As US-backed forces seize the city of Raqqa, the Syrian regime moves to retake ground in Deir Ezzor, where the Islamic State has laid siege to Bashar al Assad’s forces since 2014. Assad’s regime has received a boost from Iranian-sponsored militias, as well as the Russians, during its recent offensive in eastern Syria.
The US-led coalition carried out an air strike to block Islamic State fighters from reaching eastern Syria after they were evacuated from Lebanon. As part of the deal, the Islamic State was to hand over the body of an IRGC fighter who has become a household name in Iran.
The US State Department announced today that Islamic State leaders Ahmad Alkhald and Abu Yahya al-Iraqi have been named specially designated global terrorists. Alkhald was the “explosives chief” for the “terrorist cell” that carried out Nov. 2015 assault in Paris and the Mar. 2016 Brussels bombings. Al-Iraqi “oversees ISIS security in Iraq and Syria.”
Australian authorities say they broke up an especially “sophisticated” Islamic State plot in late July. The so-called caliphate wanted to bring down an airliner using an improvised explosive device (IED). The Islamic State even shipped the IED components to the suspects in Australia. The accused men were also allegedly experimenting with a bomb intended to disperse hydrogen sulfide.
The Shiite jihadists were freed as part of a ceasefire deal with Sunni jihadists in the Lebanon-Syria border region.
The ceasefire comes just one day after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah touted his forces imminent victory in the Jurud Arsal region of Lebanon.
The US military identified seven senior Islamic State propagandists and facilitators killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria this year. One of them, Rayaan Meshaal, founded Amaq News Agency, one of the group’s most important propaganda arms.
The video offers more visual confirmation of Hezbollah’s capabilities for armed commercial drones.
The Shiite jihadist group offers safety to the Sunni militants in Arsal if they “throw down their weapons and surrender.”
Kata’ib Imam Ali and Kata’ib al Sabriun join other IRGC-controlled Iraqi Shia militias training inside Syria.
As the offensive enters its third day, Hezbollah has claimed several advances on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border.
“Since at least 2009,” the State Department says in a recently released report, “Iran has allowed AQ [al Qaeda] facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria.”
While Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri claims that the Lebanese military is not coordinating with Syria or Hezbollah near Arsal, various reports from on the ground say otherwise.
The State Department says there “are reportedly about 7,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria.” They have been deployed to the country to bolster Bashar al Assad’s regime.
Thomas Joscelyn’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry into the United States on what happens to the Islamic State after it loses its territory in Iraq and Syria.
Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a coalition that includes the group formerly known as Al Nusrah Front, launched a campaign against alleged Islamic State operatives in the Idlib province earlier today. HTS has repeatedly accused Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s men of forming cells to attack their jihadist rivals in HTS and allied groups.
On July 3, Major General Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, spoke at an Iran-Iraq war veterans gathering in his home province of Kerman.
Soleimani praised the Islamic Republic’s decades-long effort to take the mantle of the Palestinian cause and boasted that Tehran’s influence in the Middle East has expanded as a result of the Syrian war. He excoriated Saudi Arabia, as well as domestic Iranian critics of the Guard Corps. And the general also lamented the drop in religious observance in Iran.
The Department of Justice announced on June 29 that Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud pleaded guilty nearly two years ago to training with and fighting for Al Nusrah Front in Syria. Al Nusrah “instructed” Mohamud “to return to the US and commit an act of terrorism.” He admittedly planned to kill American “military officers or other government employees or people in uniform.”
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered the Old City of Raqqa after the coalition blew two holes in a historic wall the Islamic State was using as a defensive fortification. The SDF’s fighters first approached the Old City in mid-June, but the wall and heavy fighting in a nearby neighborhood impeded their advance. Meanwhile, an Australian jihadi is featured in a new propaganda video recorded in Raqqa.
Al Muhajirun, a jihadist media front in Syria, recently released a video highlighting how jihadists, especially foreign jihadists, view the West.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies abroad on Friday commemorated Qods (Jerusalem) Day, an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan and established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to express support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel. The regime has not shied away from reiterating its call for Israel’s destruction during the annual event.
CENTCOM announced today that Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, a “finance emir” for the Islamic State, was killed in an airstrike in eastern Syria earlier this month. Last year, the US and Iraqi governments jointly targeted Rawi and his financial network, which handled millions of dollars for the so-called caliphate.
CENTCOM confirmed today that Turki al-Bin’ali, one of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s most important ideological supporters, was killed in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria on May 31. Mayadin has become a hub for the Islamic State’s senior personnel and external operations arm.
US Central Command said that the Iranian-made drone was shot down after it “displayed hostile intent and advanced on Coalition forces.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has responded by shutting down the de-confliction hotline and warning that all US aircraft would now be considered hostile targets.
Iranian press outlets report that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has fired missiles from Iranian territory at the Syrian governorate of Deir ez-Zor in response to the recent Islamic State terror attacks in Tehran.
The US Treasury Department and United Nations designated Islamic State operative Fared Saal as a terrorist yesterday. Saal, a German-Algerian, first joined the jihad in Syria several years ago. Along with his comrade Denis Cuspert, he appeared in a July 2014 video showing dozens of corpses at the Shaer Gas field in Homs, Syria.
The photos and videos show the extent of the US presence in southern Syria near the border with Iraq. This comes as the Tanf area of southeastern Syria has largely become a flash-point between US and Iranian-controlled forces.
Today, Tasnim News Agency – a propaganda outlet affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – posted photos of Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani, allegedly by the Iraqi border in Syria. The precise location and date of the photo are unconfirmed.
The US government designated two senior Islamic State figures today, saying they are involved in the group’s chemical weapons program. US officials have previously said that so-called caliphate uses a “mustard agent” in its attacks.