Syria

The US is providing light arms, including antitank rockets, to “moderate” rebels in southern Syria. The US has also resumed the shipment of nonlethal aid, including vehicles and communications equipment, to Syrian rebels in the north, a month after shipments were suspended following the seizure of Free Syrian Army warehouses by Islamist rebels. A recent effort to unify jihadist ranks split by infighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham has temporarily stalled. ISIS raised its flag in Tal Abyad city in Raqqah. The Syrian opposition called the regime’s offer to allow women and children to leave Homs a ploy. The second batch of Syria’s chemical weapons left Syria from the port of Latakia. Israeli missiles reportedly struck warehouses in Latakia containing Russian S-300 missiles last night. Abdullah Suleiman Salih al-Dhabah a.k.a. Abu Ali al-Qasimi, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist on the Saudi Arabian list of most-wanted terrorists, was reported killed in Aleppo earlier this month. Haji Bakr a.k.a. Sameer Abid Mohammed al-Halefawi, a key ISIS official, is said to have been killed in a dispute between ISIS and rebel groups in Aleppo. A new study estimates that 11,000 non-Syrians are now fighting in the country, including 2,000 Muslims from Europe and the US, and that a significant number are expected to return home radicalized.

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Syria

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