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Rebels including al-Qaeda’s local affiliate seized the Syrian regime’s largest remaining military base in northwestern Idlib province on Tuesday, a monitor said.
The loss of Al Mastumah base leaves only a few positions in regime hands in the province, which lies along the border with Turkey and neighbours the government stronghold of Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast.
Thousands of mostly Shiite paramilitary forces converged Monday on Iraq’s Anbar province, after Iraq’s prime minister ordered them into battle to help retake the capital of the predominantly Sunni province from Islamic State.
Anbar’s provincial council said 3,000 fighters from the so-called Popular Mobilization Units, a force of mostly Shiite recruits and militias, had arrived at the Habanniya military base, 16 miles east of the provincial capital, Ramadi. They were “well-equipped” to fight alongside local Sunni tribesman, according to a statement.
Saudi forces on Monday targeted Yemeni Houthi militiamen across the border after the fighters fired at an army outpost.
The fighting comes as a Saudi-led Arab coalition resumed air strikes on the Iranian-allied Houthi militia positions in and around the southern Yemeni city of Aden overnight after a five-day humanitarian truce expired on Sunday.
ISIS militants on Sunday seized control of the Iraqi city of Ramadi after days of fighting and the country’s prime minister pleading with security forces not to abandon their posts, dealing a blow to U.S.-backed efforts.
Government forces retreated from bases, according to Agence France-Presse and Associated Press reporters, abandoning weapons, vehicles, and equipment as they fled the advance of the extremist Sunni militants on Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province.
U.S. Special Operations forces killed a senior ISIS commander during a daring raid intended to capture him in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday, U.S. government officials said.
The ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf, fought capture and was killed in the raid at al-Omar, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement. His wife, an Iraqi named Umm Sayyaf, was captured and is in detention in Iraq.