The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria’s southern province of Sweida last week, a journalist in the area and a monitor said, according to japantimes.co.jp

The killing prompted an offer from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to exchange captured jihadis for the remaining Druze civilians.

IS went on a rampage in Sweida on July 25, killing more than 250 people — mostly civilians — in the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and its Druze religious minority.

The jihadis also kidnapped more than 30 people, most of them women and children, from a village in the province, which had previously remained largely isolated from Syria’s seven-year civil war.

On Thursday, IS killed a 19-year-old male student who was among the hostages, the head of the Sweida24 news website, Nour Radwan, told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan, who was speaking from Sweida, said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, seen by AFP, showing a bearded young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a landscape of gray rocks.

He is wearing a black T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and his hands are tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings and did not publish the video on its usual channels.

IS jihadis have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria after overrunning large swaths of it in 2014, but they retain a presence in the east of the country and in the country’s vast Badiya desert.

The regime has been fighting in recent weeks to expel IS fighters from a patch of the neighboring province of Daraa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the young man’s execution was the first since the kidnappings.

The execution came “after the failure of talks between IS and regime forces over the transfer of IS fighters from the southwest of Daraa province to the Badiya” desert, the Observatory said.

It also follows the execution of 50 IS fighters and civilians in Daraa province earlier in the week at the hands of rebels, according to the monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Stepping in with an offer on Sunday, the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, told AFP that it was “fully prepared” to exchange jihadis for the Sweida civilians.

“We assure our people in the town of Sweida and the families of the hostages that we are fully prepared for any exchange with Daesh,” SDF spokesman Redur Khalil told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

“This initiative does not replace Russia’s mediation,” he said.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said Syrian regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadis over the release of those abducted in Sweida.

The Druze, who made up 3 percent of Syria’s population before its war broke out in 2011, follow a secretive faith seen as an offshoot of Islam — but IS sees them as heretics.

Syria expert Khattar Abu Diab said that the kidnappings in Sweida marked a turning point for the minority.

“For this ancestral community, the abduction of women oversteps all red lines,” he said.

“Their reaction will depend on the outcome of negotiations but if all the hostages were killed,” the Druze could directly intervene to expel IS from the desert, he said.

Regime forces have in recent weeks ousted IS from all of the towns and villages in the Yarmouk Basin in the northwest of Daraa province.

Syria’s state media have said regime troops are pursuing the last remaining jihadis who fled to nearby valleys.

In areas it has retaken from rebels and jihadis in recent years, the Russia-backed regime has sometimes negotiated to take back control of land in exchange for the transfer of fighters to other parts of Syria.

During the July 25 attack in Sweida, the jihadis abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida’s east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

Local sources say the abductees’ families have been sent photos and videos of their loved ones via WhatsApp.

The Sweida killing is the first such execution of a kidnapped civilian by IS since the jihadis overran the town of Al-Qaryatain in central Syria for several weeks in October last year, the Observatory said.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, is considered the most dangerous branch of the terror network after a series of failed attacks on U.S. soil, like reported by abcnews.go.com.

AQAP has been enmeshed in conflicts in impoverished Yemen for nearly 20 years — at times working with the government and at times facing crackdown, all the while building ties among tribes in the mountainous countryside to establish refuges and allies.

AQAP’S PREDECESSORS:

The first anti-American attack in Yemen linked to al-Qaida took place in 1992 when a group called the Islamic Jihad Movement attacked a hotel in the southern city of Aden housing U.S. troops heading to Somalia, killing a Yemeni and an Australian. The group was made up of jihadis who had returned from Afghanistan, where they fought the Soviets alongside Osama bin Laden.

The group fell apart after defections spurred by its cozy relationship with ruling authorities as then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh used AQAP fighters to liquidate his top foes, the socialists. Another group called the Aden-Abyan Army was born, also made up of Afghan veterans. It carried out the October 2000 bombing of the American warship USS Cole off Aden, killing 17 Marines. The following year, the central branch of al-Qaida carried out the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.

AQAP’S BIRTH:

In February 2006, 23 al-Qaida-linked inmates escaped from a prison in the capital, Sanaa. Among them was Nasser al-Wahishi, a personal aide of bin Laden, and Qassim al-Rimi, a prominent militant. Together, they formed the core of a new al-Qaida branch. Three years later, they merged with members of al-Qaida’s Saudi branch fleeing a crackdown there: Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was born, with al-Wahishi as its leader.

The group claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit, foiled when the explosives hidden in the bomber’s underwear failed to detonate properly. It next claimed responsibility for a plot uncovered in October 2010 when package bombs originating in Yemen and destined for the United States were found on cargo aircraft.

INSPIRATION:

The group was among the first to advocate for “lone wolf” attacks, using its English-language online magazine Inspire, starting in 2010. The magazine has featured articles on such topics as how to make a bomb in a kitchen and hit soft targets in the U.S., such as trains and restaurants. The magazine originally was authored by Yemeni-American al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki and Pakistani-American Samir Khan.

Both were later killed in drone strikes, but al-Awlaki’s online sermons and writings remained an inspiration for radicals who carried out attacks in the U.S. and Europe. Al-Qaida’s latest overseas attack took place when two militants attacked the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing 11 people.

GOVERNING:

For years, al-Qaida mostly operated by hiding in the mountains, working with tribes. But amid Yemen’s political chaos in 2011, it seized the southern cities of Jaar and Zinjibar, imposing a heavy-handed rule under its extremist version of Islamic Shariah law. Government forces finally drove them out in heavy fighting that caused widespread destruction.

AQAP again seized and governed territory in 2015 as the Shiite rebels known as Houthis were pushed back from southern Yemen. Al-Qaida captured Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, and ruled it for a year. The group took a softer approach to ruling, minimizing punishments such as beheading or flogging and focusing instead on development and construction and setting up an administrative council of local figures. Meanwhile, it looted weaponry and millions of dollars.

The group again took control of Zinjibar and Jaar, as well as several areas of neighboring Shabwa province, but subsequently withdrew from those areas under secret deals outlined by The Associated Press.

DRONE STRIKES:

During AQAP’s one-year rule in Mukalla, U.S. drones struck multiple times in the city, killing the group’s top cadres, including al-Wahishi, the military commander Nasr al-Ansi and media chief Muhannad Ghallab. The drone campaign also has killed civilians, turning many in the public against the U.S.

The Trump administration loosened restrictions on drone attacks, leading to a spike in numbers. But there have been no reports of leadership figures killed, signaling how AQAP has purged spies from its ranks and taken greater precautions. The group’s new leader, al-Rimi, has warned members not to use cellphones or even disclose information to their wives.

Israel would deploy its military if Iran were to try to block the Bab al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said according to reuters.com.

Last week, Saudi Arabia said it was suspending oil shipments through the strait, on the main sea route from the Middle East to Europe, after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two ships in the waterway.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are in a three-year-old proxy war in Yemen, which lies on the eastern side of Bab al-Mandeb.

Yemen’s Houthis, who have previously threatened to block the strait, said last week they had the naval capability to hit Saudi ports and other Red Sea targets.

Iran has not threatened to block Bab al-Mandeb but has said it would block the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf, if it were prevented from exporting its own oil.

“If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this, and this coalition will also include all of Israel’s military branches,” Netanyahu said at a passing out parade for new naval officers in Haifa.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a separate speech at the event that Israel had “recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea.” He gave no further details.

Ships bound for Israel, mainly from Asia, pass through the waterway to Eilat, or continue through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. Ships bound for Jordan’s Aqaba port and for some Saudi destinations must also pass through the strait.

Bab al-Mandeb is 29 km (18 miles) wide, making hundreds of ships potentially an easy target. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said an estimated 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and products flowed through it in 2016.

Israel has attacked Iranian forces in Syria and has insisted that they leave Syria completely. They have withdrawn to a distance of 85 km (53 miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Russia’s special envoy to Syria said on Wednesday.

Violence broke out across Iran last night after protesters were attacked with tear gas by security forces during strikes over high prices, power outages and water shortages as the regime refused to enter talks with US President Donald Trump, like reported by express.co.uk

As night settled in Iran yesterday, protests that began on Tuesday afternoon continued across the impoverished country – with shopkeepers, market vendors, farmers and truck drivers taking to the streets in protest about worsening conditions.

Dozens of store owners in the area have closed their shops and are on strike after the rial’s value dropped by 120 percent in the last six months alone.

Iran has also been hit by falling salaries set against the rising cost of living, while water shortages and power outages have also hit the embattled country.

Videos obtained from the protests show protesters are not afraid of the regime’s repressive forces and are confronting them despite heavy security presence.

Protesters chanted the game is over for both factions of the regime, both the “reformists” and the “hardliners”.

In Karaj, protests took a dramatic turn last night as demonstrators clashed with security forces, chanting anti-regime slogans.

In one clip, young protesters are seen being crippled with tear gas as the mostly peaceful protests took a violent and dark twist – with protestors later setting tyres and police motorbikes on fire.

In another video, demonstrators can be heard chanting “down with Khamenei” and “Our enemy is here, they are lying when they say it is the US”.

A separate video also shows as the protesters chant: “Guns, tanks, are no longer effective, mullahs should get lost.”

Protesters added chants of “down with the dictator”, as security forces charged at the crowds.

In Shiraz, security forces have also started targeting protesters with tear gas.

According to local reports, a young boy who had attended the protest along with his mother was injured amid the heavy handed crackdown.

And in Isfahan, the crowd were chanting: “Death to high prices, death to unemployment,” “death to the dictator,” “dignified Shapouris, support us, support us,” “dignified Iranians, support us, support us,” and “incompetent officials, resign, resign.”

Others were heard saying “any Iranian who remains silent is committing treason” as they called on their compatriots to support them in their cause.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, saluted the “brave people” of Karaj, Isfahan, and Shiraz following the protests this week.

In a comment provided to Express.co.uk, she said the source of all the miseries of the Iranian nation is the religious dictatorship, which has wasted the wealth and human resources of our homeland.

The statement continued: “Now, the world is witnessing that despite the massive repression by the religious fascism, the Iranian people’s uprising is constantly on the rise.

“It has cornered the absolute rule of the clergy and heralds the arrival of the spring of freedom to our captive country.”

She also tweeted: “The Iranian people’s nationwide uprising is growing by the day. Hail to the peoples of Isfahan, Gohardasht of Karaj, and Shiraz.

“The time has come for rising up. The persistence of your uprising has beset the mullahs’ religious dictatorship.

“Today, the world can see that the voice of Iranians cannot be silenced despite massive repression, and their uprisings are carrying on until victory.

“These are the blazing flames of a resistance with over 100,000 martyrs, flaring up in the streets after forty years.”

The dramatic protests come after senior Iranian officials and military commanders rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer of talks.

Military officials slammed the proposals as “worthless” and “a dream”, saying Mr Trump’s words contradict his actions of reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

Iran’s foreign minister said that Washington should blame itself for ending talks with Tehran when it withdrew from the nuclear deal.

“US can only blame itself for pulling out and leaving the table…Threats, sanctions and PR stunts won’t work,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet.

While President Rouhani condemned Mr Trump’s repudiation of an international nuclear deal reached in 2015 as “illegal”.

He added Iran would not easily yield to Washington’s renewed campaign to strangle Iran’s vital oil exports.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk politicial expert Dr Majid Rafizadeh, President International American Council, said: “The Iranian leaders are going to blame the ‘foreign enemies’, specifically Trump.

“But the reality on the ground is that the Iranian regime’s financial corruption, misuse of public funds, the widespread banking crisis, and the haemorrhaging of billions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money and of the national wealth on militia and terror groups are among the major reasons behind the present currency and economic crises.

“In fact, these problems are systemic and exist deep in Tehran’s economic and political infrastructures.

“That’s why the economy and people’s living standards have worsened since 1979. That’s why rial has plummeted continuously for the last 39 years — since the establishment of the Islamic Republic — from nearly 70 rials a dollar in 1979 to approximately 110,000 now.

“The negative trend will most likely continue as long as the Iranian regime is in power.

“US policy on Iran has definitely put pressure on the Iranian leaders and emboldened the Iranian people to come to the streets and demonstrate.

“Trump can give moral support to the Iranian people by stating that his administration supports the protesters’ demands for justice.

“He can pressure the international community to hold the Iranian leaders accounts for cracking down on the protesters, shutting modes of communication and abusing human rights.”

President Trump pulled the United States out of the multilateral deal , which was concluded by the Obama administration, in May.

The former businessman denounced the agreement as one-sided in Iran’s favour.

But on Monday, he said he would be willing to meet Rouhani without preconditions to discuss how to improve relations.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign affairs Committee of the NCRI said the continuation and frequency of protests have one clear message.

He told Express.co.uk: “The Iranian people are determined to bring about a regime change and they are not going to stop at anything short of that. The prospect for the mullahs to find a way out is becoming dimmer by the day.

“This is why the regime’s senior officials keep warning about the bleak prospects that loom on the horizon for the regime and the growing role of the resistance.

“As such, the regime’s official in charge of dealing with “soft warfare” stated on August 1, that 90 percent of the strikes and calls for protests are the result of activities of the “counter-revolutionaries”, ie the Iranian resistance.”

Last month, thousands of Iranians flocked to Paris for the 10th annual Free Iran rally – with speakers such as Trump’s close allies newt Gingrich and Rudy Guiliani speaking in favour of freeing Tehran from the “murderous” Reouhani regime.

Mr Gobadi added: “It is time for the European countries to see the fast-moving realities in Iran and forgo any deals with the Iranian regime.

“Rather they should hold the clerical regime accountable for all its malign activities and side with the Iranian people and their aspirations.

“We would welcome any serious and tangible retreat by the mullahs because that would ultimately serve the interests of the Iranian people and the resistance units to bring down the regime and to establish democracy.

“But as the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has said time and again the regime is incapable of any major change of policies and change of direction.

“He said explicitly on May 10, 2017, that so far as the regime is concerned a change of conduct and behavior is tantamount to a change of the regime in its entirety.

Iranian lawmakers have given President Hassan Rouhani one month to appear before parliament to answer questions on his government’s handling of Iran’s economic struggles.

It is the first time parliament has summoned Rouhani, who is under pressure from hardline rivals to change his cabinet following a deterioration in relations with the United States and Iran’s growing economic difficulties.

Lawmakers want to question Rouhani on topics including the rial’s decline, which has lost more than half its value since April, weak economic growth and rising unemployment, according to semi-official ISNA news agency.

Rouhani, a pragmatist who reduced tensions with the West by striking a nuclear deal in 2015, is facing a growing backlash since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out from the pact in May and said he will reimpose sanctions that seek to throttle Iran’s economy, including its lifeblood oil exports.

ISNA said lawmakers also want to Rouhani to explain why, more than two years after the landmark deal, Iranian banks still have only limited access to global financial services.

Iraqi tribal forces in the north province of Salahaddin clashed with the pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias of Hashd al-Shaabi after three tribal leaders were kidnapped and killed earlier the day, like reported by basnews.com. 

According to Kurdistan 24, the confrontation erupted when the tribal forces set up a checkpoint in Dujail town. 

The militia force engaged in the clash is said to be Asaib Ahl al-Haq. 

The bodies of the three tribal leaders were found earlier the day near an Iraqi security checkpoint. They were abducted by a group of unknown armed men. 

The Iraqi army has now reportedly placed the town under curfew to bring the situation under control, according to al-Arabia.

Three Islamic State terrorists were arrested and 325 explosive charges were detonated during a security operation in Kirkuk, the Iraqi Security Media Center announced according to iraqinews.com.

“Police forces have combed several districts and villages in Kirkuk today, arresting three Islamic State members in Makhmur and Erbil districts and detonating 325 explosive charges,” Ayn Al Iraq News quoted the center’s spokesman Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool as saying in a statement.

“The troops also found a facility used for making bombs, as well as two explosive belts and six bombs,” the spokesman said, adding that two terrorist hotbeds were destroyed in the campaign as well.

Kirkuk officials previously urged reinforcing military troops in the south and west of the province, as the region still has Islamic State members who escaped during liberation of Hawija to remote areas.

The town had fallen to IS in June 2014, when the militant group seized control of much of northern and western Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a self-styled “caliphate”. There, Islamic State’s reign forced thousands to flee to refugee camps, while hundreds had been executed by the group for attempting to escape the area or contacting security forces.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared last December final victory over Islamic State three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.

Yemen’s top Houthi rebel official on Tuesday offered a unilateral initiative to his group’s foe Saudi-led coalition forces to halt war in the Red Sea, like reported by xinhuanet.com.

“We declare our initiative to halt naval military operations for a specific period and it could be extended and include all battle fronts on the ground if this move is reciprocated by the leadership of the coalition,” chief of Houthi Supreme Political Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said in a statement carried by Saba news agency.

It is clear that the Houthi group is waiting for a response from the coalition to the proposal.

Last week, Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition, suspended its oil shipments through the Red Sea strait of Bab al-Mandeb after Houthi fighters attacked two Saudi oil tankers.

Saudi government said one of the attacked tankers was slightly damaged and said it will suspend its shipments until the waterway was secured.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) have been leading an Arab military coalition against Houthis in support of the Yemeni exiled government over the last three years.

The coalition forces launched a major military assault on June 13 to retake the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah from Houthis. The war is raging on.

The Houthi fighters seized control of much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, in September 2014, forcing internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh.

The Saudi-led Arab military coalition aims to defeat Houthis, recapture Yemen’s northern cities and reinstate Hadi into power.

Daesh group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, a monitor said Monday according to arabnews.com.

More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when Daesh carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east.

“At least 36 Druze women and children were abducted after the attacks,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.

Four of the women had since managed to escape and another two had died, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Another 17 men from the areas targeted by Daesh were still unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped, he told AFP.

Both the Observatory and Syrian news outlet Sweida24 said 20 women and 16 children had been kidnapped.

Daesh has not claimed the kidnappings, and no details on them could be found on its propaganda channels.

Daesh declared a self-styled Islamic “caliphate” in 2014 across Syria and Iraq, but has since lost most of that territory.

It still holds small, isolated areas of Syria’s remote desert, which includes northeastern parts of Sweida, as well as pockets in the adjacent province of Daraa and further east near the border with Iraq.
Backed by Russia, Syrian troops have been waging an assault on an Daesh-held pocket of Daraa for more than a week.

Sweida, which is mostly held by the government and populated by the secretive Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the violence of Syria’s seven-year war.

Last week’s attacks were the bloodiest ever in the province and among the deadliest waged by Daesh in Syria.

Up to 17 members of Islamic State were killed in a military operation that was launched Sunday to eliminate terrorist hotbeds in Diyala province, an army commander was quoted as saying according to iraqinews.com.

Speaking to Alghad Press on Monday, Commander of Diyala Operations Mazhar al-Azzawi said, “the military operation, which was launched yesterday in the northern and northeastern parts of Diyala, was typical and caused many casualties among Islamic State fighters.”

“The operation, backed by army jets, left 17 Islamic State fighters dead and 10 of their hideouts destroyed,” Azzawi said, adding that the Iraqi army is determined to continue purging the whole province from IS dormant cells.

Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country. The group still has dormant cells, through which it carries out attacks across Iraq like it used to do before 2014.

In January 2015, Iraqi forces announced liberation of Diyala province from Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The province has seen months of fighting between Iraqi troops and IS militants especially in the Jalawla and Saadiyah areas in the province’s north and areas near the town of Muqdadiyah.