Daesh executes 40 civilians in northern Syrian town: Report

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has reportedly executed more than three dozen civilians in Syria’s strategic northern province of Aleppo as they continue to lose ground in battles against government forces.

The media bureau of Syria’s Joint Operations Command announced in a statement on Saturday that Daesh extremists had rounded up 40 civilians in the town of al-Bab, located some 40 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, and then killed them all.

The killings came as fierce clashes continue unabated between Turkish-backed militants and Daesh Takfiris on the fringes of al-Bab.

Turkish artillery units also lobbed a barrage of projectiles at Daesh outposts inside and outside of the border town.

On August 24, 2016, the Turkish Air Force and special ground forces kicked off Operation Euphrates Shield inside Syria in a declared bid to support the Free Syrian Army militants and rid the border area of Daesh terrorists and fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The offensive was launched in coordination with the US-led military coalition, which has purportedly been fighting Daesh extremists since 2014.

The incursion was the first major Turkish military intervention in Syria, which drew strong condemnation from the Syrian government for violating the Arab country’s sovereignty.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on November 29, 2016 that the Turkish army had marched into Syria to end the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, whom he accused of terrorism and causing the deaths of thousands.

The remarks caused consternation in the Kremlin, with Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, demanding that Erdogan clarify anti-Assad goals in Syria.

The Turkish leader backtracked on the comments two days later, asserting that the offensives there were aimed only at terrorists.

Late on Friday, Syrian army forces managed to retake Abu Taltal village near the town of al-Bab after heavy skirmishes with foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants there.

Syrian soldiers and allied forces launched an operation against Daesh positions near al-Tharda region of the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr on Saturday, killing scores of the terrorists in the process.

Syrian Air Force fighter jets also carried out a string of strikes against Daesh terrorists in the al-Makabbat area of the same Syrian province, killing six terrorists and injuring another seven. A motorcycle belonging to the terrorists was destroyed in the aerial attacks as well.

Additionally, Syrian aircraft targeted Daesh gatherings in the al- Hamidiyah district of Dayr al-Zawr city, situated about 420 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus, and the outskirts of a military airport, killing and injuring many of the terrorists and destroying vehicles equipped with heavy machineguns.

Syrian troopers and fighters from pro-government popular defense groups also thwarted separate infiltration attempts by Daesh from al-Hweiqa and al-Husseiniya villages into Dayr al-Zawr city, killing most of the terrorists.

Source: Press TV

In Syria: Syrian army besieges Daesh- held town of Bab

Syrian government troops and their allied forces have laid siege to the town of al-Bab, the largest stronghold of Daesh terrorists in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo, according to a pro-opposition monitoring group.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday that Syrian forces had completely surrounded the town.

The Britain-based group added that the advance followed the army’s capture of Awishyah hill, which is several hundred meters away from a road that links al-Bab to Raqqah and Dayr al-Zawr provinces.

The capture of the hill came hours after Syrian troops took control of the village of Awishyah, it said.

The latest advance means government forces have now encircled the terrorists in the towns of al-Bab, Bizaah, Qabasin and Tedif.

In January, the monitoring group reported that Daesh terrorists had transferred their families out of al-Bab to other areas under their control ahead of the Syrian army’s imminent advance on the town.

As a landmark victory against the invading terrorist groups, the Syrian army liberated the strategic city of Aleppo in 2016.

Meanwhile, Turkish forces fighting as part of Operation Euphrates Shield have failed to keep their control over Bizaah. Daesh terrorists are said to have recaptured the town after multiple ambushes that left an unconfirmed number of Turkish soldiers dead.

In August last year, the Turkish air force and special ground forces launched Operation Euphrates Shield inside Syria in a declared bid to aid the Free Syrian Army militants against Daesh terrorists.

Turkey is also accused of using the fight against Daesh as a cover to repel Kurdish forces, who themselves have been battling against the terrorist group.

Ankara has already made it clear that it will not tolerate Kurdish territorial gains close to its frontiers.

Source: PressTV

38 Killed by Avalanches After Heavy Snow in Afghanistan – Afghan Official

At least 38 people have been killed over the course of three days in Afghanistan by avalanches caused by heavy snow, officials said on Sunday.

Omer Mohammadi, spokesman for the Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, said that more than 20 others have been injured.

Mohammadi said that 22 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces have experienced heavy snow.

Approximately 20 homes have been destroyed by avalanches and nearly 50 others heavily damaged.

Mohammad Aseem, provincial governor in northern Parwan province, said that 16 people were killed and eight others injured in avalanches in two districts. He said a team had been dispatched to affected areas but that many roads had been blocked by snow.

Naweed Frotan, spokesman for the provincial governor in Badakhshan province, said initial reports showed at least 18 people killed, but added that the numbers were expected to rise.

Mohammadi added that so far more than 550 animals have been killed and more than 1000 hectares of agricultural lands destroyed in the affected provinces.

On Sunday, the government declared a public holiday due to the heavy snowfall.

Source: ABC NEWS

Iraq: Two terror attacks kill six in Iraq

Separate terrorist attacks have killed six people, all of them security forces, in two Iraqi cities.

A car bomb explosion targeted a vehicle of security forces in the central city of Ramadi in Iraq’s Anbar Province on Wednesday, killing four personnel and injuring five others.

Reports from local sources said the terrorist attack was carried out in Kilo neighborhood of downtown Ramadi.

Elsewhere, near the city of Tikrit in Salahuddin Province, Takfiri Daesh militants ambushed a unit of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), locally called Hashd al-Sha’abi, killing two members and injuring two others.

Facing battlefield losses at the hands of Iraqi security forces, the Daesh terrorists have been carrying out increased terrorist attacks in the recent past.

On Tuesday, several explosions in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad killed at least six civilians and left dozens more injured.

Iraq has been facing insecurity, particularly in the northern and western parts, ever since Daesh started a campaign of terror in the country in early June 2014.

Iraqi army soldiers, backed by fighters from PMU and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation to retake Mosul, the last urban area under Daesh control, in October last year.

Source: PressTV

Iraq: Nearly 90 bodies exhumed at Daesh massacre site

Iraqi forensic specialists and international activists have found a mass grave containing the remains of more than seven dozen victims of a June 2014 massacre by Daesh Takfiri terrorists at an air force camp in the country’s north-central province of Salahuddin.

A provincial police source, requesting not to be identified, said experts from the Iraqi Health Ministry and Human Rights Watch activists had recently found 89 bodies inside former dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace compound in Tikrit, located 140 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad.

The source added that information obtained from captured Takfiri Daesh terrorists helped locate the mass grave, noting that the corpses will be sent to the forensic department in order to be identified.

On June 12, 2014, Daesh terrorists killed around 1,700 Iraqi air force cadets after kidnapping them from Camp Speicher, a former US base. There were reportedly around 4,000 unarmed cadets in the camp when it came under attack by Daesh militants.

Following the abductions, the attackers took the victims to the complex of presidential palaces and killed them. The terrorists also threw some of the bodies into a river.

The massacre was filmed by Daesh and broadcast on social media.

An investigation committee later revealed that 57 members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party aided Takfiri Daesh terrorists in the massacre.

On August 21, 2016, Iraqi judiciary officials hanged 36 men convicted of involvement in the carnage.

Tikrit was recaptured from Daesh in March 2015. During clean-up operations in the northern part of the city, Iraqi forces found the location of the 2014 carnage.

Multiple bomb attacks claim lives in, near Iraqi capital

Meanwhile, at least two people have been killed and nearly a dozen others injured in a series of bomb attacks that ripped through areas in and around Baghdad.

Police said a civilian lost his life and five others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device went off inside a parking lot in the capital’s central neighborhood of Bab al-Moatham on Sunday noon.

A sound bomb also exploded near a security checkpoint in the Zayouna neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, leaving a civilian injured.

Elsewhere in the town of Taji, located 30 kilometers north of Baghdad, a bomb blast left one dead and four others injured.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they have the hallmark of those carried out by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 386 Iraqis were killed and another 1,066 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.

According to the UN mission, the number of civilian fatalities stood at 385 in December 2016. Violence also left 1,060 people – excluding police personnel – injured.

A great portion of the fatalities was recorded in the northern province of Nineveh, where 208 civilians were killed.

Terrorist attacks also left another 511 injured there.

Source: PRESSTV

In Iraq: Iraqi forces regain control of two more neighborhoods in east Mosul

Iraqi government forces have managed to liberate two more neighborhoods in Mosul from the clutches of the Daesh Takfiri terrorists as they try to push the extremists out of their last urban stronghold in the country.

The commander of Nineveh Liberation Operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, said on Sunday that soldiers from the 71st Brigade of the 15th Division in the Iraqi Army had recaptured al-Milayeen neighborhood and al-Binaa al-Jahiz area east of the city, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital, Baghdad, Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network reported.

Yarallah added that government forces had raised the Iraqi flag over several buildings in both locations.

The high-ranking Iraqi military commander also noted that troops had established control over the road linking Mosul to the northern city of Dohuk in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Members of the 9th Armored Division in the Iraqi Army retook the road linking Bahwiza neighborhood in northern Mosul to the Assyrian town of Tel Keppe.

The latest territorial gains almost seal the Iraqi forces’ control over the eastern bank of the Tigris River, with only Rashidiyah neighborhood left to be retaken.

Daesh forces Mosul women to hand over gold coins

Meanwhile, an unnamed local source says the so-called Supreme Audit Court of Daesh has obligated all women in the al-Dawassah neighborhood of western Mosul to donate gold coins to finance the terror outfit in battles against government soldiers.

The source went on to say that the Takfiris had threatened punishment against those who did not abide by the rules, having whipped four women in public for their refusal to take the measure.

Iraqi army soldiers, supported by fighters from pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic word, Hashd al-Sha’abi, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation on October 17, 2016 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

Source: PressTV

Yemen: 4 Qaeda members killed in Yemen drone strikes

A landmine explodes as Yemeni loyalist forces patrol an area near the Red Sea port town of Mocha on January 20, 2017.<br />SALEH AL-OBEIDI / AFP

Four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed in drone strikes in central Yemen likely carried out by US forces, a security source said Sunday.
The source, asking not to be identified, said three “armed fighters of Al-Qaeda” died when their vehicle was struck on Saturday in the Sawmaa region of Al-Bayda province.
A drone strike on Friday killed a local military instructor for Al-Qaeda in the same province, he said.

The United States, which considers Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), to be its most dangerous, is the only force operating drones over Yemen.
But it only sporadically reports on a long-running bombing campaign against AQAP.
Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State jihadist group have exploited a power vacuum created by the two-year-old conflict in Yemen between the government and Shiite Huthi rebels, especially in the country’s south and southeast.

4 Qaeda members killed in Yemen drone strikes

In Syria: Syrian forces encircle militant-held area NW Damascus

Syrian forces have reportedly encircled a militant-held area on the Damascus outskirts, where the capital’s water supplies are located.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the route between Wadi Barada, and the adjacent militant-controlled Qalamoun region, was cut on Thursday.

Head of SOHR, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the government forces and allied fighters, “besieged Wadi Barada” following “an advance from the north” the previous day.

Home to the key Ain al-Fijeh spring, Wadi Barada has been rocked by fierce clashes since December 2016. The government forces have been fighting in the area against Takfiri militants, who have damaged the water processing facilities there and cut water flow to some 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs.

Last week, locals struck a truce deal with the Syrian authorities to allow the water pipes to be repaired.

However, the agreement was called off after terrorists in Wadi Barada killed Ahmad al-Ghadban, a representative of the Syrian government, who would coordinate reconciliation talks between Damascus and militant groups.

Meanwhile, an unnamed Syrian military source confirmed that the government troops had encircled Wadi Barada and that fighting was ongoing.

“Ain al-Fijeh has practically fallen militarily.

The armed groups are surrounded… and have no choice but to accept the settlement or the continuation of the military operation,” the source said.

Militant infighting rages on in Idlib Separately on Thursday, the SOHR said that members of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, had attacked checkpoints and positions held by the Saudi-backed Ahrar al-Sham militant outfit in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province.

According to the UK-based monitoring group, the two sides clashed with each other, with Fateh al-Sham seizing a border crossing into Turkey.

The developments come as a cessation of hostilities has been largely holding across Syria for almost three weeks now while new round of peace talks is due in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on January 23.

The Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist groups are excluded from the ceasefire and the upcoming discussions.

Source: PRESSTV