French fighter jets bombed a media center for the ISIS extremist group in the city of Mosul, in Iraq’s northwestern province of Nineveh, the group confirmed in a statement.

A French airstrike hit a building that has been used by ISIS to broadcast propaganda videos and press releases in support of the group’s self-declared Caliphate.

ISIS said in a statement that the airstrike destroyed its media center in Mosul and killed at least ten of its own media workers.

On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition bombed a weapons storage center for the terrorist group in Mosul, killing dozens of ISIS militants and destroying a large deal of ammunition.

“The coalition conducted two airstrikes on a main weapons storage facility for ISIS in the Ta’mim district of Mosul. A large deal of weapons and ammunition were destroyed in Friday’s strikes,” said Saeed Mamozini, spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.

The official added that 71 ISIS corpses were collected subsequent to the airstrikes on Friday.

abna24.com

The Kremlin has found a new ally in the Kurds during its anti-terrorist campaign in Syria. They are effective in pushing Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups out of key areas in Syria, French political journalist Olivier d’Auzon wrote for Le Huffington Post.

Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian Su-24 bomber in November made Moscow furious; in turn, the Kremlin decided to support Kurdish forces in Syria, d’Auzon said.

According to the author, Moscow allegedly sent arms to 5,000 Kurdish fighters in Afrin.

The powerful Kurdish YPG force is considered the most effective group fighting IS in Syria.

“Russian military assistance to the Kurds is, without a doubt, part of Russia’s response to the actions of the Ottoman Empire [Turkey],” d’Auzon explained, according to Le Huffington Post.

Fighters from the predominantly Kurdish group People’s Protection Units (YPG) of Syrian Kurdistan not only successfully defended their territories from IS, but also pushed the jihadists out of a few key areas in northeastern Syria over the past year.

As of late, Russian planes have allegedly helped the Kurds to gain new ground not only against IS jihadists, but also against other terrorist groups in Syria, d’Auzon said.

Working in coordination with Russian planes, Kurdish forces have advanced into the western part of Afrin. The move has made the Turkish government very uncomfortable, as it threatens to cut a major supply route between

Ankara and Turkey-backed rebels in Syria, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.

The installation of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems in Syria following the downing of the Russian Su-24 helps Kurdish forces a great deal, as they prevent the Turkish Air Force from bombing Kurdish positions. Without Ankara’s airstrikes against them, Kurdish fighters have pushed Daesh from the western bank of the Euphrates River, WSJ said.

An interesting point is that both Washington and Moscow support the YPG. That’s why the Kurdish brigade might now have carte blanche to do more than any other group fighting in Syria.

Since the US government isn’t doing a great job fighting IS in Syria, it has to rely on the Kurds as its primary and most effective partner in the country, WSJ said.

Furthermore, Washington’s anti-IS campaign is mostly taking place in Iraq, where the US-led coalition focuses most of their airstrikes. The Obama Administration seems to have given Russia freedom of action in Syria, which Moscow is using effectively, Le Huffington Post reported.

Russia President Vladimir Putin said in in September 2015 no one but Assad’s forces and Kurds are fighting Islamic State.

In November 2015, the United State reconfirm its support to the Kurdish forces in Syrian Kurdistan, a State Department spokesman said.

The Kurdish YPG forces has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State with the help of U.S.-led strikes.

Syrian Kurds declared their own autonomous Kurdish region in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in November 2013.

ekurd.net

A drone attack believed to have been carried out by US forces killed three Al-Qaeda members travelling in a car in southeast Yemen, security and tribal sources said Saturday.

Tribesmen said a missile struck the vehicle in the Rafadh region of Shabwa province overnight, killing three.

A local security official said they were Al-Qaeda fighters.

The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

It has kept up strikes on militants during months of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels who control the capital.

Amnesty International charged Friday that the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government had renewed its use of cluster bombs during a January air strikes on Sanaa that killed a 16-year-old boy.

The coalition has denied using such ammunition in its anti-Huthi attacks on the Yemeni capital.

Yemen has been convulsed by unrest since the Huthis seized Sanaa in September 2015.

Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate has exploited the turmoil to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen, including Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State jihadist group have also established a foothold in and around the country’s main southern city of Aden.

Late on Friday, unknown gunmen shot dead a police officer as he returned home in Aden, police said, in the latest in a string of such attacks in the city.

middle-east-online.com

Kamov Ka-52 (‘Hokum-B’) attack helicopters carrying the L370 Vitebsk defensive aids suite will deploy to Syria to provide security for the Russian task force at Humaymin Air Base in Latakia province, a defence industry source told the TASS news agency on 15 January.

“Ka-52 helicopters equipped with the Vitebsk electronic warfare system will be deployed to Syria soon. They will not only control the situation around the Humaymim airfield, but also conduct combat search-and-rescue operations [CSAR],” the source said.

janes.com

In December, MEB highlighted the significance of the announcement by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter of the deployment of 200 US commandos from the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to Iraq and Syria, to join the fight against the Islamic State (ISIL). At the time, we noted that these special counter-terror teams would be operating independent of the Iraqi Armed Forces, as self-standing “decapitation” units, targeting leaders of the Islamic State on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

In the aftermath of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks and the subsequent shootings in San Bernardino, California, the JSOC teams increased their operating tempo and have now succeeded in killing a number of top Islamic State leaders, including the mastermind of the Paris attacks. Col. Steve Warren confirmed, in a Dec. 29 Pentagon briefing, that a JSOC operation had killed Charaffe al Mouadan on Dec. 24, at an undisclosed location inside Syrian territory.  Mouadan was identified as the planner of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks and was in direct contact with the leader of the Paris attacks, Abdel Hamid Abaaoud.

Mouadan and nine other “high value” ISIL figures were killed in drone strikes in Syria and Iraq, between Dec. 7 and 27, all as the result of the JSOC operations.

JSOC teams have been able to develop a more precise map of the Islamic State leadership and vital personnel, and have greatly increased the speed in which actionable intelligence has been used to hit priority decapitation targets in ISIL strongholds.

Other key ISIL figures who have been killed in the December drone strikes, called in by JSOC teams on the ground in Iraq and Syria, included Siful Haque Sujan, a British-trained computer hacker who was identified as a key figure in the Islamic State’s cyber warfare structures; Abu Anas, a key demolition expert and explosives manufacturer; and Yunis Khalash, the deputy emir of the Islamic State for finance. Several other, unnamed top cyber operatives for ISIL have also been killed in the targeted drone strikes.

The Pentagon’s assessment of the first month of the JSOC “decapitation program” is that it has begun to shift the balance against the Islamic State. ISIL leadership is, for the first time, concerned that their organizational profile has been successfully penetrated and that key individuals are more vulnerable to assassination. This is impacting the ability of the Islamic State to manage its territories and maintain the recently-launched global terrorist offensive.  Some of the individuals killed in the targeted strikes are considered by Pentagon intelligence analysts to be “indispensable” to the functioning of the group. “The drone kills have been successful because they are based on perfect intelligence,” one official noted. The JSOC teams, operating independent of any reliance on poorly sourced intelligence, coming from Iraqi and Syrian sources, and with real-time ability to call in drone strikes, have been able to carry out precision strikes that depend on pinpoint timing.

The US JSOC deployments are not the only “decapitation” actions underway in Iraq and Syria.  On Dec. 25, a Russian or Syrian missile hit a meeting of the Islam Army (Jaish al-Islam) in the Eastern Ghouta region of Syria just outside of Damascus, killing a number of leaders of the Saudi-backed group, including the group’s undisputed leader Zahran Alloush.  In July 2012, Islam Army, then known as the Islam Brigade (Liwa al-Islam), had grabbed headlines by claiming credit for the killing of a number of top Syrian national security officials, in a bombing at the National Security Office in Damascus.

Under the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, that were passed unanimously in mid-December, a meeting of the Vienna group with leaders of both the Syrian opposition and Syrian government representatives is scheduled in Geneva on Jan. 16-17.  The intent is to negotiate terms of a cease-fire involving government and rebel forces, excluding the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra.

mebriefing.com

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have equipped nearly 200,000 young men with arms in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in order to face terrorism, General Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said.

In a speech during the memorial service of one of the Iranians killed in Syria, Jafari said: “The current developments in the region, the formation of Daesh and Takfiri groups, and the events that occurred in the past years are paving the ground for the emergence of Imam Mahdi, and you can now see the positive results in the readiness of nearly 200,000 young armed in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.”

He explained that “the Islamic revolution in Iran faced many threats and risks,” adding that Iran has prepared thousands of fighters in and out of Iran to defend what he called “the axis of resistance”.

middleeastmonitor.com

Kuwaiti MPs approve extra $10 billion for military spending during next 10 years amid increased security concerns in region.

Kuwait’s parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a request by the oil-rich Gulf state’s government for $10 billion in additional funds for military spending during the next 10 years.

Defence Minister Sheikh Khaled Jarrah Al-Sabah said the money, which is to be placed in a special fund outside the budget, would be used to purchase new fighter jets, tanks and air defence systems.

Sheikh Khaled said it was time to modernise the army’s weapons since existing ones were bought more than two decades ago.

The funds would be withdrawn from state reserves.

The government had earlier requested double the amount but later settled on $10 billion with the promise to include additional funds within the annual budgets when needed and depending on the financial situation, Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh told parliament.

Kuwait is looking to upgrade its firepower amid increased security concerns in the region linked to the rise of the jihadist Islamic State group and sectarian conflicts.

The emirate is a member of the US-led coalition that has been bombing IS targets in Syria and Iraq since last year and is also taking part in a Saudi-led coalition pounding Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.

But it is unclear if the additional funds are also linked to those operations.

The government does not publish specific figures for its defence budget.

Several reports have recently linked Kuwait to several arms deals amid regional turmoil.

The Eurofighter consortium said in September that Kuwait agreed to buy 28 Typhoon warplanes in a deal worth 7-8 billion euros ($8-9 billion).

In November, Kuwait signed 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) worth of fixed and provisional military deals led by the purchase of 24 Airbus-built Caracal helicopters.

Paris said Kuwait would purchase the helicopters for 1.0 billion euros, with an option for a further six.

Further deals included provision of French light armoured vehicles and patrol boat maintenance.

middle-east-online.com

The US State Department is considering a potential foreign military sale (FMS) of tube-launched optically-tracked wire guided (TOW) 2B missiles along with related equipment and support to the government of Oman, it was announced on 7 January.

The total estimated cost of the FMS is $51 million. Raytheon Missile Systems will be the principal contractor if the sale goes ahead.

Oman has requested 400 TOW 2B Aero radio frequency (RF) missiles (BGM-71F-3-RF); and seven TOW 2B Aero RF fly-to-buy missiles.

Oman has requested the missiles as part of efforts to develop an integrated ground defence capability, strengthen its homeland defences, and enhance interoperability with the US and other allies.

shephardmedia.com

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has threatened attacks on Saudi Arabia in a new video calling for revenge over the country’s Jan. 2 mass execution of dozens of alleged extremists.

In the video, recorded on Tuesday and released by the SITE Intelligence Group on Thursday, al-Zawahiri encouraged Saudis to rise up against their  “rotten regime that corrupted your religion,” saying it “will never defend you.”

The gulf nation received a similar message from the Islamic State group shortly after it executed 47 alleged militants on Jan. 2. The mass execution was the largest in 35 years, with those killed – including Shia cleric and opposition leader Nimr al-Nimr – convicted of terrorism. The Islamic State group also threatened attacks after the Saudi defense minister proclaimed Dec. 15 the formation of a coalition of 34 mostly Sunni Muslim countries to fight terrorism.	

Despite the announcement, that coalition has yet engaged in any joint military actions.


The “Zionist-Crusader alliance,” another target that al-Zawahiri mentioned in the video, is “what hurts Al Saud so much.”

Though Saudi Arabia receives significant military and financial support from the United States, it has mostly been funneling its resources what some consider a proxy war against Iran in Yemen.

Besides allegedly committing war crimes in Yemen itself, from bombing weddings to hospitals, the kingdom has also cracked down on Shiite protesters on its eastern border with Yemen.	



One of the leaders of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority was al-Nimr, a cleric who was executed alongside the alleged Sunni militants shortly before the Arab Spring’s five-year anniversary.

The execution of al-Nimr was condemned by Iran, the region’s major Shiite power, and led to a series of retaliations – including the burning of the Saudi embassy in Tehran – that ended with Saudi Arabi cutting diplomatic ties with its rival. 	

In his video, al-Zawahiri said the moves were indicative of a “competition for power in the region,” but one “under the umbrella of protecting and complying with the interests of America.”


telesurtv.net

As a nine-year-old boy, Ibrahim Mahmoud fled his hometown of Haifa on the back of a truck during the 1948 war that attended the creation of Israel. Now, as a hunched old man, he is once again encamped far from home, having fled the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

His life of exile is framed by wars that redrew borders and scattered centuries-old communities, and his trauma is shared by millions across the Middle East, who have packed their belongings and bundled up their families to seek safety far from their homelands, joining the largest wave of refugees since World War II.

His odyssey began in 1948, when he was among the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in Israel’s War of Independence. In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of Jews from ancient communities across the Middle East emigrated to Israel, often after suffering persecution.

“We fled our homes in Palestine in 1948 to Jordan on the back of a truck,” Mahmoud said. His family then flew to Basra, a sweltering city at the southern tip of Iraq, on the Persian Gulf.

“When we came to Basra, my father started to sell falafel. It was new here so business was going well,” he said. But the family struggled to adapt to their new surroundings, far from the temperate Levant.

“Life in Basra was difficult. It was dusty and the water wasn’t clean where we lived,” he said. Unable to find anywhere else to live, Ibrahim and his family took refuge in an abandoned synagogue with other Palestinian families, living there for 30 years, he said.

Up to 70,000 Palestinians lived in Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to numbers provided by the UN refugee agency. Saddam Hussein’s government proclaimed solidarity with the Palestinians, who were allowed to work and even hold government jobs but were never granted citizenship.

After the U.S.-led invasion, however, many Iraqis viewed the Palestinians as complicit with the former regime, and the refugees fled from discrimination and growing unrest. Official figures do not exist, but the UN refugee agency estimates that just 3,000 Palestinians remain in the country today.
Palestinians at Baharka refugee camp grow Molokhia, the main ingredient in a popular Palestinian dish not found in Iraq. Abed al Qaisi

In the mid-1970s, Mahmoud, his wife and five children moved to Mosul after he was told by an old man who had fought in the 1948 war that he would feel more at home in the northern city.

“He told me there was a place in Iraq just like Palestine. There’s grass everywhere and rivers. And they have oranges there,” he said.

The city was just as the man had described, but Mahmoud struggled to make ends meet, in part because of the crippling international sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s. His children were forced to work instead of attending school. “We had to make sure there was bread on the table, so that’s all we could give them,” he said.

They remained in Mosul during the chaos that engulfed Iraq after 2003, when the city saw heavy fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents and frequent bombings.

As the fighting slowly died down and U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, Mahmoud might have thought his lifelong flight from war was finally over, that while he may never see Haifa again he could at least live in peace.

But then a hot summer’s night in June 2014 was shattered by the grimly familiar thud of explosions and rattle of gunfire, as the Islamic State group swept into Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Within weeks the extremist group would add vast swaths of northern and western Iraq to its territory in neighboring Syria, establishing a self-styled caliphate governed by a chilling interpretation of Islamic law.

Mahmoud and his family, which by then included 11 children, remained until August of that year, before once again packing their belongings and bidding farewell to a place they had called home.

“I saw people being beheaded in the streets. What kind of life is that?” Mahmoud said.
An Islamic State fighter holds an ISIS flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul, Iraq, in a June 23, 2014. Reuters

Now he and his family live in the Baharka refugee camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where some 4,000 people huddle in tents pitched along muddy roads. The winter rains send water into the tents, and Mahmoud, who is in his late 70s, says he struggles to walk through the mud.

His 35-year-old son Thamer, who works as a barber in the camp, was born and raised in Iraq but has always felt like an outsider.

“As far as I can remember I have been living in Iraq. But I don’t feel I’m in my homeland, because my ID says I’m a refugee,” he said.

Ibrahim still gets a government pension for working on Iraq’s railways his whole life, but hasn’t been able to collect it in five months because his refugee card has expired. In the tide of refugees he is caught in an eddy of statelessness: He must go to Baghdad to renew the card, but Kurdish authorities won’t let him travel without an ID.

“A man needs to participate in society, needs to have an identity in order to have honor,'” Ibrahim said.

So nearly seven decades after he climbed aboard a truck that would carry him into a life of exile, Mahmoud wants to pick up and leave one more time, hoping he can find a lasting home for his children.

“My homeland? Any place would be better than here. I want to go abroad so I can give my children an education or a profession they can live from,” he said. “Tomorrow I won’t be here. I’m an old man.”

haaretz.com