

Saudi Arabia too has a Shiite minority, making up more than 10 percent of the country’s population, and Nimr was one of the minority’s most prominent representatives. He was a fierce opponent of the royal House of Saud, accusing the country’s rulers of systematically oppressing the Shiites. The government rejected the accusations and accused Nimr of being a terrorist controlled by Iran. They said he had been responsible for the deaths of Saudi Arabian security personnel.

Following Nimr’s execution, a furious — yet seemingly organized — mob stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran, resulting in Riyadh breaking off diplomatic relations with Iran. Tehran withdrew its diplomats as well and since then, an icy silence has reigned between the two regional powers.

The brother of the dead Shiite cleric is sitting in his office in a courtyard on the outskirts of Awamia. Mohammed al-Nimr, 52, is a tall, elegant man with a gray moustache and beard. He is wearing traditional white robes with a red-and-white keffiyeh. “The execution of the other 46 prisoners was merely a pretext to kill my brother,” he says. Mohammed al-Nimr doesn’t sound angry or distraught, but rather restrained. “The other prisoners had been sentenced to death long before,” he continues. “Sheikh Nimr was an inspiration to us, particularly to the younger people. He was revered here.”

The cleric had been arrested often during his life, most recently in the summer of 2012. Just prior to that arrest, Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz had died, an event Nimr had commented on by saying: “The worms will eat him and he will suffer hellish agony in his grave. The man who forced us to live in fear and suffering — should we not be happy about his death?”

The words his brother uttered “are one thing,” says Mohammed al-Nimr. “But terrorism is something different.” He speaks with a raised index finger in slow, clearly articulated Arabic. Indeed, he too could have made for an effective preacher. But he is a businessman and he weighs every word carefully. He condemns the attack on the embassy and says: “I am a person who loves his country.”

Five months before his brother was arrested, Mohammad al-Nimr’s then-17-year-old son had likewise been taken into custody. During the Arab Spring, his son had taken part in protests and was sentenced to death as a consequence. Ali al-Nimr is to be beheaded and crucified. “What should I say about that?,” the father asks. “My son was a child when he was arrested.” Ali, he says, is clever and ambitious and had enrolled in university. “Now, he has been sitting in prison for the last five years.”

The execution of the Shiite cleric and the barbaric sentence handed down to the cleric’s nephew triggered dismay across the globe. But the episode serves to show that Saudi Arabia is feeling pressured by Iran — and is provoking a confessional conflict in response, even in its own country. The royal house has chosen a dangerous rejoinder.

Recently, the country has also embarked on foreign policy adventures: In Saudi Arabia’s southern neighbor of Yemen, Riyadh launched a military initiative against the Shiite Houthi rebels. Yet despite months of bombing, the operation has been a failure, with the images of destroyed cities and dead civilians primarily helping Iran.

spiegel.de

Islamic State (ISIS) extremists have executed a seven-year-old boy by firing squad after he was heard swearing while playing football with his friends

The boy’s parents collapsed after their child was shot in front of hundreds of people for allegedly insulting the Caliphate, an area containing an Islamic steward known as a caliph, according to eyewitnesses.

The boy, named locally as Muaz Hassan, was playing in the Naeem Square in the city of Raqqa, Syria, an ISIS stronghold, earlier this week when members of the terrorist organisation, also known as Daesh, walked past and claimed to have heard him swearing and insulting the Caliphate, according ARA News.

The youngster is said to have been arrested and dragged in front of the ISIS-led Sharia Court where he was sentenced to death on charges of infidelity.

He is said to have been murdered by members of Hisbah, a religious police force, on Thursday.

A statement was read before the murder explaining the reasons behind it, eyewitnesses reported.

An ISIS member from the court the boy appeared in said: “Islamic State’s police arrested Muaz Hassan earlier this week in the city of Raqqa, after they heard him ‘cursing divinity’, while playing in the street with his friends.

express.co.uk

The U.S. military for weeks has been conducting “direct action” drone strikes on Islamic State operatives in Syria who were seeking to organize terrorist attacks on American targets, according to a knowledgeable U.S. official.

The strikes have mainly hit targets in the Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa, in northeast Syria. In many cases, the attacks were ordered after U.S. intelligence learned that Islamic State facilitators there were contacting “lone wolf” volunteers inside the U.S, or others who might be recruited to stage terrorist attacks similar to last Friday’s assaults in Paris.

‘There were networks of folks in Raqqa endeavoring to conduct similar attacks in the U.S. We killed most of them,” the official said. But he cautioned that despite these successes, the U.S. military still faces serious obstacles in collecting information about Islamic State operations. “Our ability to ‘see’ and hear them is severely restricted by the readily available encryption they use,” the official said.

The strikes were mounted by U.S. Special Operations forces, directed by the Pentagon and the White House. By one estimate, these secret operations have killed more than 50 Islamic State operatives who were believed to be attempting to organize attacks against U.S. targets around the world, including inside the U.S.

These “direct action” operations may be stepped up when the Pentagon completes its plan to deploy up to 50 Special Forces troops into Syria, to work with Arab and Kurdish forces there. With operatives on the ground, the official said, the U.S. will be able to partner with local fighters — allowing better targeted direct-action strikes and also maneuver warfare against the caliphate’s capital.

Knowledgeable officials say that U.S. operations against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq use unmanned aerial vehicles that, compared to earlier generations, are harder to detect and more precise.

washingtonpost.com

Al-Qaeda leader releases audio recording, hinting that his group has no objection to a breakaway of its Syria branch

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has released an audio recording, hinting that his organisation has no objection to the breakaway of its Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front.

In the audio statement posted online, Zawahiri said many people talked and fought about the issue of al-Nusra and its al-Qaeda link.

He said if the people choose their own leadership, the organisational affiliation will not be an obstacle to what he described as “the great hopes of the Islamic nation”.

Al-Nusra, one of Syria’s main armed groups, has been excluded from peace talks between the country’s government and opposition in Geneva because of its affiliation with al-Qaeda and it remains on UN and US terror lists.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep near the Turkey-Syria border, said Zawahiri’s message can be interpreted as a split between al-Qaeda and al-Nusra.

“This is being interpreted as a blessing from the central leadership of al-Qaeda to its branch in Syria, to disassociate itself from the group,” she said.

In recent months there have been several reports suggesting al-Nusra is trying to “rebrand” and present itself to the Syrian people, as well as outside powers such as the US, as a more moderate, purely Syrian force not linked to al-Qaeda.

But, the group’s leadership was reportedly unsure about breaking the organisational bond with al-Qaeda.

“There was disagreement within the Nusra leadership about what to do,” Khodr said. “Maybe things will change now that Zawahiri has actually given his blessing”.

The group – known as Jabhat al-Nusra in Arabic – has been actively involved in Syria’s war since 2012, battling Syrian government forces across the country. It has also fought smaller rebel groups, including Western-backed ones, for control of territory.

Al-Nusra is a popular force on the ground among many Syrians opposed to the government, because of its fighting capabilities. But, at the same time, many Syrians in the opposition have long been worried about the group’s links to al-Qaeda.

Recently, the Free Syrian Army, engaging in the political process with the West, has been weakened as al-Nusra has made gains.

On Friday, al-Nusra and its allies captured the strategic town of Khan Touman in Aleppo province, from pro-government forces, a victory that could potentially open up new supply routes for rebel-held areas of the city.

Zawahiri’s message came at an “interesting time”, Khodr said. “Those who back the opposition see al-Nusra as the only force capable of confronting the government at the moment.

“The question now is what will the stance of the international community be, if al-Nusra decides to disassociate itself from al-Qaeda? Will they consider al-Nusra as a legitimate Syrian opposition force?”

Since al-Nusra is considered a terrorist organisation by the UN and the US, it has not been an official party to any negotiations about the future of Syria.

But it has allied itself with several other Syrian groups, who are not on international terrorist lists, in order to gain legitimacy.

“Certainly many in the Syrian opposition will say if al-Nusra disengages itself from al-Qaeda, it will no longer give the Russian government and the Syrian government a pretext to attack moderate rebels,” Khodr said.

Al-Nusra was excluded from a ceasefire agreed between government forces and the opposition in February.

The opposition has complained that Russia as well as the Syrian army are using the presence of al-Nusra fighters as a pretext to attack rebel-held areas, including in Aleppo, where recent fighting has left hundreds of people dead.

aljazeera.com