Orientul Mijlociu

On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State’s spokesman Abu ‘Umar al-Muhajir made the somewhat surprising announcement that the group’s “caliph” and leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi had been killed, while adding that the group’s Shura council had agreed on a successor going by the name of Abu al-Hussayn al-Hussayni al-Qurashi.1 Unlike the case with Abu al-Hasan’s two “caliph” predecessors (Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), this time there had been no prior claim by the U.S.-led coalition or any other entity to have killed Abu al-Hasan. Indeed, the statement gave no information as to the date of his death or the circumstances of it apart from claiming that it was a violent death that occurred while he was fighting “the enemies of God.”

At least 126 politicians, journalists, lawyers and artists have been detained in an operation that observers call an intimidation tactic before the May 14 elections.

More than 120 people were detained across Turkey on Tuesday in an alleged counter-terrorism operation that targeted mainly Kurdish politicians, journalists, lawyers and artists less than three weeks ahead of crucial elections.

Open-source reports indicated the Advantage Sweet was bound for Houston, Texas, when the United States said it was seized by Iran’s IRGC navy on Thursday afternoon.

Naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized an oil tanker in international waters in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said.

The U.S. Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force – Levant (SOJTF LEVANT) on Monday said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested four ISIS operatives in Raqqa on April 14 and 15.

“SDF, advised, assisted, and enabled by Coalition Forces, planned and achieved the successful capture of Hasan Husain Muhammed Al Ali, Hasan Harald Ali Hajju, Omar Ibrahim Omar Al Sulaiman, and Muhamad Al Ali, who are assessed ISIS operatives while conducting searches for weapons, explosives, and other illicit items, with the focus on disrupting and dismantling ISIS networks,” the SOJTF LEVANT said in a press release.

Turkish police on Tuesday detained 110 people over alleged militant ties, security sources said, with a pro-Kurdish lawmaker saying politicians, lawyers and journalists were among those held in raids that he linked to elections on May 14.

Crisis Group’s work preventing conflict and shaping peace has a positive influence on crises around the globe. This Impact Note highlights cases in Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia, Mali, Nagorno-Karabakh, the U.S. and Yemen, as well as our advocacy at the EU and UN and our research on climate and conflict in Africa.

Young Palestinians have formed new armed groups across the West Bank. Small, disjointed and scattered, they lack a clear political agenda. But both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have found reason to exaggerate the threat they pose to the status quo.

SDF Commander tells Asharq Al-Awsat he won’t visit Damascus before conditions for political solution are available.

Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said the American administration of former President Donald Trump “betrayed” its allies in the SDF when it did not oppose the Turkish infiltration in Syria in late 2019. In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, he revealed that the current administration has prevented Türkiye from carrying out a new operation in Syria.

It has been a little over four years since experts in March 2019 declared the terrorist group ISIS territorially defeated, with Kurdish forces taking its last pocket of land in the village of Baghouz, eastern Syria.