Da’esh/Mosul – ISIS fighters inside the militant group’s Iraqi stronghold of Mosul are “weakening” and showing signs of frustration ahead of a battle to recapture the city, a US military official said on the 3 Aug 16. Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by US-led coalition trainers and air power, have for months been edging toward Mosul, Iraq’s second city and home to two million people. ISIS has controlled it since Jun 14. “We see them weakening inside Mosul,” said Colonel Chris Garver, a coalition spokesman. “We do see some indications that morale is lower.” For instance, senior commanders are executing subordinates for “failure on the battlefield,” Garver said, adding that ISIS leaders are “not happy with where they are in Mosul.” Militants, concerned that city residents are communicating with Iraqi security forces, have started cutting off internet access. The same thing happened in Fallujah and Ramadi before each of those cities was recaptured, Garver said. Still, he cautioned, the eventual fight for Mosul – which is expected to begin in the coming months - will not be easy. “We still anticipate that somewhere between 5,000 or so fighters are inside Mosul,” Garver said. “We’re still anticipating a tough fight.”
Da’esh/Worldwide – A leaked briefing document written for the White House, and which was obtained by NBC News, says that ISIS has “fully operational branches” in eighteen countries it was reported on the 3 Aug 16. The “heat map” included in the briefing suggests a three-fold increase in the number of areas around the world in which the Islamist group is now operating. NBC News notes that a 2014 State Department documents said that ISIS was operating in only seven countries. The map, prepared by the National Counterterrorism Centre, is part of a classified briefing document dated “August 2016.” It identifies ISIS’s “core” states — Syria and Iraq — along with countries where the organization has “official branches,” including Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Caucasus region to the south of Russia. The map also shows “aspiring branches” of ISIS in Mali, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In addition to encouraging disparate Islamist group to declare their allegiance to ISIS, the terror group has also encouraged lone wolf attacks throughout Europe.
(http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/new-counterterrorism-heat-map-shows-isis-branches-spreading-worldwide-n621866)
Da’esh/Kurds/United States – The ISIS militant in charge of the group’s oil operations in Iraq and Syria was killed on the 11 Aug 16 in a joint operation between the Iraqi Kurdish and US Special forces, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement. Sami Jassim al-Jabouri, also known as Haji Hamad, and his aide were killed “in the vicinity of Qaim,” an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, the statement said. A Pentagon spokesman said coalition forces conducted a combined operation against an ISIS “associated target” in Iraq on August 11 but were assessing the results of the operation. “The mission was coordinated with and approved by the Government of Iraq and conducted in partnership with Iraqi Security Forces,” said Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq also hosts a base used by troops from the US-led coalition assisting Iraqi forces in the war on the militants.
Da’esh/Syria – Coalition-supported local forces fighting ISIS in northern Syria have recaptured large areas around the city of Manbij and put the extremists “on the ropes,” a Pentagon official said on the 12 Aug 16. Since the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an operation to capture Manbij on the 21 May 16 they have wrested control of more than 1,000 square kilometres (385 square miles) of territory from ISIS. Manbij is a key town in the anti-ISIS struggle because the extremists were using it as a waypoint between the Turkish border and Raqqa, the extremists’ de facto capital. SDF forces, backed by US-led coalition air power, have now retaken much of Manbij, though pockets of resistance remain in the city’s north. “Although fighting in Manbij continues, ISIS is clearly on the ropes. It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said. ISIS fighters fleeing the city on the 12 Aug 16 seized around 2,000 civilians to use as “human shields,” the SDF and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Trowbridge said US officials were aware of the reports but unable to confirm them. ISIS “has consistently shown a willingness to put innocent lives at risk, in blatant violation not only of the laws of armed conflict but of common human decency,” he said. Since fighting for Manbij began, US-led strikes have taken out more than 50 of ISIS’s heavy weapons and destroyed more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said. But the job of clearing the city will be complicated after the extremists left behind hundreds of mines and booby traps, he added.
Iran/Da’esh – Iranian security forces killed three militants linked to ISIS in a city close to the Iraqi border on the 16 Aug 16 confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives, a senior official said. The trio were shot dead in the house they were staying in Kermanshah city, the governor of Kermanshah province, Asadollah Razani, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. The city is around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Iraqi border. A senior member of ISIS was killed on the night of the 15 Aug 16 in an operation in another city in the province, during which other supporters of the group were arrested, Razani said. A mountainous area bordering Iraq, Kermanshah has a largely Sunni Kurdish population and a history of insurgency against the Shiite Muslim republic of Iran. ISIS, whose members view Shiites as heretics, controls large areas of Iraq and Syria. Iranian officials say ISIS militants have been targeting the country in recent months, while Tehran has ramped up its military presence in both Iraq and Syria following Russia’s entry into the conflict in Syria. In Jun 16 Iranian intelligence authorities said they arrested 10 ISIS militants and seized about 100 kilograms of explosives intended to be used in car and suicide bombs and other attacks in busy public places.
Iraq/Da’esh/Mosul – Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces have recaptured four villages from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group near its stronghold of Mosul, reports said on the 14 Aug 16. The offensive started at 0530 hrs local time from various fronts and so far Iraqi forces managed to retake the villages of Tal Hamid, Qarqasha, Abzakh and Qura Takh. Clashes are still ongoing in a fifth village, Sateeh. The advance is part of a wider security operation to retake Iraq's second largest city. ISIL fighters tried to slow down the offensive with two suicide car bombs near the village of Sateeh, but the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers leading the offensive blew up the car before they reached them. ISIL fighters are now burning tyres near their positions in an attempt to cover themselves from US-led coalition aircraft, Kurdish local television reported. Peshmerga engineering teams are defusing bombs planted by ISIL in the four liberated villages. The battle for Mosul, ISIL's de facto capital in Iraq and the largest city anywhere in its self-proclaimed caliphate, is expected later this year, but plans have not been finalised, officials and diplomats in Baghdad have said. Army, police and Special Forces are expected to participate, with air support from a US-led coalition. Iraqi troops are currently securing villages around Qayyara, an airbase which is being used to prepare for the final push towards Mosul. More than 500 US troops will reportedly help Iraqi forces to transform the base into a staging area. As ISIL is pushed out of places like Ramadi and Fallujah, sectarian tensions in Sunni-majority towns taken by Shia-led forces have resurfaced. The forces trying to retake Mosul include the Kurdish regional government, fighters loyal to the pro-Sunni former provincial governor and the Shia-led central government. Iran-backed Shia militias are also believed to be formalising their participation in northern Iraq. Militias have been accused of torture and executions in recent military operations in Sunni areas and Iraq's government is investigating the alleged abductions of more than a thousand Sunni men who are missing. This is causing concern among Kurdish fighters who have been fighting ISIL in northern Iraq. "We are afraid that after the liberation there will be a force whose mechanism doesn't go along with the people of Mosul, a force that doesn't have close ties with the people of Mosul that is from a different sect. Not from the Sunni sect " said Sheikh Lukhman Sharawani, a Kurdish militia commander in Iraq. "We are afraid that they will do to the people of Mosul exactly what they did to the people of Ramadi, and therefore we would like them to keep their distance from Mosul." 361 COMMENT: There is the potential for a separate conflict here if and when Mosul is retaken from Da’esh by Shia militias. If there is a miss-treatment against the population of Mosul then the Kurd fighters will take it upon themselves to retribute and protect those there especially for the Sunni populace. Although dangerous in its existence the other problem will be a division in the ranks of those fighting against Da’esh which could allow the terrorist group to exploit it and attempt to retake the city of Mosul whilst in fighting occurs and attempts to stop it. The Kurds will also eye up Mosul and want it as part of its autonomous region in Northern Iraq as it was once part of Kurdistan up until it was subsumed into the Ottoman Empire and ceased to exist. COMMENT ENDS
Kurds/Mosul – Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on ISIS militants early on the 14 Aug 16 as part of a campaign to capture the de facto ISIS capital Mosul, a Kurdish official said. The advance began after heavy shelling and US-led coalition air strikes against ISIS forces. The militants were fighting back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least one car bomb. Clouds of black smoke rose from the area. A Peshmerga commander said six villages had been taken from the extremist militants by midday. The Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish self-rule region are gradually taking up positions around Mosul, 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad. The fall of Mosul would mark the effective defeat of ISIS in Iraq, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has said he aims to retake the city this year. The operation that started on Sunday is part of the preparations for an offensive on the city itself, said a Kurdish official who declined to be identified. The Iraqi army is trying to advance from the south. In July it captured the Qayyara airfield, 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, which will serve as the main staging post for the expected offensive.
Kuwait/Da’esh – Kuwait said on the 5 Aug 16 that it had arrested a Filipina it accused of joining the ISIS group through its affiliate in Libya and who planned to launch an attack. The Interior Ministry said the woman, born in 1984, entered Kuwait in Jun15 as a house maid. Security forces monitoring the woman's email found messages by the woman to the ISIS group's Libyan affiliate, pledging allegiance to the group. "She confessed she was ready to carry out any terrorist attack once circumstances and means were ripe in order to undermine security and stability in Kuwait, as well as ignite sedition," the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported. KUNA also published a photograph of the woman in a black abaya, a loose black dress. The statement did not identify the woman, nor did it say if she faced criminal charges.
Kurds/Turkey – Turkey expects Syrian Kurdish fighters to withdraw east of the Euphrates river after they and other US-backed forces seized control of the Syrian town of Manbij from ISIS last week, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on the 15 Aug 16. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said on the 12 Aug 16 they had seized full control of Manbij near the Turkish border in a significant strategic blow to ISIS. Turkey views the Kurdish YPG militia as a hostile force, an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group that has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s southeast, and is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union as well as by Ankara. “Of course we have an expectation,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara. “The US promised that the (Syrian Kurdish) forces within the coalition and democratic forces there would move east of the Euphrates again following the Manbij operation.” US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said in a statement on the 15 Aug 16 that liberation of Manbij was an important step in the campaign against the ISIS, and he thanked the Turkish government for its support. “For the people of Manbij city, now begins the difficult job of rebuilding their homes and communities, and I call on all of our coalition partners to help them with that task,” Carter said. “For its part, the military coalition will continue to work with capable and motivated local forces to defeat ISIS and ensure it remains defeated,” he said. Carter did not address what would happen with the Syrian Kurdish fighters. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the United States has commitments from the Kurdish leadership that the local Arabs liberating their lands will be the ones to rebuild the area. The operation, in which US Special Forces played a significant role, marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against ISIS two years ago. US officials have said that completion of the Manbij operation would create the conditions to move on the militant group’s de facto capital of Raqqa.
Lebanon/Da’esh – The Lebanese army arrested several members of ISIS in a raid that erupted into a firefight in the north of the country on the 4 Aug 16 a security source said. Local media said one suspect died of his wounds. Four men, two Syrians and two Lebanese, were charged with attacks against the army, involvement in terrorist activities and in executions and killings, the state-run National News Agency said. It did not elaborate on the charges. Lebanon has been repeatedly jolted by security incidents linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, including extremist attacks. The army has regularly shelled positions held by extremists, including what it says are ISIS fighters, in the north near the Syrian border.
Syria – A Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria on the 1 Aug 16 killing all five people on board in the single deadliest incident for Moscow since it intervened in the war. The attack came as Syrian opposition fighters and their allies battled government forces outside Aleppo in a bid to ease the regime's siege of rebel-held parts of the northern city. Russia's defence ministry announced the downing of the helicopter, which it said was carrying three crew and two officers. "A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down from the ground after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies. The Kremlin said all five people on board were assumed dead. "As far as we know from the information we've had from the defence ministry, those in the helicopter died, they died heroically, because they were trying to move the aircraft away to minimise victims on the ground," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy called the downing a "terrorist act" and said the defence ministry was still trying to confirm the fate of the Russian servicemen "through all possible channels". It was not immediately clear who was responsible. The helicopters death toll brings the total number of members of the Russian forces killed in Syria to 18. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the helicopter had come down along the administrative border between Idlib province in the northwest and neighbouring Aleppo. Idlib is held almost entirely by a powerful coalition of Islamist and jihadist forces including the former Al Nusra Front, now known as the Fateh Al Sham Front after renouncing its status as Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate. In neighbouring Aleppo province, the Fateh Al Sham Front and allied rebel groups were fighting fierce battles on the 1 Aug 16 against regime troops on the outskirts of Aleppo city. The clashes are part of an assault launched on the 31 Jul 16 to try to ease a government siege of the rebel-held east of the city. The observatory said the rebels had advanced overnight south and southwest of Aleppo, but reported ongoing fighting, as well as government air strikes on the battlefield and rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods. Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo city has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012. In recent weeks, government forces have encircled the east, cutting the sole supply route in and raising fears of a humanitarian crisis for the estimated 250,000 people now under siege there. The primary goal of the rebel assault is to seize the Ramussa neighbourhood on the city’s southern outskirts. “The road that runs through Ramussa is the main supply route for regime forces going to the areas they control in western Aleppo,” said observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. It is also used by civilians to enter and leave government-controlled districts of Aleppo. Taking a detour from the north would be too dangerous, he added. Islamist group Ahrar Al Sham said on Twitter it was involved in fierce clashes near Ramussa and advancing towards the route. SANA said people were using the route as usual, but residents of western Aleppo expressed fears that the assault could cut them off. The encirclement of eastern Aleppo has raised fears of starvation for remaining residents, who have reported food shortages and spiralling prices since the government siege began on July 17. Last week, Moscow announced the opening of “humanitarian corridors” from the east into government territory for civilians and surrendering rebels. On the 30 Jul 16 Moscow and Syrian official media reported dozens of civilians had fled via these corridors, but residents and rebels on the ground dismissed the reports as “lies”. Elsewhere in Aleppo province, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, advanced inside the Da’esh terror group bastion of Manbij on the 1 Aug 16 the observatory reported. The SDF hold approximately 40 per cent of the town, and are fighting to take it with support from the US-led coalition against Da’esh.
Syria – A helicopter has dropped barrels suspected to contain chlorine gas on a town in northern Syria, a doctor and rescuers have said. About 30 people were affected by the attack, which took place in Saraqeb in Idlib province. It is not clear who was responsible. Both sides in Syria's civil war have been accused of, and denied, using chemical agents. On the 1 Aug 16 a Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb. Dr Abdel Aziz Bareeh, who works in Saraqeb said that two barrels of chlorine gas were dropped on the town late on the 1 Aug 16. "We know it's chlorine because we were hit by it in the past and we are familiar with its odour and symptoms... We have 28 confirmed cases mostly women and children." Separately, a spokesman for Syria Civil Defence said that 33 people had been affected in the attack. The organisation of volunteer rescue workers said it suspected the barrels contained chlorine but were unable to confirm it. Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Symptoms typical of chlorine poisoning include sore eyes, irritated skin, breathing difficulties and bloody foaming from the mouth.
Syria/Aleppo – The Syrian government has sent thousands of reinforcements to mount a counterattack in Aleppo after rebels broke through government lines two days earlier, a monitoring group said on the 9 Aug 16. The Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement and the government have mobilised more than 3,000 troops and militia fighters for an attempt to recapture the areas where the rebels made their breakthrough, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). "Hundreds of opposition fighters have also arrived in Aleppo from the [neighbouring] province of Idlib to help in the expected battles," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the group. Hezbollah's battle-hardened fighters have provided crucial support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's overstretched and exhausted army. Syrian state news agency SANA said government planes carried out "intensive strikes" on what it called "terrorist movements" south of Aleppo. The government also acted to quell fears that rebel advances would cut supply lines to government-held western Aleppo. SANA quoted provincial governor Mohammed Marwan al-Oulabi as saying that all essential goods and fuel were still available in the area. "Dozens of fuel tanks entered Aleppo city on the 8 Aug 16," he said. The influx of pro-government troops comes as the rebel Army of Conquest coalition vowed that a "new stage" in its offensive would aim to "liberate all of Aleppo." The group, a coalition that includes Jabhat Fatah al-Sahm (formerly the al-Nusra Front), first broke a government siege on the rebel-held half of the city on the 7 Aug 16 and has reportedly doubled its number of fighters in an effort to retake the entire city.
Syria/Aleppo – At least three people were killed when a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped on a neighbourhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo on the 11 Aug 16 according to a hospital and a local rescue group. The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group operating in rebel-held territory said it had recorded three deaths and at least 25 injuries after a barrel containing a gas suspected of being chlorine fell on the Zubdiya neighbourhood of rebel-held Aleppo. "At about 1930 hrs on the 10 Apr 16 an explosive barrel was dropped from a helicopter on the Zubdiya neighbourhood. One woman suffocated to death due to gas inhalation, along with her 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son," Khaled Khaled, an Aleppo-based member of the rescue group said. The group, also known as the White Helmets, said it could not independently verify the nature of the gas. Hamza Khatib, the manager of Al Quds hospital in Aleppo said a photographer in the hospital had recorded four deaths from gas poisoning and 55 injuries. Khatib said he was preserving clothing and fragments from the barrel bombs as evidence for analysis. Helicopters also dropped explosive barrels on the neighbourhoods of Seif al Dawla and Zubdiya late on the evening of the 10 Aug 16, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The northern city of Aleppo, Syria's most populous before the war, is split into rebel and government-held districts. A fierce battle for control of the city has been raging for nearly a week, after rebels staged a major assault last week to break a month-long government siege of the rebel-held east, home to nearly 300,000 people. A three-hour ceasefire, announced by the Russian army, is set to begin on the 11 Aug 16 at 1000 hrs local time to allow humanitarian convoys to enter the city, although the United Nations has said it was not nearly long enough to help trapped civilians. There have been unconfirmed reports from activists and residents of chlorine gas falling on rebel-held east Aleppo since the rebel offensive began. Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the war. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks, and the government and Russia have accused rebels of using poison gas.
Syria/Turkey – At least 25 people have been killed and 25 more injured, some critically, after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest on a bus in Syria's Idlib province, adjoining Turkey, according to a monitoring network. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bus was carrying opposition fighters when the blast happened near the Atmeh border crossing. Turkey's CNN Turk television citing local sources reported that the explosion occurred at the entrance of Atmeh refugee camp in Idlib late on the 14 Aug 16. Turkey sent several ambulances to the scene of the attack; eight injured rebels who were in critical condition were taken to hospitals in Turkey's Hatay province. Authorities in Hatay said in an official statement on the 15 Aug 16 that four of the injured fighters later died in Turkish hospitals. Idlib is a major bastion of the Turkey-backed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Syria – US-backed Syrian forces said on the 14 Aug 16 they have established a military council to push ISIS group fighters out of their northern bastion of al-Bab after ousting the militants from Manbij. “We announce... the creation of the al-Bab Military Council” tasked with driving ISIS from the town in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in a statement, two days after driving the last militants from Manbij. The last remaining ISIS fighters abandoned the city of Manbij near the Turkish border on the 12 Aug 16 after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were “on the ropes”. The retreat from the city which ISIS captured in 2014 was the militants’ worst defeat yet at the hands of the SDF alliance backed by US air power. Al-Bab is around 50 kilometres southwest of Manbij, and also in the battleground province of Aleppo. In a statement on the 14 Aug 16 the SDF said “we promise to our people that we will strike to liberate al-Bab” and the region around it. They also called on the US-led coalition that has been battling ISIS in Syria and neighbouring Iraq “to back us in our struggle to liberate our land and our brothers from the Da’esh terrorists”. The battle for Manbij - a key supply route for the jihadists between the Turkish border and their self-declared capital in Raqqa - lasted more than two months. As they fled, the militants took hundreds of civilians with them to use as “human shields” but later released many of them.
Yemen/Houthi’s/United Nations – Yemen’s Houthi militias used civilians as human shields, militants in the country received an influx of cash and al-Qaeda has improved its roadside bombs, a confidential report by United Nations experts monitoring sanctions on Yemen has revealed on the 5 Aug 16. The UN report said the Houthis had concealed fighters and equipment in or close to civilians in Al Mukha in the Taiz Governorate “with the deliberate aim of avoiding attack” and in violation of international humanitarian law. The report added that the Houthi’s had diverted about $100 million a month from Yemen’s central bank to support the group’s war effort and that the foreign reserves of the central bank had dropped to $1.3 billion in June 2016 from $4.6 billion in Nov 14. The 105-page midterm report covered the past six months. The experts noted that they have been unable to travel to the Arabian Peninsula country so they gathered information remotely. “The panel has documented violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by the Houthi-Saleh forces,” the panel said in the report. The Arab alliance intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March last year to support the government and fight forces loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi movement, which it has accused of being a proxy for Iran. An independent Saudi Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) was formed to assess claims and accidents regarding the Decisive Storm operations in Yemen. The report on the implementation of an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on Saleh and four Houthi leaders has been submitted to the 15-member UN Security Council sanctions committee. The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Houthi militias and soldiers loyal to Saleh in Apr 15.
Yemen/Peace Process – UN-sponsored talks for establishing peace in Yemen have ended without a breakthrough, as fighting continues between government forces and rebels near the capital Sanaa. The adjourning of the talks on the 6 Aug 16 came after Houthi fighters and the party of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, rejected a UN peace plan and announced the appointment of a 10-member governing body to run Yemen. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN envoy on Yemen, announced on the 6 Aug 16 a month-long suspension of the talks, held in Kuwait for more than 90 days, but denied their failure. "We will be leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace talks are continuing," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in Kuwait City. "We have guarantees and commitments from the two sides that they are ready to return to the negotiating table," he said, while criticising the creation of the council by the Houthis and their allies. "We condemn any unilateral step." The rebels said the plan, which had been accepted by Yemen's internationally recognised government, did not meet their key demand for a unity government - a condition that amounts to an explicit call for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's removal. Meanwhile, forces loyal to Hadi launched a major new offensive east of Sanaa to "liberate the district of Nehem", the pro-government sabanew.net news agency said on the 6 Aug 16. The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014. "The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district," the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
Yemen/Iran/Houthis – Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has said that missiles made in Tehran were recently used in Yemen by Houthi militias in cross border attacks against Saudi Arabia it was reported on the 16 Aug 16. The Zelzal-3 rockets are Iranian-made solid propellant missiles that has been known to be used by Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah forces. The news comes despite Iranian denials earlier this month of their direct involvement in sending weapons to Yemen. Saudi Arabia on the 14 Aug 16 managed to intercept two ballistic missiles that were fired into the Saudi border city of Najran, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. According to the Iranian news agency, those rockets that were fired and intercepted were found to be Zelzal-3 rockets.
Da’esh/Worldwide – A leaked briefing document written for the White House, and which was obtained by NBC News, says that ISIS has “fully operational branches” in eighteen countries it was reported on the 3 Aug 16. The “heat map” included in the briefing suggests a three-fold increase in the number of areas around the world in which the Islamist group is now operating. NBC News notes that a 2014 State Department documents said that ISIS was operating in only seven countries. The map, prepared by the National Counterterrorism Centre, is part of a classified briefing document dated “August 2016.” It identifies ISIS’s “core” states — Syria and Iraq — along with countries where the organization has “official branches,” including Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Caucasus region to the south of Russia. The map also shows “aspiring branches” of ISIS in Mali, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In addition to encouraging disparate Islamist group to declare their allegiance to ISIS, the terror group has also encouraged lone wolf attacks throughout Europe.
(http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/new-counterterrorism-heat-map-shows-isis-branches-spreading-worldwide-n621866)
Da’esh/Kurds/United States – The ISIS militant in charge of the group’s oil operations in Iraq and Syria was killed on the 11 Aug 16 in a joint operation between the Iraqi Kurdish and US Special forces, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement. Sami Jassim al-Jabouri, also known as Haji Hamad, and his aide were killed “in the vicinity of Qaim,” an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, the statement said. A Pentagon spokesman said coalition forces conducted a combined operation against an ISIS “associated target” in Iraq on August 11 but were assessing the results of the operation. “The mission was coordinated with and approved by the Government of Iraq and conducted in partnership with Iraqi Security Forces,” said Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq also hosts a base used by troops from the US-led coalition assisting Iraqi forces in the war on the militants.
Da’esh/Syria – Coalition-supported local forces fighting ISIS in northern Syria have recaptured large areas around the city of Manbij and put the extremists “on the ropes,” a Pentagon official said on the 12 Aug 16. Since the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an operation to capture Manbij on the 21 May 16 they have wrested control of more than 1,000 square kilometres (385 square miles) of territory from ISIS. Manbij is a key town in the anti-ISIS struggle because the extremists were using it as a waypoint between the Turkish border and Raqqa, the extremists’ de facto capital. SDF forces, backed by US-led coalition air power, have now retaken much of Manbij, though pockets of resistance remain in the city’s north. “Although fighting in Manbij continues, ISIS is clearly on the ropes. It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said. ISIS fighters fleeing the city on the 12 Aug 16 seized around 2,000 civilians to use as “human shields,” the SDF and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Trowbridge said US officials were aware of the reports but unable to confirm them. ISIS “has consistently shown a willingness to put innocent lives at risk, in blatant violation not only of the laws of armed conflict but of common human decency,” he said. Since fighting for Manbij began, US-led strikes have taken out more than 50 of ISIS’s heavy weapons and destroyed more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said. But the job of clearing the city will be complicated after the extremists left behind hundreds of mines and booby traps, he added.
Iran/Da’esh – Iranian security forces killed three militants linked to ISIS in a city close to the Iraqi border on the 16 Aug 16 confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives, a senior official said. The trio were shot dead in the house they were staying in Kermanshah city, the governor of Kermanshah province, Asadollah Razani, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. The city is around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Iraqi border. A senior member of ISIS was killed on the night of the 15 Aug 16 in an operation in another city in the province, during which other supporters of the group were arrested, Razani said. A mountainous area bordering Iraq, Kermanshah has a largely Sunni Kurdish population and a history of insurgency against the Shiite Muslim republic of Iran. ISIS, whose members view Shiites as heretics, controls large areas of Iraq and Syria. Iranian officials say ISIS militants have been targeting the country in recent months, while Tehran has ramped up its military presence in both Iraq and Syria following Russia’s entry into the conflict in Syria. In Jun 16 Iranian intelligence authorities said they arrested 10 ISIS militants and seized about 100 kilograms of explosives intended to be used in car and suicide bombs and other attacks in busy public places.
Iraq/Da’esh/Mosul – Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces have recaptured four villages from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group near its stronghold of Mosul, reports said on the 14 Aug 16. The offensive started at 0530 hrs local time from various fronts and so far Iraqi forces managed to retake the villages of Tal Hamid, Qarqasha, Abzakh and Qura Takh. Clashes are still ongoing in a fifth village, Sateeh. The advance is part of a wider security operation to retake Iraq's second largest city. ISIL fighters tried to slow down the offensive with two suicide car bombs near the village of Sateeh, but the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers leading the offensive blew up the car before they reached them. ISIL fighters are now burning tyres near their positions in an attempt to cover themselves from US-led coalition aircraft, Kurdish local television reported. Peshmerga engineering teams are defusing bombs planted by ISIL in the four liberated villages. The battle for Mosul, ISIL's de facto capital in Iraq and the largest city anywhere in its self-proclaimed caliphate, is expected later this year, but plans have not been finalised, officials and diplomats in Baghdad have said. Army, police and Special Forces are expected to participate, with air support from a US-led coalition. Iraqi troops are currently securing villages around Qayyara, an airbase which is being used to prepare for the final push towards Mosul. More than 500 US troops will reportedly help Iraqi forces to transform the base into a staging area. As ISIL is pushed out of places like Ramadi and Fallujah, sectarian tensions in Sunni-majority towns taken by Shia-led forces have resurfaced. The forces trying to retake Mosul include the Kurdish regional government, fighters loyal to the pro-Sunni former provincial governor and the Shia-led central government. Iran-backed Shia militias are also believed to be formalising their participation in northern Iraq. Militias have been accused of torture and executions in recent military operations in Sunni areas and Iraq's government is investigating the alleged abductions of more than a thousand Sunni men who are missing. This is causing concern among Kurdish fighters who have been fighting ISIL in northern Iraq. "We are afraid that after the liberation there will be a force whose mechanism doesn't go along with the people of Mosul, a force that doesn't have close ties with the people of Mosul that is from a different sect. Not from the Sunni sect " said Sheikh Lukhman Sharawani, a Kurdish militia commander in Iraq. "We are afraid that they will do to the people of Mosul exactly what they did to the people of Ramadi, and therefore we would like them to keep their distance from Mosul." 361 COMMENT: There is the potential for a separate conflict here if and when Mosul is retaken from Da’esh by Shia militias. If there is a miss-treatment against the population of Mosul then the Kurd fighters will take it upon themselves to retribute and protect those there especially for the Sunni populace. Although dangerous in its existence the other problem will be a division in the ranks of those fighting against Da’esh which could allow the terrorist group to exploit it and attempt to retake the city of Mosul whilst in fighting occurs and attempts to stop it. The Kurds will also eye up Mosul and want it as part of its autonomous region in Northern Iraq as it was once part of Kurdistan up until it was subsumed into the Ottoman Empire and ceased to exist. COMMENT ENDS
Kurds/Mosul – Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on ISIS militants early on the 14 Aug 16 as part of a campaign to capture the de facto ISIS capital Mosul, a Kurdish official said. The advance began after heavy shelling and US-led coalition air strikes against ISIS forces. The militants were fighting back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least one car bomb. Clouds of black smoke rose from the area. A Peshmerga commander said six villages had been taken from the extremist militants by midday. The Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish self-rule region are gradually taking up positions around Mosul, 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad. The fall of Mosul would mark the effective defeat of ISIS in Iraq, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has said he aims to retake the city this year. The operation that started on Sunday is part of the preparations for an offensive on the city itself, said a Kurdish official who declined to be identified. The Iraqi army is trying to advance from the south. In July it captured the Qayyara airfield, 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, which will serve as the main staging post for the expected offensive.
Kuwait/Da’esh – Kuwait said on the 5 Aug 16 that it had arrested a Filipina it accused of joining the ISIS group through its affiliate in Libya and who planned to launch an attack. The Interior Ministry said the woman, born in 1984, entered Kuwait in Jun15 as a house maid. Security forces monitoring the woman's email found messages by the woman to the ISIS group's Libyan affiliate, pledging allegiance to the group. "She confessed she was ready to carry out any terrorist attack once circumstances and means were ripe in order to undermine security and stability in Kuwait, as well as ignite sedition," the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported. KUNA also published a photograph of the woman in a black abaya, a loose black dress. The statement did not identify the woman, nor did it say if she faced criminal charges.
Kurds/Turkey – Turkey expects Syrian Kurdish fighters to withdraw east of the Euphrates river after they and other US-backed forces seized control of the Syrian town of Manbij from ISIS last week, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on the 15 Aug 16. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said on the 12 Aug 16 they had seized full control of Manbij near the Turkish border in a significant strategic blow to ISIS. Turkey views the Kurdish YPG militia as a hostile force, an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group that has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s southeast, and is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union as well as by Ankara. “Of course we have an expectation,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara. “The US promised that the (Syrian Kurdish) forces within the coalition and democratic forces there would move east of the Euphrates again following the Manbij operation.” US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said in a statement on the 15 Aug 16 that liberation of Manbij was an important step in the campaign against the ISIS, and he thanked the Turkish government for its support. “For the people of Manbij city, now begins the difficult job of rebuilding their homes and communities, and I call on all of our coalition partners to help them with that task,” Carter said. “For its part, the military coalition will continue to work with capable and motivated local forces to defeat ISIS and ensure it remains defeated,” he said. Carter did not address what would happen with the Syrian Kurdish fighters. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the United States has commitments from the Kurdish leadership that the local Arabs liberating their lands will be the ones to rebuild the area. The operation, in which US Special Forces played a significant role, marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against ISIS two years ago. US officials have said that completion of the Manbij operation would create the conditions to move on the militant group’s de facto capital of Raqqa.
Lebanon/Da’esh – The Lebanese army arrested several members of ISIS in a raid that erupted into a firefight in the north of the country on the 4 Aug 16 a security source said. Local media said one suspect died of his wounds. Four men, two Syrians and two Lebanese, were charged with attacks against the army, involvement in terrorist activities and in executions and killings, the state-run National News Agency said. It did not elaborate on the charges. Lebanon has been repeatedly jolted by security incidents linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, including extremist attacks. The army has regularly shelled positions held by extremists, including what it says are ISIS fighters, in the north near the Syrian border.
Syria – A Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria on the 1 Aug 16 killing all five people on board in the single deadliest incident for Moscow since it intervened in the war. The attack came as Syrian opposition fighters and their allies battled government forces outside Aleppo in a bid to ease the regime's siege of rebel-held parts of the northern city. Russia's defence ministry announced the downing of the helicopter, which it said was carrying three crew and two officers. "A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down from the ground after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies. The Kremlin said all five people on board were assumed dead. "As far as we know from the information we've had from the defence ministry, those in the helicopter died, they died heroically, because they were trying to move the aircraft away to minimise victims on the ground," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy called the downing a "terrorist act" and said the defence ministry was still trying to confirm the fate of the Russian servicemen "through all possible channels". It was not immediately clear who was responsible. The helicopters death toll brings the total number of members of the Russian forces killed in Syria to 18. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the helicopter had come down along the administrative border between Idlib province in the northwest and neighbouring Aleppo. Idlib is held almost entirely by a powerful coalition of Islamist and jihadist forces including the former Al Nusra Front, now known as the Fateh Al Sham Front after renouncing its status as Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate. In neighbouring Aleppo province, the Fateh Al Sham Front and allied rebel groups were fighting fierce battles on the 1 Aug 16 against regime troops on the outskirts of Aleppo city. The clashes are part of an assault launched on the 31 Jul 16 to try to ease a government siege of the rebel-held east of the city. The observatory said the rebels had advanced overnight south and southwest of Aleppo, but reported ongoing fighting, as well as government air strikes on the battlefield and rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods. Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo city has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012. In recent weeks, government forces have encircled the east, cutting the sole supply route in and raising fears of a humanitarian crisis for the estimated 250,000 people now under siege there. The primary goal of the rebel assault is to seize the Ramussa neighbourhood on the city’s southern outskirts. “The road that runs through Ramussa is the main supply route for regime forces going to the areas they control in western Aleppo,” said observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. It is also used by civilians to enter and leave government-controlled districts of Aleppo. Taking a detour from the north would be too dangerous, he added. Islamist group Ahrar Al Sham said on Twitter it was involved in fierce clashes near Ramussa and advancing towards the route. SANA said people were using the route as usual, but residents of western Aleppo expressed fears that the assault could cut them off. The encirclement of eastern Aleppo has raised fears of starvation for remaining residents, who have reported food shortages and spiralling prices since the government siege began on July 17. Last week, Moscow announced the opening of “humanitarian corridors” from the east into government territory for civilians and surrendering rebels. On the 30 Jul 16 Moscow and Syrian official media reported dozens of civilians had fled via these corridors, but residents and rebels on the ground dismissed the reports as “lies”. Elsewhere in Aleppo province, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, advanced inside the Da’esh terror group bastion of Manbij on the 1 Aug 16 the observatory reported. The SDF hold approximately 40 per cent of the town, and are fighting to take it with support from the US-led coalition against Da’esh.
Syria – A helicopter has dropped barrels suspected to contain chlorine gas on a town in northern Syria, a doctor and rescuers have said. About 30 people were affected by the attack, which took place in Saraqeb in Idlib province. It is not clear who was responsible. Both sides in Syria's civil war have been accused of, and denied, using chemical agents. On the 1 Aug 16 a Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb. Dr Abdel Aziz Bareeh, who works in Saraqeb said that two barrels of chlorine gas were dropped on the town late on the 1 Aug 16. "We know it's chlorine because we were hit by it in the past and we are familiar with its odour and symptoms... We have 28 confirmed cases mostly women and children." Separately, a spokesman for Syria Civil Defence said that 33 people had been affected in the attack. The organisation of volunteer rescue workers said it suspected the barrels contained chlorine but were unable to confirm it. Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Symptoms typical of chlorine poisoning include sore eyes, irritated skin, breathing difficulties and bloody foaming from the mouth.
Syria/Aleppo – The Syrian government has sent thousands of reinforcements to mount a counterattack in Aleppo after rebels broke through government lines two days earlier, a monitoring group said on the 9 Aug 16. The Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement and the government have mobilised more than 3,000 troops and militia fighters for an attempt to recapture the areas where the rebels made their breakthrough, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). "Hundreds of opposition fighters have also arrived in Aleppo from the [neighbouring] province of Idlib to help in the expected battles," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the group. Hezbollah's battle-hardened fighters have provided crucial support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's overstretched and exhausted army. Syrian state news agency SANA said government planes carried out "intensive strikes" on what it called "terrorist movements" south of Aleppo. The government also acted to quell fears that rebel advances would cut supply lines to government-held western Aleppo. SANA quoted provincial governor Mohammed Marwan al-Oulabi as saying that all essential goods and fuel were still available in the area. "Dozens of fuel tanks entered Aleppo city on the 8 Aug 16," he said. The influx of pro-government troops comes as the rebel Army of Conquest coalition vowed that a "new stage" in its offensive would aim to "liberate all of Aleppo." The group, a coalition that includes Jabhat Fatah al-Sahm (formerly the al-Nusra Front), first broke a government siege on the rebel-held half of the city on the 7 Aug 16 and has reportedly doubled its number of fighters in an effort to retake the entire city.
Syria/Aleppo – At least three people were killed when a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped on a neighbourhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo on the 11 Aug 16 according to a hospital and a local rescue group. The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group operating in rebel-held territory said it had recorded three deaths and at least 25 injuries after a barrel containing a gas suspected of being chlorine fell on the Zubdiya neighbourhood of rebel-held Aleppo. "At about 1930 hrs on the 10 Apr 16 an explosive barrel was dropped from a helicopter on the Zubdiya neighbourhood. One woman suffocated to death due to gas inhalation, along with her 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son," Khaled Khaled, an Aleppo-based member of the rescue group said. The group, also known as the White Helmets, said it could not independently verify the nature of the gas. Hamza Khatib, the manager of Al Quds hospital in Aleppo said a photographer in the hospital had recorded four deaths from gas poisoning and 55 injuries. Khatib said he was preserving clothing and fragments from the barrel bombs as evidence for analysis. Helicopters also dropped explosive barrels on the neighbourhoods of Seif al Dawla and Zubdiya late on the evening of the 10 Aug 16, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The northern city of Aleppo, Syria's most populous before the war, is split into rebel and government-held districts. A fierce battle for control of the city has been raging for nearly a week, after rebels staged a major assault last week to break a month-long government siege of the rebel-held east, home to nearly 300,000 people. A three-hour ceasefire, announced by the Russian army, is set to begin on the 11 Aug 16 at 1000 hrs local time to allow humanitarian convoys to enter the city, although the United Nations has said it was not nearly long enough to help trapped civilians. There have been unconfirmed reports from activists and residents of chlorine gas falling on rebel-held east Aleppo since the rebel offensive began. Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the war. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks, and the government and Russia have accused rebels of using poison gas.
Syria/Turkey – At least 25 people have been killed and 25 more injured, some critically, after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest on a bus in Syria's Idlib province, adjoining Turkey, according to a monitoring network. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bus was carrying opposition fighters when the blast happened near the Atmeh border crossing. Turkey's CNN Turk television citing local sources reported that the explosion occurred at the entrance of Atmeh refugee camp in Idlib late on the 14 Aug 16. Turkey sent several ambulances to the scene of the attack; eight injured rebels who were in critical condition were taken to hospitals in Turkey's Hatay province. Authorities in Hatay said in an official statement on the 15 Aug 16 that four of the injured fighters later died in Turkish hospitals. Idlib is a major bastion of the Turkey-backed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Syria – US-backed Syrian forces said on the 14 Aug 16 they have established a military council to push ISIS group fighters out of their northern bastion of al-Bab after ousting the militants from Manbij. “We announce... the creation of the al-Bab Military Council” tasked with driving ISIS from the town in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in a statement, two days after driving the last militants from Manbij. The last remaining ISIS fighters abandoned the city of Manbij near the Turkish border on the 12 Aug 16 after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were “on the ropes”. The retreat from the city which ISIS captured in 2014 was the militants’ worst defeat yet at the hands of the SDF alliance backed by US air power. Al-Bab is around 50 kilometres southwest of Manbij, and also in the battleground province of Aleppo. In a statement on the 14 Aug 16 the SDF said “we promise to our people that we will strike to liberate al-Bab” and the region around it. They also called on the US-led coalition that has been battling ISIS in Syria and neighbouring Iraq “to back us in our struggle to liberate our land and our brothers from the Da’esh terrorists”. The battle for Manbij - a key supply route for the jihadists between the Turkish border and their self-declared capital in Raqqa - lasted more than two months. As they fled, the militants took hundreds of civilians with them to use as “human shields” but later released many of them.
Yemen/Houthi’s/United Nations – Yemen’s Houthi militias used civilians as human shields, militants in the country received an influx of cash and al-Qaeda has improved its roadside bombs, a confidential report by United Nations experts monitoring sanctions on Yemen has revealed on the 5 Aug 16. The UN report said the Houthis had concealed fighters and equipment in or close to civilians in Al Mukha in the Taiz Governorate “with the deliberate aim of avoiding attack” and in violation of international humanitarian law. The report added that the Houthi’s had diverted about $100 million a month from Yemen’s central bank to support the group’s war effort and that the foreign reserves of the central bank had dropped to $1.3 billion in June 2016 from $4.6 billion in Nov 14. The 105-page midterm report covered the past six months. The experts noted that they have been unable to travel to the Arabian Peninsula country so they gathered information remotely. “The panel has documented violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by the Houthi-Saleh forces,” the panel said in the report. The Arab alliance intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March last year to support the government and fight forces loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi movement, which it has accused of being a proxy for Iran. An independent Saudi Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) was formed to assess claims and accidents regarding the Decisive Storm operations in Yemen. The report on the implementation of an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on Saleh and four Houthi leaders has been submitted to the 15-member UN Security Council sanctions committee. The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Houthi militias and soldiers loyal to Saleh in Apr 15.
Yemen/Peace Process – UN-sponsored talks for establishing peace in Yemen have ended without a breakthrough, as fighting continues between government forces and rebels near the capital Sanaa. The adjourning of the talks on the 6 Aug 16 came after Houthi fighters and the party of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, rejected a UN peace plan and announced the appointment of a 10-member governing body to run Yemen. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN envoy on Yemen, announced on the 6 Aug 16 a month-long suspension of the talks, held in Kuwait for more than 90 days, but denied their failure. "We will be leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace talks are continuing," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in Kuwait City. "We have guarantees and commitments from the two sides that they are ready to return to the negotiating table," he said, while criticising the creation of the council by the Houthis and their allies. "We condemn any unilateral step." The rebels said the plan, which had been accepted by Yemen's internationally recognised government, did not meet their key demand for a unity government - a condition that amounts to an explicit call for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's removal. Meanwhile, forces loyal to Hadi launched a major new offensive east of Sanaa to "liberate the district of Nehem", the pro-government sabanew.net news agency said on the 6 Aug 16. The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014. "The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district," the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
Yemen/Iran/Houthis – Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has said that missiles made in Tehran were recently used in Yemen by Houthi militias in cross border attacks against Saudi Arabia it was reported on the 16 Aug 16. The Zelzal-3 rockets are Iranian-made solid propellant missiles that has been known to be used by Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah forces. The news comes despite Iranian denials earlier this month of their direct involvement in sending weapons to Yemen. Saudi Arabia on the 14 Aug 16 managed to intercept two ballistic missiles that were fired into the Saudi border city of Najran, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. According to the Iranian news agency, those rockets that were fired and intercepted were found to be Zelzal-3 rockets.
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