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Clashes erupted on Saturday between US-backed Kurdish fighters and Syrian troops in the center of the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria that left at least 18 people killed, Kurdish forces said.
The fighting took place after a Syrian military convoy entered areas in the city which the Kurdish YPG militia’s internal security forces said were under their control.
The Syrian military shelled the last stronghold of active rebellion against President Bashar Assad Wednesday as an activist group said insurgents blew up another bridge in anticipation of a government offensive.Damascus, backed by allies Russia and Iran, has been preparing an assault to recover Idlib and adjacent areas of the northwest, and resumed airstrikes Tuesday after weeks of lull.
Idlib’s fate now appears likely to rest on the results of Friday’s Tehran summit between the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran – a meeting that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov Wednesday said would make the situation “clearer.”
Eleven Islamic State members were killed in Makhmur region in Nineveh province, a Peshmerga official said on Wednesday.
The Kurdish Rudaw network quoted Sirwan Barzani, who is in charge of the Peshmerga in Kuwair-Makhmur region, as saying that “Islamic State actions are ongoing at regions controlled by the Iraqi forces. The Coalition jets are covering the region, in cooperation with Peshmerga.”
Thirty five Houthi militias’ members were killed in Al-Jawf governorate during intense battles with the Yemeni national army, while Arab coalition fighter jets destroyed five military vehicles belonging to the Iranian-backed militias.
This comes while the Yemeni army backed by the coalition in al-Jawf governorate seize control over several strategic mountains located in Wadi Salba.
There are believed to be around 30,000 ISIS fighters across Iraq and Syria, according to two new reports from the Pentagon and the U.N., far higher than previous estimates.
Between the lines: Michael Dempsey, former acting director of national intelligence now at CFR, writes for Axios that ISIS is focused “on keeping a toehold in Iraq and Syria and embedding its supporters into local populations.”
