In mid-September, the guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire regime (Iran, Russia and Turkey) in Astana signed an agreement on creating the forth de-escalation zone including Idlib and some parts of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama Governorates.

According to the agreement, the Turkish army invasion in Idlib began with mass artillery shelling of al-Nusra positions on October 8, 2017. In less than 24 hours, however, a number of media reported that the Turkish Army units had been spotted in Atmah accompanied by a convoy of al-Nusra militants. The locals say the Turkish troops were moving towards Aleppo to allegedly hold talks with the terrorists’ field commanders. The Syrian opposition Al-Jisr TV-Channel also confirmed this information.

Al-Jisr report on joint movement of the Turkish troops and al-Nusra Crossing Atmah in the direction of Aleppo

Inside Syria Media Center military correspondents in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) claim that the Turkish Command made a deal with al-Nusra on the withdrawal of militants from Idlib to Hama province. A soon large-scale offensive is also planned against the Syrian army positions in Masyaf and As-Suqaylabiyah, located north-west to Hama.

The fact is that the Syrian army backed by the allied forces continue their advance towards Idlib now.

The fierce clashes between the government forces and al-Nusra are well under way along the Idlib-Hama border. Al-Nusra suffers heavy losses in this battle.

Obviously, the Turkish side has its own plan how to gain control over the northern part of Syria. Despite the agreement with Iran and Russia, Ankara once again took a decision to collude with the terrorists and hinder the successful advance of the Syrian troops towards Idlib.

A Yemeni army officer and nine Houthi fighters were killed Thursday in clashes that erupted in the town of Asilan in Yemen’s southeastern Shabwah province, according to a Yemeni military source, according to albawaba.com.

“Houthi militiamen launched a major attack at dawn Thursday on Yemeni army positions in Asilan, prompting fierce clashes,” a Yemeni army colonel said.

“Government forces and members of the [pro-government] popular resistance committees ultimately managed to repulse the attackers,” he said, preferring anonymity for security reasons.

The attack, he added, had left one army officer dead — Colonel Al-Khader al-Jadani — and two “popular resistance” volunteers injured.

According to the same source, at least nine Houthi fighters were killed in the fighting.

Spokesmen for the Houthis have yet to comment on the source’s assertions.

Yemen’s Shabwah province is comprised of 17 districts, 15 of which are currently held by government forces while much of the province’s Bihan directorate and parts of Asilan remain under the control of the Houthis and their allies.

Yemen has remained locked in a civil war since 2014, when the Shia Houthi militia group overran much of the country including capital Sanaa, forcing Yemen’s Saudi-backed government to set up an interim capital in the coastal city of Aden.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains in Yemen.

According to U.N. figures, more than 10,000 people — including numerous civilians — have been killed as a direct result of the conflict.

Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces have captured dozens of wives of Islamic State (IS) militants while attempting to escape recent fighting between Iraqi army and the jihadist group south and southwest of Kirkuk, a Kurdish official confirmed to basnews.com.

“Initial investigations have revealed some of the detained women are Kurdish nationals,” said Salah Dalo, head of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) branch bureau in Kirkuk.

He revealed to BasNews the Kurdish women are believed to be forced to marry IS jihadists due to the signs of torture and mistreatment.

Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Peshmerga Ministry, Salar Mohammed Jabbari, confirmed the report and noted that investigations are ongoing to find out how the Kurdish women ended up in IS-held areas.

The revelations from the German Federal Intelligence Service accuse Tehran of making 32 procurement attempts in 2016.

It said: “There were 32 procurement attempts… that definitely or with high likelihood were undertaken for the benefit of [nuclear] proliferation programs”, like reported by express.co.uk.

In a report on the findings, German officials said Iran used shell companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to sidestep restrictions.

Iran’s weapons developments were curbed by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a deal that froze the Iranian nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions from January 2016.

The landmark agreement was made between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and European Union.

JCPOA allowed Iran to produce a modest amount of low-enriched uranium that could be used for a nuclear energy program, but not a nuclear weapons program, Sputnik News reports.

Iran is also required to disclose information about their nuclear program to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was one of the key countries connected to JCPOA.

But her government is now worried that US President Donald Trump will decide this week that Iran is not respecting the two-year-old deal to curb its nuclear programme and fears such a step will worsen the security situation in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany was prepared to work with the United States to change Iran’s behaviour in the region but “we do not want to see this agreement damaged”.

He said: “We are looking with great concern towards the United States.

“We urge the White House not to call into question such an important achievement that has improved our security.”

The 2015 accord was reached under Mr Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

The current American president is expected to “decertify” the landmark agreement despite advice from senior members of his own cabinet and US partners to stick with it.

If he does say Iran is not respecting the deal, the US Congress would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Mr Gabriel called the accord a “great diplomatic success”, saying it had prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons and headed off a military conflict between Iran and Israel.

He said: ”We are worried, based on the signals coming out of the United States, that the president will tell lawmakers that the nuclear deal with Iran is not being fulfilled.

“This runs counter to the view of all the European countries that participated in the deal as well as the EU.”

Canadian special forces have played a central role in hunting down, detecting and dismantling stockpiles of chemical weapons used by Islamic State militants in Iraq, according to sources with knowledge of the top-secret operations, like reported by theglobeandmail.com.

Some of these highly trained soldiers have advanced scientific degrees and used their specialized skills to decontaminate Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers affected by mustard gas.

Canada’s special forces are made up of the elite JTF-2 counterterrorism force, regular commandos, a special helicopter detachment and the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU), which is responsible for responding to nuclear, chemical and biological attacks.

Soldiers with the CJIRU are among about 200 Canadian special forces deployed in northern Iraq focused mainly on training Kurdish fighters. Some of them recently helped in the battle to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State, including a small number of CJIRU soldiers whose job was to search for and destroy chemical weapons.

Mosul was at the centre of the Islamic State’s chemical-weapons production, mostly small batches of low-quality chlorine and sulphur mustard agents, but the hardline Sunni militants also had control over radioactive material at the city’s university.

Sources, with knowledge of the activities of Canada’s special forces in Iraq, but who were not authorized to speak on the record, have told The Globe and Mail that CJIRU soldiers detected and dismantled weaponized chemical components and hazardous material in Mosul between March and August of this year.

“It is a very, very highly capable organization that deals with very, very ugly situations,” said retired lieutenant-colonel Steve Day, the former head of Canada’s secret JTF-2 special-operations unit who worked alongside CJIRU soldiers.

“They have got both tactical training, so they can operate alongside special forces, but they also have technical training in their ability to handle biological, chemical or radioactive agents.”

For security reasons, the sources would not discuss the exact nature of the operations that were conducted in eastern and western Mosul.

Major Alexandre Cadieux, who speaks for Canadian Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) in Iraq, said the military has a policy of not commenting on its special-forces activities and the role of CJIRU soldiers.

“The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command does not discuss the specific composition of its task forces … [and] does not discuss the exact threats that the SOTF detects against its personnel,” Major Cadieux said in an e-mail.

The Washington Post reported in July that two caches of the highly dangerous cobalt-60 isotope used in radiotherapy-treatment machines in medical facilities was discovered on a university campus in Mosul. It is not known whether the Islamic State knew that the cobalt-60 could be used to make a dirty bomb, or whether they did, but were afraid of being exposed to the lethally high levels of radiation.

The Canadian military would not say whether CJIRU soldiers were part of the U.S. operation to retrieve the cobalt-60 radiation machines. Asked if Canada played a role in finding the radiation machines, Major Cadieux said the armed forces “will not provide information that could jeopardize, even indirectly, operations by Iraqi security forces and the [U.S.-led] coalition.”

U.S. officials have confirmed that the Islamic State had gained control of small quantities of natural or low-enriched uranium from the days of Saddam Hussein’s rule, as well as some relatively harmless radioactive iridium used in industrial equipment.

The Canadians, often working alongside their secretive U.S. counterparts, have highly specialized sensor equipment that allows them to sample, identify and characterize chemical and hazardous material. They are assisted in their operations by U.S. airborne sniffers that can detect radioactive and chemical agents.

“They have got the ability, in very small numbers, to do the decontamination and containment of the site,” Mr. Day said. “Some of the [chemical weapons] are lethal within metres, some of them are lethal within hundreds of metres and that is what these men and women are doing.”

Mosul, Iraq’s second-biggest city, was captured by Islamic State fighters in 2014 but government forces – with the help of U.S. and Canadian special forces – retook the city in late July in an operation that lasted six months.

Iraqi police have accused the Islamic State of using chemical weapons against their forces in Mosul. Most of these involved either the use of chlorine or sulphur mustard agents, delivered with mortars, rockets and improvised explosive devices.

The Islamic State has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria at least 52 times according to the IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based research and intelligence-gathering group. A report by IHS said at least 19 of 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.

Canada’s Armed Forces established the CJIRU team in 2006. Its principal focus – working alongside the RCMP and Health Canada – is protecting Canada from a nuclear, radioactive, chemical or biological attack.

Mr. Day said only a small number of CJIRU member are sent overseas on military missions, such as Iraq.

“Their number one priority is the domestic response. That domestic capability is fenced off and thou shall not touch that capability except in times of emergency,” Mr. Day said.

More than 1,000 Islamic State fighters who promised to be martyrs for the Caliphate have surrendered without a fight after Iraqi forces drove ISIS from the northern city of Hawija late last week, The New York Times reported.

Kurdish authorities expect hundreds more to surrender. Hawija, where ISIS once brutally murdered Kurdish prisoners, fell in three days, and ISIS fighters didn’t put up much of a fight other than planting bombs and booby traps before fleeing with their families, signaling deflated military operations. The battle to remove ISIS from Mosul lasted nine months and ended in July. Tal Afar fell from an ISIS stronghold in 11 days.

ISIS is now in control only of Qaim, which sits on the border with Syria, and substantial territory across the Euphrates River valley.

Senior militant leaders had approached Iraqi military trying to negotiate deals for themselves before they surrendered.

“We tell them no way, no negotiations, turn yourselves in and we’ll turn you over to the court, which will decide,” said Capt. Ali Muhammad Syan, who leads the screening of ISIS fighters in the northern Iraqi city of Dibis.

“It’s really a big mystery for me, though,” he said. “Hawija held the toughest ISIS fighters, and I never believed they would surrender in this way. It’s really weird.”

Many of the ISIS fighters who surrendered claimed to have been cooks or clerks. Some said they left because they were told to surrender, while others said they weren’t paid or not treated to a luxurious lifestyle as they had been promised.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned the United States against designating it as a terrorist group, saying U.S. regional military bases would be at risk if further sanctions were passed, Reuters reported.

The warning came after the White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump would announce new U.S. responses to Iran’s missile tests, support for “terrorism” and cyber operations as part of his new Iran strategy.

“As we’ve announced in the past, if America’s new law for sanctions is passed, this country will have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000 km range of Iran’s missiles,” the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari said, according to state media.

Jafari further warned that additional sanctions would end the chances for future dialogue with the United States and issued a stark warning to American troops.

“If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world particularly in the Middle East,” he threatened, according to Reuters.

The website for state TV reported Jafari as adding that the United States was mistaken if it thought it could pressure Iran into negotiating on regional issues.

Jafari also said that Tehran would ramp up its defense capabilities, including its missile program, if the U.S. undermined a nuclear deal between Iran and Western powers.

“The Americans should know that the Trump government’s stupid behavior with the nuclear deal will be used by the Islamic Republic as an opportunity to move ahead with its missile, regional and conventional defense program,” he stressed, according to the report.

His comments come amid reports indicating that Trump plans not to recertify Iranian compliance with the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

The president must inform Congress whether Iran is complying with the deal by October 15.

In September, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions targeting 11 companies and individuals accused of aiding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or cyber attacks on U.S. banks.

In August, Trump signed into law a bill which imposes sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards. Iran had blasted the United States over the bill, threatening U.S. military bases in the region.

The Trump administration had previously imposed new sanctions on 25 individuals and companies connected to Iran’s ballistic missile program and those providing support to the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force.

The sanctions came in response to a ballistic missile test conducted by Iran, in violation of UN Resolution 2231, which bars Iran from conducting ballistic missile tests for eight years and which went into effect after the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers was signed.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a Turkish offensive against jihadists in the Syrian Ibid territory on Sunday. That is the only region of Syria still under the control of rebel forces, like reported by neweurope.eu.

The offensive aims to purge the territory from Turkey’s former allies, the Nusra Front, the German public broadcaster DW reports. According to the German public broadcaster, the Turkish offensive is supported by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), that is, the militia of the Syrian opposition.

The offensive follows an agreement with Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government to purge the region from Jihadists. The Nusra Front spearheads a broader jihadist front called the Tahrir al-Sham; that is the second biggest Jihadist group after the Islamic State.

The Nusra Front is Turkey’s former ally. Until last year, the organization was an Al Qaeda affiliate.

In May 2016, a Turkish court sentenced Cumhuriyet’s former editor, Can Dundar, to five years and ten months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets. At the time, the paper published the transcripts of audio tapes confirming that Turkey provided financial and military aid to terrorist groups associated with Al Qaeda in their fight against the Assad regime.

According to Reuters, the agreement between Ankara and Moscow is that Turkey and the FSA will deal with Jihadist groups in the Idlib province, while Russia will prevent the creation of a Kurdish corridor to theMediterranean Sea. Turkey fears that the US-armed Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria may be able to create an autonomous Kurdish entity along the border with Syria. The 50,000 strong militia have been key US allies and have been armed by Washington.

Two Daesh terrorists were shot dead and another blew himself up in three separate raids by Saudi security forces in the national capital, the Presidency of State Security said according to arabnews.com.

In a statement, the agency said five other militants were also captured and that the Daesh cell had been dismantled during the simultaneous raids on three suspected terror hideouts in preemptive operations that aimed to prevent Daesh-linked plots.

The first, in Al-Rimal neighborhood in city’s north, contained a factory for making suicide belts and explosive devices. One terror suspect at the site refused to surrender to security forces and blew himself up.

The second location was an apartment in the Namar neighborhood, where an armed terrorist refused to surrender to security forces, firing shots at them, and was eventually killed. No civilian casualties were reported at the site.

The third location was a stable for horses in the Al-Hair district south of Riyadh, which was thought to be used by terrorists for meetings and criminal activities. Five suspected terrorists from this cell were captured, but their identities were not released for security reasons. Two Kalashnikov assault rifles, ammunition, chemical materials used for the preparation of explosives, and other objects were seized.

Forensic evidence teams have started investigations at the three sites.

The military collapse of Isis continued yesterday, when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the liberation of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, like reported by morningstaronline.co.uk.

Speaking in Paris at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Abadi hailed the city’s capture as a “victory not just for Iraq but for the whole world.”

He said the next target for the offensive against the jihadists would be Anbar province, a vast and barren area bordering Syria through which several key oil and gas pipelines pass.

Meanwhile, army troops and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Units militia pushed deeper into the well-populated Isis-held pocket of territory, driving the extremists back towards the oil-rich city of Kirkuk — currently under the control of Kurdish peshmerga forces.

In Paris, Mr Macron offered to mediate between Baghdad and Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the latter’s bid for independence.

The KRG went ahead with an unofficial referendum two weeks ago, which was opposed by Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey — the four countries with large Kurdish minorities. The poll saw over 90 per cent back independence on a turnout of over 70 per cent.

Mr Macron insisted on the importance of “national reconciliation and inclusive governance” that includes Kurds, “with whom France maintains close ties.”

In Syria, the army advanced on several fronts, but was hard-pressed in the desert town of Suknah by a large Isis force that infiltrated from Iraq last week — apparently unhindered by the US-led military coalition.

The official Sana news agency reported that a column pushing south along the Euphrates valley from Deir Ezzor was within three miles of Mayadeen — a town that the US coalition and its Kurdish allies vowed to occupy last week.

The Syrian government’s Russian allies supported the advance with a barrage of 10 cruise missiles aimed at Isis command posts and ammunition dumps in the town, launched from two submarines in the Mediterranean.

And the army tightened the noose on the Isis pocket east of Salamiyah in central Homs province, having driven the extremists out of Hama to the north.

But Isis renewed its assault on Suknah, advancing to within firing range of the main road to the east and west that also supplies Deir Ezzor.