Reuters reports that Druze in the southern Syrian city of Sweida established their own security force because they have lost faith in the Assad regime’s ability to protect them against rebel forces and crime.

The group said in a statement on Facebook on Wednesday that it was taking measures to protect areas of the heavily Druze Sweida province.

Mendi Safadi, an Israeli Druze political activist who has independently met with members of the liberal and democratic Syrian opposition who oppose Daesh and want friendly relations with Israel, told The Jerusalem Post that residents of Sweida told him that the Syrian regime is not adequately protecting them.

Since many Druze have refused to serve in the army, “the regime gave Islamic State the green light to attack them,” asserted Safadi.

“In the past month, suspicious looking people have entered Sweida and then left,” he said, adding that this has contributed to the anxiety of Sweida residents.

“The Syrian army will not protect the Druze, so they decided to create checkpoints around Sweida,” he said.

The Druze have previously repelled attacks near Sweida, which is located near the border with Jordan.

In June, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that tracks the war, said rebels had been driven from an army base, which they had partly captured, by air strikes and Druze fighters from nearby Sweida.

A Druze leader from Sweida city had said young men from there had helped recapture the disused al-Thala airbase.

Daesh has a presence near the Druze city and if the organization attacks, Safadi predicts that the Syrian soldiers based there will flee.

Safadi said the Druze only have light weapons, but last month started to buy heavier arms from various sources.

Questioned about Daesh’s threat to Israel on the Golan Heights, Safadi said that for now there is no risk, but if Sweida falls, it will open up a pathway to the border.

“This is another reason why Israel should protect the Syrian Druze,” he said.

albawaba.com

The U.S. defense chief said Wednesday that special forces troops that were announced last month to be deployed to Iraq have arrived in the country.

“The specialized expeditionary targeting force I announced in December is now in place and is preparing to work with the Iraqis to begin going after ISIL’s fighters and commanders, killing or capturing them wherever we find them, along with other key targets,” said Ash Carter as he briefed service members who will soon be deployed to Iraq.

He said the anti-Daesh campaign has three prongs, namely “destroying the parent tumor” of Daesh in Mosul, Iraq, and al-Raqqa, Syria; preventing the militant group’s “metastasizing in areas such as North Africa, Afghanistan, and Yemen” and protecting the U.S. homeland.

He also noted his meeting with his counterparts from France, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in Paris to discuss the fight against the militants.

When Carter initially announced the special forces deployment, he said the troops would “conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders,” as part of a revision of the anti-Daesh strategy.

A spokesman for the anti-Daesh coalition later said the forces would not exceed 100 troops.

The Pentagon also deployed approximately 50 special operation forces in Syria to assist and advise anti-Daesh forces in the north, including the Kurdish rebel Kurdistan Union Party, or PYD, Turkmens and Syrian Arabs.

aa.com.tr

Al-Hayat published in London reported that American military experts are examining a plan to build a military base in the city of Al-Malikiyah in northeastern Syria, ahead of the deployment of dozens of military experts as part of the American support for Kurdish-Arab forces fighting against Islamic State.

A Western official said that there is a desire to have people there to help train local fighters use American weapons transfered to Syria a few weeks ago.

ynetnews.com

Analysts and diplomats say that at start of Syria’s civil war, Turkey was actively looking for Islamist rebel allies in Syria.

Turkey has long been accused of tolerating and even collaborating with Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists but in recent months it has shown signs of sharply toughening its line against the group.

Now, after the suicide attack in Istanbul on Tuesday that killed 10 German tourists and was carried out by an ISIS bomber from Syria, will Ankara launch an all-out assault against the group to push it out of Turkey and end its presence on the Syrian border?

Turkish officials vehemently deny there has ever been any collaboration with ISIS, saying Ankara has listed the group as a terror organisation ever since it has first emerged. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said ISIS has nothing to do with Islam.

But analysts and diplomats say that at the start of Syria’s nearly five-year civil war, Turkey was actively looking for Islamist rebel allies in Syria to further its aim of toppling President Bashar al-Assad.

Reports accused Turkey of becoming a conduit for financial support to jihadists, turning a blind eye to their entry into Syria and even supplying weapons.

Yet following a string of deadly attacks by ISIS inside Turkey in 2015, including a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 103 people, Turkey stepped up arrests of jihadists who had built cells inside the country.

Security forces moved to seal Turkey’s long and porous border with Syria, frequently nabbing and deporting foreign extremists who tried to slip across.

“It would be wrong to say Turkey is taking no action against ISIS,” jihadism expert Aymenn Tamimi from the Middle East Forum said.

“Border security has been tightened, arrests on domestic ISIS support networks have occurred, and Turkey is pursuing a strategy to try to drive ISIS out of the remaining northern border areas in Syria.”

Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Alan said Wednesday that a week before the Istanbul attack, 220 people identified as members of the group also known as Daesh were detained. In the last two days alone, Turkey has arrested at least 74 ISIS suspects.

Analysts note out that unlike other high-profile attacks staged by the group, ISIS has never claimed formally any strikes in Turkey, possibly in the hope of not further provoking the government into action against it in Syria.

The Istanbul attack was markedly different from the three previous deadly bombings blamed on the group in Turkey last year, in that it did not target pro-Kurdish groups but tourists who make a substantial contribution to the Turkish economy.

“There is a likelihood that we will see more attacks in urban centres,” said Anthony Skinner, director of UK-based political risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

ISIS supporters have in recent weeks stepped up their rhetoric against Turkey, with ominous warnings to Erdogan appearing in the group’s Turkish-language propaganda “magazine” Konstantiniyye.

“If Tuesday’s attack was perpetrated by the Islamic State, it would reflect a shift in the group’s strategy and herald a broader campaign against Turkey,” said Firas Abi Ali, senior analyst at IHS Country Risk.

He said ISIS had a “significant logistics and support base network in Turkey” and consequently “most likely has the capability to launch an extended terrorist campaign inside Turkey”.

Tamimi said “there there is much greater hostility between the two actors now”, with Turkey already moving to push jihadists out of the border area that they once controlled with little challenge.

“The most immediate solution is that IS needs to be driven out of the remaining border areas,” he said.

Despite occasional press speculation that an offensive was in the offing, Turkey has not launched any ground operation against IS although it is assisting the US-led air campaign against the group.

This contrasts with its relentless offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since July which has seen air and ground operations not just in Turkey but northern Iraq.

In his first reaction to the Istanbul attack, Erdogan unequivocally condemned the bombing but then conspicuously spoke at greater length against the PKK.

“From a security perspective, Ankara’s priority would be to fight the PKK,” said Skinner.

“The government is trying to significantly erode the PKK to such an extent that the cards will be in favour of the government in negotiations” for a final peace deal with the Kurdish rebels.

middle-east-online.com

Children age 5 and 6 are learning how to become terrorists and suicide bombers, CNN has exposed today. One of the children who succeeded to run away stated that “the scariest moments were when they bombed from the air.”

When the parents of 5-year-old Sarah aren’t looking, she is covered in a burka. That is what they taught her to do in the ISIS children’s camp, when the murderous terror organization held her and her mother before they succeeded to escape. The camp is around Raqqa in Eastern Syria, where the murderous terror organization focuses upon children, brainwashing them and teaching them to become terrorists.

In one recent propaganda film, one can see children dressed in uniforms standing in rows shouting “jihad” and they see themselves as the children of the ISIS army. In the video, a member of the terror organization, told the children: “Allah willing, soon we will be standing on the front lines against the unbelievers.”

Standing at the forefront of this are the Peshmerga Forces, members of the underground Kurdish forces in Erbil spoke about children swimming in the rivers, crossing borders, and fighting in the battlefields alone against the Kurdish forces far away from ISIS: “When they come to us, they are very thin. They go through hell there.”

In other cases, children had their weapons pointed at the Kurds. Kurdish fighter Aziz Abdullah Khader stated: “Many times, we come across child soldiers for ISIS. They are dressed in explosive belts.”

“They are brainwashed,” he told CNN. “They penetrate the ranks, operate explosive belts and kill people. This is an unacceptable decision. We don’t always know what to do. If you don’t kill them, they will kill you.” US security officials confirmed the grim testimony.

One of the children that succeeded to escape is a 12-year-old named Nasser. According to him, he ran away from the camp with around 60 child soldiers: “The scariest moments are when they explode from the air and this leads us underground.” Nasser related that there are even 5-year-old children in the camp and everyone partakes in the training: “We must not cry but when I think about my mother, I cry silently.”

jerusalemonline.com

The extremist group has banned televisions and satellite receivers being bought, sold or repaired in ISIS-controlled parts of Syria and Iraq.

ISIS has released a bizarre infographic warning its supporters not to watch satellite TV, it has been reported.

The picture, which appears to have been released by ISIS’ propaganda arm, lists reasons for militants to not watch satellite TV – which they claim is full of propaganda.

“Insulting Allah and making fun of His religion and His allies via television series and vile dramas, which lead to people to develop a taste for such things,” it reads.

Another weird justification in ‘The Enemy Within’ is that satellite TV “propogates sorcery, charlatanism, and rationalist philosophies that poison the minds with ideas of atheism and boldness against Allah.”

It also says the TV channels try and divide Muslims and “defame their reputation”.

The article, posted online by a Middle East analyst, also contains Islamic quotes ISIS claims justify their censorship.

In December it was reported that Islamic State banned televisions in areas under its control to stop people watching foreign channels.

The extremist group has banned televisions and satellite receivers being bought, sold or repaired in ISIS-controlled parts of Syria and Iraq.

ISIS leaders have previously condemned watching television, claiming it spread information that is “incorrect, baseless and false”.

It has criticised channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya as well as many Western media outlets over coverage of its occupation of parts of Iraq and Syria.

In recent months militants in some areas of Syria are reported to have entered residents’ homes to smash up satellite receivers.

mirror.co.uk

Just after sunrise, eight fighter jets and a surveillance plane roared off the runway of the jewel of the French navy’s fleet, part of the country’s war against the Islamic State group following the attacks on Paris.

Planes from the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle have already provided cover for Iraqi troops fighting in the besieged city of Ramadi following the vessel’s deployment Nov. 5. That shows that while the Islamic State group “still taunts us, (it) is no longer capable of holding the ground,” French Rear Admiral Rene-Jean Crignola told The Associated Press.

“The Paris attacks reinforced the determination of the crew and of our fleet,” said Crignola, the first foreign commander to lead Task Force 50, which conducts airstrikes in territory in Iraq and Syria overseen by the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. “It’s on everyone’s mind. The sense of purpose of our men is crystal clear.”

France has been one of the most active members of the American-led coalition, and is the only nation aside from the U.S. to bring an aircraft carrier to the fight.

French President Francois Hollande ordered the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle to the Gulf just days after Islamic extremists launched a deadly attack on the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, killing 11 people inside and a police officer outside.

Then came the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris, claimed by the Islamic State group, which killed 130 people. The French again dispatched their aircraft carrier, which carries 18 Dassault Rafale M and eight Dassault Super Entendard fighter jets, along with E-2C Hawkeye surveillance planes and other aircraft.

The tour by the Charles de Gaulle is due to end in March, when the ship will return to its homeport of Toulon.

foxnews.com