Middle Orient

Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said his alliance anticipated a direct Turkish intervention in Syria and claimed that Turkey had ‘coordinated’ with the Islamic State terrorist group, during an interview with the privately owned TeN satellite channel on Sunday.

The Iraqi air force carried out a series of airstrikes on Wednesday, targeting positions held by sleeper cells of the so-called Islamic State in Salahuddin province, a statement from the Iraqi military communications center said.

At least 21 people were killed in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province as government forces and their Russian allies intensified an air offensive on the country’s northwest.

On Thursday, the French Consul General in Erbil affirmed his country’s ongoing support for the security of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq during a meeting with the head of the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Qassem Soleimani was often described as a “shadowy” figure; an elusive commander who criss-crossed the Middle East in secret on his mission to sustain a regional military alliance loyal to Iran.

Iraqi security forces on Thursday announced the arrest of a senior religious Islamic State official in eastern Mosul.

American troops in Iraq had focused on force protection rather than offensive operations after the senior Iranian general was killed in a drone strike.

Iran is not done. General Hajizadeh, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, said in a briefing yesterday that the strike “was the starting point of a great operation”. He also underlined that “the strikes were not meant to cause fatalities: We intended [rather] to deliver a blow to the enemy’s …

Four Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack in northeast Syria on Wednesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement overnight.

Iraqi security forces announced on Thursday that they had seized dozens of explosive devices and destroyed two caves and Islamic State sites northwest of the disputed Kirkuk province.