Media War Cell announced the killing of 17 militants, as well as the destruction of ISIS site and a plant for booby-trapping vehicles, in addition to dismantling 20 explosive devices in Anbar province.

The cell said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces continue to cleanse Anbar province of terrorist gangs backed by the air force; they managed to destroy two vehicles in an airstrike by the coalition forces in Albu Aytha area,” pointing out that, “the Iraqi army aviation also killed 15 terrorists, while Army tanks destroyed two vehicles for the enemy.”

Coalition airstrikes successfully destroyed an Islamic State (IS) car bomb (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device or VBIED) facility August 1^st near the Kurdish town of Makhmour, the coalition said on Sunday.

“This facility was a critical IS asset that helped the terrorists produce numerous VBIEDs – the IS weapon of choice – which can be moved easily throughout Iraq and used against Iraqi Security Forces and the civilian population,” the coalition said.

Kurdish forces recaptured the town of Makhmour in August last year. However, battles between the Peshmerga and IS continue on frontlines outside the town.

“These strikes, conducted in coordination with the government of Iraq, will help reduce the ability of Daesh [IS] to utilise their weapon of choice – VBIEDs,” said Brig. Gen. Kevin Killea, CJTF-OIR Chief of Staff. “Daesh VBIEDs are responsible for many attacks against Iraqi Security Forces and atrocities committed against Iraqi civilians.”

The Military Media cell announced the destruction of the most important facilities of ISIS to manufacture car bombs in an air strike near Mosul.

According to a statement of the cell received by Shafaq News, “based on accurate information from citizens; and after the destruction of booby-trapping plant in the center of Fallujah and a large camp south of Mosul, a quality air strike has been directed in coordination with the international coalition’s aircrafts on the most important ISIS facilities south of Mosul and destroyed it in al-Qayyarah fully where they used it to booby-trap cars to target citizens in the governorates of Iraq. “

Joint Special Operations Command called citizens in areas under the control of ISIS to stay away from their headquarters and the regions of their presence because they are targets that will be destroyed in the coming days, According to a statement

The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels said a political settlement with the exiled government was still possible after what he called the “short-term” setback of their ouster from second city Aden.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi said the rebels would welcome a new attempt by a third party to broker a deal after the failure of U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva in June.

“A political settlement is still possible,” Houthi said in a speech broadcast by the rebels’ Al-Masira television channel late Sunday.

“We would welcome any [mediation] effort by a neutral party – Arab or international,” he said.

Houthi played down the withdrawal of the rebels and their allies from Aden in mid-July after four months of ferocious fighting.

“The advance made by the enemy in Aden will collapse,” he said.

“It is a short-term situation which we will overcome despite all the money of Saudi Arabia.”

Yemen’s oil-rich neighbor has led an air campaign against the rebels since March and has also trained and equipped ground forces that were instrumental in securing Aden.

It was the rebels’ entry into the southern port that forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his internationally recognized government into Saudi exile in March.

Riyadh has justified its military intervention against the rebels and their allies, saying that they posed a threat to the kingdom’s security.

But Houthi said that after more than four months of devastating bombing, the threat was the other way round.

“With the crimes that you are committing you pose a danger to Yemen,” he said.

“To guarantee your security, you have to be a good neighbor.”

The rebels have fired mortars, rockets and even Scud missiles across the border but say that they only did so in response to the Saudi-led air war.

A Saudi civilian was killed Sunday but the majority of the 49 deaths so far have been soldiers.

President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are both taking a big gamble as they agree to work together against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group militants in Syria.

Their goals, while overlapping in some ways, are far different in others, mainly on the question of how to handle Kurdish militants battling ISIL fighters in Syria. And that’s the problem.

Erdoğan wants to combat ISIL militants in his country who had flown freely across the border with Syria. But his biggest priority is one that’s driven by domestic politics: curtailing growing Kurdish power along Turkey’s southern border. Ankara is worried that Kurdish gains in Iraq and in Syria will encourage a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey in pursuit of an independent state.

To that end, Erdoğan used the start of Turkish air strikes against ISIL forces in Syria to also attack the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels in northern Iraq. And on July 27, the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Unit, known as the YPG, claimed that it had been shelled by Turkish troops. A Turkish official said the military was only returning fire, and that the military campaign does not include the YPG.

Since the U.S.-Turkey agreement was announced late last month, Turkish warplanes have attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq and its forces in southeastern Turkey on an almost daily basis.

The U.S. has gained access to Turkey’s İncirlik air base near Syria’s northern border, as well as Turkey’s participation in attacks on ISIL fighters from the air.

But what the U.S. stands to lose could be even greater: Washington’s most effective allies and ground forces in the battle against the ISIL in Syria are the Kurds, ever wary of being targeted by Turkey, despite Ankara’s promise not to attack them.

“It’s no secret that Turkey has been less interested in fighting ISIL than suppressing the Kurds,” said Stephen Tankel, professor at American University. “That’s still true. Bringing Turkey further into the fight against ISIL is a positive thing depending on the cost. Turkey has said it won’t strike the Syrian Kurdish militias, which are one of the most effective U.S. partners on the ground. ”

The Kurds, an ethnic group with their own language and customs, have long sought a homeland. Nearly 25 million Kurds live mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia.

The Kurds have made unprecedented gains since Syria’s civil war began, carving out territory where they declared their own civil administration. With the help of U.S.-led airstrikes against the ISIL group, Kurdish fighters expelled the militants in Kobani, a Syrian village on the Turkish border in January after a long battle.

In June, the Kurds pushed the ISIL group from their stronghold of Tal Abyad also along the border with Turkey, robbing ISIL of a key avenue for smuggling oil and foreign fighters.

Until about two years ago, Kurds had fought a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey and from bases in northern Iraq. That fighting has taken at least 37,000 lives.

Peace talks begun in 2013 have broken down with the renewed Turkish bombing in northern Iraq and PKK counterattacks inside Turkey.

That is bound to have put the Obama administration in a tough spot with its Kurdish allies fighting the ISIL in Syria. The White House is reported to have cautioned the Turks about military action in northern Iraq, where Kurds claim civilian casualties.

But counterattacks by the PKK have escalated violence between Turkish government forces and Kurdish insurgents. At least 24 people have been killed in the renewed violence in Turkey, most of them soldiers.

Erdoğan has been struggling since elections in June resulted in a hung parliament, when the pro-Kurdish party made huge gains in Parliament. Erdoğan, critics and Kurdish activists claim, is reigniting the conflict in a bid to win nationalist votes and undermine support for Kurdish politicians in possible new elections in the coming months.

Anthony Cordesman, a CSIS military expert, said the deal with Turkey was likely good for overall U.S. strategy in the Middle East. But, he said, “One of the problems is we keep trying to describe this as if it were black and white, and what you’re really watching again is three-dimensional chess with something like 9 players and no rules.”

Iran’s president said Sunday his country’s nuclear deal with the West would create better prospects for faster solutions in Syria and Yemen, two of the Middle East’s worst conflict zones.

In a live appearance on state television, Hassan Rouhani said the July 14 agreement had shown diplomacy and engagement were the only way to solve serious political problems and end crises.

“The final solution in Yemen is political, in Syria the final solution is political,” he said. “The agreement will create a new atmosphere. The climate will be easier.”

The near two years of talks between Iran and six world powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — was a “Herculean task” but was worth it, Rouhani argued.

“I was never despondent,” he said of the talks which seemed to be faltering at numerous stages, with negotiators at loggerheads over the terms of the deal.

“Not for a single second did I doubt our success,” he said, noting that “interaction” had triumphed over possible confrontation and surrender, neither of which “held much water” as options.

Under the agreement, Iran will curb some but not all aspects of its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions that have pulverised its economy in recent years.

Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has sent money and military advisers to aid his fight against Sunni rebels seeking to topple his regime.

And in Yemen, a Saudi-led air campaign against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels has been heavily opposed in Tehran, leading to a near collapse of its ties with Riyadh.

The kingdom accuses Iran of meddling in Arab states, including Yemen which is majority Sunni, and Bahrain, a Sunni monarchy with a Shiite majority.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, the chief American negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks, sought to assure Middle East allies Sunday that the deal would make them safer, as he began a regional tour in Egypt and later flew to Qatar.

The supreme leader of Iran is apparently now an aspiring author but one thing is for sure: this is no love story.

According to a report on Saturday in the New York Post, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s new book Palestine outlines his case for why Israel must be wiped out and how. “The solution is a one-state formula,” he writes, which is called “Palestine.”

He said this “practical and logical mechanism”  would have Israel under Muslim rule with some Jews being allowed to stay as a “protected minority” but only after proving “genuine roots.” He advocates strict apartheid against Jews saying that they would not be allowed to vote in a future Muslim state while Arabs would have full rights.

He claims that his plan would promote “the hegemony of Iran” while removing “the West’s hegemony” from the Middle East.

Khamenei, who is described in the book as “the flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem,” wrote that his views are not anti-Semitic but Islamic and based on “well-established Islamic principles.” This goes on the opinion in Islam that land which was once owned by Muslims can never be ruled by non-Muslims again. Along with Israel, this also includes Russia, many parts of Europe, Thailand, India and parts of China and the Philippines.

However, Khamenei singles Israel out as an adou [enemy], doshman [foe] and a “cancerous tumor” for several reasons, the first of which is for being an “ally of the American Great Satan” which is waged in a war to overtake “the heartland of the Ummah [nation].”

Second, he says Israel is singled out because of his claim that it has waged a war on Muslims and therefore has become a kaffir al-harbi [hostile infidel].

Third, he claims that Israel “occupies” Jerusalem and calls it “Islam’s third Holy City.”

Khamenei says his plan entails low-intensity warfare based on wearing down the patience of Israelis and the international community. He writes that this plan does not entail “classical warfare” and he supposedly does not want to kill Jews.

His plan goes on the assumption that all Israelis have dual citizenship and would rather live in the US or Europe.  He recommends therefore to make life in Israel so uncomfortable that they leave voluntarily to avoid threats on them.

He then describes using the tactic of “Israel fatigue” wherein the international community would decide to stop supporting Israel’s military programs.

Another section of the book boasted past Iran-supported warfare against Israel using examples from Gaza and Lebanon. He writes that he aims to recruit West Bank “fighters” in units modeled after Hezbollah.

“We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006 and in the 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.”

Though he doesn’t reference an Iranian nuclear program directly, he mentions that a nuclear Iran would be able to deter Israel from taking any military action against the Islamic republic.

Referring to the Holocaust, Khamenei called it a “propaganda ploy” and writes that “we don’t know why it happened and how.”

The 416-page book is currently only available in Iran in Persian, but apparently an Arabic version is on the way.

Pro-government fighters in Yemen have received weapons shipments in the war-torn city of Aden, as Shiite rebels scramble to deploy reinforcements, military officials from both sides of the conflict said Sunday.

Military and port officials in Aden said new heavy and medium weapons and ammunition arrived in Aden in late July by sea to support pro-government army divisions and militias against the Shiite Houthi rebels and allied military units.

The officials said tanks, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles were included in the shipment from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have been waging a U.S.-backed air campaign against the Iran-supported rebels since March.

After months of fierce fighting, pro-government fighters have recently pushed rebels out of Aden and advanced in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city.

Military officials close to the Houthis in the rebel-held capital Sanaa said the rebels are continuously sending military reinforcements south to Aden and Taiz, suggesting major losses.

They said the Houthis are determined to continue fighting in Aden and Taiz, and have demanded that allied tribes send fighters to the two fronts. The Houthis are also actively recruiting new fighters in mosques, the officials said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The fighting in Yemen pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens was killed Sunday when a house inside the kingdom was struck by fire from neighboring Yemen.

A civil defense spokesman, Ali bin Omair al-Shahrani, said in comments to the official Saudi Press Agency that the Saudi was killed in the border town of Najran.

Nearly 40 government and opposition fighters have been killed as Syrian regime forces pushed rebels back from an area bordering President Bashar Assad’s heartland, a monitor said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 regime forces and 19 rebels from the Army of Conquest alliance had been killed in 24 hours of clashes in Hama province’s Sahl al-Ghab region.

The area borders Latakia province, a bastion of support for Assad and home to his ancestral village.

Earlier this week, the rebel alliance, which includes Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, began a major offensive in the area, taking around 17 strategic hilltops and other positions, including a power plant.

The Britain-based Observatory said Saturday that regime forces had retaken around seven of those positions, including the power plant.

Syria’s official SANA news agency said “dozens of terrorists” had been killed and that troops had captured several villages after “intensifying operations in the area.”

The rebel advance in Hama put a string of majority-Alawite villages at risk.

The Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, is the faith to which Assad adheres.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said 25 Syrian rebels, including three senior commanders, were killed in a failed attack on a makeshift army base outside the northern city of Aleppo.

Nine regime forces were also killed in fighting that erupted after several rebel groups launched the attack late Friday.

SANA said “a number of terrorists were killed and wounded” by government forces in the west of the city.

The Observatory said sporadic fighting was continuing on the western outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday morning, with regime planes carrying out air strikes and rebels firing rockets on loyalist positions.

Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by fighting and divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.

In early July, two rebel alliances launched attacks against regime forces in the western outskirts of the city, sparking some of the heaviest violence since the country’s war arrived in the city in 2012.

The assaults were largely repelled, though rebels have continued sporadic attacks.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said the Islamic State group had issued warnings to local internet providers to halt private wifi supply in the town of Albu Kamal in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

The jihadist group issued a similar directive in its de facto Syrian capital Raqa in July.

The ban there sought to prevent residents from accessing the internet privately, instead forcing them to go through monitored internet cafes.

The Observatory said the bans appeared to be motivated by a desire to create a news blackout but also to thwart foreign fighters who might be trying to return home without IS permission.

The rise of ISIL has made Iranians more supportive of their government’s interventions in Syria and Iraq, but public opinion also limits Tehran’s ability to become more directly involved in these conflicts.

Most Iranians now endorse Tehran’s financial and military support for the Syrian and Iraqi governments in their fight against the brutal extremist group, but they remain overwhelmingly opposed to risking Iranian lives by deploying troops in these conflicts.

“The public now view Iraq and Syria as allies without whom Iran would be forced to combat ISIL and Al Qaeda directly and on its own,” said Amir Farmanesh, co-founder and president of IranPoll.com, which conducts regular polls on Iranian public opinion.

Polls in May showed the vast majority, 86.3 per cent, also felt that president Hassan Rouhani had improved the country’s security situation, endorsing the government’s handling of the crises.

The emergence of ISIL has shifted attitudes toward the Syrian conflict.

Two polls conducted by Gallup revealed a drop in Iranian support for the war in Syria from 2012 to 2013, with most Iranians at the time not following the conflict at all despite their government’s heavy involvement. This changed dramatically following ISIL’s gains in mid-2014, Iranian analysts said.

“When ISIL attacked Mosul, Iranians felt threatened. Now people think that if we don’t fight ISIL in Syria and Iraq, we will have to fight them here in our own territory,” Mahmoud Pargoo, an Iranian political analyst and PhD candidate at the Australian Catholic University said.

Iranian public opinion of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad has been mixed since the uprising against him began in 2011, but with the changing paradigm of the conflict, many Iranians now see the war as one of pre-emptive defence against ISIL, rather than in support of Mr Al Assad.

“While the public is not necessarily happy with Mr Al Assad, they consider Daesh a great menace that needs to be crushed,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert and professor of political science at Syracuse University in New York.

Details of Iran’s involvement in Syria and Iraq remain murky, as Tehran does not disclose information related to its military activities abroad. But the Islamic Republic has been widely reported to have provided Syria and Iraq with substantial financing and military aid, mostly in the form of advisers.

While Iran has suffered a few casualties in both the Syria and Iraq wars, analysts say there has been little evidence showing direct Iranian involvement in combat. Mr Pargoo believes that only the “very ideological” of Iranians have volunteered to fight in Syria and Iraq.

Iran’s preference is to establish local militias in conflict zones, as opposed to sending in its own forces. This has been evident in both Syria and Iraq, where the Iranians have helped establish, train and guide militias such as the National Defence Forces in Syria and the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq.

This is rooted not simply in geopolitical calculations but also in Iranian domestic opinion that is averse to sending its sons to fight abroad.

“Iranians have a very high bar for when Iran’s military should become actively and directly involved in these conflicts,” Mr Farmanesh said.

According to Mr Pargoo, they see no moral justification for direct Iranian involvement as Iran is not under attack. “That’s an important reason why Ayatollah Khamenei has not sent troops to the battlefronts in Iraq and Syria, because he cannot justify it and persuade the Iranian people,” he said.

The mass protests following the 2009 presidential election continue to play on the minds of Iran’s leaders, who are now more sensitive to public opinion, Mr Boroujerdi said.

Iranian fighters returning in body bags is a scene they wish to avoid so as to not turn public opinion against them. This has limited Iran’s ability to back its allies in Syria and Iraq to a support role.

While Iraqi Shiite militias are easily filling their ranks, this constraint on Iranian support is proving costly in Syria, where government forces are struggling with manpower shortages – a weakness Mr Al Assad admitted to this week. Iran’s assistance in establishing local militias has not been enough to prevent pro-Assad forces from suffering significant losses in recent months.

Despite Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Qassem Suleimani promising a “surprise” in Syria in June after a string of regime losses, the Iranians appear to be sticking to their policy of not deploying Iranian combat units in Syria.

Instead, reports have pointed to the extra deployment of mostly Iraqi Shiite militiamen and Lebanese Hizbollah units in Syria to support Mr Al Assad’s beleaguered forces.

“The rulers know that the Iranian public are not supportive of direct Iranian involvement. Even though the Syrians need forces, the Iranians haven’t sent any,” Mr Pargoo said.

Though the prospects of Iran deploying ground forces in Syria and Iraq in the near future appear slim, Iran’s leadership can count on strong public support for its policies in Syria and Iraq while the ISIL threat persists.