Orientul Mijlociu

Iraq orders arrests of ministry official and tribal leader who urged Israel ties

Baghdad says it will arrest all 300 participants at event in Kurdistan that called for peace, once it can establish who they are; Sahar al-Ta’i, Wisam al-Hardan were main speakers

Iraqi authorities announced on Sunday that they had issued warrants for the arrest of two Iraqis who addressed a conference calling for their country to make peace with Israel. The authorities said they would arrest all 300-plus participants once they have established who they are.

U.S., Russia Should Explore Ways To Increase Military Contacts, Top U.S. General Says

The top U.S. military officer says the United States should explore ways to expand its military contacts with Russia as a way to increase trust and avoid a miscalculation.

Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said allowing things such as observers at each other’s combat exercises would increase transparency and reduce the risk of conflict.

“We need to put in place policies and procedures to make sure that we increase certainty, to reduce uncertainty, increase trust to reduce distrust, increase stability to reduce instability in order to avoid miscalculation, and reduce the possibility of great power war,” Milley said. “That’s a fundamental thing that we should try to do, and I am going to try to do it.”

Milley made the comments on September 23 after meeting his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, in Finland on September 22.

Milley said that military contacts between the two powers currently are largely limited to senior leaders such as the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the supreme allied commander for Europe.

But he said allowing military service chiefs to form stronger relationships with their Russian counterparts and allowing observers at exercises are ideas worth exploring.

Milley, who spoke with an AP reporter and one other reporter traveling with him back to the United States, declined to detail the contents of his talks with Gerasimov, but a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested that more open communication was discussed.

“The meeting was a continuation of talks aimed at improving military leadership communication between the two nations for the purposes of risk reduction and operational deconfliction,” the statement said.

Milley said that military-to-military contacts with Russia have worked in the past to de-escalate tense situations. Without being specific, he said there were “a couple of incidents that occurred between us and the Russians over the last two years” that triggered calls between Milley and Gerasimov.

The U.S. and Russia increased cooperation on nuclear security and other defense issues after the end of the Cold War, but the relationship deteriorated after Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 and Russian troops remained in Georgia’s regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Tensions spiked again in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its military intervened in eastern Ukraine.

In response to the invasion of Crimea, Congress in 2016 limited cooperation with Russia, prohibiting “military-to-military cooperation” until Russia ends its “occupation of Ukrainian territory” and “aggressive activities.” The law was later amended to say that it does not limit military talks aimed at “reducing the risk of conflict.”

Ramping Up Operations Against ‘Apostate Taliban Militia,’ Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Claims Two More Attacks In Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Kunar, Expands Operations In Pakistan

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.

Following multiple attacks targeting the “apostate Taliban militia” in Afghanistan,[1] the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Afghanistan, known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), continued to ramp up its operations against the Taliban, claiming responsibility for two more attacks in a single day. The escalation of ISKP attacks against the Taliban followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as ISKP seeks to compete with the Taliban and undermine their jihad.

Islamic State Under-Reporting in Central Syria: Misdirection, Misinformation, or Miscommunication?

Summary

The central media apparatus of the Islamic State group is mis-reporting on the activities of its cells in central Syria. Rather than exaggerating their capabilities, something that it is conventionally assumed to be doing all the time,1 its Central Media Diwan appears either to be deliberately under-playing them, or, less likely, to be unaware of their full extent, possibly due to communication issues. Indeed, there is a significant disconnect between what the Islamic State is saying its cells in central Syria are doing versus what its adversaries are saying they are doing. This is starkly evident in the fact that the vast majority of attacks that pro-regime sources attributed to the Islamic State in the Badia, Syria’s expansive central desert region, in 2020 went entirely unclaimed by the group, according to data collected and cross-analyzed by the authors. Based on the dynamics that characterize this data, which is supported by fieldwork inside Syria, it appears that this under-reporting on the part of the Islamic State, which has continued unabated into 2021, is at least partially intentional. This suggests that its covert network in Syria may be attempting to surreptitiously establish a strategic hub in this remote central region, something that could act as a rear base for a resurgence in the rest of the country and Iraq in years to come.

The Fourth Division: Syria’s parallel army

After 40 years, Syria once again has dual military rule, where the president and his brother are the highest authorities. In the early 1980s, Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, was the commander of the Defense Companies and the strong man in Syria in the military, security, and even civilian spheres, while Hafez was in a coma. Today, we see this scenario echoed with the control of Maher al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s brother, over the Fourth Division, which has become an elite military unit due to strong Iranian support and its control over various territories of the country.

IS Attacks in Syrian Desert Kill Pro-Regime Militia Fighters

IS group launched attacks in the Syrian Desert region over the weekend, resulting in the deaths of several Syrian regime militia fighters, according to al-Araby al-Jadeed.

The Islamic State (IS) group launched attacks in the Syrian Desert region over the weekend, resulting in the deaths of several Syrian regime militia fighters. An activist in the eastern Deir-ez-Zour region, Abu Omar al-Bukamali, told The New Arab’s sister site al-Araby al-Jadeed that two members of the Russian-backed Liwaa al-Quds militia were killed on Sunday in an IS attack that targeted a military vehicle in the Syrian Desert (Al-Badia) – also known as the Syrian steppe -, which covers the southeast of the country.

Drone Targets Car in Idleb Amidst Rumors of Guardians of Religion Leaders Assassination

A drone targeted a car at the entrance to the city of Binnish in the Idleb countryside amidst rumors of “the assassination of leaders of the Guardians of Religion Organization.”

On Monday, an Al-Souria Net correspondent in Idleb reported that military surveillance “monitored a reconnaissance flight coinciding with the drone strike on the car, east of Binnish.”

Pentagon says drone strike near Syria’s Idlib targeted al-Qaeda official

CENTCOM fired a drone missile at at least one jihadi official near Idlib today in the first such strike in recent months.

The United States military targeted an al-Qaeda official with a drone strike in northwest Syria on Monday, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters the strike was carried out near Syria’s Idlib province but offered no further details. The strike was carried out near the town of Binnish, according to local reports. Kirby said the military had no indication of civilian casualties as of Monday afternoon.

Assad Shores Up Control in Syria’s Symbolically Important South

For much of the Syrian civil war, the southern city of Deraa and the surrounding Houran Plains, an agricultural region near the Jordanian border, were divided between government forces and armed rebels. Fighting raged back and forth, killing thousands. It was not until Russia backed a government offensive in 2018 that the situation changed in earnest. That year, Moscow brokered a series of agreements with rebel factions that brought the area back under loose government control.