Iran has ordered thousands of Shiite militia fighters from Iraq, known as the Hashd al-Shabi or Popular Mobilization Units, to go to Syria for an alleged upcoming attack on the rebel-held city of Aleppo.

The Washington Post said Major General Qassim Sulaimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds forces, has bought the Iraqi Shiite groups to fight alongside the Iran-backed Hezbollah of Lebanon and other Shiite allies to recapture Aleppo,which has been largely under control of anti-Assad rebels 2012.

“We are all the followers of Khamenei and will go and fight to defend the holy sites and Shiites everywhere,” Bashar al-Saidi, a spokesman for the Iraq-based Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, was quoted as saying in the Washington Post report in reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran has played a major role in neighboring Iraq and Syria in the last few years and Sulaimani has advised and commanded Iraqi Shiite forces in the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS. He has also been an active presence in Syria, Iran’s major ally in the region.

A senior official from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia based in Iraq, told the Post that the group had sent 1,000 troops to Syria to fight for Sulaimani.

Turkey is ready to accept a political transition in Syria in which President Bashar Assad remains in symbolic power for six months before leaving office, two senior government officials said on Tuesday.

“Work on a plan for Assad’s departure is underway … (Assad) can stay for six months and we accept that because there will be a guarantee of his departure,” one of the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We have moved forward on the issue to a certain degree with the United States and our other allies. There is not an exact consensus on when the six month period would begin, but we think it won’t be too long.”

The US State Department has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of four Littoral Combat Ships for $11.25 billion, a Bloomberg report said quoting a US official.

The sale, under the Foreign Military Sales program, is aimed at bolstering defenses of Washington’s Gulf allies after the nuclear deal with Iran, the report said.

The approval allows the Saudis to negotiate contracts for the ships unless Congress passes legislation to block the deal.

The ships are part of a planned modernisation, replacing older US-built vessels in the Royal Saudi Navy’s Eastern Fleet.

The Littoral Combat Ship, designed for operations in shallow coastal waters, is made in two versions by Lockheed Martin Corp and Austal Ltd. The Saudis have indicated they’re interested in the Lockheed ship, according to previous reports, including by Defense News.

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A commander in Iran’s paramilitary Basij force has died from injuries suffered in clashes against rebel forces in Syria’s Quneitra province near Israel’s border in the latest death of an Iranian officer in the war-torn country.

“Iranian Basij force commander Nader Hamid died from wounds he sustained several days ago fighting in Syria against the armed opposition,” Al-Jazeera reported on Monday.

The TV station cited Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency as saying that Hamid had been injured fighting against rebels in Quneitra, where Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces have been engaged in back-and-forth battles with armed opposition groups.

The agency added that Hamid had performed a coordinating role among the regime’s auxillary National Defense Forces militia groups active in the border region.

The Iranian officer’s funeral will take place in southwestern Iran’s Khuzestan Province after the arrival of his body from Syria.

A reporter in the state-controlled Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) originally reported Hamid’s death on an Instagram post late last week, which he promptly took down and replaced with a picture of the injured officer in a hospital.

Hamid’s killing comes on the heels of a number of other high-profile Iranian officer deaths in the past two weeks.

On Sunday, reports emerged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Muslim Kheizab had been killed while serving an “advisory” mission in Syria.

Last week, Iran confirmed the deaths of General Farshad Hasounizad, the former head of the IRGC’s elite Saberin Brigade, and Hamid Mokhtarband, the former chief-of-staff of the 1^st Brigade of Iran’s crack 92^nd Armored Division, which is considered the country’s top armored unit.

Their deaths followed the dramatic killing of IRGC general Hussein Hamdani, who was one of the IRGC’s leading generals and the country’s top military advisor in Syria.

IRGC’s public relations department said Hamdani had been killed by “members of the ISIS terror group” in Aleppo’s northern outskirts, while some statements in the Iranian media as well as pro-Syrian regime outlets said he had died in a car crash.

Hamdani—who commanded the IRGC’s Rassoulollah Corps responsible for security in Tehran—played a key role in the Iranian government’s suppression of the Green Movement protests that rocked Iran between 2009 and 2010.

In a 2014 article, The Wall Street Journal said that Hamdani was a “recognized authority and strategist in Iran for fighting separatist movements and guerrilla urban war.”

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Prosecutors on Monday held four people suspected in the deadliest bomb attack in Turkey’s recent history and said they had discovered a cache of suicide vests, Kalashnikovs and hand grenades, according to state media and officials.

The four, who went before a judge on Sunday night to be remanded in custody, were charged with making “explosive devices with the intention to kill” and “an attempt to disrupt constitutional order,” according to the state news agency Anatolia.

The prosecutor in charge of the case issued a warrant for nine others accused of playing a part in the twin suicide bombings in Ankara on October 10 attack in which 102 people were killed.

Turkish authorities have said the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group is the “number one suspect” for the attack.

The blasts targeted a pro-Kurdish and liberal peace rally, which had called for an end to hostilities between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels.

Police on Sunday arrested some 50 foreign nationals in a sweep targeting suspected IS jihadists with alleged links to the bombings. Turkey is the main point of entry to Syria for IS recruits.

Prosecutors on Monday announced that stashes of weapons and ammunition had been found during searches of homes and vehicles belonging to suspects.

“A Ford Focus car used in the Ankara attack has been found, as well as 11 suicide vests, six Kalashnikovs, 22 hand grenades, 1,683 bullets and hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of explosives,” they said in a statement.

Thirteen months ago the Iranian-backed Houthi stormed into Sana’a taking control over large swathes of Yemen in the process. Attempts between the group and the incumbent President Abd Rabu Mansur Hadi to cooperate eventually collapsed leading to the premier’s escape into exile in February of this year. An air campaign led by Saudi Arabia followed, reversing much of the territorial gains made by the Shi’ite militia.

As a result the Houthi have recently announced that its fighters will withdraw from the remaining territory they hold, signaling what could be the beginning of the end of the country’s civil war. The Media Line spoke to Yemenis and representatives of the group to ask them what they believed had been achieved in the year-long Houthi rule.

The group’s first achievement was in preventing Saudi Arabia from breaking Yemen into numerous small regions, Abu Mohammed Al-Marwani, a Houthi leading figure, told The Media Line. “We are fighting a war to define the fate of Yemen: either we escape (Saudi) control or remain slaves to them. We are determined to defeat them in order to have the right to decide our destiny,” Al-Marwani said.

The Houthi commander also claimed that his organization had contributed to the fight against al-Qa’ida by pushing the group into the province of Hadramout.

“The US and other parties were able to kill the leader of al-Qa’ida in Yemen, Nasser Al-Wuhaishi. If we had not cornered them in Hadramout, America would not have been able to kill him,” Al-Marwani argued. The local franchise of the jihadist organization, known as al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was for some time considered the most dangerous branch of the Sunni extremist network, having attempted a number of sophisticated bomb attacks against US interests.

Al-Marwani added that his organization had done much to reduce banditry in Yemen which previously plagued rural roads and had tackled corruption within government ministries.

“The Houthi made a huge mistake when they entered Sana’a at gunpoint and turned against the government,” Hussam Murshed Badi, an expert who follows armed organizations, told The Media Line. Badi accused the Houthi of orchestrating an energy crisis and of allowing a black market to flourish in order to provide back channel funds to its fighters. As part of this process all gas stations were closed down so that demand on the illegal market, and thus prices would soar, Badi alleged.

“We used to accuse the former regime of corruption,’ he said. “But those (the Houthis), the least we can call them is thieves. They have made millions of people homeless and hundreds of thousands unemployed.’

While Badi conceded that the Houthi did help suppress AQAP in some parts of the country, he suggested that elsewhere the group had expanded. Its enemies distracted and fighting each other, al-Qa’ida rearmed and expanded in the Hadramout area, Badi said.

“It’s true that the Houthis have caused destruction, but if they were given a chance, they would have achieved things,” Mohammed Al-Anesi, a citizen in Sana’a, told The Media Line.

Mohammed Al-Qadri, another resident of Sana’a, agreed with Al-Anesi describing an incident where his taxi, his primary source of income, was stolen at gun point by ten armed men. Local police refused to help Al-Qadri retrieve his automobile. But when the Houthi arrived in the city they quickly enacted justice, Al-Qadri said, explaining, “I got my car back and the bandits were detained.”

Other Yemenis support the Houthi not for their appreciation of the group or its ideology but because of a desire to hit back at Saudi Arabia, who they see as an aggressor towards their country.

“The Houthis are the cause of all the blights of Yemen… but I am fighting for them right now, (because) we have a common enemy – Saudi Arabia,” Mujahid Al-Anesi, a resident of Dhamar, told The Media Line. Women, children and elderly people being killed by Saudi bombs had motivated Al-Anesi to fight against the Saudis, but later it would be the turn of the Houthi, the fighter said.

“There is an old Yemeni proverb that says my cousin and I are enemies until the stranger comes, and then we fight him together,” Al-Anesi explained.

Several citizens said they were not originally sympathetic to Houthi rule but had come around to supporting the group due to their anger at Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen. Some individuals have even joined the fighters of the Houthi as a result.

The Houthi declared that they will withdraw from Sana’a and relinquish territory previously taken in order to end the suffering of the people of Yemen, Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the organization’s political office, told The Media Line. The Houthi will comply with the United Nations’ Security Council (UNSC) directive 2216 providing it is overseen by the UN itself, Al-Bukhaiti said.

“We made concessions to end the suffering of Yemenis caused by the Saudi bombardment that spared nothing and no one,” the Houthi political officer declared.

However an exclusive source within Prime Minister Khaled Mahafoudh Bahah’s cabinet divulged to The Media Line that the government had no faith in the Houthi’s word.

“The legitimate government does not believe the Houthi, therefore (President) Hadi’s government and the coalition will condition that their forces replace the Houthi’s to ensure that the latter’s forces will actually withdraw,” the source said.

themedialine.org

The new offensive launched by Syrian government forces in the countryside south of Aleppo has shed light on Iran’s growing role in Syria’s civil war.

Officially Iran denies it has deployed any combat troops in Syria, but a week before the offensive began, it was reported that hundreds of Iranian troops had arrived in Syria in preparation for an imminent assault on rebel-held areas.

Iran also announced the deaths of four high-ranking officers from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria.

At least one of them, Brig Gen Hossein Hamedani – the most senior Iranian military officer to have been so far killed in the Syrian conflict – lost his life near Aleppo.

Paramilitary force

According to Iranian media, 18 high-ranking IRGC officers have been killed in Syria in the past three years.

But the killing of four in just one week – particularly one just before a major offensive – implies that Iran may be more involved in the war than it has previously acknowledged.

In the past few days, some Iranian and Syrian media outlets have even published photos of Maj Gen Qasem Soleimani purportedly taken in Syria.

For the past year, Gen Soleimani – the commander of the IRGC’s overseas operations arm, the Quds Force – has been co-ordinating the Iraqi government’s operations against Islamic State (IS).

Several IRGC commanders have also warned that they would take revenge on “the terrorists” who killed Gen Hamedani, suggesting the force might have troops on the ground in Syria.

IRGC officials say that so far their most significant contribution to the defence of President Bashar al-Assad has been the creation of the paramilitary National Defence Forces.

Mohammadreza Naghdi, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s own paramilitary force, the Basij, said last week that funding for the NDF was overseen by Gen Hamedani.

In May 2014, the general himself announced that Iran had trained and organised 70,000 Syrians into 128 NDF battalions. A few days ago, IRGC commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said the NDF now had 100,000 fighters.

Gen Hamedani also said that 130,000 Basij militiamen and women were ready to go to Syria if necessary.

‘Volunteers’

It is not clear how many Iranians have travelled to Syria to fight, but Iranian media do sometimes issue casualty reports.

In June 2015, the official Irna news agency said at least 400 Iranian and Iran-based Afghan “volunteers” had been killed in the past four years.

Portraying them as “volunteers” may be an attempt to counter accusations that Iranian troops are involved directly in combat.

For possibly the same reason, most of the IRGC officers who have lost their lives in Syria have been described as “retired” or “former” members of the force.

In spite of such assertions, a senior politician has stated that Iran is prepared to join the war.

A few days ago, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, told a news conference in Damascus that Iran was ready to send troops to Syria if Mr Assad’s government requested them.

It is possible that the defeats suffered by the Syrian army in recent months and the increased worldwide concern over IS have prompted Iran to act.

However, Iran’s foes worry that the IRGC may also now be feeling emboldened by the results of the recent nuclear deal, which paves the way for the lifting of sanctions, likely benefitting the force with a source of fresh funds.

An influential Israeli think tank has called on Tel Aviv to change track in Syria and actively seek the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad regime in order to inflict strategic losses on Iran and Hezbollah.

“Despite the high level of complexity created by Russia’s involvement in Syria – or perhaps, rather, because of it – Israel must engage in active efforts to topple Assad and hand Iran a strategic defeat in Syria,” a policy brief publishedTuesday by the Institute for National Security Studies said.

The dramatic publication, which was co-written by former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, argued that Moscow’s military intervention on behalf of the Assad regime “places Israel in a new reality that requires reconsideration of the ways to confront” regional challenges.

Yadlin—who was the center-left’s candidate for defense minister in the spring 2015 Israeli elections—wrote in his report that ISIS does not pose a “direct military strategic threat” to Tel Aviv, unlike Hezbollah, which he said “can be strengthened by the Russian move.”

The brief held that Moscow was acting as a sponsor for the “radical axis” of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, by providing intelligence and aerial support for Israel regional foes.

Yadlin said that Israel’s current policy regarding Syria was no longer applicable, arguing that “the survival of the regime has allowed and further entrenched the presence of Hezbollah and Iran in Syria in general and the Golan Heights in particular.”

“If once there was hope that the regime would collapse in the course of events without Israeli intervention, Russia’s active support for Assad weakens the chances of ousting him,” the brief said.

Instead, Yadlin said that “Israel must gear up for active efforts to topple Assad, based on the understanding that beyond the moral imperative, Assad’s ouster will lead to a strategic loss for Iran and Hezbollah in the bleeding Syrian state.”

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Israeli policymakers have signaled their contentment with their northeastern neighbor falling into bitter internecine warfare.

Israel’s direct military intervention throughout the course of the conflict has been mostly limited to aerial strikes to prevent the alleged shipment of advanced weapons to Hezbollah as well as raids in reprisal for mortar and rocket fire that struck areas in the occupied Golan Heights.

In January, Tel Aviv conducted a strike in Quneitra that killed top Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officers, who Israel said were planning “terror attacks” against the Jewish State along the Golan demarcation line.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah two years ago declared that Syria would respond to repeated Israeli air strikes by “opening the Golan front” between the rival countries.

“We announce that we stand by the popular resistance in the Golan and we offer military and moral support for it to liberate the Occupied Golan,” he said on May 9, 2013, days after Israeli jets conducted raids outside Damascus.

Nasrallah has since repeatedly vowed to keep the Golan front open. In an early 2015 interview with Al-Mayadeen television, he said that the Golan front against Israel was linked to Hezbollah’s front with the Jewish state in southern Lebanon.

In a January 28 report, pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar said that “Syria and Hezbollah have been working since the middle of 2013 to prepare other groups to launch a long battle of attrition against occupation forces, starting from the Golan.”

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Turkish authorities have reportedly discovered the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) training camps for children in basements hidden in Istanbul.

Hurriyet Daily News reported that around 50 suspects, mostly Uzbeks, were detained in the October 18 raids.  They were reportedly lecturing children on the basics of ISIL as well as how to live in an Islamic state.

Turkish authorities have for some time been conducting physical and technical surveillance of a terrorist training group, consisting mostly of Uzbek nationals but also including some Tajik nationals; members of the group had snuck into Istanbul from Turkey’s eastern provinces and established their base of operations in the neighborhood of Pendik, on the city’s Asian side.

Having determined that the group was preparing to leave for Syria and Iraq to join the ISIL ranks, units from the Istanbul Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau conducted simultaneous late-night raids over the weekend at several locations that were purportedly operating as schools, where Uzbek and Tajik children were taught about the Islamic State and trained as to how they would live after moving to ISIL territory, according to daily Vatan.

The officers raided 18 homes in the “Pendik and Basaksehir’s Kayasehir neighborhood.”  The houses reportedly contained “battlefield maps as well as documents describing the group’s contacts in both countries.”  Other evidence led the Turkish authorities to believe the group intended to meet ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

29 adults were taken to the Counterterrorism Bureau at the Istanbul Aksaray Police Station for questioning.  The 24 juveniles were taken to the Pendik Police Department Juvenile Bureau.  Police are investigating claims that the children were to be sent to join ISIL.

Usmon Ghazi, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), pledged allegiance to ISIL in early August, almost a year after he offered support for the radical Islamic group.

According to the Uzbek authorities, more than 5,000 paid Uzbek militants are fighting in Syria alongside ISIL.

Turkey has stepped up anti-terror police operations against ISIL militants in the country, as the October 10 twin blasts in the Turkish capital sent shockwaves through the country, with at least 102 civilians dead and hundreds of others injured.

Thirteen ISIL-linked suspects have reportedly been detained so far within the investigation launched into the Ankara bombing.

A new batch of Sudanese soldiers was deployed to Yemen on Monday to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels who controlled most of the country including the capital Sana’a last year.

The UAE-based Sky News TV quoted sources in the 4th military region in Aden as saying that 450 Sudanese soldiers arrived in the coastal city today “as part of operations to strengthen security”.

“The soldiers who arrived are part of the second contingent of the force which Khartoum pledged to send,” another source told Turkish Anadolu news agency.

The spokesman of the Yemeni army Brigadier General Samir al-Haj said that the number of Sudanese forces is expected to reach 6,000 with expertise in fighting in the rugged mountains and will take part in the liberation of Ta’iz and Ibb.

But other security officials told Associated Press (AP) that Sudan plans to send a total of 10,000 soldiers.

The Sudanese Defense Minister Awad bin Auf said in remarks published by al-Watan newspaper in Saudi Arabia that the soldiers’ mission is focused on policing and any work assigned to them by the leadership of the Arab coalition.

“There are 6,000 fighters from special forces, ground forces and elite troops ready to participate when requested by the leadership of the coalition,” Sudan’s top military official declared.

The minister stressed that President Omer Hassan al-Bashir gave clear instructions for provision of all military support to Yemen.

“Even if more troops and military contribution is needed we are ready for any developments,” he added.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia confirmed officially for the first time the participation of Sudanese ground forces.

“The Sudanese force are added value to the coalition forces on the ground,” Saudi Defense Minister adviser Brigadier General Ahmad Assiri told Sky news Arabia TV.

At a time when Saudi Arabia’s strongest allies including Egypt and Pakistan have declined requests by Riyadh to send ground troops to Yemen, Khartoum has recently shifted its alliances in response to growing economic pressures at home.

Late last year, Sudanese authorities ordered the closure of the Iranian Cultural Centre in the capital Khartoum and other states and asked the Iranian cultural attaché to leave the country in a move seen as a gesture of goodwill towards the Arab Gulf states.

sudantribune.com