MidEastGulf Archivi - Pagina 220 di 401

US Secretary of Defense Carter: There will be U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq

23 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter admitted Friday that there will be U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq in order to help defeat the Islamic State group, which has strongholds in the north of the country and in neighboring Syria.

The Pentagon chief made the admission during an appearance on CNBC’s at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, backtracking on the long-held White House line that regular U.S. troops would not be used to fight the Islamic State militants in Iraq.

“We’re looking for opportunities to do more, and there will be boots on the ground — I want to be clear about that — but it’s a strategic question, whether you are enabling local forces to take and hold, rather than trying to substitute for them,” Carter said.

Carter and U.S. President Barack Obama have both on numerous occasions ruled out such measures in Syria and Iraq, fearing being drawn into another long and drawn-out war in the Middle East.

U.S combat troops fought in Iraq for nearly nine years, while the conflict in Afghanistan continued for a little over 13. Nearly 6,700 U.S. troops died, and 53,000 were injured, in both conflicts.

basnews.com

Yemen: Saada attacks wound dozens and kill at least six, including ambulance driver

22 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

At around 4pm local time yesterday afternoon, 21 January, the ambulance service of the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-supported Al Gomhoury Hospital in Saada governorate, Yemen, was hit by an airstrike, killing one Ministry of Health staff member.

The incident took place in Dhayan, about 20 kilometres from the city of Saada and not far from the MSF-supported Shiara hospital, which was hit with a projectile on 10 January.

The ambulance was hit as it arrived at the site of an earlier bombing. When people gathered to assist the victims, the same site was hit again. The driver and the ambulance were then hit in a third strike.

Healthcare under attack

Two other local towns, Baqim and Al Jawf, were also hit last night in airstrikes. The total number of wounded and killed is still uncertain. MSF has received 40 casualties, six of whom have sadly died.

Ministry of Health and MSF teams are working at full capacity in the Al Gomhoury hospital.

“This latest loss of a colleague is devastating, and it demonstrates the ruthlessness with which healthcare is coming under attack in Yemen,” says Teresa Sancristoval, Emergency Coordinator at MSF.

“People there are being subjected to this kind of violence on a daily basis. No one, not even healthcare workers, are being spared.”

msf.org.uk

Kerry admits: Iran sanctions relief likely to fund terrorism

22 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

U.S. secretary of state says there is little world powers can do to prevent unfrozen assets from reaching the Revolutionary Guard or “other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists”. Funding terrorism will have consequences for Iran, he warns.

It is likely that some of the billions of dollars in sanctions relief granted to Iran under a landmark nuclear deal will go to groups deemed to be terrorists, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. But, he added, he does not believe Iran will be able to use the freed-up cash to boost funding of malign activities if it is serious about revamping its economy.

Kerry said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum the U.S. or others can do little to prevent the now-unfrozen assets from getting into the hands of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps or “other entities” that Iran has supported in the past. But since nuclear-related sanctions were lifted off Iran last weekend, Kerry said, there is no evidence yet to suggest such transfers have occurred.

“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” he told CNBC television in an interview. “You know, to some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented. But I can tell you this: Right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time.”

In fact, Kerry later told a small group of reporters he understands the Revolutionary Guards are “already complaining that they are not getting the money,” adding there will be consequences if Iran is caught using the money to support terrorism.

“If we catch them funding terrorism, they’re going to have a problem in the U.S. Congress, obviously,” he said.

“Whatever amount may flow to them, I am just trying to be honest, I can’t tell people that, ‘No, some amount might not,’ but we don’t believe that is what has made the difference in the activities of Iran in the region,” he said. “It is not money-based, and a whole lot of money isn’t going to make a difference in a whole lot of places.”

Kerry also said the administration believes the amount of money that might flow to terrorist groups will be limited because “the demands of Iran and of the Rouhani administration and of the supreme leader for development in their country are such that there is no way they can succeed in doing what they want to do if they are very busy funding terrorism, and if they are putting money into that kind of enterprise and not into things they need to do to fund their economy.”

In occasionally mocking tones, a group of Republican senators in Washington chided Kerry, telling reporters it was always clear to them that Iran would use its unfrozen assets to finance terrorism.

Led by Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire), the senators also said they plan to introduce legislation to impose tougher sanctions against Iran for conducting ballistic missile tests in violation of a U.N. resolution. They called the punishments proposed by the Obama administration for the testing “tepid and weak.”

“Talk about stating the obvious. I mean, c’mon,” Ayotte said of Kerry’s remarks. “It’s something we’ve all known from the beginning. (Iran) was supporting terrorism when their economy was crippled. They were choosing to put their money into guns, not butter, for their citizens before they had this economic relief.

“To have them actually now say, ‘Well, we think some of this might go to terrorism.’ Duh. I mean, really? It’s been so obvious all along,” she said.

Kerry repeated the Obama administration’s argument that many critics of the Iran deal are inflating the amount of money that Iran now has access to. He said estimates of $100 billion to $150 billion are incorrect — $55 billion is more accurate, he said — because large chunks of that money is obligated to satisfy foreign debt.

In addition, he said Iran has more than $500 billion in infrastructure and development needs and must invest at least $100 billion to modernize its energy sector.

Earlier Thursday, Kerry rejected Iranian criticism of Washington’s use of economic sanctions, saying they are imposed when appropriate.

Kerry said U.S. penalties against Iran and other nations have been “used judiciously and effectively” and will continue to be used in the future.

“We have made it very clear that we use sanctions when we think they are appropriate in order to counter behavior that we believe has broken the law or has challenged the United Nations Security Council or threatened the United States and we stand by our sanctions,” Kerry told reporters.

“We think they have been used judiciously and effectively and we are looking to move on now to put to test the willingness of Iran and other countries in the region to try to reduce tensions and move in a different direction.”

His comments came in response to a complaint lodged a day earlier by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who told The Associated Press in an interview that new U.S. sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile testing are “illegal” and an example of an American “addiction to coercion.” The penalties were imposed Sunday, a day after the U.S. and other nations lifted sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

israelhayom.com

Iraqis prepare for big Mosul battle

22 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Australian and New Zealand troops are training Iraqi soldiers for the big battle to oust IS from the city of Mosul.

Of all the nasty, brutal battles of recent Middle East history, Mosul is expected to be the big one, an apocalyptic street fight spelling the end of the Islamic State group in Iraq.

This will be Iraq’s Stalingrad or Manila, for which the recent battle for the city of Ramadi gave a taste.

IS seeded the entire city with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and used suicide truck bombs as mobile artillery.

Fighters typically fought to the death. Much of the city was obliterated by airstrikes, including by Australian aircraft, and IS’s use of large IEDs to pancake apartment blocks.

US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said IS wouldn’t easily give up Mosul, one of the country’s largest cities and the organisation’s principal Iraqi possession.

“We believe they will fight tooth and nail to keep it,” he said.

“An assault on Mosul potentially … could turn out to be something akin to a last stand for them, at least in Iraq.” he said.

Mosul, a city of a million people in northern Iraq, fell to IS in June 2014.

It was not the Iraqi army’s finest moment. Hollowed out by corruption and the Baghdad government’s sectarian policies, many units disintegrated.

IS acquired a vast store of military equipment. Many of the city’s population fled and just how many remain as virtual prisoners isn’t known.

The Ramadi campaign that culminated in late December, was spearheaded by the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), advised by among others, Australian special forces, and assisted by abundant coalition air power.

Regular Iraqi army units, including the 76th Brigade trained at Taji, played a lesser role.

Warren says the Mosul will be too large and too complex a fight for just the CTS. Regular army units will be heavily involved and for that they need to be trained.

Already 2400 have passed through the Australian and New Zealand training course at Taji, with 1200 now under training.

That includes 900 soldiers of the 71st Brigade and 300 of the Ninewa Operations Command Commando Battalion, actually a line battalion but one regarded as a cut above some other units because of its leadership, performance and discipline.

Many of its member are Sunni Muslims from Mosul, some with family still trapped in the city. For that reason members don’t want to be identified.

But they do plan to be at the forefront of liberating Mosul, raising their own unit flag plus the Australian flag as a gesture of appreciation for our assistance.

“It’s a big honour for me to do this task. We have more confidence. I can’t give you the exact date or time but I would say it is very soon,” an officer says through an interpreter.

Says another, “We are looking forward to going back to Mosul. The ISIS group is not only a threat to Iraq but to surrounding countries. It’s our job to defeat them because we think they are pure evil.”

A sergeant from the 71st Brigade says they can win.

“The soldiers think the Daesh are monsters. Every soldier here in camp Taji wants to go to Mosul to fight Daesh,” he says in accented English, using the local term for IS.

“We are training with Australian army and New Zealand army to teach us the fighting skills to go to Mosul.”

Urban warfare terrifies even seasoned troops and many of the Iraqi soldiers are far from hardened veterans. They include the young, some middle-aged and portly and a few who appear of pensionable age.

Many of the young are two-year conscripts, who all seem to clutch smartphones. One shows off images of himself nightclubbing in Baghdad, along with family photos, music videos and some stomach-churning war porn images of IS dead.

Following the 2003 US invasion, Saddam Hussein’s vast army was dissolved and as the country plummeted into insurgency then civil war, it was reconstituted at huge cost in treasure and toil. Australia contributed to that training but it was mostly done by the US.

Yet the Iraqi army hardly distinguished itself as IS invaded in 2013 and 2014. Units broke and ran, with leaderless troops rounded up and summarily murdered.

Seemingly invincible, IS swept south, its much smaller forces comprehensively outmanoeuvring the demoralised Iraqi army.

It seemed Baghdad was threatened, although that was never really likely.

Under the Building Partner Capacity mission, Australia, New Zealand and several other nations agreed to deploy teams to train Iraqi army units to a standard where they can retake their country.

That’s done at the Taji army base, a short distance north of Baghdad, a vast untidy military area that features ranges, barracks and huge piles of building rubble, large numbers of old military vehicles plus rubbish.

Task Group Taji commander Australian army Colonel Gavin Keating said their Iraqi graduates would soon be on the frontline facing a fanatical and highly capable enemy.

He said ultimately the team’s best result was to turn out soldiers competent at basic military skills and confident in those skills.

“We are here to help them defeat their own enemies on their home soil, which is a lot better than us doing it and better than doing it on our home soil,” he said.

Training starts with the basics. Directly below the portrait of Malcolm Turnbull On Keating’s office wall is a placard which reads: “Helping the IA (Iraqi Army) defeat Daesh one M16 sight adjustment at a time.”

Getting a rifle to shoot where it’s supposed to is soldiering 101 but far from universal in the Iraqi army.

The standard of marksman, a skill usually taught in basic training, isn’t always high. In a morning of instruction, many display marked improvement.

Training then goes on to more advanced skills such as house clearance. There’s a strong emphasis on detecting and clearing the IEDs they will encounter.

The senior New Zealand officer in the taskforce, who can’t be identified under New Zealand policy, says this was all about the Iraqis.

“It’s not about us trying to impose our standards, our rules, how we would do business back in Australia or New Zealand,” he said.

Commander of the training team Lieutenant Colonel Jim Hammett said the training team was giving the Iraqi soldiers the will to train, fight and win one day at a time.

“It doesn’t happen overnight but they know and we know they are going out to the battlefield very very soon and anything we can do to make them survive for a minute, an hour a day longer and achieve the opposite effect on Daesh is a bonus.”

sbs.com.au

Islamic State propaganda magazine Dabiq declares Holy War against Shiites, Iran

21 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Several pages in the 13th issue of the Islamic State’s (IS) Dabiq propaganda monthly magazine are devoted to calling for the killing of Shia Muslims.

Dabiq was released Tuesday by the Islamic State, the jihadi insurgent group which controls territory in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. The outfit also has affiliates in the Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

Shiite Muslims, although the second most popular sect of Islam, account for only about 10-13 percent of the global Islamic population, according to reports.

The rift between Sunnis and Shiites goes back to the debate over who was the rightful successor of Islam’s Mohammed.

The 13th issue of Dabiq is titled “The Rafidah: From Ibn Saba.” Rafidah is an Arabic and Islamic term used to describe rejectors of what critics determine to be true Islam. The word is often used in a derogatory way by Sunni Muslims towards Shia Muslims.

Jews are to blame for the creation of the Shiite sect of Islam, according to the Islamic State. Moreover, although Israel and Iran continue to remain mortal enemies, IS claims they are actually seeking the same goal – to bring about the Dajjal, or Antichrist.

“The Jew Ibn Saba’, like Paul, hated Islam and desired to deviate the Muslims and corrupt their religion by innovating deviant concepts including the godhood, lordship, and second coming of ‘Alī Ibn Abī Tālib,” the magazine says of the supposed Jewish conspiracy that created Shia Islam. “At the same time, he strived to create strife amongst the Muslim ranks, inciting against the Righteous Khalīfah ‘Uthmān until ‘Uthmān was killed.”

Iran and the Shiites “will continue to wage war against the Muslims until the Rāfidah ultimately unite with the Jews under the banner of the Dajjāl,” Islamic State declares in Dabiq 13.

One of the articles in the IS magazine that condemns the Shiites features a photo of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei–the theocrat who rules over the country–with crosshairs over his face.

But Islamic State does not only call for the killing of Shiites in its new issue. The magazine calls for the assassination of prominent Saudi Arabian clerics, claiming the House of Saud does not represent true Islam.

The heavily-religious 56-page jihadi recruiting magazine mentions variations of “Jews” 58 times. “Crusaders” or “Christians” are mentioned 65 times. “Islam” or “Allah” is mentioned 361 times.

breitbart.com

US approves massive sale of guided bombs to Iraq

21 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The United States has approved a sale of guided bombs and missiles to the Iraqi government in order to enable the country fight the Islamic State (IS) more effectively.

The Pentagon revealed in a statement on Wednesday that the US has approved a $2 billion deal to sell 16,000 laser-guided bombs, 24 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, 150 air-to-ground tactical Maverick missiles and helmet-cueing systems to the Iraqi air forces.

“Iraq requires these additional weapons, munitions, and technical services to maintain the operational capabilities of its aircrafts” reads the statement. “This proposed sale enables Iraq to fully maintain and employ its aircrafts and sustain pilot training to effectively protect Iraq from current and future threats.”

Back in 2011, the Iraqi government purchased 36 F-16 fighter jets from US, from which four were delivered to Baghdad in July 2015. The warplanes later joined the Iraqi air campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in September last year.

According to the Pentagon’s statement, the deal contributes to the foreign policy and national security of the US through helping its strategic partners to improve their security.

Hours before this announcement, US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter, said that more American military advisers will be sent to Iraq.

basnews.com

U.S. Forces operating from Rmeilan Syrian Airbase

21 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

U.S. forces have taken control and are operating from Rmeilan airbase in Syria’s Kurdish-dominated Hasakah Province, near the Turkish and Iraqi borders.

The United States secured access to the base under an agreement with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which has held Rmeilan for the past two years, and will reportedly use the facility to provide air and logistical support to the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition operating against the Islamic State.

The United States is also working with Turkey to introduce new technology to assist in securing the country’s border with Syria, particularly along the 60-mile strip that has been an access point for the Islamic State.

U.S.-supplied measures could include aerostat surveillance equipment, anti-tunneling technology, and methods for detecting materials used in improvised bombs, Reuters reports. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Turkey today to discuss U.S.-Turkish cooperation in fighting the Islamic State.

foreignpolicy.com

Syrian, Iraqi tribes snub fightback against jihadists

20 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The Islamic State group has been losing large swaths of territory to Western-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Iraqi military supported by Shi’ite militias, but a key ingredient in the fightback against jihadists is missing — local tribes are not turning en masse against Islamic militants in Syria or Iraq.

U.S. and anti-IS coalition allies have been seeking to replicate the Sunni Awakening of 2006, when a Washington-coaxed tribal uprising was a key element in assisting U.S. troops to drive al-Qaida jihadists from Iraq’s westernmost Anbar province.

Despite the appointment of John R. Allen in 2014 as special envoy to coordinate the international effort to combat IS in Iraq and Syria, a repeat of the Sunni Awakening has not materialized.

Allen had been a key figure in 2007 efforts to persuade more than 30 tribes in Anbar province to turn on the Islamic militants, offering protection and financial incentives if they would reject the radical Sunnis; but, he relinquished his special envoy role in October without having pulled off a similar feat.

Limited impact

A mass uprising of local tribes in Syria or Iraq still seems a distant hope rather than a reality. A trickle of tribesmen in Iraq has joined coalition forces, but not the flood that was expected, says Charlie Winter, an analyst with the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

He says much of the reason for the absence of a tribal uprising lies with IS efforts to keep the tribes in line. “IS has been working on tribal relations for a very long time now.

“The networking infrastructure IS has established, principally in the form of the Diwan al-‘Asha’ir [Diwan for Tribal Outreach], enables it to anticipate and carefully respond to the complex tribal dynamics of Iraq and Syria. It also seems to be attempting to play the role of honest broker in intra-tribal conflicts, mediating animosity and drawing adversarial tribes together. In short, it has a very nuanced approach.”

“Nuanced” may be a description some recoil at, as IS has been engaging in brutality and massacres in policing tribes in eastern Syria and western Iraq to ensure their fealty. One of its biggest massacres came in August 2014 when IS fighters took vengeance against the Sha’itat tribe in eastern Syria — beheading, crucifying and shooting more than 700 people in a three-day period.

Formidable adversary

The lesson for tribesmen was that rebellions inside Syria against IS aren’t equipped to take on the powerful militants and attract scant outside help when they do take place.

Across eastern Syria and western Iraq, the militants of the Islamic State group govern with an iron fist and a sharp eye, purging opponents and are intolerant of expressions of dissent.

Relying on an extensive network of spies and informers to ferret out dissent or any behavior that falls afoul of their strict interpretation of Sharia, they are alert for any signs of a tribal insurrection shaping up against them.

The killings serve as a warning to others; but, there is nothing to offset the heavy IS hand.

“There’s no large-scale actor the tribes in Syria in particular can turn to for support,” says Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a research fellow at the Middle East Forum. He notes the August 2014 massacre to suppress the Sha’itat revolt was partly put down by other Sha’itat members working for IS.

Lack of ground support

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, blames a “lack of U.S. leadership.” He says there is an absence on the ground of “appropriate actors who can foster such an uprising, and dedicate resources to doing so.” He faults the international coalition for failing to reach out before the fall of Ramadi consistently to tribes who had participated in the original Sunni Awakening in Anbar province in 2006 and 2007.

Hoping that eventually the barbarity of the Islamic militants will prove to be their downfall doesn’t serve as a strategy, he maintains. And the highly complicated and sectarian politics unleashed by the micro-conflicts in the Syrian war and Iraq battles are pulling against a tribal uprising, he says. In Iraq, the Shi’ite-dominated government is not in a position “to rally Sunni tribes who have been burned by it before,” says Gartenstein-Ross.

Sunni tribesmen don’t trust a government that has refused to arm them and relies mainly on Shi’ite volunteers in the popular mobilization committees to fight IS. “They deter rather than encourage Sunni tribal participation,” says Gartenstein-Ross.

Sunni Arab tribes in Raqqa province in Syria issued a statement last month accusing the Western-backed Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of displacing Arabs from the Tal Abyad town on the border crossing with Turkey.

They warned, “No YPG fighter can enter the Arab areas where our fighters are present.”

The Kurds deny they have forced Arabs to leave Tal Abyad or other mainly Arab villages in northeast Syria they have overrun.

voanews.com

Israeli Minister calls for a independent Kurdish state in the region

20 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Tuesday called for an establishment for a Kurdish state in the region in a conference on security challenges of the 21^st century in Tel Aviv saying the Kurds have suffered injustice in the region.

“We have to strengthen ties with the Kurdish people,” she said, saying the Kurds are ancient people with thousands years of history and a democratic nation.

“They are a peace seeking nation, they have never attacked any other nation. The Kurds have a perfect democracy and give equal rights to women,” she said at the conference organized by Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) last Monday and Tuesday.

“We Kurds and Jews have a long history,” she added. “We have common interests in trying to stop Daash and the Kurds are fighting ISIS with all their might.”

“We should promote steps that would correct the injustice that Kurds made the biggest nation without a state. We must call on nations to set up a [Kurdish] state,” she stated. This state should be located between Turkey, Israel and Iraq, she indicated. “We have cultural global ties and they are strategic partners on a mutual front,” she said.

Moreover, Amos Yadlin, the INSS director and former major general said the ‘20 million’ Kurds who didn’t get a state, and nobody takes care of, are the only ones who are serious and defeated ISIS. “Kurds are the only one fighting ISIS as their highest priority,” he said. “Of all those fighting ISIS, the Kurds are doing so in the most convincing manner,” he added.

basnews.com

Russia considering airbase in Syria’s Qamishli

20 Gennaio 2016 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Russia has reportedly been studying the feasibility of converting the civilian international airport in northeast Syria into an airbase for its expanding aerial operations on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday night cited activists as saying that in recent days they spotted Russian officers and engineers arriving at the airport in the Hasakeh city of Qamishli, where both Kurdish and regime security forces maintain an uneasy power-sharing agreement.

Russian officials were conducting studies on the airport with the aim of bolstering its defenses and expanding the facility so that it can be used by Russian fighter jets and cargo planes, the monitoring NGO added.

Meanwhile, the activist Local Coordination Committees claimed that a delegation of Russian troops had flown into Qamishli International Airport.

“One hundred Russian soldiers, including ten officers of different ranks, arrived Monday morning at Qamishli airport on a special Syrian military aircraft,” the network of local activist groups reported overnight Tuesday.

The group added that the Russian military delegation proceeded to deploy to the nearby Regiment 154 base, which serves as a defensive line for the airport and is equipped with radars, anti-aircraft guns as well as artillery batteries.

LCC also quoted its sources saying that Russian intelligence officers visited Qamishli to meet with both Kurdish and regime security officials to discuss the Russian military presence.

While the LCC said no information was leaked on what operations the Russian would be conducting, the activist group’s sources did assert that the Russians would deploy only in regime-controlled areas of Qamishli, and not areas managed by the Kurds.

Kurdish internal security forces (Asayesh) control large swathes of Qamishli and its surrounding eastern and western outskirts, while pro-regime forces maintain a presence in the center of the city, as well as the nearby airport and Regiment 154 bases to the south.

The Syrian regime has kept up public appearances of maintaining control over the northeastern Syrian region, even as the Kurds have moved increasingly toward autonomy amid tense non-aggression agreements with the remaining pro-Assad forces.

In January 2014, Kurdish authorities declared the formation of three self-ruled cantons (Cizire, Afrin and Kobane) under the Democratic Self-Rule Administration of Rojava, which has been dominated by the Democratic Union party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia forces.

The political reorganization was not recognized by the Syrian regime; however, it has become a de-facto reality, especially since pro-government forces withdrew from most Kurdish-populated regions in 2012, with the exception of Qamishli and the provincial capital Hasakeh 75 kilometers to the south.

Syria’s Kurds have been militarily ascendant in the past year rolling back ISIS in the Hasakeh province as well as in the Kobane region.

mmedia.me