Syria civil war - Page 17

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Monday confirmed that a US air strike killed Islamic State leader and spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani in northern Syria last month.

A Syria ceasefire billed as the “last chance” for peace appeared to be holding on its first full day Tuesday, with residents across the country reporting a quiet night and anxious for aid.

Syria’s President Bashar Assad vowed to retake all of Syria from “terrorists,” hours before a truce brokered by Russia and the United States was due to take hold on Monday.

Six months after Maha’s husband was killed in Syria’s bloody civil war, the mother-of-two took a decision that has become increasingly common — she became a second wife.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey had a duty to defeat the Islamic State extremist group, adding its operation inside Syria was a first step towards this goal.

Iran on Sunday welcomed the proposed ceasefire in Syria brokered by Russia and the United States, but said a monitoring system was needed to stop it being exploited by “terrorists”.

A day of intense airstrikes Saturday on and around the northern city of Aleppo killed at least 45 people, according to opposition activists.

AMMAN- The top military commander of the militant group Jabhat Fateh al Sham, the former al Qaeda offshoot in Syria, was killed in an aerial raid that targeted a meeting of the group’s leaders, both the group and rebel sources said on Thursday.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that statements by Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson demonstrate London’s part in “aggression” against Syria and showed he did not understand the situation there.

Israeli aircraft attacked targets in Syria on Thursday, for the second time in five days, after an errant mortar shell from fighting among factions in Syria struck the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

The Syrian conflict is entering a highly unpredictable phase, the former head of the Israeli domestic security agency said on Monday, adding that the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah posed a growing threat to Israel despite losing many fighters.

Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels expelled the Islamic State group from the last strip of territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border on Sunday, effectively sealing the extremists’ self-styled caliphate off from the outside world, Turkey’s prime minister and a Syrian opposition group reported.

Turkey and its rebel allies opened a new line of attack in northern Syria on Saturday, as Turkish tanks rolled across the border and Syrian fighters swept in from the west to take villages held by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

Syrian government forces advanced on Sunday south of Aleppo city, a military source and state media said, as they pushed to once again encircle rebel neighbourhoods and reimpose a siege.

HANGZHOU, China — The U.S. and Russia are near completing a groundbreaking deal that involves military and intelligence cooperation to fight al Qaeda and ISIS-linked terrorists in Syria.

Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the official spokesman for the Islamic State (IS) group who gained notoriety for his frequent calls for jihad, has been killed in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, the militant group’s media outlet announced Tuesday.

After a scathing UN investigation, the White House said Wednesday it was “impossible to deny” that Syria had launched chemical weapon attacks, while calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to be held accountable.

Syrian government troops were responsible for two toxic gas attacks and Islamic State militants used sulfur mustard gas, an inquiry by the United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog found Wednesday, according to a report.

Germany’s military is preparing to pull out from a Turkish airbase as a row between the two NATO partners escalates, Der Spiegel magazine reported Thursday.

JAFFA, Israel – Iran is actively trying to bring Turkey and Syria closer together, according to a report in the international Saudi publication Asharq Al-Awsat, headquartered in London.

TEL AVIV – Backed up by U.S. drones and American military advisers, Turkey on Wednesday launched a major military incursion across the border into neighboring Syria, deploying special operations ground forces and tanks while simultaneously launching airstrikes targeting Islamic State strongholds.

The Syrian government condemned Wednesday’s Turkish incursion into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarabulus as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.

US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey on Wednesday for critical talks with its leadership as Ankara launched a military operation to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town.

The Turkish army has shelled Kurdish as well as Islamic State (IS) group positions in northern Syria, according to Turkish media reports Tuesday, in a bid to open up a corridor for a major rebel assault.

Iran said on Monday that Russia has stopped using an Iranian air base for strikes in Syria, a week after Moscow announced that its fighter bombers had flown from a base in Iran to hit targets in Syria.

Russian warplanes took off on Tuesday from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, widening Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria in a major development in the country’s civil war.

A bomb blast at a border crossing between Syria’s opposition-held Idlib province and Turkey killed at least 10 Syrian rebel fighters on Sunday, activists said, as a wave of airstrikes pounded the region and fighting raged in the contested northern city of Aleppo.

Russia said on Wednesday there would be daily three-hour ceasefires in Syria’s Aleppo starting Thursday to allow humanitarian convoys to enter the city safely, a proposal which the United Nations said it would consider.

The rebels’ military gains in the battle of Aleppo increased Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s position ahead of his meeting on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, an Arab intelligence official told Breitbart Jerusalem.

An internal Israeli Air Force probe has concluded that a drone that entered Israeli airspace last month likely crossed the border as result of “human error,” the Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.

JAFFA, Israel – A contingent of moderate Syrian Arab rebel reinforcements have deployed along the Jordan-Syria border, ready to launch an offensive against Bashar al Assad’s regime in the event of a rebel defeat in Aleppo, an informed Arab intelligence official told Breitbart Jerusalem.

The publication of pictures of Christian-themed objects found in the pockets of the crew of a Russian fighter jet intercepted over Syria on Monday prompted Arab social media users to allege that Moscow is carrying out “Christian terror” in Syria.

The Jerusalem Post reports: A “terrorist” group launched a chemical attack that killed five people in Aleppo on Tuesday, CNN quoted a Syrian government official as saying. Meanwhile, an Anti-regime group stated chlorine gas canisters were dropped in Idlib province. If

Advancing Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by US-led air strikes now control 40 percent of the Islamic State stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, a monitor said Sunday.

The United States said on Tuesday it hoped to announce in early August details of planned military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Russia on Syria, and a United Nations envoy said he would also aim to resume peace talks next month.

Despite its very public military setbacks in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has persisted with iron fist policies toward the subjects of its “caliphate.” The global terror group’s propaganda organ has recently published photos purporting to show “verdicts” on people charged with prostitution, blasphemy, and treason.