The Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus has witnessed fierce battles between the Islamic State and Al Nusrah Front in recent weeks. Multiple reports say the Islamic State has been gaining ground from Al Nusrah, which is an official branch of al Qaeda’s international organization.

Yarmouk was once home to more than 100,000 Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Its current population is far less, but it is difficult to find a precise estimate. Earlier this month, the UN warned that the fighting between the rival jihadists has only added to the humanitarian crisis for those refugees who remain. The Syrian government also launches airstrikes in the area as well.

“The continuous, highly intense fighting is not only causing civilian casualties and fatalities, but has also acutely aggravated shortages of food and clean water for the approximately 6,000 civilian families residing inside Yarmouk,” Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said on April 14. UNRWA has regularly attempted to supply food, hygiene products and blankets to the residents of Yarmouk and nearby camps, but its mission has been interrupted by the heavy fighting.

The Islamic State began its new push in Yarmouk on April 7. Multiple factions have clashed there since 2012, but the so-called caliphate saw an opportunity to advance and took it. An offensive by the Islamic State a year earlier, in April 2015, fizzled after local militant groups and Al Nusrah thwarted its expansion. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization has controlled turf inside the camp since then, but the situation was essentially a stalemate. That has changed in recent weeks, with Al Nusrah losing turf.

Amaq News Agency, which is part of the Islamic State’s prolific media machine, released the infographic seen on the right on Apr. 14. It says the Islamic State controls 30% of Yarmouk and 70% of the nearby “Palestine Camp.” The infographic also indicates that 15 Al Nusrah Front fighters defected after Baghdadi’s men announced amnesty for any jihadists who left the al Qaeda branch’s forces. Amaq refers to Al Nusrah as simply “Al Qaeda,” which is accurate. The group is openly loyal to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri and staffed with veteran jihadists throughout its ranks.

Amaq has regularly reported on Al Nusrah’s (al Qaeda’s) alleged defections and losses since then, with 10 al Qaeda fighters purportedly defecting on April 18. Five more al Qaeda jihadists reportedly defected on April 23, with the Islamic State killing three men who refused to switch sides.

Amaq has also been eager to trumpet al Qaeda’s loss of ground. A headline from the media outfit on April 7 read: “Islamic State fighters take control of the Juwrat ash-Sharibati neighborhood and parts of the Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus, after clashes with al Qaeda.” That same day, the media arm reported: “Breaking | Islamic State fighters take control of the Arubah checkpoint seperating Yalda [another area] from the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus after clashes with al Qaeda.”

Another headline on April 11 said: “Renewed advance by Islamic State forces at the expense of al Qaeda fighters in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, capturing new positions.”

It is often difficult, if not impossible, to fully verify Amaq’s claims. But independent reporting indicates that the Islamic State has the upper hand in the current battle.

“Daesh [Islamic State] has chased Al Nusra[h], its former ally in the Yarmouk camp, from 90 percent of the territory it controlled,” Anwar Abdel Hadi, who heads the Palestine Liberation Organization in Damascus, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Estimates provided to both AFP and Newsweek suggest that the Islamic State has between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in Yarmouk and the nearby area. Al Nusrah is believed to have far fewer fighters in the camp, perhaps only a few hundred. Local witnesses also told Newsweek that both sides are beheading their jihadist rivals during the vicious conflict.

Should the Islamic State be victorious, Baghdadi’s men will have a new safe haven in Damascus. On April 20, Amaq released a short video documenting the areas of Yarmouk that have fallen under the Islamic State’s control. The images, some of which are included below, show a sparsely populated area ravaged by war.

longwarjournal.org

The Iraqi Army Brigade 72 and Division 15 of Nineveh Operations Command liberated 200 people, including families and children, in the villages of al-Haj Ali and Mahana, which lie around 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Mosul and in the vicinity of the town of Makhmour.

The development came on the same day as Iraqi fighter jets struck Daesh positions west of al-Siniya district in the northern province of Salahuddin as well as the outskirts of the oil-rich city of Baiji, killing scores of the extremists and destroying their explosive-laden vehicles.

Separately, Iraqi army troopers backed by fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units thwarted a Daesh offensive against the city of al-Saqlawiyah, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the capital. Several Daesh militants were reportedly killed and a car bomb destroyed in the process.

Meanwhile, the Daesh group has executed nearly four dozen of its members in the western province of Anbar on charges of fleeing the battlefield.

A local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Daesh extremists killed 45 fellow militants in Mosul by forcing them to sleep in forensic storage refrigerators for 24 hours. Daesh militants then placed the victims’ bodies at the entrance of houses across the city.

The source added that the slain militants were accused of escaping clashes with Iraqi government forces in the city of Hit, which lies 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Anbar’s provincial capital city of Ramadi.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh mounted an offensive in June 2014.

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

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have been engaged in operations to liberate militant-held regions.

albawaba.com

At least 6 killed, 25 wounded in attack in southwest Baghdad; IS have been able to conduct frequent bombings in government-controlled areas.

A suicide bomber targeted Shiite worshippers at a Baghdad mosque after Friday prayers, killing at least six people, security and medical officials said.

The attack in southwest Baghdad also wounded at least 25 people, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State jihadist group carries out frequent suicide bombings targeting Shiites, whom it considers heretics.

IS overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led strikes have since regained significant ground.

The jihadists still control a large part of the country’s west, and are able to carry out frequent bombings in government-held areas.

middle-east-online.com

Iranian troops in Syria are only volunteers operating under the supervision of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Republic’s military.

Ataollah Salehi, the army chief, was quoted by Iran’s Tasnim news agency as saying, “Some volunteers have been sent to Syria, under the supervision of the related organization, and among them there might be some of the Brigade 65 forces.”

“The army has no responsibility (for) military advice given in Syria,” he added.

Rudaw notes that Brigade 65 is an elite commando brigade of Iran’s army.

“Before its recent deployment Iranian forces in Syria had mostly been part of the extraterritorial branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the so-called Quds Brigade,” adds Rudaw.

Although Iran has maintained that the IRGC forces in Syria are only advisers, many of them have been killed in battle, including commanders.

Iran has been an ardent supporter of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

Along with its terror proxy Hezbollah and Russia, Iran has helped Assad fight the Syrian opposition, which they consider terrorists.

In late February, various news media outlets reported that Iran was planning to withdraw2,500 IRGC troops and Basiji paramilitary combat soldiers from Syria.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported that 700 military advisers would remain behind to assist the Assad regime.

Moreover, Iran is expected to continue arming and supporting the Lebanese-based Hezbollah group.

Also in February, the Russian government vowed to increase military cooperation with Iran in support of Assad.

Despite an international travel ban, Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani reportedly flew to Moscow to discuss Syria and the delivery of Russian missiles earlier this month.

Iran-backed Shiite militias in Syria operate under the direction of Soleimani, a Revolutionary Guard general charged with most of Tehran’s expeditionary missions in Syria and across the Middle East.

In September 2015, Russia reached an agreement with Iraq, Syria, and Iran to work together on behalf of the Assad regime.

Both Iran and Russia have opposed the U.S.-backed ouster of Assad.

breitbart.com

On Wednesday the leadership of al-Hashed al-Shaabi in Anbar Province announced killing 40 militants from the so-called ISIS during the cleaning battles of al-Karma District east of Fallujah, while indicated that the cleansing operations had been stopped until the arrival of military reinforcements.

The commander of Karmat Fallujah brigade, Colonel Khamis Bahr Halbusi, said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The cleaning battles that were started today in al-Karma District resulted in the killing of 40 ISIS fighters and five security personnel, including a captain, in addition to wounding four others.”

Halbusi added, “The cleaning battles had been stopped until the redeployment of security forces and arrival of military reinforcements,” pointing out that, “The liberation operations will be resumed in the coming few hours.”

iraqinews.com

The White House suggested Thursday that the Obama administration is preparing to declassify at least “some information” in a secret section of a report on the Sept. 11 attacks that some speculate might reveal that Saudi Arabia’s government played a role in that attack.

An intelligence agency is reviewing whether to declassify 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report, which are the final summary of the commission’s findings about the events leading up to the attack.

Once that review is done, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said, “We expect that there will be some declassification that provides some information.” Rhodes made the statement Thursday while traveling with Obama to Saudi Arabia, where the president and top members of his national security team are holding a summit with officials from Gulf countries.

In the lead up to President Obama’s trip to Riyadh, several U.S. officials knocked down speculation that the Saudi government played a direct role in financing or planning the 9/11 attacks. Rhodes, who served as a spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, repeated that assessment on Thursday.

washingtonexaminer.com

The dead bodies of dozens of women and children slaughtered by ISIS thugs have been unearthed at two mass graves in an Iraq football stadium. The chilling discovery was made by Iraqi cops who were led to the graves by captured Islamic State militants.

They found at least 40 bodies, among them women and children and men in civilian clothes, at the 40,000 capacity Al Ramadi Stadium in the western city of Ramadi. Officials believe Islamic State militants used the stadium as a mass graveyard to dump their slaughtered victims during their reign of terror in the city. The Iraq-US coalition suffered a major blow last May after Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, was captured by Islamic State.

But following the city’s liberation last December, the barbarism of Sunni terrorist group’s brutal regime is only just coming to light.

In territories formerly under Islamic State rule, the discovery of mass graves has not been uncommon. In June 2014, some 1,700 Iraqi soldiers were captured and then killed by Islamic State militants when they overran Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. At the time, the soldiers were trying to flee from Camp Speicher, a nearby army base where they were deployed.

Mass graves with hundreds of Iraqi soldiers’ bodies were later found after the city was liberated in April 2015. In December, the U.N. human rights office in Iraq said it received reports of 16 mass graves discovered near the town of Sinjar after it was liberated from the Islamic State group the previous month.

Among the first mass graves uncovered in Sinjar — within days of Islamic State forces being pushed out of the town — was one near the town’s centre.

It was estimated to contain the bodies of 78 elderly women. Another, about 10 miles outside of Sinjar, contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children. The term “mass grave” is used by the U.N. to refer to a location where three or more murdered civilian victims are buried.

standardmedia.co.ke

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that almost $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.

The court’s 6-2 ruling dealt a setback to Iran’s central bank, finding that the U.S. Congress did not usurp the authority of American courts by passing a 2012 law stating that the frozen funds should go toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment won by the families against Iran in U.S. federal court in 2007.

Bank Markazi had challenged a 2014 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the money, held in a Citibank trust account in New York, should be handed over to the American plaintiffs.

The ruling, written by liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the U.S. Congress did not violate the separation of powers principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that gives specific authority to the government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Ginsburg rejected the notion that the law infringed upon the role of courts by indicating how a case should be decided, saying that it instead “directs courts to apply a new legal standard to undisputed facts.” It was left to the courts to determine how that standard should be implemented, she said.

The lawsuit was brought by more than 1,000 Americans who have waged a long legal battle seeking compensation for attacks they say Iran orchestrated. Congress inserted itself into the dispute by passing the law to help the American plaintiffs obtain the Iranian funds.

businessinsider.com

The Peshmerga forces official Sirwan Barzani revealed on Wednesday, that the so-called ISIS shelled the Peshmerga forces using 12 rockets containing chemical substances in Kuwer axis.

Barzani said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Last night, ISIS attacked the Peshmerga forces near Abu Shith village in Kuwer axis using 12 chemical rockets.”

“The shelling resulted in the wounding of 6 members of the Peshmerga forces,” Barzani added.

iraqinews.com

Russian official confirms Tehran will finally receive controversial air defense missile system by the end of 2016.

Iran is to finally receive Russian-made S-300 air defense missile systems by the end of this year, according to the pro-Kremlin Interfax news agency.

Interfax quoted Sergei Chemezov, who heads the Russian state-owned Rostec weapons technology firm, making the pledge on Tuesday.

The Russian shipment to Iran has been the source of major contention, and threatens to destabilize the already fraught region. Israel in particular objects to the transfer of the advanced missile system, which would render Tehran’s controversial nuclear program almost impervious to attack should the regime decide to resume its illegal nuclear weapons program.

As a result, and despite the deal having long been sealed, delivery of the missiles and batteries themselves have been repeatedly delayed by Moscow.

Highlighting the politically-delicate nature of the deal, last week Iranian officials were forced to hastily backtrack on claims they had already begun receiving shipments of the S-300 system, clarifying that the missiles were in fact to be received at a later date.

inn.com