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Syrian rebel groups on Saturday seized the city of Idlib, only the second provincial capital to be lost by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in more than four years of war.
The capture came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed anger and shame at the world’s failure to stop the conflict.
The commander of Iraq’s military operations in Salahuddin province says government forces have launched the final phase of an offensive to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit.
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi tells The Associated Press Thursday that Iraqi troops and special forces have begun moving toward the center of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf region allies have launched military operations including air strikes in Yemen, officials said, to counter Iran-allied forces besieging the southern city of Aden where the Yemeni president had taken refuge.
Gulf broadcaster Al-Arabiya TV reported that the Kingdom was contributing as many as 150,000 troops and 100 warplanes to the operations.
Rebel forces on Wednesday captured parts of the port city of Aden and a nearby Yemeni air base recently evacuated by U.S. forces, officials in the country said, with one rebel spokesman claiming that Yemen’s president fled Aden as his opponents advanced.
The rebels late Wednesday morning captured al-Anad air base, an installation that the last Yemen-based contingent of U.S. special operations forces evacuated over the weekend because of the deteriorating security situation in the country, said Mohammed AbdulSalam, a spokesman for the Houthi rebels.
“The Army of Conquest” combines forces of al-Qaeda allies from Nusra Front with the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction and several smaller Islamist groups, according to their founding statement posted Tuesday. The new coalition launched a joint offensive to take the capital of Idlib province on the same day, shelling the outskirts of the strategic city and detonating at least car two car bombs at army checkpoints in their push toward the urban areas.
“The attack has started from several directions, there are fierce battles,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.