Elements of the Iranian-backed Liwa Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas and the Syrian regime’s Republican Guard were reported to be leading the Syrian regime’s offensive near the Golan, attempting to cut the Syrian rebels territory in half.

The offensive, backed by Russian planes, is now within 10 km. of Israeli forces on the Golan border and risks opening a new front between Islamic State and the Syrian army.

The Syrian regime launched an offensive last month to defeat the rebels in southern Syria, who have held a large area, roughly the size of the Galilee, in Syria over the last six years. In the last week the numbers displaced by the fighting have risen to 270,000 from 60,000 creating a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of those fleeing the fighting are clustered on the Israeli border at al-Rafeed. Now the Syrian regime forces are closing in on the strategic corridor that connects the Syrian rebel areas near the Golan to the Syrian rebel areas near Dera’a next to the Jordanian border.

Currently the rebels near the Golan are connected to the Jordanian border via a road that runs from Quneitra and al-Rafeed through Nawa to Muzayrib.

To the west of the road is a small pocket of ISIS-controlled territory run by an ISIS-affiliate named Jaysh Khalid bin- Walid. Since ISIS appeared near the Golan in Syria several years ago it was isolated between the rebels and the regime. In the opening days of the offensive the regime and Russian air force was careful to avoid shelling near the Israeli border. But in the last few days they carried out numerous air strikes on Nawa, and Republican Guard armored vehicles captured Ibta and Da’il, two villages that gave the regime access to the town of Tafas. If Tafas falls the Syrian rebel areas will be cut into two pieces, one near the Golan and one near Jordan, which will increase pressure on Israel as refugees flee toward the Golan border.

As warplanes pounded Tafas on Sunday, a Twitter account associated with the rebels showed images of armored vehicles advancing. The rebels claimed to have taken out a Syrian regime T-72 but the advance continued. The rebels also claimed that “Iranian militias” were in the offensive.

This apparently refers to the Iranian- backed Liwa Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas, which has been photographed in the vicinity of Tafas. Its hardened fighters have played a key role in recent Syrian offensives in Damascus and the south. In early June images of their fighters posted online even bragged that they were on the way to Quneitra.

As the offensive unfolds Israel has said that it won’t allow refugees to cross the border but it has provided humanitarian aid. In addition Jerusalem has warned that Iranian forces must not be active in Syria.

The role of ISIS in the upcoming conflict may determine whether the offensive closes in on the Israeli border. On Sunday there were rumors that Syrian rebel fighters, disappointed by their own leadership’s lack of steadfastness in the face of the battle, had considered going over to ISIS. A document posted online by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi shows that the rebels and ISIS would have trouble reconciling their differing ideologies. “Simply put, the ideological rift is too great, each side demands that the other should repent of its erroneous ways,” he wrote Sunday.

As the regime closes in on the rebels the potential fighting with ISIS could threaten the relative stability near the border.

This is because the ISIS affiliate controls an area very close to al-Rafeed where thousands of Syrian internally displaced persons are clustered. It is also because ISIS could threaten any Israeli humanitarian aid crossing the border or seek to provoke Israel into a clash with the Syrian regime. In addition the Russian air force has consistently said its main role in southern Syria is to strike at ISIS and other extremist groups, which could draw the Russian activity closer to the border. Israel has so far had a working de-confliction arrangement with Moscow.

In addition, if the regime cuts the road from Nawa south the rebels and the civilians in the area near the Golan will be cut off from any aid they had been receiving from near Jordan. This will make them increasingly reliant on Israel for humanitarian aid, increasing chances of a crisis. The Syrian regime and its Russian allies likely know this and they are waging the current battle accordingly.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced late Monday that 16 Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike in the northern province of Salahuddin, like reported by iraqinews.com.

“The Iraqi Air Force carried out a successful airstrike on Tuz Khurmatu district in northern Salahuddin, leaving 16 IS terrorists killed,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that the militants “were hiding inside a building near Tal Farhan in central Tuz Khurmatu” when the airstrike was staged.

“The terrorists sneaked into Tuz Khurmatu district from nearby mountains to carry out terrorist attacks against security apparatuses,” the statement concluded.

Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence last November with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.

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 British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet bombed a shadowy force loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad which threatened coalition troops around al-Tanf some ten days ago, The Sunday Times of London reported according to kurdistan24.net.

Al-Tanf is a strategically located town near Syria’s border with Iraq and Jordan. US and British Special Forces use the fortified garrison there to train an Arab partner force, the Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT, Commandos of the Revolution), to fight the Islamic State (IS).

Al-Tanf sits astride the main highway linking Baghdad and Damascus and, by extension, Iran and the Mediterranean.

It is one of three major border crossings between Syria and Iraq.

Another border crossing lies in the north, where Kurds in Iraq and Syria live in close proximity. They are not particularly friendly to Tehran, and it is not optimal territory for an Iranian transit route.

A third border crossing, Albu Kamal, is located some 300 kilometers northeast of al-Tanf. Like al-Tanf, Albu Kamal is in an Arab area.

Control of one or both of those border crossings—al-Tanf or Albu Kamal—would serve Tehran in its bid to create a strategic corridor stretching through friendly territory, all the way to Lebanon.

The establishment of such an Iranian land bridge to the Mediterranean has been a concern for several parties, particularly Israel.

That al-Tanf and Albu Kamal have both been targets of bombing raids in recent weeks suggests a quiet, intensifying conflict over an Iranian route to Lebanon.

The RAF jet dropped one 500-pound laser-guided bomb on June 21, following an incident in which, what Britain’s Ministry of Defense described as an “unidentified force,” fired on MaT fighters and coalition advisers. A Syrian army officer was killed and seven others were wounded, the Times reported.

Five days before, on June 17, forces loyal to Syria and Iran in Albu Kamal were targeted, apparently by Israeli planes. They included elements from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—militias, mostly Shi’ite, mobilized to fight IS.

The PMF has been formally incorporated into the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), although the PMF includes Iranian-backed militias that, ten years ago, were involved in killing US forces in Iraq.

Kata’ib Hizbollah is one such organization. It, and its leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were designated by the US Treasury Department in 2009, as threats to the coalition and to Iraq’s peace and stability.

Now Muhandis is deputy commander of the PMF, and his organization, Kata’ib Hizbollah, is formally part of the ISF.

In the June 17 strike on Albu Kamal, 22 fighters from Kata’ib Hizbollah were killed. The command of the ISF denied that they were in Albu Kamal on Iraqi orders, but earlier reports suggest otherwise.

Albu Kamal lies across the border from the Iraqi town of al-Qaim. On February 23, the Iran Observed Project of Washington’s Middle East Institute, reported that Iraq’s Interior Minister had announced that Baghdad “is planning on opening the al-Qaim-Albu Kamal border crossing between Iraq and Syria,” and the PMF “will play a role in maintaining security” on the border.

The report described the quiet race to control Albu Kamal between the US and its partner, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the one hand, and Syria, Iran, and their partners, on the other.

“What helped the pro-Damascus forces to reach Albu Kamal first and encircle the area,” the Iran Observed Project explained, “was the entry of Iranian-backed Iraqi militiamen into Albu Kamal from the Iraqi side.”

“Iran-linked Iraqi groups such as Kata’ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba had participated in the liberation of the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim,” it reported, so it was easy for them to move on Albu Kamal.

After the June 17 strike on Albu Kamal, US Spokespersons followed Baghdad’s line in claiming that the forces killed there had not been under Iraqi orders.

However, al-Muhandis asserted otherwise. “We tell the Americans that we as the [PMF], including all of its formations, we follow the Iraqi government,’ he said in a statement. “We won’t remain silent on hitting us.”

Muhandis also had a warning for the Iraqi government. “Remaining silent on this incident, saying that that position is outside of Iraqi territory, hence we have nothing to do with it, is forfeiting the blood of our martyrs.”

In breach of Russian guarantees to the US, Israel and Jordan, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Shiite and Hizballah forces are taking part in Syria’s offensive to capture Daraa and Quneitra.

Video clips published on June 26 by social media depicted members of the Iraqi Shiite Liwa Zulfiqar militia in the main square of Busra al-Harir north of Daraa city celebrating their victory over Syrian rebel forces.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it was only a matter of time before the Russian pledges were proved hollow and pro-Iranian and Hizballah forces reached the Syrian-Jordanian and Syrian-Israeli borders. Th Liwa Zulfiqar militia, which came from Iraq, has been revamped for the operation as a mixed force including also Hizballah and Syrian fighters.

They serve under the overall command of the Revolutionary Guards Regional Command Center which is based at the southern Syrian town of Izra.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is in charge of US policy for Syria, made some harsh comments to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, June 27. He admitted that president Bashar Assad had come out well from Syria’s seven years of civil war, but he also called Iran’s presence in the country “the greatest threat.”

Pompeo accused Hizballah, which is totally bankrolled by Tehran, of being “active on multiple fronts and running efforts for external plotting including in the United States.”
However, the Secretary did not specify what action, if any, the US was taking to counter Iranian and Hizballah’s nefarious presence in Syria.

The Syrian operation meanwhile drew closer to Israel’s Golan border with an air strike on Wednesday night, June 27, against rebel positions around Quneitra to soften their resistance to the coming ground offensive.

The Iraqi military claimed to have killed 45 Islamic State leaders in an F-16 fighter air strike against a leadership meeting at Hajin near Deir ez-Zour in the Euphrates Valley of eastern Syria.

Those killed included the ISIS “deputy war minister,” a media executive, a police chief and the personal courier of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

No date was specified in the disclosure that was made on Monday. This was the second Iraqi air operation in eastern Syria in less than a month and was described as being in line with Iraq’s cooperation with the Syrian government in the fight against ISIS.

Saudi Arabia’s air defense forces intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles over Riyadh, launched by Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, like reported by albawaba.com.

Homes in the Saudi capital shook and there were at least six loud blasts, bright flashes in the sky and puffs of smoke above the city. There were no reports of casualties.

The Iran-backed rebels’ news outlet Al-Masirah boasted that the missiles had struck the Saudi defense ministry and other sites in the capital.

But Col. Turki Al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels, denied that the defense ministry had been hit.

A local tribe in Iraq has urged Iraqi authorities to form a special brigade from its members to take revenge on Islamic State militants, who killed six of its tribesmen after kidnapping them in the Jazirah plain, according to iraqinews.com.

In a message to Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Wednesday, the Shammar tribe, one of Iraq’s largest Arab tribes with more than 1.5 million members, held Iraqi security forces “accountable for the protection of Iraqi civilians against Islamic State threats”.

It called on Abadi to open the door for a new batch of the tribe’s volunteers to join the Iraqi army to stand up to recurrent attacks of Islamic State in the Jazirah plain, where a host of Arab tribes are residing.

The tribe further reiterated its unshakable stance to “stand in the face of injustice and defend the oppressed people, at any cost.”

A group of Islamic State militants executed on Monday six people, including two pro-government fighters, a few hours after kidnapping them.

“IS militants wearing Iraqi military uniforms set up a fake checkpoint on the road linking between Ein el-Azab village in Al-Shirqat district and al-Hadar Island in southern Mosul,” Captain Abdel Khaleq al-Eifan from the Iraqi rapid response forces told Turkey’s news agency Anadolu.

The IS terrorists managed to kidnap six people, including four workers and two members of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) after examining their IDs, Captain al-Eifan said.

The bodies of the six people were found at a desert area a few hours after the kidnapping, he noted, adding that the victims were found shackled and shot in their heads and backs, meaning that they were executed by the IS militants.

Iraqi security forces arrested a senior Islamic State (IS) leader in Mosul city, the Security Media Center announced, like reported by iraqinews.com.

“Nineveh police arrested today the so-called media affairs official of the terrorist Islamic State group in the Tel Roman district on the western side of Mosul,” Iraqi website Alghad Press quoted the center as saying in a statement.

The center gave no further details about the identity of the terrorist.

Islamic State militants have run several media outlets propagating their operations and even publicizing executions of civilians and security members since they took over a third of Iraq in 2014 to proclaim a self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

But many of the group’s mouthpieces seemed to fade out gradually as Iraqi forces took over territories held by the militants.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State militants in December, but security authorities continue to purge provinces from remnant cells.

The terrorist group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” from Mosul city.

Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it.

Despite Israeli efforts, Iran is continuing to try to improve its ability to launch rockets from Syria, IDF Intelligence Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heyman said at a closed-door forum of the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem, according to jpost.com.

“The fact that they [succeeded in launching rockets toward Israel, causing us to open shelters, is seen by them as a great success, even though it was a total failure operationally. And now they are trying to increase their efforts and capabilities to launch rockets and establish terror cells that can penetrate into Israel and harm communities in the Golan Heights,” Heyman was quoted as saying by Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.

In May, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a barrage of 32 Fajr-5 and Grad missiles toward Israel’s front defensive line on the Golan Heights. That caused no damage or injury but led to Israel carrying out the most extensive operation in Syria since 1974, striking more than 50 Iranian targets there.

Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over the growing Iranian presence on its borders. “No one has noticed Iran’s regional expansion in the Middle East,” Heyman told the crowd, saying the international community was focused on the nuclear agreement and not on other worrisome elements, such as the IRGC’s missile arsenal.

Displaying a map showing where Iranian forces are based in Syria, Heyman said, “You probably think, well this is because they are trying to help the Assad regime to fight terror… but there is no threat to President Assad, so why do they stay? If they came in order to only assist the regime, so then thank-you and goodbye… this is what we call the Iranian entrenchment in Syria.”

Addressing the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in fighting Iran, Israel “serves the cause of security and peace beyond the Middle East.”

On Wednesday, Assad told the Iranian al-Alam News that his troops are supported by fighters from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. And while he said Tehran doesn’t have any military bases in Syria, it would “not hesitate” to accept them if needed.

Denying that there are any regular Iranian fighting units in Syria, Assad said Iran has “offered blood” to Syria with its “advisers” who “have been with us, through the longstanding relationship with Iran, even before the war because the military relationship is close,” according to an English translation published by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Heyman, who began his role as the head of IDF’s military intelligence only recently, joined Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in late May on a working visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. There they lobbied Moscow to confront the Iranian presence in Syria.

On Thursday, Liberman said Israel is investing significant effort in countering its “number-one threat,” in reference to the Islamic Republic. Speaking at a conference at Bar-Ilan University, Liberman said that Iran is not only an Israeli problem but “rather a global one.”

While stressing that Israel is not trying to interfere in the Syrian civil war, Liberman said the country is “working to ensure our security and this is the only guiding line, and I think that until now we have dealt quite well with this challenge. It is not simple, but we will continue.

“We will not allow an Iranian consolidation within Syria and we will do everything that depends on us in order not to allow the radical axis to open another front against the State of Israel from the Golan Heights or Syria.”

Nevertheless, despite the threat posed by Iran on Israel’s northern border, Heyman said, “We live in a particularly safe period,” in which terrorism has significantly declined due to the successful war against Islamic State.

But, he warned, “Islamic State hasn’t changed their agenda. They’re waiting to raise their flag again.”

A Saudi-led coalition launched an assault on Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday in the biggest battle of a three-year war between an alliance of Arab states and the Iran-aligned Houthis, like reported by trust.org.

Coalition warplanes and warships pounded Houthi fortifications to support ground operations by Yemeni troops massed south of the country’s largest port, the internationally recognised Yemeni government in exile said.

The “Golden Victory” operation began after the passing of a deadline set by the United Arab Emirates for the Houthis, who hold the capital Sanaa and the main populated areas of Yemen, to quit the sole port under their control.

The Red Sea port is a lifeline for Yemenis, handling 80 percent of essential goods to the impoverished country, which the United Nations says is grappling with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 8.4 million people in Yemen face pre-famine conditions, according to the World Health Organisation.

Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, who has threatened attacks on oil tankers along the strategic Red Sea shipping lane, warned the Western-backed alliance not to attack the port and said on Twitter his forces had targeted a coalition barge.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two missiles struck the barge, but there was no immediate confirmation from the coalition.

The United Nations had been trying to get the parties to reach a deal that would avert an attack on Hodeidah, which it fears would further impede Yemenis’ access to food, fuel and medicine for millions of Yemenis facing disease, including a cholera epidemic.

It estimates that 600,000 people live in the area, and in a worst-case scenario, a battle could cost up to 250,000 lives, as well as cutting off aid and other supplies to millions of people.

ICRC spokeswoman Marie-Claire Feghali said that the assault was “likely to exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen”, where water and electricity networks are vital to the civilian population’s survival.

The assault is the first time since the Western-backed coalition of mostly Gulf states joined the war in 2015 that they have attempted to capture such a well-defended major city. The aim is to box in the Houthis in Sanaa, cut their supply lines and force them to the negotiating table.

UAE-backed Yemeni forces – drawn from southern separatists, local units from the Red Sea coastal plain and a battalion led by a nephew of late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh – are fighting alongside Emirati and Sudanese troops.

TURNING POINT

The alliance intervened in Yemen to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and thwart what Riyadh and Abu Dhabi see as the expansionist aims of their Shi’ite foe, Iran.

“The liberation of the port is the start of the fall of the Houthi militia and will secure marine shipping in the Bab al-Mandab strait and cut off the hands of Iran, which has long drowned Yemen in weapons that shed precious Yemeni blood,” the exiled government said in a statement carried by state-run Yemeni media.

The Houthis deny they are Iranian pawns and say their revolt aims to target corruption and defend Yemen from invaders.

Yemen lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers, which pass near Yemen’s shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe.

The UAE has said coalition forces plan to keep the port operational but warned that the Houthis could sabotage infrastructure and place land and sea mines as they withdraw.

Reem al-Hashimy, the UAE minister of state for international cooperation, has said if the port is wrested from the Houthis, the coalition could ease controls, aimed at denying the group arms, and so improve the flow of goods and aid into Yemen.

Riyadh says the Houthis use the port to smuggle in Iranian-made weapons, including missiles that have targeted Saudi cities. The accusations are denied by the group and Iran.