Residents tell The National they have gone days without food, as Damascus and SDF trade blame over security vacuum at ISIS-linked site
Thick black smoke billowed from Al Hol camp in north-east Syria, the country’s largest centre housing families with alleged links to ISIS, as unrest spread among residents who said they had gone days without food, water or medication.
The Salafi-jihadi threat persists across Africa, the Middle East, and into Asia. Al Qaeda– and Islamic State–affiliated groups are engaged in local conflicts and have sought ways to strengthen on the ground within popular insurgencies. Their focus on expanding in the Muslim world has not replaced aspirations to strike the West, however. Those groups that once demonstrated or sought to develop transnational attack capabilities still seek to target the United States and Europe, creating an ongoing requirement for counterterrorism activities.
Introduction
The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) to the forefront of the global jihadist movement challenges al Qaeda’s prominence and influence. The ISIS counter-state that does away with the Iraq-Syria border, as well as its growing presence in such places as Libya, the Sinai, and Afghanistan, are proof of the group’s power and the effectiveness of its strategy. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, described al Qaeda’s leadership as individuals who have become misguided and who have misled the global jihadist movement.[1] Baghdadi demands allegiance from all Muslims and claims the title, emir al mumineen, commander of the faithful, which was held for decades by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. ISIS’s growth has taken its toll on the al Qaeda network. Groups that had once been associated with al Qaeda have splintered, declaring their loyalty to Baghdadi. Al Qaeda’s name no longer carries the same recruitment power it once did.
Since the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s government just over a year ago, Syria has become an arena for an increasingly stark contest between Turkey and Israel.
Ankara and Tel Aviv’s strategic visions for Syria are fundamentally irreconcilable. Turkey seeks a unified state anchored by an Ankara-friendly central authority and preserved territorial integrity.
Israel, by contrast, favours a weakened and fragmented Syria incapable of projecting power or resisting external aggression.
It is not the story of a farm or the story of a settler who loves agriculture in “Judea and Samaria”, but a focus that is cultivated in the heart of the West Bank to transform a weapon, a road and a dominance, under the cover of “holiness.” Thus began a leaflet of a settler named Yeddia Plutkin calling for a donation to what he called a “holy farm”, in soft language that concealed a more ruthless project.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauds approvals as part of a ‘clear strategic move to strengthen settlement’
Israel has approved the construction of 764 houses in three Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.
Syria’s President Ahmad Al Shara on Friday issued a decree affirming the rights of Kurdish Syrians, formally recognising their language and restoring citizenship to the country’s largest minority community.
“I have the honour to issue a decree especially for our Kurdish people, which guarantees their rights and some of their privileges in accordance with the law,” he said in a speech, in which he also referred to the Kurds as “the grandchildren of Salahuddin”.