In Syria, two campaigns against ISIS continued this week in two different arenas. ISIS continues its campaign aimed at disrupting the elections process in the countries in which it operates, by means of terrorist attacks against individuals and facilities Read more...
This week, the Syrian army recorded achievements in its campaign to take over the southern suburbs of Damascus from ISIS. The Syrian army forces advanced inside the Yarmouk refugee camp and took control of most of the Al-Qadam neighborhood to its west. The operatives of the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham, a jihadi organization and one of ISIS’s rivals, began to leave the Yarmouk refugee camp for the Idlib region after reaching an evacuation agreement with the Syrian regime. Read more...
Concurrently with the events of the Great Return March, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an umbrella framework of organizations engaged in sending flotillas to the Gaza Strip, announced that preparations were being made to send a flotilla to “break the siege” over the Gaza Strip (Al-Aqsa, April 15, 2018). The flotilla, which numbers several boats (currently four or five), is expected to depart for the Gaza Strip from several European countries (Twitter, PalInfo, April 9, 2018). Read more...
Iranian officials continue to react to the alleged Israeli strike on the Syrian air force base T-4: the deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) warned Israel that if it initiates a war against Iran, this will lead to its eradication. Iran condemned the strikes carried out on April 14, 2018 by the United States, the United Kingdom and France in Syria in response to the Assad regime’s chemical attack on Douma. The coordination efforts between Iran, Turkey and Russia continue against the backdrop of recent events in Syria: The Iranian president held a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, while the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, visited Russia to attend an international security conference. At the center of development in Iran-Iraq relations was the visit of Iranian Minister of Defense, Amir Hatami, to Baghdad. Read more...
With the takeover of the city of Duma and the evacuation of the last fighters from its territory, the Syrian army effectively completed the takeover of eastern Al-Ghouta. Now the Syrian army and the forces supporting it are shifting the center of operations to the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus. In Iraq, the security forces continued to operate against a number of areas where pockets of ISIS operatives remained. The Egyptian security forces, which have been working for around two months to eradicate the presence of ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula, suffered losses in an attempt by ISIS operatives to infiltrate one of the army bases in Sinai. Read more...
Seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) cadres, including a senior commander with the rank of colonel in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operation of the IRGC, were killed last week in an airstrike on the Syrian Air Force Base T-4. Bolstering of the Iran-Russia axis: Iran and Russia held discussions on the escalation in Syria. Iran stood by Syria following the chemical weapons attack on Douma by the Assad regime, and the United States’ threat to respond militarily to this attack. in a meeting with representatives of the electoral bloc formed by leaders of some of the Shi’ite pro-Iranian militias ahead of the elections. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Javad Zarif, held a phone call with the Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, against the backdrop of the “Marches of Return” in Gaza. Zarif emphasized to Haniyeh Iran’s support for the Palestinians Read more...
