Fighting has intensified outside the Yemeni capital, killing at least 30 people in two days, Yemeni security officials and tribal elders said Tuesday.

Some 25 fighters from both sides were killed in clashes between government forces and Shiite rebels and their allies some 65 km (40 miles) east of Sanaa, they said, adding that five civilians were also killed when artillery shells hit residential areas.

Yemen has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels allied with troops loyal to a former president and captured large swaths of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against the rebels in March 2015. Since then, more than 5,800 people have been killed. More than 80 percent of Yemenis are in dire need of food, water and other aid, according to the United Nations.

In the southern port city of Aden, fighting erupted Tuesday night between government forces and al-Qaida fighters after authorities set up roadblocks as part of a security plan.

In Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, which is under a Houthi siege, artillery strikes killed three civilians and wounded 14 others as fighting broke out, the officials said. Airstrikes also hit around the capital, setting a weapons depot ablaze for several hours.

The officials, who are neutral in the conflict, and tribal elders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

japantimes.co.jp

The man appeared to have been captured by an Iraqi soldier who is seen brandishing a large knife in the clip.

A video has emerged allegedly showing an ISIS fighter being punished after attempting to escape from Iraqi forces by dressing as a woman.

In the unverified clip, a man, who is thought to be a member of ISIS, is seen dressed in a traditional black dress and hijab, as he stands next to am Iraqi soldier.

He looks down at his feet while the soldier hits him across the face, while at the same time brandishing a large knife.

It is thought the footage was recorded recently in Ramadi, a city in Iraq approximately 68 miles west of Baghdad.

The video has surfaced several times on social media, and was also uploaded to Hassan al-Saadi Place’s Facebook page.

Place appears to claim that he is the Iraqi soldier in the footage, although this has not been verified.

A caption uploaded alongside the video yesterday reads: “Hassan Place arrested Daasha Saudi…disguised as a woman on the outskirts of Ramadi.”

mirror.co.uk

Russian special operations troops are working covertly in Syria to support an array of Iranian-backed fighters, including members of the international terrorist group Hezbollah, U.S. defense officials and counterterror experts say.

The Spetsnaz commandos were detected working closely with military forces of the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, as well as several Iranian-backed groups, which even include armed Iraqis and Afghans.

Officials did not disclose the specific numbers of Spetsnaz troops in Syria but said the numbers were in the dozens.

Recent operations involving Spetsnaz forces have been focused on attacking anti-regime rebels near the northern city of Aleppo. The city has also been a target of Russian airstrikes.

However, officials said reports from Syria that Spetsnaz troops are working with pro-Iranian Hezbollah forces are a growing concern. Officials are worried the terrorist group, which is known for attacking Americans, will gain valuable military know-how from the Russian commandos.

Hezbollah, or Party of God, is a Lebanon-based terror group that the U.S. Counterterrorism Center has linked to numerous attacks that have killed scores of Americans since the 1980s.

“Although Hezbollah’s leadership is based in Lebanon, the group has established cells worldwide,” the Center states.

Hezbollah’s leader stated in May 2013 that the group is backing the Assad regime by dispatching fighters to Syria.

“Russian-Hezbollah cooperation and coordination in Syria has been going on since the outset of Russia’s entry into the civil war,” said David Daoud, a Middle East analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Iranian and Hezbollah sources have openly admitted, on a number of occasions, that Hezbollah ground operations during key battles in the war were carried out with Russian air support,” Daoud said. “So it wouldn’t be surprising that there’s now cooperation between Hezbollah’s ground forces and Russian special forces.”

Despite its record of anti-U.S. attacks, the U.S. government has done little to counter Hezbollah or retaliate against it.

Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mughniyah, was killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus in February 2008. Israel was suspected of carrying out the bombing.

Iranian-backed militants and organizations like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have long been suspected of serving as Russia’s de facto “ground force” in Syria, according to defense officials monitoring the situation.

One Pentagon official recently told the Washington Free Beacon that military sources have continued to monitor “Iranian-sponsored forces providing support to the Syrian regime in their fight against Syrian opposition forces.”

Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, disclosed late last year that military leaders had informed him of Hezbollah-led “ethnic cleansing” campaigns.

“I’ve been briefed on the fact that [Iran is] even bringing in militias from Hezbollah and their families into Sunni dominated neighborhoods in Damascus and running their Sunni population out as they basically do an ethnic cleansing campaign,” Royce said.

The deployment of Russian special operations troops to Syria illustrates the growing role for covert military forces from numerous countries in the war-torn country.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter disclosed last month that U.S. special operations commandos are operating in Syria to assist rebel forces opposing the Islamic State (ISIS).

The U.S. commandos were sent in November as part of the Obama administration’s latest strategy to defeat the terrorist group.

The elite U.S. warriors are engaged in intelligence-gathering, targeting enemy forces, and advising rebels.

“These operators have helped focus the efforts of the local, capable forces against key ISIL vulnerabilities, including their lines of communication,” Carter said in a speech Jan. 13, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. “They are generating new insights that we turn into new targets, new strikes, and new opportunities.”

Recent news reports from Syria have indicated Hezbollah is working with Spetsnaz troops in the eastern part of the country.

The Arabic-language Al Rai newspaper reported on Jan. 26 that the commandos were making military advances in the mountains north of Latakia.

“Special forces from the Russian army equipped with Howitzer artillery, supported by warplanes and backed by elite units from Lebanon’s Hezbollah … have been entering the fiercest of battles in the heights and towns of Latakia,” the newspaper reported. The paper quoted sources in a Damascus operations center that included military forces from Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah.

Boris Zilberman, also with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Russian-Hezbollah collaboration is not surprising.

“Russia recently said they do not consider Hezbollah a terrorist group and there are unconfirmed reports that Hezbollah militants participated in the search and rescue of the downed Russian Su-24 pilots,” Zilberman said.

Two Russian pilots were shot down and one killed when their aircraft strayed into Turkish airspace in November.

Russia continued airstrikes in northern Syria on Monday with Moscow reporting attacks on ISIS oil depots near Aleppo and other areas.

Two weeks ago, Western reporters visited Russia’s main Syrian base at Hmeimim, near Latakia, where Spetznaz troops were seen conducting security details. The commandos reportedly were dispatched to Syria on orders from Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s special operations troops are considered among the most well-trained and well-equipped elite troops used for both combat and intelligence-related activities.

Russian bombers destroyed more than 1,300 terrorist targets in 468 sorties over the past week, Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency reported Feb. 1.

The strikes were carried out by Tu-22 bombers and Su-35 strike aircraft.

freebeacon.com

The senior US general in Iraq has indicated length of the struggle ahead in defeating Daesh, referring to the current situation in the country as “the end of the beginning”.

Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland said the battle against the extremists in Syria would not reach a similar point until their de facto capital Raqqa was retaken.

“I think we’re at the end of the beginning,” he told Washington-based journalists in a video conference from Baghdad. “When we got Ramadi back, that proved that the Iraqi security forces have the wherewithal, have the skill, to defeat the enemy in open battle.”

The western city of Ramadi was recaptured from Daesh in December.

MacFarland said Syria presented a more complex problem. “When I would say we would be at the beginning of the end is when we get Raqqa back,” he said. “I mean, that would be a really strong signal that the enemy is in its final death throes.”

Last year President Barack Obama directed the Pentagon to intensify the campaign against Daesh and last month, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told coalition counterparts in Paris that special forces and training missions would likely play a greater role in defeating Daesh, as well as more troops on the ground.

MacFarland said this did not necessarily refer to US troops deployed in combat role. “I’ve been directed to come up with a series of proposals,” he said. “Some would call them accelerants to the campaign that would allow us to increase the pressure on the enemy… It could be a capability that doesn’t require any significant number of troops on the ground.”

Turning to Mosul, Iraq’s second city that fell to Daesh in the summer of 2014, the general said the coalition was preparing with Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces to retake the city.

The US and its allies would provide airpower and equipment for the offensive, he added, without giving any timeframe for the long-anticipated assault.

albawaba.com

express.co.uk

International coalition fighter jets conducted a major airstrike on an Islamic State (IS) position near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, killing scores of jihadists and inflicting the group with heavy damages.

Iraqi military sources confirmed that the airstrikes targeted an IS gathering in which at least 60 jihadists were killed and 15 others injured.

Several IS commanders, including Abu Asaad Checheni, are reportedly among the killed jihadists.

The Iraqi sources stated that the IS commanders gathered to plan a major offensive on Samrra district in Salahaddin province.

Moreover, it has been reported that an unnamed IS commander who was responsible for IS terrorist activities in Kirkuk province has also been killed during the raid.

basnews.com

One of Isis’s most senior recruiters has been shot dead in Syria, it has been revealed.

Australian media said that Neil Prakash’s death was announced on secure communications app Telegram.

He has been linked to an alleged plot to attack Anzac Day commemorations in Australia, according to the Herald Sun in Melbourne.

‘It was posted on Telegram,’ the member, who was not named, told the newspaper. ‘I did not know him, but I heard.’

The newspaper said there were no details about how, when and where Prakash, who left Australia in 2013, was killed.

A spokesman for Australia’s Attorney-General George Brandis said the government ‘cannot confirm reports of the death of Neil Prakash at this time because of the serious security situation in Syria and Iraq’.

Prakash – also known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi – was linked to the alleged plot on Anzac Day, when Australia honours its war dead. Sevdet Besim, 19, is facing four charges related to planning the alleged attack on April 25 last year.

A 15-year-old boy in Britain was in October sentenced to a minimum of five years in jail for inciting Besim to carry out a ‘major terrorist plot’ at the event.

Canberra lifted its terror threat level to high in 2014, conducted counter-terrorism raids and introduced new national security laws amid fears of home-grown extremism.

The government has also cracked down on nationals attempting to travel to conflict zones including Syria and Iraq.

Yemeni security officials say a local al-Qaida affiliate has seized a town from southern separatists, setting up checkpoints at its entrances and besieging government buildings.

The officials said Monday that al-Qaida gunmen in pickups seized the entrances of the town of Azzan and stormed the city council. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the group is known, has widened its reach amid a civil war pitting a loose array of forces backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government against Shiite Houthi rebels and troops loyal to a former president.

AQAP seized the southern port city of Mukalla and the southern town of Jaar last year.

ap.org