Tag Archives: Islamic State

British police arrest man in hunt for London bombers

British police arrest man in hunt for London bombers

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – British police arrested an 18-year-old man in the southern port of Dover on Saturday in a “significant” development in the hunt for the culprits behind a London commuter train bombing that injured 30 people a day earlier.

Prime Minister Theresa May put Britain on the highest security level of “critical” late on Friday, meaning an attack may be imminent, and deployed soldiers and armed police to secure strategic sites and hunt down the perpetrators.

In the fifth major terrorism attack in Britain this year, the home-made bomb shot flames through a packed commuter train during the Friday morning rush hour in west London but apparently failed to detonate fully.

The militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility.

“We have made a significant arrest in our investigation this morning,” said Neil Basu, Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing.

“This arrest will lead to more activity from our officers,” he said, suggesting there could be more arrests and house raids to come. “For strong investigative reasons we will not give any more details on the man we arrested at this stage.”

The arrest was made in the port area of Dover, where passenger ferries sail to France.

According to media reports, the bomb was attached to a timer unlike recent blasts which have typically been suicide bombs.

Pictures showed a slightly charred white plastic bucket with wires coming out of the top in a supermarket shopping bag on the floor of a train carriage.

The Parsons Green station where the attack took place had reopened by Saturday morning.

Armed police patrolled the streets of London near government departments in Westminster and were expected to guard the Premier League soccer grounds hosting matches on Saturday, including the national stadium of Wembley.

In the entertainment and cultural district on the south bank of the Thames, Cressida Dick, Britain’s top police officer, sought to reassure the public and tourists as she joined colleagues patrolling the area.

“Yesterday we saw a cowardly and indiscriminate attack which could have resulted in many lives being lost,” she said. “London has not stopped after other terrible attacks and it will not stop after this one.”

CRITICAL THREAT LEVEL

The last time Britain was put on “critical” alert was after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in May.

The threat level remained at the highest setting for four days while officers raced to establish if the man had worked alone or with the help of others. Prior to that it had not been triggered since 2007.

Prime Minister May said the public should not be alarmed by armed officers on the streets, a rare sight in Britain. “This is a proportionate and sensible step which will provide extra reassurance and protection while the investigation progresses,” she said in a televised statement late on Friday.

The bomb struck as passengers were traveling to the center of the British capital. Some suffered burns and others were injured in a stampede to escape from the station, one of the above-ground stops on the underground network. Health officials said none was thought to be in a serious condition.

With Britain on high alert after a spate of attacks this summer, witnesses recalled their horror.

“I was on the second carriage from the back. I just heard a kind of ‘whoosh’. I looked up and saw the whole carriage engulfed in flames making its way toward me,” Ola Fayankinnu, who was on the train, told Reuters.

“There were phones, hats, bags all over the place and when I looked back I saw a bag with flames.”

The Islamic State militant group have claimed other attacks in Britain this year, including two in London and the pop concert in Manchester.

It was not immediately possible to verify the claim about Parsons Green, for which Islamic State’s news agency Amaq offered no evidence.

Western intelligence officials have questioned similar claims in the past, saying that while Islamic State’s jihadist ideology may have inspired some attackers, there is scant evidence that it has orchestrated attacks.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by David Clarke)

Hezbollah declares Syria victory: report

Hezbollah declares Syria victory: report

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian government’s powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah has declared victory in the Syrian war, dismissing remaining fighting as “scattered battles”, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The comments by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah mark one of the most confident assessments yet by the government side as it regains swathes of territory in eastern Syria in a rapid advance against Islamic State.

Referring to President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents, Nasrallah said “the path of the other project has failed and wants to negotiate for some gains”, the al-Akhbar newspaper cited him saying at a religious gathering.

“We have won in the war (in Syria)…and what remains are scattered battles,” said Nasrallah, whose Iran-backed group has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to support Assad.

A source familiar with the contents of Nasrallah’s speech confirmed al-Akhbar’s report.

Backed by Russia and Iran, Assad has crushed numerous pockets of rebel-held territory in the western Syrian cities of Aleppo, Homs and Damascus over the last year, and he appears militarily unassailable in the six-year-long conflict.

Ceasefires brokered by Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States in remaining rebel-held areas of western Syria have freed up manpower on the government side, helping its advance east into the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zor.

The eastward march to Deir al-Zor, unthinkable two years ago when Assad seemed in danger, has underlined his ever more confident position and the dilemma facing Western governments that still want him to leave power in a negotiated transition.

Government forces last week reached Deir al-Zor city, the provincial capital on the Euphrates River, breaking an Islamic State siege of a government-held enclave and a nearby air base.

In a televised speech last month, Assad said there were signs of victory in the war, but that the battle continued.

U.S.-backed militia fighting under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have in recent days launched a separate offensive against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor province.

The SDF, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, is also waging a campaign to capture Raqqa city from Islamic State. It has avoided conflict with the Syrian government.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

U.S.-backed forces, Syrian army advance separately on Islamic State in Deir al-Zor

U.S.-backed forces, Syrian army advance separately on Islamic State in Deir al-Zor

By John Davison

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S.-backed militias and the Syrian army advanced in separate offensives against Islamic State in eastern Syria on Saturday, piling pressure on shrinking territory the group still holds in oil-rich areas near the Iraqi border.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of mostly Arab and Kurdish fighters, launched a new operation against the jihadists in the north of Deir al-Zor province that aims to capture areas north and east of the Euphrates river.

Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russia and Iran, meanwhile seized an oilfield from militants on the other side of the Euphrates and recaptured part of a road linking Deir al-Zor to areas held by IS further downstream.

The advances against Islamic State in territory it has held for years as part of its self-declared caliphate will likely bring U.S.-backed forces and the Syrian government side into closer proximity.

A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian army jet near Raqqa in June and the SDF accused the Syrian government of bombing its positions, showing the risk of escalation between warring sides in a crowded battlefield.

The Syrian conflict, which started as a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, has drawn the military involvement of most world powers. Peace talks have repeatedly failed to bring an end to the war.

The SDF operation in Deir al-Zor province aims to capture areas in its northern and eastern countryside and advance toward the Euphrates, the Deir al-Zor Military Council, which is fighting as part of the SDF, said in a statement.

“The first step is to free the eastern bank of the Euphrates and the areas Islamic State still holds,” Ahmed Abu Kholeh, head of the military council, told Reuters after the announcement.

“We’re not specifying a timeframe but we hope it will be a quick operation,” he said.

Abu Kholeh would not say whether there were plans to advance on Deir al-Zor city itself. “We don’t know how the battles will go after this,” he said.

He said SDF fighters did not expect clashes with Syrian government forces as they advance, but if fired upon “we will respond”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported SDF forces had advanced against IS in Deir al-Zor’s northwestern countryside, seizing several hilltops and a village.

SYRIAN ARMY TAKES OILFIELD

Syrian government forces and their allies meanwhile recaptured from militants the Teym oilfield southwest of Deir al-Zor city, on the other side of the Euphrates, state TV reported.

They also seized part of a main highway running from Deir al-Zor downstream to the city of al-Mayadeen, to which many Islamic State militants have retreated, the British-based Observatory said.

That advance would help block potential IS reinforcements from al-Mayadeen, it said.

The Syrian army this week advanced quickly, backed by Russian air strikes, to reach a government-held enclave of Deir al-Zor that was besieged for years by Islamic State. Government forces are still fighting to reach a nearby air base, which the militants still surround.

Islamic State in Syria still holds much of Deir al-Zor province and half the city, as well as a pocket of territory further west near Homs and Hama.

But the group has lost most of its self-declared caliphate which from 2014 stretched across swathes of Syria and Iraq, including oil-rich Deir al-Zor.

The SDF is still battling to eject the jihadists from the remaining areas they hold in Raqqa, once their Syria stronghold.

Talks between Russia, Iran and opposition backer Turkey in Astana are to take place next week, possibly followed by a separate track at the United Nations in Geneva in October or November.

Assad’s government has participated in previous rounds from a position of power as Damascus has clawed back much territory, including the main urban centers in the west of the country and increasingly eastern desert held by IS.

(Reporting by John Davison in Beirut and Rodi Said in Syria; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Australia to send more troops to help Philippines fight Islamist militants

Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne shakes hands with her Filipino counterpart Delfin Lorenzana, before their meeting to discuss military strategy and assistance in the Philippines' fight against Islamist militants in Marawi, at Villamor Air Base in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Benjamin Cooper

Sydney – (Reuters) – Australia will send troops to assist Philippine forces in the ongoing battle against Islamic State fighters in the southern city of Marawi, Australia’s Defense Minister Marise Payne said on Friday.

Small contingents of Australian soldiers will be sent to train Philippine troops, Payne said during a press conference with her counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana in Manila.

“We are very committed to supporting the Philippines in its efforts to defend itself against terrorist threats,” Minister Payne said.

“This is a threat to the region (that) we all need to work together to defeat.”

But no Australian troops will be actively involved in the fighting, Lorenza said.

“It would not look good if we would be needing troops to fight the war here. We are happy with the assistance we’re getting from Australia.”

The militants swept through Marawi on May 23 and have held parts of it despite sustained ground attacks by hundreds of soldiers and daily pummeling by planes and artillery.

The southern Philippines has been marred for decades by insurgency and banditry. But the intensity of the battle in Marawi and the presence of foreign fighters fighting alongside local militants has raised concerns that the region may be becoming a Southeast Asian hub for Islamic State as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.

The Australian troops will compliment those from their country already sent to the Philippines to train local personnel, Payne said.

Philippine troops fighting Islamic State-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance from women and children who were likely family member of militants, the Phillipine military said on Monday.

A spokesman for Payne said further details of the training contingent would be determined in coming days.

(Reporting by Benjamin Cooper; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Aid convoy reaches Syria’s Deir al-Zor after three-year siege

FILE PHOTO: A view shows damaged buildings in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A convoy of aid arrived at Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria on Thursday, bringing supplies to soldiers and civilians days after the Syrian army broke a three-year Islamic State siege, Syrian state media reported.

The Syrian army and its allies reached Deir al-Zor on Tuesday in a sudden advance into the city after months of steady progress east across the desert, state news agency SANA said.

The United Nations has estimated that 93,000 civilians were living under IS siege in Deir al-Zor in “extremely difficult” conditions, supplied by air drops.

The 40 trucks that reached the area on Thursday carried basic needs such as fuel, food and medical supplies to civilians, and included two mobile clinics, SANA reported.

The army also holds another besieged enclave at the city’s airbase, separated from its advancing forces by hundreds of meters of IS-held ground.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that the army has not yet connected with that enclave, and is working on expanding its corridor from the west.

The advance has led to casualties on both sides, the British-based war monitor added.

The army expanded its control of ground around the corridor after heavy artillery and air strikes, SANA reported on Wednesday.

Separately, the U.S. special envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Brett McGurk, said on Wednesday that a convoy of the group’s fighters and families from the Syria-Lebanon border was still in open desert.

The coalition is using air strikes to block the convoy from reaching IS-held territory in eastern Syria, to which the Syrian army and its ally Hezbollah were escorting it as part of a truce following fighting on the Syria-Lebanon border.

Islamic State is fighting separate advances from both the Syrian army and its allies in eastern and central Syria, as well as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Raqqa.

The group has lost nearly half of its territory across both Iraq and Syria, but still has 6,000-8,000 fighters left in Syria, the United States-led coalition has said.

(Reporting by Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Syrian army fights to secure corridor into Deir al-Zor

FILE PHOTO: A view shows damaged buildings in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army and its allies are fighting to secure and expand a precarious corridor to their comrades in Deir al-Zor a day they smashed through Islamic State lines to break the jihadist siege.

The army reached Deir al-Zor on Tuesday in a sudden, days-long thrust that followed months of steady advances east across the desert, breaking a siege that had lasted three years.

However, Islamic State counter-attacks lasted through Tuesday night, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, as the jihadists tried to repel the army.

It points to a tough battle ahead as the army aims to move from breaking the siege to driving Islamic State from its half of the city, the sort of street-by-street warfare in which the jihadists excel.

“The next step is to liberate the city,” a non-Syrian commander in the military alliance backing President Bashar al-Assad said.

Assad and his allies — Russia, Iran and Shi’ite militias including Hezbollah — will follow the relief of Deir al-Zor with an offensive along the Euphrates valley, the commander said.

The Euphrates valley cuts a lush, populous swathe of green about 260 km (160 miles) long and 10 km (6-7 miles) broad through the Syrian desert from Raqqa to the Iraqi border at al-Bukamal.

The area has been Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria but came under attack this year when an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a U.S.-led coalition besieged and assaulted Raqqa.

Rapidly losing territory in both Syria and Iraq, Islamic State is falling back on the Euphrates towns downstream of Deir al-Zor, including al-Mayadin and al-Bukamal, where many expect it to make a last stand.

However, the jihadist group specializes in urban combat, using car bombs, mines, tunnels and drones, and has held out against full-scale attack for months in some towns and cities.

FIGHTING

Parallel with their thrust toward Deir al-Zor, the Syrian army and its allies have been fighting Islamic State in its last pocket of ground in central Syria, near the town of al-Salamiya on the Homs-Aleppo highway.

On Wednesday, army advances gained control of four villages in that area, further tightening the pocket, a military media unit run by Assad’s ally Hezbollah reported.

In Raqqa, the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, has taken about 65 percent of the jihadists’ former de facto capital in Syria, it has said.

Deir al-Zor lies along the southwest bank of the Euphrates. The government enclave includes the northern half of the city and the Brigade 137 military base to the west.

The government also holds an air base and nearby streets, separated from the rest of the enclave by hundreds of meters of IS-held ground and still cut off from the advancing army.

Instead of breaking the siege along the main road from Palmyra, stretches of which remain in Islamic State hands, the army reached the Brigade 137 along a narrow salient from the northwest.

“Work is progressing to secure the route and widen the flanks so as not to be cut or targeted by Daesh,” the commander said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The route from the west into Brigade 137 is only about 500 meters (yards) wide, the commander said.

Islamic State counter-attacks in that area managed to cut the corridor into the enclave for several hours on Tuesday night using six car bombs, the Observatory reported.

The army will also push toward the still besieged airbase, southwards from the Brigade 137 camp and eastwards along the main highway, the commander said.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Syrian army, allies break Islamic State siege in eastern city

FILE PHOTO: A view shows damaged buildings in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

By Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces on Tuesday reached troops besieged for years by Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the militants’ last major stronghold in Syria, the army said.

Tanks and troops pressed quickly toward a government-held enclave in the city, where Islamic State has trapped thousands of civilians and Syrian soldiers since 2014. The advance has opened a land route linking that territory to the outside.

The advance into strategic prize Deir al-Zor, a city on the Euphrates river and once the center of Syria’s oil industry, is a significant victory for President Bashar al-Assad against Islamic State and another stinging blow to the group.

The group is being fought in Syria by government forces, backed by allies Iran and Russia, and separately by a U.S.-led alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters. In Iraq, the jihadists were driven out of their Mosul stronghold earlier this year.

Islamic State still holds half of Deir al-Zor city and much of the province, however, as well as parts of its former stronghold Raqqa to the northwest, where the U.S.-backed offensive is being fought.

“Our armed forces and allies, with support from Syrian and Russian warplanes, achieved the second phase of their operations in the Syrian desert,” Syria’s military said. “They have managed to break the siege.”

State media and a war monitoring group said advancing forces had linked up with the besieged troops at a garrison on the western edge of the city.

Footage on Syrian state TV showed soldiers cheering near the garrison. State media said residents in government-held parts of the city were celebrating the advance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a nearby military air base and three districts remained under siege by IS. Battles still raged around the city, the British-based war monitor said.

Deir al-Zor governor Mohammed Ibrahim Samra told Reuters that government troops were also pushing toward the air base.

“The forces have begun to lift the siege,” he said. “Our residents have been waiting for this moment … forces are (trying to) break the siege on the military airport as well.”

“The coming days will see the clearing of Deir al-Zor city (of militants)” and advances on nearby countryside under Islamic State control, Samra added.

Assad congratulated the troops in a statement from his office.

The army and its allies made rapid advances in recent days pushing through Islamic State lines with the help of heavy artillery and Russian air strikes.

A Russian warship in the Mediterranean sea fired cruise missiles at Islamic State positions near Deir al-Zor to boost the offensive, Russia’s defense ministry said.

ISLAMIC STATE SQUEEZED

The city has been cut off from government-held Syria since 2013, after rebel groups rose up against Assad during the first flush of Syria’s six-year war. Islamic State then overran rebel positions and encircled the army enclave and nearby air base in 2014.

The United Nations said in August it estimated 93,000 civilians were living there in “extremely difficult” conditions. During the siege, high-altitude air drops have supplied them.

Deir al-Zor lies southeast of Islamic State’s former base in Raqqa.

Hemmed in on all sides, Islamic State fighters have fallen back on footholds downstream of Deir al-Zor in towns near the Iraq border.

The Deir al-Zor gains “form an important launching pad for expanding military operations in the area,” the army said.

For Damascus, the latest advance caps months of steady progress as the army and its allies turned from victories over rebels in western Syria to push east against Islamic State.

The eastwards march has on occasion brought them into conflict with U.S.-backed forces.

Still, the rival campaigns have mostly stayed out of each other’s way, and the U.S.-led coalition has stressed it is not seeking war with Assad.

In a statement on Sunday an alliance of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias allied to Damascus, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, accused Washington of trying to hinder the advance to Deir al-Zor.

An official in the pro-Assad alliance said senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani was closely monitoring fighting, a sign of Iran’s close military involvement.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis; Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut and Kinda Makieh in Damascus; Writing by John Davison; Editing by Andrew Roche and Toby Davis)

Boko Haram resurgence kills 381 civilians since April: Amnesty

ABUJA (Reuters) – The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed 381 civilians in Nigeria and Cameroon since the beginning of April, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday, a testament to the militant group’s deadly resurgence.

The Nigerian military has repeatedly said Boko Haram has been “defeated”. But in recent months, it has carried out a string of lethal suicide bombings and other high-profile attacks on towns and an oil exploration team.

The number of deaths since April 1 is more than double that for the preceding five months, Amnesty said.

Boko Haram has killed 223 civilians in Nigeria since April. The forcing of women and girls to act as suicide bombers has driven the sharp rise in deaths in northeast Nigeria and northern Cameroon, said Amnesty.

“Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can,” said Alioune Tine, Amnesty’s director for West and Central Africa.

In Nigeria, the deadliest attack was in July, when the militants abducted an oil exploration team with staff of the state oil firm and a university while they were traveling in a military convoy. Boko Haram killed 40 people and kidnapped three others, Amnesty said.

Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed 81 people in Nigeria since the start of April, said Amnesty.

In Cameroon, the Islamist insurgency has killed at least 158 people in the same period. That is also linked to a rise in suicide bombings, the deadliest of which killed 16 people in Waza in July, the rights group said.

More than 2.5 million people have been displaced or become refugees in the Lake Chad region – which includes Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad – while 7.2 million people lack secure access to food because of the conflict with Boko Haram, according to the United Nations.

The insurgency has left more than 20,000 people dead since it began in 2009.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten; editing by Andrew Roche)

Philippine army says taking fire from women, children in Marawi battle

Smoke billows from a burning building as government troops continue their assault on its 105th day of clearing operations against pro-IS militants who have seized control of large parts of Marawi city, southern Philippines September 4, 2017.

By Manuel Mogato

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Philippine troops fighting Islamic State-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance from women and children, the military said on Monday, as troops make a final push to end a conflict that has raged for more than 100 days.

Ground forces were braced for higher casualties amid fierce fighting in Marawi City on the island of Mindanao, where the field of battle has shrank to a small area in a commercial heart infested with snipers, and littered with booby traps.

“We are now in the final phase of our operations and we are expecting more intense and bloody fighting. We may suffer heavier casualties as the enemy becomes more desperate,” Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, who heads the military in Western Mindanao, told reporters.

He said the number of fighters was diminishing and a small number of women and children, most likely family members of the rebels, were now engaged in combat.

“Our troops in the field are seeing women and children shooting at our troops so that’s why it seems they are not running out of fighters.”

More than 800 people have been killed in the battle, most of them insurgents, since May 23 when the militants occupied large parts of the predominantly Muslim town.

The battle is the biggest security challenge in years for the mostly Catholic Philippines, even though it has a long history of Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao, an island of 22 million people that has been placed under martial law until the end of the year.

The protracted clashes and resilience of the rebels has fanned fears that Philippine groups loyal to Islamic State, and with ties to Indonesian and Malaysian militants, have formed an alliance that is well-organized, funded and armed, and serious about carving out its own territory in Mindanao.

Citing information provided by four hostages who had escaped from the rebels, Galvez said there were some 56 Christian hostages – most of them women – and about 80 male residents may have been forced to take up arms and fight the military.

The fighting was concentrated in an area around a mosque about a quarter of a square kilometer. He said soldiers were taking control of an average 35 buildings a day and at that rate, it could be three weeks before the city was under government control.

 

AIR STRIKES

Fighting in Marawi was intense on Monday, with heavy gunfire and explosions ringing out across the picturesque, lakeside town, the heart of which has been devastated by near-daily government air strikes.

Helicopters circled above to provide air cover for ground troops as fighting raged, with bursts of smoke rising above the skyline as bombs landed on rebel positions.

Galvez said intelligence showed the rebels’ military commander, Abdullah Maute, may have been killed last month in an air strike.

Postings on Facebook and chatter over the past two days on Telegram, a messaging application used by Islamic State and its sympathizers, had carried tributes to Abdullah, referring to him by one of his pseudonyms, he said.

“There is no 100 percent confirmation until we see his cadaver but this is enough to presume he died already,” he said.

The military has contradictory statements about the status of the rebel leaders over the past few months.

Abdullah Maute and brother Omarkhayam are the Middle East-educated leaders of a militant clan known as the Maute group that has gained notoriety in the past two years due to its ability to engage the army for long periods.

Under the name Dawla Islamiya, the Maute group has formed an alliance with Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a pro-Islamic State faction of another group, Abu Sayyaf.

Galvez said the army’s intelligence indicated both Omarkhayam and Hapilon, Islamic State’s anointed “emir” in Southeast Asia, were still in the Marawi battle.

 

 

 

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

Hezbollah, Syrian army seek new route for stranded Islamic State convoy

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Syrian army are seeking a new route for a convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families bound for the jihadists’ stronghold in eastern Syria, a commander in the military alliance backing Syria’s government said.

The convoy of 17 buses carrying about 300 lightly armed fighters and 300 civilians has been stuck in Syria’s eastern desert since Tuesday, with a U.S.-led coalition using air strikes to stop it from entering Islamic State territory.

“Work is under way to change the course of the convoy for a second time,” the commander said.

The fighters traveling on the buses surrendered their enclave straddling Syria’s border with Lebanon on Monday in a truce deal that allowed them to join their jihadist comrades on the other side of the country.

It angered both the U.S.-led coalition, which does not want more battle-hardened militants in an area where it is operating, and Iraq, which sees them as a threat because the convoy’s proposed destination of Al-Bukamal is close to its own border.

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Russia and Iran-backed militias including Hezbollah, is fighting Islamic State as it pushes eastwards across the desert.

A Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said dozens of the Islamic State fighters had left the stranded convoy in an attempt to reach IS-held Deir al-Zor province by themselves.

The commander in the pro-Assad military alliance denied news reports that said a hundred of the jihadists had already reached Islamic State territory there.

The coalition has sworn to continue monitoring the convoy and disrupting any effort it makes to cross into jihadist territory, but will not bomb it directly because it contains civilians.

It has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east towards the Iraqi border, according to a statement issued late on Friday.

On Wednesday, the coalition said its jets had cratered a road and destroyed a bridge to stop the convoy progressing, and had bombed some of the jihadists’ comrades coming the other way to meet it.

Hezbollah and the Syrian army on Thursday changed the route of the convoy from Humeima, a hamlet deep in the southeast desert, to a location further north, but coalition jets again struck near that route, the commander said.

“It was considered a threat, meaning there was no passage that way,” the commander said. On Friday, coalition jets ran mock air raids over the convoy, the commander added.

“It caused panic among the Daeshis. The militants are scared the convoy will be bombarded as soon as it enters Deir al-Zor,” the commander said, using a plural form of the Arabic acronym for Islamic state to refer to its fighters.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Helen Popper)