Free Republic

AL-OMAR OIL FIELD, Syria — After a bloody and protracted five-year war, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led coalition are on the verge of declaring victory against the Islamic State after the fall of its last crumbs of territory in Baghuz. With Islamic State cells continuing to operate to deadly effect in Syria and neighboring Iraq, it's too early to say "mission accomplished," cautioned Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of the SDF, in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor March 10 at a heavily guarded complex near al-Omar oil field in eastern Syria. The charismatic 50-year-old Syrian Kurd, whom coalition officials address...

Syrian Kurdish forces around the town of Manbij will be buried in their own trenches, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar warned on Thursday, blaming the United States for failing to make them withdraw, Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said. Tensions have risen between Turkey and the United States in recent weeks as Turkish leaders have renewed pledges to launch a new offensive against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish force that controls most of northeastern Syria. The Turkish government says the YPG and its political arm, the PYD, is a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party...

As the fight against ISIS winds down, SyriaÂ’s minorities once again have to choose sides in the struggle for their countryÂ’s future. Syriac Christians, also known as Assyrians or Chaldeans, are one of the smallest ethnic and religious groups in Syria. But they have an important role to play in the US presence in Syria, and by extension, the politics of the entire Middle East. The Realist Review called Syriac National Council (SNC) founder Bassam Ishak to hear his perspective on US forces and the future of Syria.Before the interview, Ishak humbly warned the Realist Review that his perspective would...

Large explosions were reported at a Syrian military air base early Sunday in an attack widely attributed to Israeli warplanes. However, Syria denied an attack had taken place. The reported strike occurred just after midnight at Mazzeh air base near Damascus, a key regime facility thought to have been targeted by Israel in the past. The military airport of Mazzeh, in the west suburbs of Damascus, was hit by a “possible Israeli missile, which hit a munitions store setting off successive explosions,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP.

NASEEB, Syria — Syrian soldiers fanned out across towns and villages in southern Syria Saturday, celebrating the recapture of the main border crossing with Jordan by raising portraits of President Bashar Assad and tearing down rebel flags. Troops captured the Naseeb border crossing a day earlier following a crushing two-week military offensive, after rebels announced they had reached an agreement with Russian mediators to end the violence in the southern province of Daraa and surrender the crossing.Some flashed victory signs and pumped fists in the air as they chanted pro-Assad slogans. A soldier could be seen hoisting the Syrian flag...

Israel launched an unscheduled military exercise on the Golan Sunday, June 10. Thousands of army reservists were ordered to report for immediate duty with full gear and come directly from their homes and work places. That the sudden IDF announcement did not set a timeline for the exercise’s ending indicated that it was prompted by the Syrian military announcement on the same morning of a major army offensive impending this week in the Quneitra region opposite Israel’s Golan border.

yrian and Russian forces have launched a large-scale attack on a Palestinian refugee camp under the control of Islamic State, as the regime closed in on the last rebel-held territory in the Syrian capital. Pro-government troops fired a barrage of air strikes and surface-to-surface missiles into Yarmouk camp in southeast Damascus on Wednesday morning, as they looked to rid the areas of holdout jihadists. Rebels with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) agreed to an evacuation deal after the government launched its offensive on April 19, however Isil militants refused to give up their fight. Air strikes have levelled...

ALBANY - A mosque leader charged with helping launder money in a missile plot thought all the weapon talk was a joke, his lawyer said yesterday - but prosecutors were not laughing. Imam Yassin Muhiddin Aref was jailed without bail after prosecutors questioned why his name was found in a notebook in a terrorist camp listed as "Commander Yassin, United States." They also unveiled a photo of the imam's co-defendant watching as an informant shouldered a real surface-to-air missile in the back room of an Albany-area convenience store. That was among the evidence cited by prosecutors in Albany Federal Court...

A 17-year-old Syrian migrant was convicted of two counts of rape against a 12-year-old girl in a Swedish court this week, although he claimed he did not know that sex with a 12-year-old was illegal in the country.The 17-year-old, who has been identified as a Syrian asylum seeker by Swedish journalist Joakim Lamotte, is said to have raped the 12-year-old twice on the same day last June. However, after being convicted by the Uddevalla District Court this week he was sentenced to just six months of detention in a youth care facility and a 140,000 SEK (£11,729) fine, Expressen reports....

In a small windowless cell lit by a single light bulb, Louai al-Sakka sits isolated from the world and fellow inmates for 24 hours a day. His concrete box is in the bowels of Kandira, a high-security F-type prison 60 miles east of Istanbul, which was built to house Turkey's most dangerous criminals. The prison has been criticised by human right groups such as Amnesty International. The guards control everything, including the cell's light switch. Sakka's only visitor is Osman Karahan, a lawyer who shares his fervent support for militant Islamic jihad. Since being convicted as an Al-Qaeda bomb plotter...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:35 P.M.) – The Islamic State (ISIS) resumed their assault in the southeastern countryside of Homs this morning, striking the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions near the town of Muhasah. ISIS began their attack by heavily shelling Syrian Arab Army’s positions near Muhasah, prompting the latter to respond with a barrage of missiles and artillery. Intense clashes would breakout between the Syrian Army and ISIS terrorists shortly after the exchange of missiles and artillery, with the latter taking the offensive in a bid to capture the 16th Air Defense Regiment. The 16th Air Defense Regiment is one of...

<p>CHICAGO (AP) &#8212; A Muslim charity leader linked by prosecutors to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was sentenced yesterday to more than 11 years in federal prison for defrauding donors.</p> <p>Enaam Arnaout, 41, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen who said he has met bin Laden but opposes terrorism, was calm as the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon.</p>

It has come to light that the MİT and ISIS are behind the Kiyam (“Mutiny”) Movement, which poses as an independent organization of Syrians. Former ISIS member who killed Raqqa Civilian Council administrator Ibrahim Halil confessed that he had been given the orders from the MİT. It has come to light that the MİT and ISIS are behind the Kiyam (“Mutiny”) Movement, which poses as an independent organization of Syrians. There have been sabotages and assassinations against Raqqa Civilian Council and Manbij Military Council administrators in Northern Syria in the last three months. In the first assassination against Raqqa Civilian...

The FBI on Friday night raided the Sterling, Virginia, home of a Muslim convert, Sean Andrew Duncan, who, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case, stated that he attempted to join ISIS in Syria and shared bomb-making instructions with a woman currently in international custody. Sterling, about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., is home to a large Muslim community. According to an Instagram post by Duncan, he converted to Islam at age 17 and moved to the area from Pittsburgh this past June. When reports emerged Friday night that an FBI raid was ongoing, there was no indication...

MANBIJ, Syria — The large section of northeastern Syria once occupied by the Islamic State is now a rare safe area in the war-ravaged country, thanks to an American-backed coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The coalition’s fighters, who with American help drove the Islamic State from the region, are Arabs and Kurds, men and women, young and old. Many are veterans of multiple battles and have been wounded, but returned to the fight again and again. Here are a few of them.

The Conflict Intelligence Team found the Russians "may have fought alongside pro-Russia separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine prior to joining the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and other insurgents challenging Assad's rule in Syria." The group also found Russians killed "appeared to have joined the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary company, before traveling to fight in Syria. Last October, ISIS released a video showing two Russian-speaking men the militants claimed to have captured, and subsequent research showed the two men were likely Wagner Group members fighting in Syria." "While the total number of 'Wagner' operatives killed in...

The Israeli military has shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country and has struck Iranian targets in Syria that launched it, in what the military called a "severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty". The military said its planes faced heavy anti-aircraft counter fire from Syria that forced Israeli pilots to abandon an F-16 jet that crashed in northern Israel. It said the pilots were injured and evacuated to a hospital. Sirens sounded in northern Israel as a result of massive Syrian fire. Explosions could be heard in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley region near the Syrian border. Israeli military...

A Kurdish YPG fighter. Credit: Kurdishstruggle/Flickr Tensions have existed for years between Washington and Ankara over the Kurdish population in both Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials regard the Kurds as able fighters and democratic secular allies in the struggle against Islamic extremism. Turkish leaders view them and their agenda for an independent Kurdish homeland as a menace to Turkey’s sovereignty and territorial integrity—especially since a majority of Kurds reside in southeastern Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government deems the highly autonomous Kurdish entities across the border in Iraq and Syria as dangerous models and a magnet for their...

DOHA,— Qatar, which is routinely accused of ties to Islamist extremists and Islamic State group IS, has thrown its weight behind Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish militia in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), coming to the defence of the “national security” of one of its closest allies.“The state of Qatar reaffirmed its support for the efforts of the republic of Turkey to maintain its national security in the wake of the breaches and terrorist attacks carried out inside Turkish territories,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Lolwa Al-Khater said.Speaking to Qatari media on Monday, Khater said Turkey’s launch of Operation Olive Branch was “driven by...

Commander of the People's Protection Units (YPG) Sipan Hemo welcomed the statement delivered by the US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, saying that Washington will defend the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces against any attack waged by the Syrian government and prompted by Iran. According to Hemo, the phase following the defeat of ISIS in east Syria is a transition from military victories to political recognition from the US-led coalition and Russia. During his visit to Moscow, Hemo was informed by some Russian officers that the Kurdish self-administrations will call for a Syrian national dialogue congress in Sochi, which will gradually...