Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where Islamic State insurgents were battling another rebel group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters.

A confidential Oct. 29 report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a summary of which was shown to Reuters, concluded “with the utmost confidence that at least two people were exposed to sulphur mustard” in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, on Aug. 21.

“It is very likely that the effects of sulphur mustard resulted in the death of a baby,” it said.

The findings provide the first official confirmation of use of sulphur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, in Syria since it agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, which included sulphur mustard.

The report did not mention Islamic State, as the fact-finding mission was not mandated to assign blame, but diplomatic sources said the chemical had been used in the clashes between Islamic State and another rebel group taking place in the town at the time.

“It raises the major question of where the sulphur mustard came from,” one source said. “Either they (IS) gained the ability to make it themselves, or it may have come from an undeclared stockpile overtaken by IS. Both are worrying options.”

Syria is supposed to have completely surrendered the toxic chemicals 18 months ago. Their use violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.

In a statement to Reuters, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the OPCW released three reports to member states on Oct. 29, adding “two of these reports are very disturbing. The OPCW has confirmed (chemical weapons) use in one investigation, and concluded likely use in a second.”

In addition to the incident involving the mustard agent, Kirby said, the OPCW confirmed that toxic chemicals, probably containing chlorine, were used in opposition-controlled territory in Idlib Province.

“Witnesses reported hearing helicopters overhead at the time the chemical munitions exploded. Only the Assad regime has helicopters,” he said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The reports, which will be formally presented to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later this month, add to a growing body of evidence that the Islamic State group has obtained, and is using, chemical weapons in both Iraq and Syria.

“If it is determined that a non-state actor such as ISIL was also using chemical weapons, such use would be consistent with ISIL’s record of complete disregard for human rights and international norms and values,” Kirby said, using an alternate acronym for Islamic State.

Kurdish authorities said earlier this month that Islamic State fighters fired mortar rounds containing mustard agent at Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq during clashes in August. They said blood samples taken from about 35 fighters who were exposed in the attack southwest of the regional capital of Erbil showed “signatures” of mustard gas.

SPECIAL SESSION

A team of OPCW experts has been sent to Iraq to confirm the findings and is expected to obtain its own samples later this month, one diplomat said.

A special session has been called by the OPCW’s 41-member Executive Council to discuss the Syrian findings and it will be held in The Hague on Nov. 23, sources at the OPCW told Reuters.

Sulphur mustard – which causes severe delayed burns to the eyes, skin and lungs – is a so-called Schedule 1 chemical agent, meaning it has few uses outside warfare.

Another report by the OPCW fact-finding mission to Syria said the team had so far been unable to substantiate claims from the Syrian government that its forces had been targeted by insurgents using chemical weapons.

The mission “cannot confidently determine whether or not a chemical was used as a weapon” by militants in the Jober area on Aug. 29, 2014, it said.

Syria agreed in September 2013 to destroy its entire chemical weapons programme under a deal negotiated with the United States and Russia after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.

The last of 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons declared to the OPCW was handed over in June 2014, but several Western governments have expressed doubt that Assad’s government declared its entire arsenal.

With Syria’s civil war in its fifth year, chlorine has also been used illegally in systematic attacks against civilians, the OPCW found.

In the Idlib province south of Aleppo, the report said, there were several incidents between March and May of 2015 that “likely involved the use of one or more toxic chemicals”.

A U.N.-OPCW joint investigative mission has been assigned to determine who was behind those attacks.

reuters.com

A Bahraini court  revoked the citizenship of five convicted of spying for Iran and sentenced them to life imprisonment, a judicial source told AFP.

The verdict comes amid escalated tension between Bahrain and Iran, as Manama recalled its ambassador and asked Tehran´s envoy to leave last month claiming interference in its affairs.

It also came a day after Bahrain said it has uncovered a “terrorist organisation” linked to Iran and arrested 47 of its members, foiling imminent attacks in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom.

The five defendants were convicted of “spying for and seeking with Iran and its agents to carry out hostile acts against the kingdom”, the source said.

They were found guilty of working with Iran´s elite Revolutionary Guard to carry out attacks in Bahrain against public facilities and banks.

Two of them had received training in Iran on “the manufacture and use of explosives and firearms in preparation for carrying out these hostile attacks”, according to the charges.

Three of those convicted, one of whom is in Iran, are being tried in absentia while the remaining two who appeared in court Thursday said they were forced to confess “under torture”, the source said.

In Iran, a foreign ministry official rejected the latest accusations against Tehran as “baseless”.

Repeating such charges “does not change the reality,” said the official, quoted by the ISNA news agency.

“We advise Bahraini officials to resolve their country´s internal problems instead of accusing others.”

Bahrain has been hit by unrest since a pro-democracy uprising in 2011, and it frequently accuses predominantly Shiite Iran of meddling in its affairs.

Its interior ministry said on Wednesday that the busted cell was the latest case of Iran trying “to shake the security and stability of the kingdom of Bahrain through organised terrorist attacks”.

In August, Bahrain arrested five people suspected of links with Iran in connection with a bombing that killed two policemen.

thenews.com.pk

The Iraqi federal government will take delivery of a new consignment of fighter jets purchased from the United States.

Head of the Iraqi Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Security Affairs, Hakm Zamli revealed that five more F-16 jets would arrive in Baghdad next week.

The planes will increase the capability of the Iraqi army against Islamic State.

Iraq has ordered 36 jets from the US, four of which have already been shipped to Baghdad.

Iraqi officials recently announced that 15 L-159 jets have been purchased from the Czech Republic and will arrive in Baghdad in November.

basnews.com

Two days after al Qaeda leader, Ayman al Zawahri, launched an appeal to rally all “Mujaheddin brothers” in the fight against Russia and the West, the commander in chief of the terrorist network sent an envoy to Syria acting as a mediator between the pro al Qaeda al Nusra front and the Islamic State, the director of the jihadi monitoring centre Site, Rita Katz, reported.

The man entrusted with the task is Saif al Adel, the organisation’s number three, and he is allegedly already in Syria.

Al Adel came under the radar in September when he was mentioned as one of the five people freed by Iran to secure an exchange with an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Yemen, a circumstance Teheran has always denied.

The director of Site added that Adel was the second envoy sent to Syria by Zawahri, as another al Qaeda operative, al Suri, was killed in February in the aftermath of a suicide attack that took place in Aleppo. At the time, his comrades blamed the attack on Isis.

Two days ago the Egyptian doctor leading al Qaeda launched an appeal two all Sunni Muslims calling on them to join hands instead of fighting against each other and rally together against Russia and the West.

This message was delivered only a month and a half after al Zawahri called Isis caliph, al Baghdadi, “an impostor” and claimed the Islamic State, born out of an al Qaida cell, lacked any legitimacy.

ansamed.info

The commander of the Air Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army is in Beijing for a visit to Chinese army and discuss and sign joint agreements between two armies.

Iranians rallied Wednesday marking the 36th anniversary of taking over the U.S. embassy by a group of Iranian students in Tehran.

Demonstrators gathered in front of the former U.S. embassy in the center of Tehran, now called the “Den of Espionage.”

Carrying flags and banners denouncing the United States and Israel, they vowed to follow the example of the Islamic Revolution’s late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who supported the takeover in 1980.

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980, following the embassy takeover and capture of 60 U.S. diplomats in 1979, 52 of whom remained in captivity for 444 days during the hostage crisis.

Addressing demonstrators before the former U.S. embassy, Iran’s Prosecutor General, Seyed Ebrahim Raeisi, said that the step by Iranian students 36 years ago prevented America’s attempts to further advance their influence over Iran.

The Iranian judiciary official said that the United States “violates its minorities’ human rights” and should therefore be prosecuted for this.

A resolution issued toward the gathering’s end called on Iranian officials to beware of the U.S. influence upon its return to the country.

The investigation of Rusafa Court announced on Wednesday the arrest of a group responsible for the transmission of drugs belongs to ISIS organization , indicating that the investigation has shown that the seizure amount is estimated at 12 million tablets of hallucination which is a financial resource for the terrorist organization.

Judge Omar Khalil said in a statement received by Shafaq News, that “judicial efforts resulted in the arrest of those responsible for the supply of drug to the south and central regions, who are loyal to ISIS“.

Khalil said that “the group consisting of 3 terrorists have been arrested by the intelligence and counter-terrorism service south of Rusafa and was in possession of 12 million narcotic pills.”

He pointed out that “the arrest process took place in Ain al-Tamur region in Karbala province,” pointing out that “the investigation has shown that the drug is one of the main financial resources to ISIS”.

shafaaq.com

Israeli-American trains Kurdish forces on the Iraq-Iran border in urban warfare and counterterrorism – and says he’s not afraid to walk around with a kippah.

After completing his stint in the Israeli army, Corporal Mike, a young American convert to Judaism, was looking for his next big adventure. Joining Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State seemed like a noble enough cause, but when he landed in northern Iraq a few months ago, he decided to change course.

“My prediction is that ISIS will be gone in a year’s time,” the 24-year-old, who asked that his last name not be published, said in a recent interview while on leave in Israel. “The real enemy is Iran. People simply aren’t aware of how much their presence is spreading around the Middle East.”

So instead of hooking up with the Peshmerga battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria, like many other foreign volunteers, Mike opted to join Iranian Kurdish forces in northern Iraq preparing for possible clashes around the border. Their fear, he explains, is that Iran may exploit its improved standing in the world these days to crack down on members of its Kurdish minority located on both sides of the border.

For the past three months, Mike has been stationed with a faction of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) based in the town of Koy Sanjaq. He is one of two foreign volunteers currently embedded with forces in this mountainous region along the Iranian border – needless to say, the only Orthodox Jew among them.

“I put on tefillin everyday,” he boasts, “I keep Shabbat if I’m not on guard duty, I walk around with a kippa on my head, and I try to keep kosher as best as I can, which is why I’ve lost lots of weight in recent months. Everyone knows I’m Jewish and that I’m from Israel, and nobody makes an issue about it.”

His life choices may not be typical, but neither is his background. Born in Fort Sam Houston, a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas, Mike is the son of a half-Japanese, half-Russian mother and a U.S. military commander who discovered late in life that he was Jewish. Growing up as an army brat, Mike popped around from state to state until his family eventually settled in the West Coast, where, together with his mother, he underwent an Orthodox conversion to Judaism. During his middle school and high school years, he visited Israel on various programs, and after a few years of community college, decided to make a permanent move.

“I sold my car and motorcycle and enlisted in the IDF,” he says.

Mike joined the Israeli border police in April 2013 and spent most of his two years in the military patrolling Palestinian towns and villages outside Jerusalem. The skills he developed and honed during his army service in Israel, he says, should come in handy in his new terrain. “We’re going to be setting up a program now where we’ll be training Kurdish forces in urban combat and counter-terrorism – the sort of things I did with the Border Police,” he says.

Mike is not the first Israeli army veteran to join the Kurds in battling their adversaries. Canadian-born Gill Rosenberg, who also moved to Israel and was falsely rumored last year to have been captured by ISIS, made international news as the first foreign woman to join Kurdish forces fighting the extremist militant organization.

His main contact when he landed in Iraq was Ryan O’Leary, a former veteran of the Iowa National Guard who took Mike under his wing. O’Leary is the only other foreign volunteer serving with the KDPI today, and like Mike, he had originally planned to join Kurdish forces fighting ISIS but ultimately came to believe that Iran was a greater threat.

“Mike is here acting on his own,” O’Leary said in a telephone conversation from his base in Iraq, when questioned about the young American-Israeli’s affiliation. “He made that specifically clear to the leadership. They wanted to make sure he wasn’t working with the Israelis or Americans because they don’t want any conflicts.”

O’Leary said that after Mike brushes up on his language skills, the plan is to have him join local forces on operations, including across the border.  “What we mainly do is gather intelligence. If there are soft targets like military patrols, we also take them out,” he said. “But we’re not interested in starting a full-blown war just yet.”

The KDPI is one of several political groups representing the estimated 7 million Iranian Kurds living today between Iran and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.

Among them is a small group who claim to have Jewish roots, and in his spare time, Mike has volunteered to help some of them look into the possibility of immigrating to Israel.

Only recently, he discloses, have his parents figured out where he is and what he’s up to. “Rumor has it that there’s a reward of $100,000 for my head, so I didn’t want to share the information with too many people,” he says.

Is he afraid? “There’s only one thing I’m afraid of,” Mike responds, “and that’s God.”

ekurd.net