ISIS Battles Rebel Groups in Northern Syria
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is using U.S.-made military vehicles captured in Iraq to battle rebel groups in Northern Syria, Reuters reports, citing the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“For the first time, [ISIS] combatants have been using U.S-made Humvees – four-wheel-drive military vehicles – in fighting in northern areas of Syria’s Aleppo province. The vehicles were used to assume control of villages outside the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border,” the monitoring group said.
For months ISIS has been locked in battle with the Free Syrian Army, Kurdish militias and more moderate Islamist groups – factions that don’t share its goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate. Over the past two weeks ISIS has taken the momentum, making significant gains in money, territory and materiel, and now controlling a significant swath of western Iraq and parts of eastern Syria.
Last week ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul; this weekend ISIS took a strategic border post between Syria and Iraq, enabling it to move heavy equipment across the border.
Western officials, speaking anonymously, say they do not see ISIS loosening its grip, the New York Times reports. According to their assessments, a quarter of Iraq’s military forces are “combat ineffective,” and its leadership is riddled with corruption.
Those officials said they do not see the Iraqi government retaking the ground it lost. If that is true it gives ISIS a powerful operating base to continue boosting its operations.
Israel’s Military Strikes Syria in Response to Deadly Missile Attack
Israel launched air strikes on nine targets in Syria on Monday, in retaliation for a missile attack that killed an Israeli teenager on Sunday, the Washington Post reports. It was the first fatality on the Israeli side of the Syrian border, on the Golan Heights, since the conflict in Syria began.
“The attack is the most substantial incident on Israel’s border with Syria since the conflict in that country erupted more than three years ago,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman told the paper.
“This is not a case of errant fire but of an intentional attack,” he said.
There have been multiple exchanges of fire and instances of explosive devices being placed along the Golan. In March, Israel bombed Syrian positions after an explosion wounded Israeli soldiers. Syrian militants briefly took over the Israeli-Syrian border crossing last year.
It is still unclear who was behind Sunday’s attack. The Israeli army claims the incident is a breach of the cease-fire agreement between Syria and Israeli, and has issued a formal complaint to the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed along the border.
Syrian Government and Rebel Groups Agreed to Cease-fire in Yarmouk
The Syrian government and rebel groups have agreed to a truce in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus, the BBC reports. A copy of the deal, shown to the BBC, stipulates that entrances to Yarmouk refugee camp will be opened and basic services restored.
Roughly 18,000 people have been living under siege for nearly a year in Yarmouk, facing severe food shortages and a lack of basic necessities. Rights groups say that more than 100 people have lost their lives to starvation.
The camp has been the focus of intense fighting since 2012, when armed opposition groups fighting the Assad regime took hold of the area. Government forces retaliated in July 2013 by cutting off aid to Yarmouk refugee camp.
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