Isis militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation, like reported by nzherald.co.nz.

The Sunni militants’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” with its contiguous stretch of land – linking major cities such as Syria’s Raqqa and Iraq’s Mosul – may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of the Islamic State.

Beyond the urban and inhabited areas lies the vast Syrian Desert, also known as Badiyat al-Sham, famous for its caves and rugged mountains.

It encompasses about 500,000 sq km across parts of southeastern Syria, northeastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq.

The desolate landscape is a perfect hideout and a second home for many Isis militants from the days before the birth of their caliphate. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to mount search operations – and even more to put the desert under permanent control.

Once they melt into the desert, without an army of tens of thousands of supporters from dozens of countries, Isis jihadis will resort to guerrilla-style attacks: scattered hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings.

“They love fighting battles in the desert and they will go back to the old ways,” said Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist originally from Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which lies in the heart of Badiyat al-Sham.

Isis leaders appear to have made contingency plans that involve precisely this – regrouping in the desert and launching attacks, much like Isis’ predecessor, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, did for more than a decade after the US-led 2003 invasion.

Some of those plans are already on display.

In the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, a former Syria stronghold, the militants pulled back and disappeared into the desert after only a few days of battle with Syrian government forces earlier this month.

The top US envoy for the anti-Isis coalition, Brett McGurk, said the Sunni militant group is now down to the last 10 per cent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria.

The group still maintains some appeal for Sunnis, who complain of discrimination by Iraq’s Shia-led Government and by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Isis will also look to buy time and benefit from political and other conflicts – such as this month’s clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces following the Kurdish independence referendum. That fighting has already diverted resources from the war on Isis, the top US general in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Paul Funk, told AP last week.

Iraqi troops, Shia militiamen and Kurdish forces have driven Isis from nearly all of Iraq, but if they turn on one another, that could give the extremists an opening to regroup.

A similar dynamic threatens recent gains in Syria. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Russia-backed government troops have been the most effective in the fight against Isis, but are now waging parallel offensives in Deir el-Zour that could bring them into conflict with one another.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the SDF’s liberation of Raqqa an “inflection point” in the fight against Isis, but warned that the coalition needs to stay focused. “Isis is on their heels right now and our job is to make sure they don’t recover,” Dunford said.

Experts say that will be difficult.

Dana Jalal, a Sweden-based Iraqi journalist who closely follows jihadi groups in the Middle East, said Isis “will become an underground terrorist organisation”.

“The lone wolf has nothing to lose. They have nothing to defend now,” Jalal said.
The group’s predecessor, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was almost crushed in 2007 by US and Iraqi forces.

But after the Americans withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the militants regrouped, eventually emerging stronger than ever in the summer of 2014, when they conquered large areas of Syria and Iraq.

Isis will again “find a supporting base in Sunni Iraq,” where discontent with the Shia-led Government runs high, said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst who follows the battle against Isis.

After losing ground in Syria and Iraq, Isis will try to increase its presence in Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, North Africa and elsewhere. The fact that Isis “carried out or inspired attacks in around 30 countries worldwide shows its global reach,” he said.

The group is also increasingly reverting to its weapon of choice: suicide attacks.

A suicide attack killed nearly 20 people at a Damascus police station earlier this month. In late September, Isis gunmen emerged from the desert and hit government forces in central Syria, cutting their supply lines for days.

Isis has also carried out deadly attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in western Iraq’s sprawling Anbar province.

“The angry, disfranchised base that the group exploited is still there, so getting rid of the caliphate will not mean getting rid of the threat this group poses,” Civiroglu said.

Israel is willing to resort to military action to ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, the intelligence minister said on Thursday in Japan where he is seeking backing for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tougher line on Tehran, like reported by reuters.com.

Trump said on Oct. 13 he would not certify Iran is complying with an agreement on curtailing its nuclear programme, signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, opening a 60-day window for Congress to act to reimpose sanctions.

“If international efforts led these days by U.S. President Trump don’t help stop Iran attaining nuclear capabilities, Israel will act militarily by itself,” Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said in an interview in Tokyo. “There are changes that can be made (to the agreement) to ensure that they will never have the ability to have a nuclear weapon.”

Israel has taken unilateral action in the past without the consent of its major ally, the United States, including air strikes on a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and in Iraq in 1981. A strike against Iran, however, would be a risky venture with the potential to provoke a counter strike and roil financial markets.

An Israeli threat of military strikes could, nonetheless, galvanize support in the United States for toughening up the nuclear agreement but it could also backfire by encouraging hardliners in Iran and widening a rift between Washington and European allies.

So far, none of the other signatories to the deal – Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Iran and the European Union – has cited serious concerns, leaving the United States isolated.

Japan relies on the U.S. military to help defend it against threats from North Korea and elsewhere. Tokyo’s diplomatic strategy in the Middle East, where it buys almost all its oil, is to maintain friendly relations with all countries, including Iran.

“I asked the Japanese government to support steps led by President Trump to change the nuclear agreement,” said Katz, who is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party. “The question of whether Japanese companies will begin to work in Iran or not is a very important question.”

Katz’s visit to Tokyo comes ahead of a planned trip by Trump from Nov. 5 for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Officials at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not immediately available to comment.

Israel, Katz said, wants the nuclear agreement to be revised to remove an expiration date, and to impose tighter conditions to stop Tehran from developing new centrifuges used to make weapons-grade nuclear material.

He also urged sanctions to stop Iran from establishing Syria as a military base to launch attacks on Israel and action to put a halt to Tehran’s development of ballistic missiles.

“We will not allow Iran to transform Syria into forward base sea harbours, air bases and Shia militias,” he said. “We will act together with the United States and other countries in the world until they stop the ballistic missiles that threaten Israel.”

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday backed new sanctions on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

Bombing in Bayda province marks second attack in just over a week by the US, as it supports government against jihadists, like reported by toi.com.

A US drone strike has killed 13 suspected Islamic State group militants in central Yemen, security sources said Wednesday.

The strike in Bayda province would be the second known US strike against IS in Yemen.

The first came just over a week ago, when the US military said it had killed dozens of jihadists at IS training camps in the same province.

The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen, but its previous known strikes have targeted Al-Qaeda.

IS has however risen to prominence in the country’s civil war, targeting both government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels, which it considers heretics.

Washington has intensified its drone war against Yemen-based jihadists since US President Donald Trump took power in January.

A Saudi-led coalition, which entered Yemen’s conflict in March 2015 to prop up the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Iran-backed Huthis, has also turned its firepower on Sunni jihadists.

The Yemen war has killed 8,673 people and wounded 58,636 since 2015, including many civilians, according to the United Nations.

Another 2,100 have died of cholera this year.

The top UN aid official arrived in Yemen Tuesday on a five-day trip aimed at drawing attention to what his organisation has called the world’s top humanitarian crisis.

ISIS gangs besieged by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Operation Cizire Storm are attacking the SDF positions in an effort to break the siege around them near Deir ez-Zor, like reported by anfenglish.com.

ISIS gangs are attacking the SDF positions at Jafar Train Station, 28 km northeast of Deir ez-Zor, since yesterday. SDF fighters are repelling the attacks.

ISIS groups have launched another attack on the station Wednesday noon. According to reports coming through, fierce clashes are taking place at the moment.

Kurdish Peshmerga Forces repelled an Iranian-backed Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia assault near the town of Rabia, northwest of Mosul, like reported by kurdistan24.net.

“Peshmerga have destroyed two armored badger vehicles and a Humvee used by the militia,” Peshmerga Commander Mansour Barzani, who is currently on the front lines, told Kurdistan 24. “Following the defeat, the militia retreated.”

The attack took place on Tuesday morning in the village of Mahmoudiya, near Rabia, according to the Peshmerga Commander, who is also President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani’s son.

The Kurdish Commander reported that the Hashd al-Shaabi militia, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), suffered heavy casualties.

Iraqis Forces were alongside the PMF when they launched the attack on Kurdish Forces in the disputed area.

A suicide bomber rammed into a headquarters of Yemeni security forces backed by the United Arab Emirates in the southern province of Abyan on Monday morning, killing five soldiers and injuring three others, China’s Xinhua news agency reported quoting a military official as saying, like reported by bernama.com.

“At first a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near the headquarters of the UAE-backed Yemeni troops in Mudiyah district of Abyan province, making way for a number of attackers to start their assault,” the military official said on condition of anonymity.

Armed with explosive belts, four attackers were killed by soldiers after they failed to blew themselves up in front of the security headquarters in Mudiyah district, the source said.

The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a claim a few minutes after the suicide bombing stating that the armed confrontations are still taking place in the area.

Local residents told Xinhua by phone saying that huge explosions were heard and a battle between the attackers, armed with guns and suicide vests, and security forces were underway around the security headquarters.

A medical source at the public hospital in Mudiyah said that “ambulances transferred five bodies of killed soldiers and about three others with critical injuries to our medical centre.”

Al-Qaeda militants are intensifying their drive-by attacks on security checkpoints in the Yemeni southern provinces as UAE-backed government forces increase military operations against their hideouts in the war-plagued Arab country.

Last month, Yemeni government forces and the UAE armed forces operating in the southern province of Aden launched a new anti-terror offensive “to root out al-Qaeda militants from their strongholds in neighbouring southern province of Abyan.”

Thousands of southern recruits joined the campaign after receiving military training and financial support from the UAE forces.

The ongoing anti-terror campaign has dislodged al-Qaeda militants from several villages in Abyan, with more than 50 of them arrested and moved to prisons in Aden.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network’s most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen’s government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

A US military official has revealed his country’s intention to form forces to send them to the Arab region to help counter Iranian threats, like reported by aawsat.com.

“The United States wants to help the Arab countries deal with Iranian threats,” said General Joseph Votel, commander of the US Central Command at the 26th annual Arab-American Policymakers Conference in Washington.

“The Pentagon is working to achieve that desire and ensure its effective implementation. That includes the establishment of US military battalions sent as missions to the region and be designed specifically to provide advice and assistance,” he noted, stressing that such cooperation was an example of “partnership” between Washington and its allies in the region.

Votel underlined his country’s keenness to preserve relations with Arab states, adding that the Middle East would remain of exceptional importance to the United States, “considering that opportunities in the region are greater than obstacles and that regional countries want strong relations with the United States.”

The US General went on to say that security relations were the factor that maintains political relations, stating that bilateral military cooperation was still strong among the countries of the region, especially in Syria and Iraq and in the war against ISIS and other terrorist groups.

Stressing the importance of the US focus on security partnerships in the Middle East and encouraging local solutions in those countries, Votel said that America’s allies were leading their military wars in the region, while the role of the United States was limited to support and assistance.

“The United States will help its partners wherever and whenever it is necessary, because this benefits American interests,” he told the conference, which is organized by the National Council on US-Arab Relations.

Founded in 1983, the council is an American non-profit, non-governmental, educational organization dedicated to improving American knowledge and understanding of the Arab world.

The organization is based in Washington and works on strengthening and expanding strategic, economic, political, commercial, and defense cooperation ties between the United States and Arab countries.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) posted an article on their official website that stated some foreign national ISIS gang leaders have crossed into Turkey following their defeat in Syria.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited private sources for their article that stated that they have documented proof of ISIS gangs crossing into Turkey. The article said ISIS gangs came from Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa states to the “Euphrates Shield Area” to the north and east of Aleppo, then crossed over to Turkey from there.

SOHR stated that the gang leaders paid 20 to 30 thousand Syrian Liras to cross from Homs Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa to the Euphrates Shield Area.

SOHR stated that they have documented many ISIS members crossing into Turkey and that some gangs in the Hesekê Canton of Northern Syria had disappeared, and some have stayed in Turkey.

Heavy clashes erupted between Peshmerga Forces and the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias of Hashd al-Shaabi militia on the outskirt of Erbil early on Friday, like reported by basnews.com.

The clashes broke out after the Iraqi Forces and Hashd al-Shaabi, attempted to move onto the town of Pirde, near Erbil, a Peshmerga Commander on the front line told a Kurdistan 24.

The fire exchanges started at 8:00 am Friday morning as the Iranian-backed militias aimed to advance and storm Pirde, the last town in the province of Kirkuk just before entering Erbil.

The Peshmerga have reportedly ambushed the militias, managing to destroy 12 humvees and armored vehicles of Hashd al-Shaabi, using German MILAN anti-tank system, according to the Kurdistan 24.

“The forces are using US heavy weapons and military equipment against the Peshmerga,” a Commander said.