Government Offensive on Truce Towns Continues

Seven more people were killed in airstrikes on the Syrian capital on Monday in the third day of a government offensive on Barzeh and Qaboun, the Associated Press reported.

The two neighborhoods, located in the northeastern parts of Damascus, are some of the last areas held by the opposition within the capital’s perimeters. They also connect to the adjacent rebel-held Eastern Ghouta through smuggling tunnels.

The Eastern Ghouta has been under siege by pro-government forces since 2013. Barzeh and Qaboun have both had truces with the government for nearly two years.

Group Affiliated With ISIS Takes Control of Several Towns Near Jordan, Israeli Borders

Affiliates of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) launched a surprise attack on rebels in southwestern Syria on Monday, Reuters reported.

The jihadists took control of several towns near the Golan Heights, located near the Israeli and Jordanian borders.

“In a surprise attack Islamic State made an attack on positions held by the Free Syrian Army FSA groups, which no one expected to happen so fast,” Colonel Ismail Ayoub of the Syrian opposition told Reuters.

The ISIS militants sent dozens of armored vehicles and several tanks, and employed local sleeper cells to overrun the towns, rebel sources told Reuters.

The Jordanian air force reportedly conducted airstrikes on positions held by the ISIS affiliates earlier this month. The hardliner group, known as Khalid ibn al-Walid Army, are said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS earlier this year.

The militants reportedly executed several people in one of the towns they overtook, Tseel, which houses tens of thousands of internally displaced people.

Assad Is the ‘Realistic’ Solution, Far-Right French Candidate Says

Assad is the solution for the Syrian conflict, said far-right French candidate Marine Le Pen in a visit to Lebanon on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Le Pen, head of the anti-immigration National Front party, told Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri that the only choices are the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, or ISIS.

“I clearly explained that in the political picture the least bad option is the politically realistic. It appears that Bashar al-Assad is evidently today the most reassuring solution for France,” Le Pen said.

Supporting Assad is the best way to protect Christians, Le Pen added, so that they would not become refugees. Lebanese president Michel Aoun also met with Le Pen and shares her pro-Assad stance.

RECOMMENDED READS

• Badael: Peace Journalism or War Journalism
• Gulf News: Syrian Men Urged to Take Up Second Wife
• War on the Rocks: In Syria, Turkey Finds Itself Boxed In: What’s Next?
• The Washington Post: Four Russian Servicemen Killed by Roadside Bomb in Syria
• Balkan Insight: Croatia Profits From Syria’s Gruesome War