Kurdish have attacked Turkish security forces in two separate assaults in southeast Turkey, killing five people, officials said. One rebel was also killed.

The assaults come amid renewed violence between Turkish forces and the autonomy-seeking Kurdish insurgents, fighting that has shattered a fragile peace process that the two sides started in 2012.

The military said rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, launched an attack Thursday on soldiers protecting a military convoy in Sirnak province, near the border with Iraq. Three soldiers, including an officer, died. The military responded with a counter-offensive that killed one PKK rebel.

In an earlier attack, Kurdish rebels opened fire late Wednesday on a tea house in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing a police officer and a civilian.

Violence has flared in the region in the past week, with Turkey launching raids against PKK positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, and the rebels escalating attacks against Turkey’s security forces. Meanwhile, Turkey has also been cracking down on the Islamic State group.

 

A Kurdish cleric from Iraqi Kurdistan capital Erbil, who became the face of Kurds joining Islamic State (IS), has been killed in the southern Kirkuk Province town of Hawija in northern Iraq.

A source from the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) told BasNews on Tuesday that in a covert mission, with the support of US-led coalition forces, they killed the Kurdish mullah who left Erbil to join IS earlier this year.

The source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the July 28^th KRSC mission was able to track down mullah Shwan in Hawija, after monitoring his movements and his house for the last few days.

On Tuesday at 5:38 PM, after mullah Shwan left home and joined vehicle full of IS militants, the Kurdish operatives opened fire, killing all inside.

The KRSC confirmed the death of the mullah and further details will be released soon.

Mullah Shwan hailed from the Erbil suburb of Daratu. He became the face of Kurdish IS militants after joining the terror group earlier this year on the Kirkuk frontline. He interrogated Peshmerga prisoners who had been captured by IS militants in January this year, on camera in February.

The Lebanese army announced on Thursday the arrest of Lebanese citizens and foreigners suspected of belonging to armed groups and terrorist organizations.

Lebanese Abdullah Mahmoud Massoud and his brother Azzam, in addition to Ali Ahmed al-Abdo and Odai Ahmed al-Obaid, were apprehended during a raid that an army unit carried out in the area of al-Zahrieh in the northern city of Tripoli on Wednesday night.

The army said in a communique that the unit seized rifles, guns, rocket launchers, hand grenades and military gear during the raids.

In the area of Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the military arrested Palestinian Ali Mohammed al-Abed, who is wanted on suspicion of tossing grenades and opening fire on several occasions in Borj al-Barajneh last year, said the communique.

Troops also arrested several Syrians during raids in the areas of Torza in Koura, Labweh in Baalbek and the Metn town of Jdeideh, it said.

According to the army, the six Syrians are suspected of belonging to terrorist organizations.

The communique also said that soldiers have arrested ten other Syrians for entering the country illegally.

The al Qaida-linked Nusra Front has abducted the leader of a US-backed rebel group in north Syria, opposition sources and a monitoring group said, in a blow to Washington’s efforts to train and equip fighters to combat Islamic State.

A statement issued in the name of the group, “Division 30”, accused the Nusra Front of abducting Nadim al-Hassan and a number of his companions in a rural area north of Aleppo. It urged Nusra to release them.

A Syrian activist and a second opposition source said most of the 54 fighters who have so far completed a US-led train and equip programmed in neighboring Turkey were from Division 30.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports on the war, said the men were abducted while returning from a meeting in Azaz, north of Aleppo, to coordinate efforts with other factions. The opposition source said they were abducted on Tuesday night.

The train and equip program aims to bolster Syrian insurgents deemed politically moderate enough by the United States to fight the Islamic State group that has seized wide areas of Syria.

The Nusra Front, which Washington has designated a terrorist organization, has a track record of crushing US-backed rebels in Syria. Last year, it routed the Syria Revolutionaries Front led by Jamal Maarouf, viewed as one of the most powerful insurgent leaders until his defeat.

It was also instrumental in the demise of the US-backed Hazzm Movement, which collapsed earlier this year after clashing with the Nusra Front in the northwest.

The US military launched the program in May to train up to 5,400 fighters a year in what was seen as a test of President Barack Obama’s strategy of getting local partners to combat Islamic State.

But many candidates were declared ineligible and others dropped out. US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it has fallen far behind plans.

Washington and Ankara this week announced their intention to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and jointly sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land along the border, with US warplanes using bases in Turkey for strikes.

But the United States and Turkey have not yet agreed which Syrian rebels they will support in the effort.

Pro-Houthi forces have repeatedly fired mortar shells and rockets indiscriminately into populated areas in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden in violation of the laws of war. In the deadliest attack, on July 19 in Dar Saad district, mortar fire killed several dozen civilians, including children.

Leaders of the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, should immediately cease indiscriminate attacks by their own and allied forces and take all possible steps to minimize harm to civilians. Houthi forces should not use explosive weapons with wide-area effect in populated areas because of the inevitable harm they cause to civilians.

“Pro-Houthi forces have been raining mortar shells and rockets onto populated areas of Aden with no apparent regard for the civilians remaining there,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher. “These unlawful attacks take a terrible human toll and should stop immediately.”

Human Rights Watch visited four areas in Aden controlled by southern resistance forces that had come under fire from Houthi rockets and mortars since July 1. Human Rights Watch also interviewed four Aden residents by phone and reviewed photographic evidence and video footage of the attacks and their aftermath published on social media.

Investigation of the impact sites and weapons remnants shows the use of multiple rockets and mortar rounds with blast and fragmentation effects that can cause injuries and damage over a wide area. These weapons, in particular unguided rockets, are difficult to target with accuracy, and when directed toward populated areas are indiscriminate. Indiscriminate attacks violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes when carried out deliberately or recklessly. Human Rights Watch has previously documented the use of unguided rockets against populated areas in Saudi Arabia by pro-Houthi forces in Yemen.

Human Rights Watch investigated attacks that struck areas under the control of the southern resistance committees. The areas were attacked repeatedly over several days, excluding the possibility of misdirected fire. Impact marks on buildings and walls indicated that the munitions had come from the direction of the front lines, and the impact areas were within range of pro-Houthi forces.

Human Rights Watch presented details of the attacks with Ansar Allah authorities in Sanaa, the capital, but they did not provide any concrete information about the attacks or their intended targets. A representative of Ansar Allah from the Ministry of Human Rights said that he would welcome an investigation, even an international one, including of alleged violations by Houthi forces.

Local residents in the areas attacked said that no southern resistance fighters were in those areas and that the fighters had not used the areas to launch attacks against the Houthis. Human Rights Watch saw no evidence of military installations or other military objectives that would constitute legitimate targets.

International humanitarian law – the laws of war – governs the hostilities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It prohibits indiscriminate attacks, which strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction. Examples include attacks that are not directed at a specific military objective or that use weapons, such as unguided rockets, that cannot be directed at a specific military objective.

Military commanders must choose a means of attack that can be directed at military targets and will minimize incidental harm to civilians. Weapons that are so inaccurate that they cannot be directed at military targets without imposing a substantial risk of civilian harm should not be deployed. Forces deployed in populated areas must avoid locating military objectives near densely populated areas and try to remove civilians from the vicinity of military activities.

“Houthi leaders should realize that they could face a war crimes trial for ordering or even just overseeing indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian neighborhoods,” Solvang said.

July 19 Attack on Dar Saad
Pro-Houthi forces fired mortar shells into Dar Saad, one of Aden’s northern districts, on the morning of July 19, local residents told Human Rights Watch. The shelling killed nearly 100 people, most of them civilians, according to Doctors without Borders (MSF). Human Rights Watch visited the scene of the attack the next day, July 20.

Local residents said that mortar fire began hitting the Dumina neighborhood, in the eastern part of Dar Saad, at about 9 a.m. and continued for several hours, during which mortar shells also hit the nearby Shaikhan neighborhood and the Insha’at neighborhood in western Dar Saad.

In Shaikhan, several mortar shells hit close to the local mosque. One exploded about 20 meters away between 10:30 and 11 a.m., injuring many children who were waiting in a line to collect water, witnesses said. A local policeman told Human Rights Watch:

There were many injured. I couldn’t count them all. I myself helped perhaps 15-16 children who were wounded, all of them between 9 and 12-years-old, and most of them had been standing in line for water.

Another mortar shell fell near the mosque’s main gate at about 12:30 p.m. as worshipers emerged from noon prayers, killing at least five civilians, witnesses said.

Several mortar rounds also struck the western part of Dar Saad. In the Insha’at neighborhood, a mortar shell that hit a truck in the street near a shop on Maydan street at about 9:30 a.m. wounded at least three people. Shortly after the first impact, another mortar shell struck the area next to the shop, killing at least nine people, including a 10-year-old child, and injuring at least six others, including five children, witnesses said.

A third shell hit a house at about 10 a.m. Ali Ahmad Muhammad Nagi, 45, the owner, told Human Rights Watch:

A shell fragment penetrated the roof and the first floor and got stuck in the ceiling of the ground floor, right above the bed where my 7-year-old daughter was sleeping. She is suffering now, wakes up frightened at night, in panic, remembering the loud sounds and seeing the tip of the shell hanging over her head. I was scared myself so how do you think she felt? Then the shells started raining over the area, here, there, everywhere, exploding among people helping the wounded.

Local residents said that at least 12 shells hit the neighborhood that morning.

Human Rights Watch examined more than 15 impact sites in eastern and western Dar Saad. At several there were munition remnants such as tail sections that are distinctive indicators of a mortar shell. Based on their knowledge from previous attacks, local residents said they thought the remnants came from 120 mm mortars. This was consistent with the findings of a Human Rights Watch analysis of remnants.

The areas of Dar Saad that the mortar shells hit are all two or three kilometers south of the front line between the Houthi and southern resistance forces fighting for control of Aden. Human Rights Watch examined at least four sites where mortar shells had struck the north and front-line-facing walls of buildings indicating that they had come from positions held by Houthi forces. In general, 120 mm mortars have a minimum range of 500 meters and a maximum range of over 7 kilometers. These shells can produce casualties on exposed people up to 60 meters away from the point of impact.

The international humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which runs a hospital in Aden, reported that attacks on Aden on July 19 killed nearly 100 people and wounded about 200 others. The head of MSF in Yemen said that 80 percent of the overall casualties were civilians.

July 9 Attack on Little Aden
At least six rockets struck B-class, a residential neighborhood close to the Aden Refinery Company in Little Aden on a peninsula west of the main city, on the afternoon of July 9. The attack killed 70-year-old Hassan Zaid, local residents said. Zaid died when a rocket struck the eastern side of the concrete wall surrounding al-Massila primary school, where more than 200 people displaced by the fighting had sought shelter, residents said. Human Rights Watch viewed a fragment pattern visible on the eastern side of the wall, but not western, indicating that it almost certainly came from the east.

Another rocket struck the north face of a house about 500 meters west of the school, also damaging a neighboring house and seriously wounding Hussein Rauf, 19. Doctors had to amputate both of his legs, local residents said.

At least four other rockets struck the area without causing further casualties. Local residents showed Human Rights Watch a large object at one site that appeared to be the remnant of a 122 mm unguided rocket.

Taken together, the damage to the school wall and the residential buildings indicate that the rockets came from the northeast. Pro-Houthi forces were in the Tawahi district, 15 kilometers away and north of the Aden airport, 20 kilometers away. In general, unguided 122 mm rockets have a minimum range of at least a kilometer and a maximum range of 20 kilometers. However, given the many variations and performance improvements made by some manufacturers, some 122 mm rockets may be capable of reaching ranges approaching 40 kilometers.

Local residents said a rocket also struck the nearby Kod al-Namer residential neighborhood at about 1 a.m. on July 9, slightly injuring one man and damaging three houses.

The attacks in Little Aden may have been directed at the Aden oil refinery. Rockets struck the refinery on June 27 and on July 13, according to media reports.

July 7 Attack on Mansoura District
Rockets and mortar shells struck Wadea Hadad, a residential area about 500 meters west of Mansoura central prison in Mansoura District, between 10 p.m. on July 7 and 2 a.m. on July 8, killing at least six civilians and seriously wounding others, residents told Human Rights Watch. They named six of the dead, who included one woman and two children belonging to the Saleh family, ages 2 and 6. The dead children’s mother and 10-year-old sister were critically injured.

Mahmoud Abdulaziz, 29, said that the rockets struck in numerous places, some in the streets and some on cars: “I saw five people get killed in that attack, all of them civilians from this area,” Abdulaziz said.

Residents said that Gunblat Saleh Fadel, 32, died when a munition hit his car as he sought to move it to a safer place, and that a rocket killed two other people when it exploded near their car as they attempted to evacuate people from the neighborhood.

Some residents said that they could distinguish between rocket and mortar attacks because rockets generally caused greater damage to buildings, and showed Human Rights Watch rocket remnants that they had found after the attack.

The neighborhood that came under attack is known as “Army Buildings” to local residents because the Yemeni authorities formerly allocated apartments in the area to military officers. However, local residents told Human Rights Watch that there had been no firing of rockets, mortars, or other weapons from the area or any significant deployment of fighters that could have provided a justification for the Houthi attack on July 7.

July 1 Attack on Mansoura District
Multiple rockets struck Blocks 4 and 5, two residential neighborhoods in Mansoura District early on the morning of July 1, local residents said. The attack killed 18 civilians, including a child, and wounded 23 others, according to Al-Khader al-Aswar, director of the Aden office of Yemen’s Health Ministry.

Local residents said that the first rocket struck near Mansoura central prison near midnight on June 30, killing one man. A short time later, a second rocket hit a gas station on Prison Street about 40 meters from the Infinity Hotel, then accommodating several hundred people displaced by the fighting. Then, after dozens of people had rushed to the site to see if there were casualties, a third rocket hit the street nearby.

Muhammad Hussein al-Hamed, who was staying at the hotel and standing in front of it when the third rocket struck, said:

I heard a huge explosion when something hit the ground in the middle of the street right next to us. I felt something piercing my skin and bone in my right arm, my foot and the area between my thighs. I screamed. I managed to get back to the hotel on my own, but there I fainted from the pain and bleeding.

Al-Hamed said he saw about 10 other people wounded by the rocket strike. Another hotel resident said that 16 people staying there were wounded, some severely.

About one hour later, a fourth rocket struck room 411 on the fourth floor of the Royal Concorde Hotel, adjacent to the Infinity Hotel, wounding a mother and her child. One of the people staying at the Royal Concorde said:

Women and children were screaming, running out of their apartments without even wearing abayas or taking their bags. The fourth floor was filled with smoke. The family living in 411 had come to Mansoura to seek safety. Now the wife and child are in critical condition in the hospital.

At about 5:30 a.m. another rocket struck a two-story home about 40 meters from the Infinity Hotel. Omar Saleh Omar, 54, a bus driver who was living on the first floor of the house, said:

I had just returned from prayer in the mosque when I heard two huge explosions. The whole house was filled with smoke. I couldn’t see or breathe. My daughters were screaming. A fan had fallen on my oldest daughter, injuring her face, hands, and legs. When we got out of the house, we saw that the second floor was burning.

The rocket had struck the second floor of the building, where a couple lived with their 8-month-old daughter, killing the baby and mortally wounding the father, Omar said.

“It was awful, that day was awful,” Omar said. “I will never forget how she [the mother] screamed and cried. Now she doesn’t speak at all. She has been in shock since that day.”

Kuwait has uncovered a network of Islamic State militants who fought in Iraq and Syria and detained several of its members, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The group included five Kuwaitis, a ministry statement carried by the official KUNA state news agency said.

The individuals admitted receiving lessons in the “science of a terrorist organization” and military training, the statement said. “They were involved in fighting operations in both Syria and Iraq.”

The Gulf state launched a security crackdown on Islamist militants after a June 26 attack claimed by Islamic State, when a Saudi suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shi’ite Muslim mosque, killing 26 people.

The government declared itself at war with militants and said the bombing, Kuwait’s worst militant attack, was aimed at stoking sectarian strife in the majority Sunni state, where the two sects have traditionally co-existed in peace.

An interior ministry source told Reuters the individuals named in Thursday’s statement were not connected to the June 26 attack and it was being treated as a separate case.

 

Conflicting reports have emerged over a purported Israeli strike in Syria’s Quneitra, with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar saying the raid targeted pro-regime militiamen while opposition outlets purported that Hezbollah commanders had been killed.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported early Wednesday afternoon that Israel conducted an air trike outside a Druze-populated town located on the foothills of Mount Hermon near the Israeli border.

“Two members of the National Defense Force were martyred after their car was targeted by an Israeli [drone] at the entrance of the town of Hadar in the Quneitra countryside,” the station said, without elaborating further.

Meanwhile, the pro-rebel Smart News reported a similar version of the incident, but specified that “three commanders from Lebanese Hezbollah” had been killed.

The strategic town of Hadar has been targeted by Syrian rebels that on June 16 launched an offensive in Quneitra in a bid to roll back regime forces in the northern part of the province, which borders Israel.

Druze residents of the border town have thrown their support behind the Syrian regime and have voiced fears over Islamists entering the area, especially after the Al-Nusra Front in early June gunned down dozens of Druze villagers in the northern Idlib province.

Hadar residents have also been linked to Hezbollah-guided anti-Israel operations in the Golan. On April 25, two young men from the Druze town were killed by an Israeli airstrike when they allegedly approached Israel’s border fence in the Golan with an explosive device.

The foiled attack by the so-called Popular Syrian Resistance took place less than 48-hours after Israel reportedly bombed Syrian regime and Hezbollah strategic missile positions in the Qalamoun border region between Lebanon and Syria.

A number of analysts speculated that the Golan incident was a reprisal for the Israeli raid, noting that on March 5, 2014 IDF troops near the same spot as Sunday’s incident opened fire on approaching Hezbollah militants a week after Israel conducted a raid along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Israel previously struck Quneitra in a dramatic raid on January 18, killing at least 12 Hezbollah and Iranian officers, including late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh’s son Jihad and an Iranian general.

Ten days later Hezbollah responded to the raid with an attack on an Israeli border patrol near the Shebaa farms, killing two Israel Defense Forces troops.

Presidency of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced on Wednesday, that Iran has renewed according to the Assistant Secretary General of the Iranian National Security Council , Ahmed al-Amiri its support for protecting the security and stability of the region and cooperation with Erbil in the war against “ISIS” terrorist organization.

A statement of the presidency of the region received by Shafaq News, the Prime Minister , Nechirvan Barzani received, Assistant Secretary General of the Iranian National Security Council, Ahmed al-Amiri and his accompanying delegation.

The statement said that Amiri expressed during the meeting, his happiness for visiting Kurdistan Region and the level of bilateral relations between Iran and the region in all fields, especially in the commercial and media field.

The statement added that Amiri addressed in the context of his speech , the situation in Iraq and the war against “ISIS” terrorists, renewing his country’s support to Kurdistan Region in this war.

The Iranian official stressed at the same time protecting the security of Kurdistan Region as one of the very important things, stressing that they are collaborators in various ways for the security and stability of Kurdistan Region.

The statement noted that Barzani for his part expressed his happiness for the visit of the guests, renewed emphasis on the interest of Kurdistan Region on bilateral relations with Iran in all fields.

Barzani expressed according to the statement, his thanks to Iran, which has supported Peshmerga forces since the beginning of ISIS attack on the region.