Israel is assisting the U.S.-led naval mission to bolster security for vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said.

According to a report, Katz told a closed session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel is providing intelligence and other unspecified assistance for “Operation Sentinel,” the U.S. effort which was launched following a series of seizures by Iran of oil tankers passing through the strategic waterway.

He also reportedly told the committee that he instructed his ministry to join the mission after a recent visit to Abu Dhabi in which he discussed the “Iranian threat” with a senior Emirati official.

A report by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster last month said Israel would provide intelligence for the effort, but would not send naval vessels.

Britain is the only other country to commit to participation in “Operation Sentinel,” and is one of the countries which has been most affected by Iranian aggression in the strait, a shipping channel through which 20% of the world’s crude oil is exported.

Additional countries have been reluctant to take part in a mission which might bring them into conflict with Iran. Australia, however, has said it is seriously considering joining.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Royal Navy will work alongside the U.S. Navy to safeguard vessels traversing the strait. Frigate HMS Montrose and destroyer HMS Duncan are already in the region.

The Islamic State group, whose defeat in Syria and Iraq has repeatedly been announced by US President Donald Trump, has been strengthening and expanding its underground network in these countries in recent months.

This conclusion is contained in the report of the inspector general of the US Defense Department Glenn Fine on the progress of Operation Inherent Resolve, which the US military and their allies have been conducting for five years in the Middle East.

During the quarter, the ISIS continued the transition from tactics of retaining territories on its own to a rebel movement in Syria and strengthened its rebel capabilities in Iraq.

According to the command of Operation Unshakable Determination, ISIS carried out killings, attacks by suicide bombers, abducted and set fire to crops in both Iraq and Syria. In addition, the ISIS created resurgent cells in Syria and sought to expand its command and control posts in Iraq.

According to the source, the ISIS is rebuilding its financial network.

The civil war in Syria has led to the rapid disintegration of societal mores and law and order, and there are those who have rushed to fill the void.

Media outlets identified with rebels in the country revealed on Monday that members of a Hezbollah-aligned militia were caught by residents selling drugs to high-school students in Souk Wadi Barada, a Syrian village west of Damascus.

According to the reports, residents are furious that military intelligence officials and militia members regularly selling drugs, manufactured in Lebanon, to local youths in order to generate income.

The drugs are brought into Syria by members of Hezbollah’s drug network, which smuggles drugs into other countries as well.

Ever since the civil war broke out in 2011, many of the Syrian recruits working for the regime have either not been paid or have only had their salaries paid in part. As a result, many have turned to the drug trade in an effort to supplement their lost income.

“Members of the militia come with hashish and uppers and offer them to students,” one local described the situation. “Many of the youths have experienced trauma and difficulties because of the war, and using drugs to escape all that is easy for them.”

Last month, a number of battles broke out between militias in the western suburbs of Damascus, apparently as part of an ongoing turf war over revenue from the drug trade, as well as the sale of water and flour in the area.

The local population, which is largely Sunni Muslim, has been forced to accept the militia’s monopoly on local services, as the Syrian regime continues to turn a blind eye to the violence, drug trafficking, and prostitution.

Iraqi authorities announced on Monday that six members of the Islamic State militant group were killed Monday in an airstrike in Nineveh province, like reported by iraqinews.com.

In a press release carried by the privately-owned Alsumaria News TV channel, the Iraqi Security Media Cell said that the air raid was launched based on intelligence information to eliminate IS remnants in Nineveh province.

No further details were given about the operation but security forces used to target Islamic State gatherings since the collapse of the terrorist group’s territorial influence in Iraq in November 2017.

Despite the group’s crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country.

A well-informed military source revealed to Zaman al-Wasl about Hezbollah’s main base in Syria and its secret supply routes, five days after the head of the Iranian-backed militia announced cutting down his forces in the war-torn country, like reported by zamanalwsl.net.

The border village of Jdeidat Yabous, 45 km (30 miles) west of Damascus, is the main stronghold for Hezbollah since the regime’s army had allocated Battalion 828 of the 18th Infantry Division to Iran’s proxy. 

Hezbollah has reconstructed the battalion that overlooking at the border. New hangars, training camps and depots were built, in addition to setting up a helipad where the Gazelle helicopters used to transfer senior officials of Iran, regime and Hezbollah to Damascus and vice versa, according to the source.

Two Syrian Gazelle helicopters, which affiliated to Mezzeh military airport, land permanently in the helipad where the regime uses the helicopters to transfer its diplomats and top officials from the capital to the base where Hezbollah militants secure their journey inside Lebanon, the source added.

One of the most Hezbollah officials who uses the helipad is Mohammad Jafar Qasir (Hajj Fadi), the general coordinator of Hezbollah in Syria, and who is responsible for smuggling weapons and money from Tehran to Lebanon, via Syria.

The heavily armed Lebanese Shi’ite movement has played a vital role in the war next door, helping Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad reclaim much of the country. 

Iran-backed Hezbollah has reduced its forces in Syria as fighting died down though it still has fighters all over the country, its leader said on Friday. 

Main Hezbollah routes to enter Syria is Damascus route that begins from the Lebanese Bayader al-Adas crossroads (the Ayta al-Fakhar-Hamara), southwest of Sultan Yaqoub al-Fawqa in the western Bekaa Valley, where a permanent barrack and barrier for Hezbollah is located on the main road. 

Hezbollah militants follow Aita al-Fakhar road, 1500 meters, then they pass to the north of the valley, behind Wadi al-Luz hilltop to drive through a dirt road crossing the Syrian border to reach the 826th Infantry Battalion. 

Then they cross the International Road (Damascus-Beirut), passing through the entrance gate of the 18th Infantry Brigade to reach the opposite bank where Syria’s Hezbollah headquraets is located.

Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV that “There are no regions in Syria that we have fully emptied out, but there is no need for the numbers to stay the same,”

“We have reduced the forces based on the needs of the current situation,” he added, according to Reuters.

Rebels and jihadists have killed more than 130,000 pro-regime forces since the armed conflict erupted eight years ago with the brutal repression of protests against al-Assad, according to local monitoring groups.

Britain’s Royal Navy is increasing the size of its deployment in the Persian Gulf, with preparations underway to send another warship and an auxiliary support vessel to the region following the attempted hijacking of a British merchantman by Iranian gunboats.

The Royal Navy announced the pending deployment of the recently overhauled HMS Kent, due to arrive in theatre in September, and fleet tanker RFA Wave Knight in August in a statement this week which described operation Kipion as “part of the UK’s commitment to promoting peace, stability, and the free flow of trade through some of the world’s most vital shipping lanes.”

The deployment will likely focus on the Strait of Hormuz, a key strategic pinch point in the waters between the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and beyond, which is bordered by a belligerent Iran to the north. The Royal Navy describes the bottleneck, easily attacked by Iran’s large fleet of fast gunboats, as one of the most vital waterways in the world for trade and that one-third of all the world’s oil flows through it in tankers every day.

Earlier this month, HMS Montrose positioned itself between a British tanker and three Iranian gunboats after the tanker was ordered to sail into Iranian waters. The ship was credited with having prevented a hijacking, or worse. The Iranian government denies the failed ambush took place.

HMS Kent is a Type 23 Frigate of the Royal Navy, one of the workhorses of the fleet capable of roles from front-line warfighting down to low-intensity asymmetric operations. She recently completed a refit period which included installation of the new Sea Ceptor missile, an anti-air defence system.

The ship arriving in the Gulf will not increase the overall British commitment of first-rate ships to the region, however, as she will be relieving HMS Duncan, an air defence destroyer herself only deployed last week. The Portsmouth News — the local newspaper for HMS Duncan’s homeport — reported yesterday on an attempted Iranian attack on the destroyer after an unmanned, radio-controlled “bomb boat” was spotted being navigated into the path of the ship in the Gulf.

The RFA Wave Knight is a fleet tanker that will support the British deployment to the region by resupplying ships with fuel, food, and water. The tanker is one of a fleet of 11 support craft — ships generally several times larger than the warships they refuel — which allow the Royal Navy to remain continuously deployed for months at a time in hostile areas without having to return to base for resupply.

In addition to the frigate and destroyer, other British ships in the region include RFA Cardigan Bay and four mine countermeasure vessels. Clearing mines is an essential task in a contested narrow passage of water like the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said in May that the attacks on two oil tankers in the region was “almost certainly” committed by Iranian sea mines.

The confirmation of the deployment follows the Royal Navy announcing — in a feat of perfect timing, considering the increased risk of attacks by small, fast-moving craft by Iran — the success in testing out a new ship-based weapons system specifically designed for defeating small, fast-moving craft. Using the same supersonic Martlet missiles developed for naval helicopters to take out small surface targets easily, the launcher was developed to bolt directly onto the side of existing 30mm guns, making the rollout fast and easy for ships.

The weapons engineering officer of HMS Sutherland, the British Frigate of the same type of the others deployed to the Gulf already on which the new weapon was tested, said of the development: “The current defence against fast inshore attack craft, the 30mm gun, is highly effective for closer range engagements.

“By adding the missile to the gun mount it is anticipated it will extend the reach of the ship’s defensive systems – key to successful defence against fast craft using swarm attack tactics.”

Preachers of hate are unethical but smart. Deceit requires brains and minimum wit. But not all preachers of hate were created equal. Some are street smart and talkative, often making arguments that reveal their shallowness, like reported by arabnews.com.

To make up for their inadequate intellect, they outmuscle their rivals, lead militias, and spew hate that they copy from their superiors. Such hate preachers become guns for hire, even if they insist on wearing traditional garments and pretending that they are pious and knowledgeable clerics.

The Iraqi Qais Al-Khazali, a cleric who is also the leader of one of Iraq’s most notorious militias, is one such hate spewer who pretends to be a cleric, when in fact his claim to fame is working as the operative of one of the many Iranian clandestine networks that sow war and discord in Arab countries.

Aged 29, this graduate of geology accompanied Muqtada Al-Sadr — who had inherited the mantle of his father and one of Iraq’s foremost Shiite clerics Mohammed Sadeq Al-Sadr — to a meeting with Iranian operatives. They were promised arms and training, if they would take on US troops in Iraq, according to declassified US investigations with Al-Khazali. A few battles and months later, Al-Sadr realized that he had little reason to undermine a burgeoning sovereign Iraqi state. Al-Sadr disbanded his militia, the Mahdi Army, and transformed his organization into a political movement.

Politics is rarely the strong suit of people with modest intellectual skills and, without a militia, Al-Khazali might have lost his prominence. However, he did not lose his connection to his Iranian handlers, who sponsored his defection from Al-Sadr to set up a splinter group, the Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq (AAH) militia. Al-Khazali’s miltia played a central role in Iran’s two-pronged war in Iraq: One against US troops, the other against Iraqi Sunnis. Iran connected Al-Khazali to Musa Daduq, an operative from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah who helped to engineer a few of the most atrocious kidnappings and killings of US soldiers. Washington estimates that Tehran is responsible for the killing of 1,000 out of the 4,000 troops it lost in the Iraq War.

With US assistance, Iraqi government forces captured Al-Khazali in 2007 and jailed him for three years, when he was released in a prisoner exchange for a kidnapped British contractor.

“Like Saddam, Al-Khazali’s propaganda is one of cult worship, with news about him participating in various activities and giving opinions about everything, opinions that are usually posted on his Twitter account, too”. Hussain Abdul-Hussain

Since then, Al-Khazali has been one of Iran’s most loyal militiamen in Iraq, so much so that he not only joined the Popular Militia Units (PMU), but also opened shop in Syria. Al-Khazali even appeared in Lebanon, checking out the border with Israel, in a flagrant offense against Lebanese sovereignty. But who’s keeping count in Lebanon anyway?

With Daesh almost annihilated, Al-Khazali has been left with little fighting and lots of time. He comes up with unsubstantiated accusations against Iraqi Sunnis, accusing towns such as Tarmiyah, to the north of Baghdad, of being a hotbed for Daesh fighters, calling for a military campaign against the predominantly Sunni town.

Al-Khazali has also been developing his brand. He has taken as his spiritual guide Kazem Al-Haeri, a firebrand Iraqi cleric who lives in Qom, in Iran.

“US President (Donald Trump) gives the countries of the Sheikhs of the Gulf a choice between funding his wars… and the demise of their governments,” Al-Haeri said in a statement. “This is the result of throwing themselves into the arms of the global arrogant powers after their loss of popular support,” Haeri added, claiming — without any substantiation — that Arab governments do not enjoy the popular support. “We also call on the Iraqi government not to be dragged into the lap of global arrogance in its economic, security and military contracts,” Al-Haeri argued, in a clear sign that the Iraqi cleric in Qom was unhappy with Baghdad’s warming relations with Gulf capitals.

In addition to toeing his mentor’s and Iran’s line about the “downtrodden” and about “global arrogance,” Al-Khazali echoes the official Iranian rhetoric, depicting an imaginary alliance between America, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, as the source of all evil in the region. At a conference in Tehran last year, Al-Khazali said that the Iraqi victory over Daesh was a victory over America, Saudi Arabia and Israel. That America offered extensive air cover and military advice on the ground in the battle against Daesh does not seem to register with Al-Khazali, or his audience. Hate speech, after all, is impossible without some spin and a ton of deceit.

On his militia’s website, Al-Khazali’s publicity seems to copy that of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Al-Khazali calls himself Al-Sheikh Al-Amin, a play on words with Amin meaning both trustworthy and secretary general. Like Saddam, Al-Khazali’s propaganda is one of cult worship, with news about him participating in various activities and giving opinions about everything, opinions that are usually posted on his Twitter account, too.

Standing up to “cultural normalization with Israel,” Al-Khazali said in a sermon transcribed into Tweets, means “countering attempts to undermine Iraqi identity by spreading homosexuality in Iraq,” a line of reasoning that Al-Khazali seems to have come up with on his own and slipped into his speech, outside the Iranian-approved script. When speaking his mind Al-Khazali does not sound hateful, he sounds stupid.

A high-ranking Islamic State leader who allegedly masterminded the extremist group’s half-billion-dollar oil smuggling enterprise has been killed in a firefight, according to reports and 9news.com.au.

Thabit Sobhi Fahd Al-Ahmad, a self-styled minister of oil in the now dismantled so-called caliphate, was gunned down in his hideout by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to a statement.
The SDF statement said the attack in Deir Al-Zor province, east of Syria, was carried out in cooperation with the US-led Coalition forces.

Ahmad was considered to have a close relationship with the elusive leader of IS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who remains at large – despite several reports in the past claiming he had been killed.
The smuggling of black market oil had been a lucrative cornerstone of the IS economy, which helped the group take over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

At its height, IS was believed to be making $700 million a year through black market oil sales into Europe, much of it believed to have been trafficked across the borders of a compliant Turkey.
Michael S. Smith II, a US-based terrorism analyst and teaching fellow in Johns Hopkins University’s Global Security Studies program, described Ahmad as a “high value target”.

But Smith urged the US government to further incentivise its coalition partners in Iraq and Syria to capture senior IS fugitives alive, for intelligence purposes.

“On one hand, [the reported killing of Ahmad] may prove a serious setback for the group. On the other, it probably would have been a bigger problem for Islamic State if he had been captured versus killed,” Smith told nine.com.au.
“While the SDF is to be commended for its work, the US and our allies should do more to provide incentives for capturing high-value targets in Syria.”
Through its Rewards for Justice Program, the US State Department has paid out more than $200 million for information which has led to the capture of individuals involved in terrorism.

Smith said that counterterrorism initiative could be used “more aggressively” to bring senior members of Islamic State and al-Qaeda to justice.

“I suspect most members of the SDF know it is rather difficult to secure rewards from this program, and this has factored into calculations concerning whether it is worth taking extra risks to try to capture the big fish that are still at large in Syria,” he said.
Nine.com.au has contacted the US State Department for comment.
The US currently has a bounty of $25million on IS leader al-Baghdadi’s head. There is also a $1million reward on Hamza bin Laden, the son of deceased former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who in recent years has risen in that group’s hierarchy.
News of Ahmad’s death in Syria comes weeks after Saudi special forces announced they had captured the leader of the Yemeni branch of the Islamic State militant group, Abu Osama al-Muhajer.
Earlier this month the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War released a report which painted a deeply disturbing picture of what may lie in store in Iraq and Syria, in sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump who claimed last December IS had been defeated.
The report warned an anticipated “devastating” comeback by IS could be worse than the bloody insurgency that launched the so-called caliphate.
According to the report, there are numerous pockets of well-armed, well-financed sleeper cells ready to launch waves of guerrilla attacks.

More than 100 fighters have been killed in two days clashes between regime and extremist-led opposition forces in north-west Syria, a war monitor said, as violence raged on the edge of an opposition bastion despite a September truce deal, like reported by thenational.ae.

Eight civilians also died in the latest violence since Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Six of them, including a child, were killed in regime air strikes on the town of Jisr Al Shughur.

The UN said it had received reports that the strikes hit medical facilities and healthcare workers.

Syria’s civil war has killed more than 400,000 people and spiralled into a complex conflict since starting in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

Russian and regime aircraft have since late April ramped up the deadly bombardment of the Idlib region of about three million people in north-west Syria, despite a deal to avert a massive government assault.

Regime forces have also been battling extremist militants and allied rebels on the edges of the bastion held by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, including the north of Hama province.

HTS spokesman Abu Khaled Al Shami said the group and allied rebel fighters attacked after dark, taking control of the village of Hamameyat and a hilltop.

Fighting and bombardment since the launch of the attack late on Wednesday killed at least 57 regime forces and 44 opposition fighter, the Britain-based war monitor said.

“The fighting is ongoing as regime planes and artillery pound the area,” Observatory head Rami Abdurrahman said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” the air strikes and urged that “civilians and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, must be protected”.

“Several health facilities were reportedly hit yesterday, including a hospital in Maarat Al Numan, one of the largest hospitals in the area,” the UN statement said on Thursday.

In air raids on Thursday, a civilian was killed in a Russian strike on the Idlib town of Latamneh, the Observatory said, while rebel shelling cost the life of a woman in regime-held territory outside the province.

Elsewhere in Syria, eight civilians were among the 13 people killed in a car bomb near a checkpoint outside Afrin, the Observatory said.

Turkish troops and Syrian proxies took control of Afrin from Kurdish forces they consider “terrorists” in March last year after a two-month air and ground offensive.

“Among the victims, at least six are originally from Eastern Ghouta,” a former rebel bastion near Damascus retaken by the regime last year, Mr Abdurrahman said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but a commander with a pro-Ankara faction accused Kurdish fighters.

Since the Turkish-backed rebel takeover, the UN and human rights groups have documented widespread abuses in Afrin.

The UN and Amnesty have also reported patterns of house appropriations by fighters and civilians bussed to Afrin during the surrender last year of Eastern Ghouta.

Half of the Kurdish enclave’s 320,000 residents have fled, according to a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, and most are unable to return.

Also on Thursday, several people were wounded in a car-bomb blast near a church in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in north-east Syria. The attack was later claimed by ISIS.

Endless rounds of UN-led peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Syria.

UN peace envoy Geir Pedersen, however, is pushing ahead with a 17-month-old effort to form a committee to write a post-war constitution.

Both he and Damascus on Wednesday expressed “progress” towards forming the panel, whose composition has been the subject of dispute.

Shored up by a series of Russian-backed victories since 2015, the regime wants to amend the current constitution, but the opposition wants an entirely new one.

A September deal between Moscow and Ankara was supposed to avert a massive regime offensive on Idlib, but it was never fully implemented and Hayat Tahrir Al Sham took full administrative control in January.

More than 570 civilians have been killed in regime and Russian air strikes on north-west Syria since late April, according to the Observatory.

Rebel fire during the same period has killed more than 45 civilians in adjacent government-held areas.

Hours after Iran warned Britain there would be consequences for seizing one of its oil tankers on route to Syria, five Iranian military gunboats unsuccessfully attempted to detain a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, U.S. defense officials said according to upi.com.

The British Heritage tanker was approached Wednesday by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats in the Strait of Hormuz and ordered to enter Iranian territorial waters, according to U.S. officials, CNN reported.

A British warship, the HMS Montrose, was less than five miles behind the tanker when it was approached and threatened to open fire if the Iranian gunboats did not disengage, which they did, Fox News reported.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the military was aware of the incident.

“Threats to international freedom of navigation require an international solution,” he said. “The world economy depends on the free flow of commerce, and it is incumbent on all nations to protect and preserve this lynchpin of global prosperity.”

The incident follows Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warning Britain that there would be “consequences” for having seized a tanker shipping Persian oil last week off Gibraltar on its way to Syria.

“I remind this to the Britons,” Rouhani said Wednesday during a government meeting. “You are the ones initiating insecurity, and will come to realize its consequences in the future,” Iran’s state-run Press TV reported.

The Grace 1 was detained in by the British Royal Navy July 4 on reasonable grounds to suspect it was violating European Union sanctions.

The attempted seizure Wednesday is the latest conflict to occur in the Persian Gulf following attacks on several tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, where some 20 percent of the world’s oil transits, in the past two months.

The United States has repeatedly blamed Iran for those attacks while Iran has denied the allegations.

The Strait of Hormuz is also near the location where Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shot down a U.S. drone, though both sides argue over whether it was actually downed in the Middle Eastern country’s territory. Iran claims the drone was in its airspace while the United States says it was over international waters.

The attempted seizure comes as the United States has accused Iran of “nuclear extortion,” threatening to slap the country with further sanctions for surpassing a stockpile limit of enriched uranium established in the 2015 multinational accord aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said Wednesday its 35-nation Board of Governors met to discuss issues with Iran at the request of a member state.

During the meeting, which was called by the United States, U.S. ambassador Jackie Wolcott said “there is no credible reason for Iran to expand its nuclear program, and there is no way to read this as anything other than a crude and transparent attempt to extort payments from the international community,” The New York Times reported.

The only path to sanctions relief for Iran will be through negotiations, “not nuclear extortion,” she said.

The board said in its resolution from Wednesday’s meeting it was “deeply concerned” that Iran had exceeded the stockpile limit of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent and had started enriching uranium above that ceiling, stressing that Iran should adhere to all aspects of the deal.

“We urge Iran to reverse these steps and to return to full JCPOA compliance without delay,” the IAEA Board of Governors said, referring to the accord by its initialism.

Late Wednesday, President Donald Trump threatened Iran that sanctions would be “increased, substantially.”

Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
Iran has long been secretly “enriching,” in total violation of the terrible 150 Billion Dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama Administration. Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!

Tensions between the two countries have flared since last May when Trump pulled out of that nuclear accord. On May 8, Iran said it would no longer be adhering to certain aspects of the deal and would start stockpiling enriched uranium.