Britain Prepared to Arm Kurdish Forces in Iraq

The Telegraph reports that U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has said he is prepared to arm Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. The statement comes after a week of calls by parliamentarians and military figures for British intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has advanced on Kurdistan.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is today expected to tell E.U. colleagues in Brussels that Britain “is prepared to join France and arm the Kurds.” The decision is a significant escalation in Britain’s involvement in the conflict unfolding across Iraq and Syria.

A source said that “initially Britain will supply hi-tech equipment such as night-vision goggles, but added that ammunition and weaponry could also be supplied on request. However, the Kurds have been trained to use Soviet-era equipment so British arms may not be required. Britain has already agreed to transport weapons to Kurdish forces from Eastern European countries.”

Syrian Army Takes Town Near Damascus in Blow to Rebels

Reuters reports that Syrian government forces backed by fighters from Hezbollah took control of the rebel stronghold of Mleiha from Islamist groups on Thursday, in a major “blow” to the opposition.

“Syrian state television broadcast showed government soldiers in the streets of Mleiha, which lies on the edge of the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus airport and had been surrounded by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces,” the wire says. “Buildings were damaged or reduced to rubble, and tanks patrolled the streets.

“Mleiha, about four miles from the heart of Damascus, has formed a base for rebel fighters to bombard the capital with mortars in Syria’s three-year-old civil war. A Syrian rebel source said government forces had taken most of Mleiha and were using planes to attack the last point of resistance.”

Witnesses Corroborate Claims of Mass Deaths in Custody

Human Rights Watch reports that accounts by former detainees in Syria corroborate a military defector’s allegations of mass deaths in custody.

“Four former detainees released from the Sednaya military prison in 2014 described deaths in custody and harsh prison conditions that closely match the allegations of the defector, who photographed thousands of dead bodies in military hospitals in Damascus,” HRW writes.

In January, international lawyers and forensic experts concluded that the Syrian regime “had committed systematic torture and killing of detainees. According to the report, a military defector, code-named Caesar, had taken 55,000 photographs of an estimated 11,000 bodies in military hospitals and other locations in Damascus. The bodies showed signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation and other forms of torture and killing.”