ISIS Seizes More Land in Syria
The AP reports that ISIS is continuing to gain ground in eastern Syria, as the Jabhat al-Nusra Front “appears to be losing the war within a war in Syria as fighters allied with powerful tribes in the country’s east defect to [ISIS].”
The Sunni militant group took over opposition-held areas of Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq, on Monday after expelling rival Nusra fighters, the wire says. The militants’ march on the city of Deir Ezzor brings them closer to a showdown with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
In addition, the new developments “effectively expand and consolidate areas held by fighters from the Islamic State group in territory straddling the border between the two conflict-ridden countries of Syria and Iraq.”
Kurds Travel to Syria from Turkey to Fight Islamists
Reuters reports that a new offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on Kurdish-held areas of the north has “triggered a regional call for arms from the Kurds, and Turkish Kurds are coming to their aid.”
The war in Syria, the wire says, “has already drawn in an array of regional players and the regional Kurdish involvement complicates an increasingly fragmented scene across Syria and Iraq, where [ISIS] took control of large areas last month. The hardline Sunni militants launched a new push towards the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab about two weeks ago using weaponry seized from Iraq including new missiles and U.S.-made armored Humvee vehicles.”
“Our brothers in northern Kurdistan – Turkish Kurdistan – have started a campaign to send youths to Kobani to defend it,” Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed Syrian Kurdish group the YPG, or the People’s Protection Units, told Reuters.
Assad’s Inauguration to Take Place Today
AFP reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who declared victory in a June 3 presidential election many have decried as a sham, will be sworn in today in Damascus.
“Assad will be sworn in for a new seven-year term on Wednesday,” a source close to the regime told the wire. “President Assad will be sworn in before a large number of figures on Wednesday. He will then give an inauguration speech in which he will outline plans for his new seven-year term,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
For security reasons, the location of the ceremony that had initially been scheduled for Thursday has yet to be disclosed.
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