Saudi Arabia sends a letter to the United Nations and international aid groups advising them to remove staff from areas of Yemen under Houthi control.

Saudi Arabia has sent a letter to the United Nations and international aid groups advising them to remove staff from areas of Yemen under Houthi control.

The Saudi Embassy in London sent the short note, saying the warning’s intention was to “protect the international organizations and their employees”.

It was not immediately clear how many aid groups received the note.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of nine Arab countries that began a military campaign in March to prevent Houthi rebels, whom it sees as a proxy for Iran, from taking complete control of Yemen.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien said in a letter on Sunday that he had received the note but said the humanitarian community would continue to deliver aid across Yemen impartially on the basis of need.

Mr O’Brien reminded Saudi Arabia of obligations under international humanitarian law to facilitate access for aid.

The Saudi mission to the United Nations responded that Riyadh would “do its utmost to continue to facilitate and support” humanitarian aid work in Yemen, but repeated its request for UN and international aid workers to leave areas close to Houthi bases in order for military operations to go ahead.

“The coalition’s request is consistent with its obligations under international humanitarian law and, in no way, can be misinterpreted to indicate any hindrance to humanitarian access and the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Yemen,” it said.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the humanitarian situation in Yemen on Tuesday at the request of Russia, diplomats said.

The Houthis and their allies, forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, accuse the coalition of launching a war of aggression.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition entered the conflict in March, almost half of them civilians.

radioaustralia.net.au

World powers fell short of a full ceasefire in Syria, agreeing to a “nationwide cessation of hostilities” in one week’s time, US Secretary of State John Kerry said early Friday.

The partial truce will not apply to Daesh or al-Nusra Front Islamist militias, he said.

A meeting of the International Syria Support Group in Munich resulted in a further agreement to “accelerate and expand” delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrians as early as Monday, Kerry said.

Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura held nearly six hours of negotiations with European and Middle Eastern foreign ministers to reach the agreement.

It foresees the creation of two task forces to separately oversee delivery of humanitarian aid and the cessation of hostilities.

Kerry said that the partial truce could not be referred to as a ceasefire, which would be “far more permanent – an end of conflict.”

“This is a pause,” he said.

It was not immediately clear how the exclusion of al-Nusra Front from the partial end to hostilities would work in practice. On many of Syria’s most active front lines, the group fights alongside other rebel groups.

The diplomats had met to push for a breakthrough ahead of peace talks scheduled to resume February 26 in Geneva.

The top diplomats of Iran and Saudi Arabia – rival regional powers considered key to any durable ceasefire and political transition in Syria – attended the talks. It was their first meeting since the countries broke off diplomatic relations in early January.

The agreement came against the backdrop of a significant military escalation in Syria, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by a Russian air campaign, advances against rebels.

albawaba.com

The four year old British boy dubbed “Jihadi Junior” has been filmed detonating the bomb which kills four Daesh prisoners in the group’s latest execution video.

Isa Dare, the son of Muslim convert Grace “Khadija” Dare from south east London, pushes the button that blows up four alleged spies sitting in a white car behind him.

Standing triumphantly next to the charred remains of the car, his hand raised to the sky, the boy then yells: “Allahu Akbar.”

It is the second time the young boy, who was brainwashed after his mother took him to Syria three years ago, has appeared in one of the extremists’ propaganda videos.

His grandfather told of how the child begged him to save him just days before he was forced to appear in the first video last month.

In what was seen as a “promotion”‘ of this latest murderous release, Dare was made to declare: “We are going to kill the kuffar [non-believers] over there” – before pointing to the men killed in today’s video.

The latest video, which is believed to be shot in Daesh’s de facto capital of Raqqa, was entitled: “They are the enemy so be aware of them.”

One by one, each man confessed to either spying on, or conspiring against, Daesh. They were later seen handcuffed to the inside of a car – with a look of utter fear in their eyes.

Before they were killed, the senior Daesh commander standing next to the boy threatened British Prime Minister David Cameron for arming the terror group’s enemies in Syria.

He said: “You will never fight us except behind fortified fortresses or behind walls.

“So no David Cameron, you’ve given the whole world more certainty in this [inaudible]. You’ve only done two things.

“Firstly, when you sent your spies to Syria and when you authorized for your men, thousands of miles away, to push a button to kill our brothers who lived in the West.

“So today, we’re going to kill your spies the same way they helped you kill our brothers.”

As he placed a hand on the young boy’s head, he added: “So prepare your army and gather your nations as we too are preparing our army.”

Young Dare was brainwashed by Daesh fanatics after his mother, 24, who had links to Lee Rigby’s killer, brought him to the warzone.

His grandfather, Henry Dare, 59, said Isa made a desperate plea for help during a heartbreaking phone call just days before he featured in the barbaric stunt, saying: “Please save me.”

It later emerged that Isa’s father had made a desperate attempt to rescue his son after his estranged wife fled to Syria and married a Daesh militant.

Asked if he thought his grandson had any idea what he was saying in the video, Mr. Dare – of Deptford, southeast London – said: “No – he’s a kid.”

“He’s a minor, he’s under five. He’s acting under the influence of Daesh guerrillas. He’s too young. He’s propaganda. They are just using a small boy. They are using him as a shield.”

Mr. Dare said he had reported Grace to the police on three occasions before she left for Syria and told them “she’s behaving in a very funny way”.

Grace Dare is believed to have been radicalized online, then began attending the Lewisham Islamic Centre, where Fusilier Rigby’s murderers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are reported to have worshipped.

The mosque has denied they were part of the congregation. Her mother Victoria said she changed her first name to Khadija after she began attending the mosque.

“I still call her our Grace,” said the mother. “I want her back in my life. She is the only child that I have and the devil took her away.”

Dare, born in London in 1991 of Nigerian descent, went to Syria in around 2012 and married a Swede known as Abu Bakr. He is now dead.

She used social media to gloat about the beheading of American journalist James Foley and said she wanted to be the first British woman to kill a Daesh hostage.

Her mother, also from Lewisham, said of her daughter in a BBC TV documentary last April: “She loved church. She had a Bible, she read the Bible.

“She would sit and pray and pray and pray.”

Downing Street said the release of the video on Sunday showed the terrorist group was “under pressure’.

The footage shows five men in orange jumpsuits “confessing” to taking money in return for filming and photographing sites within Raqqa, the capital of Daesh’s self-declared caliphate.

A member of a Raqqa-based group which opposes Daesh told the Radio 4 Today program that the victims included shopkeepers and businessmen from the town.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said of the video that “it reflects the barbarity of this organization but it is also a propaganda tool.

“This is a terrorist group we are seeing put under pressure.”

More than 30 UK children have already been made the subject of family court orders over radicalization fears, Scotland Yard has revealed.

Judges have considered cases involving 12 different families.

Last year, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the country’s most senior terrorism officer, said some children were “almost babes in arms”, with ages ranging from two or three up to 16 or 17.

albawaba.com

A Saudi military spokesman has said that Saudi’s decision is “final” to deploy ground troops to Syria in the fight against Daesh, al-Arabiya reported.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri said Thursday that Saudi Arabia is “ready” to fight alongside the US-led coalition allies against Daesh militants in Syria. He declined to answer questions about further details on ground operations.

“We are representing Saudi’s [decision] only” in sending troops, al-Assiri said.

In a reference to the current rift in relations between Tehran and Riyadh, he also added that Iran must stop supporting “terrorism” in Yemen or Syria if it is serious about fighting Daesh.

Thirty-five Muslim countries are currently involved in the Islamic Military Alliance, a coalition fighting Daesh in Syria, and is headquartered in Riyadh. The military spokesman said the Islamic Military Alliance’s decision regarding ground troops will take effect within two months.

albawaba.com

https://youtu.be/l06ur7OQTMw

Footage emerged on Thursday of female Kurdish fighters commandeering tanks, sniper rifles and machine-gun mounted trucks in the successful offensive to capture the Mannagh air base from Islamist rebels in Syria’s Aleppo province.

The video, released by the Kurdish AHNA news agency, begins with female voices before cutting to a tank with three female Kurdish fighters sitting atop the vehicle and another in a front seat.

It is unclear if a female fighter is driving the vehicle but it demonstrates the willingness of the Kurdish female fighters to be at the heart of the People’s Protection Units’ (YPG) battle for territory in northern Syria. A second shot of the tank, towards the end of the video, shows a tank firing into the distance with female voices shouting afterwards.

The footage then shows female fighters manning heavy weaponry, firing between sandbag protected walls, and machine-gun mounted trucks. It also shows what appears to be a female with long hair firing a sniper rifle through a hole that appears to have been created by a projectile.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told AFP news agency that the Kurds captured the air base and the nearby village of Mannagh from anti-regime rebels late Wednesday. The U.K.-based monitoring group revealed that the Russian air force, allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supported the offensive with air strikes.

“With the defeat at Mannagh, Islamist fighters lost the only military airport they held in Aleppo province,” SOHR founder Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The air base is located between two key roads that lead from Aleppo city to Azaz north of the city, giving them a strategic advantage to tackle jihadis further east, he added. The Assad regime lost control of the base in August 2013.

YPG forces have been battling Islamist rebels in Syria as well as the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in eastern Syrian provinces of Raqqa and Hasakah.

newsweek.com

Kurdish-led fighters aided by Russian bombing captured a rebel-held former Syrian military airport near the border with Turkey, a monitor and rebels said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy fighting took place between Kurds and Syrian insurgents around Menagh airport and Russian warplanes staged at least 30 raids against the rebels holding out there.

Rebels say the Kurdish YPG militias have been taking advantage of their preoccupation with fending off a Syrian army ground offensive launched last week in the northern Aleppo countryside to gain ground in the area near a main border crossing with Turkey.

Kurdish fighters based in their stronghold in the city of Afrin, south of rebel-held Azaz, have grabbed a string of villages that rebels have been forced to evacuate to confront advancing Syrian troops coming from the south.

Russian bombing had allowed Syrian troops supported by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias to reach almost 25 km  from the Turkish border, the closest they have come in more than two-and-a-half years.

This allowed them to rupture a main rebel supply line between the border and portions of the city of Aleppo which insurgents control. The army with the help of its allies is now seeking to regain full control of what was once the country’s most populous city.

armradio.am

The Iraqi security said on wednesday that its forces have arrested a group of militants from the ISIS after trying to flee the city of Ramadi while dressed as women.

“The terrorists had shaved their beards and dressed as women in a bid to fool our forces and escape the liberated city of Ramadi. However, they were all arrested before escaping the city,” the Iraqi security command said in a statement.

The Iraqi army announced on Tuesday the “full liberation” of Ramadi city, capital of Anbar province, from ISIS militants.

Dozens of ISIS terrorists are believed to be stranded inside Ramadi after the Iraqi troops imposed their control over the city.

The local media activist Fouad Al-Saddi said that the Iraqi forces raided several neighborhoods across the city looking for ISIS militants.

“The militants who remained in the city are now trying to escape at any cost in order to avoid falling in the hands of the government forces,” Al-Saddi said.

“At least nine ISIS terrorists were destained on wednesday while trying to flee the security checkpoints of the Iraqi forces in Ramadi suburb. They were all dressed as women,” the source added.

Iraqi army forces have been engaged in fierce battles with ISIS militant fighters in Ramadi and its suburbs over the last few weeks.

“Our forces have pushed Daesh (ISIS) militants out of the city’s outskirts. Ramadi is now under the full control of the army,” Iraqi central command announced on Tuesday.

The Iraqi army had declared the liberation of Ramadi from ISIS earlier in December. However, the militant group fought back and regained several districts across the city after renewed clashes with Iraqi army troops, where dozens of fighters were reported dead on both sides.

In the meantime, governor of Anbar province Suhaib al-Rawi said that the bombs and land-mines left by ISIS prevent displaced civilians from returning to Ramadi.

abna24.com

On the far side of the Syria-Turkish border crossing, tens of thousands of refugees from Aleppo and neighbouring towns are gathering, with no way forward and no way back.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad, comprising mainly of Iraqi and Afghan Shia militias commanded by Iranian officers along with Syrian army units, have almost completed the encirclement of Aleppo.

The 300,000 people who failed to escape the city face death by starvation or bombardment.

With this siege, the tide of the war has turned decisively in favour of the Russian-Iranian alliance standing behind Bashar Assad’s regime – and Israel certainly cannot afford to look away.

Although Russian air power has been key to the successes of the Shia ground forces, President Vladimir Putin is not interested in playing a role in the actual governance of Syria.

Meanwhile, Daesh, the first player to take advantage of the power vacuum in Syria, is slowly losing ground, and much of its oil revenue, as a result of coalition air strikes. This leaves Iran as a potential power-broker – even though its Al Quds force, along with its proxies Hizbollah, has been badly mauled in the fighting.

Such an outcome would be deeply concerning for Israel. As Iranian leaders promote Holocaust denial and issue covert threats against the Jewish state, the Islamic Republic and Hizbollah continue to try to establish their presence on the Golan through local terror cells.

In two air-strikes last year attributed to Israel, senior Iranian and Lebanese commanders involved in the Golan plans – including Hizbollah’s Jihad Mughniyeh, murderer Samir Kuntar and Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi – were killed. This set back the plans but the Iranians will continue pressing.

Israel has quietly been supporting more moderate rebel groups on the Golan, mainly through medical assistance, in the hope that a buffer zone will keep both Daesh and Hizbollah away.

Last week, Major-General Nitan Alon, commander of the IDF’s Operations Branch, said that Israel was an effective part of the coalition against Daesh and that it shared intelligence with other nations fighting the terrorists. “We see Daesh as our enemy,” he said.

On the other hand, last month, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said: “Iran is worse than Daesh”.

Israel’s strategy in Syria, beyond the interdiction of Hizbollah weapons convoys, is now to try to drive a wedge between Iran and Russia. Israel is using the close ties developed over the years with the Kremlin to retain a degree of leverage over events in Syria.

“The geopolitical change is incredible,” said former Israeli air-force Brigadier-General Avraham Asael. “When I was a young pilot, we flew against Russian pilots who were supporting the Egyptians.

“Today, we are co-ordinating with the Russian air force over Syria.”

The other side of this geopolitical coin is that Israel now realises that its main allies in the West, the United States and Britain, are not going to intervene in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Russian-Shia campaign is set to prolong the Syrian war and, in doing so, extend the abject misery for the country’s civilians.

With Iranian and regime forces almost completely surrounding Aleppo, just one road allows people to leave the city and supplies to enter.

Bahaa al-Jabali, a local activist, said: “If the regime closes the last supply line, the food could run out in a matter of days.”

At the same time, other regime forces are pushing north, towards the Turkish border, and south, towards the town of Deraa, on Jordan’s border.

Four months of intense Russian air-strikes on rebel strongholds have weakened the rebels’ resistance and, according to Israeli intelligence sources, given the Syrian army the ability to “come back from the dead”.

The war in Syria is, of course, nowhere near ending. The rebels still hold significant strongholds in the north and south, while Daesh continues to control much of Syria’s east.

Despite the Russian air cover, the Assad regime and its supporters still lack the manpower to launch large ground offensives to regain those territories.

The regime will probably make do with besieging Aleppo for months rather than directly take on the 30,000 rebel fighters in the city.

A diplomatic solution is unlikely and the war will probably drag on for years, creating further humanitarian crises both within Syria, where at least half the population has been displaced, as well as in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Retired Brigadier General Mike Herzog commented: “Recent developments in northern Syria – as Russia bombs its way to a non-existent solution and provides an air umbrella to Assad and his Shiite allies – are likely to undermine the diplomatic efforts and prolong the war.”

thejc.com

The Russian defense ministry has lashed out at the U.S.-led coalition in Syria for refusing to provide intelligence on Islamic State targets there.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Thursday that Russia has shared its own intelligence with the United States that it has “gratefully taken” but has not reciprocated.

Konashenkov said Russia has repeatedly asked the U.S. and its allies for intelligence in response to the accusations that Russians are targeting the “wrong objects.”

A Syrian government offensive around the city of Aleppo backed by Russian airstrikes has sent tens of thousands fleeing to the Turkish border, putting peace talks in Geneva in jeopardy.

foxnews.com

Russia and a leading Kurdish group in Syria are strengthening cooperation in the run-up to UN-led talks aimed at resolving Syria’s civil war.

The Kurdish group, part of Syria’s anti-government forces, has opened a mission in Russia. An opening ceremony was held in Moscow on Wednesday.

Mission members say they will step up calls for Russian support through the country’s political parties and media organizations.

The move comes just before the countries concerned are to meet in Germany on Thursday in an effort to reopen the UN-led peace talks.

Russia has insisted that the Kurdish forces should be allowed to take part in the talks.

But Turkey, whose relations with Russia have deteriorated since it shot down a Russian bomber, is opposed to the Kurdish group’s participation. Turkey insists that the group has ties with what it regards as a terrorist organization in Turkey.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday reiterated her country’s position that the Kurdish group should join the talks.

Zakharova told reporters that the group controls more than 15 percent of Syrian territory and is effectively fighting against the Islamic State militant group.

She said it is unacceptable to deprive the group of the right to participate in deciding the future of their country.

nhk.or.jp