Iraq crisis: Kurds retake strategic mountain from IS

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Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have recaptured a strategically important mountain from Islamic State (IS) militants, helped by US air strikes.
Mount Zartak overlooks a plain that stretches to Mosul, the city seized by IS in June.
The mountain fell to the Islamists last month when they staged a lightning attack on Iraqi Kurdistan.
Since then Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters have been slowly pushing back, assisted by US air power.
Mosul is a mainly Sunni city which Kurdish forces say they do not intend to recapture on their own.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Iraq says Mount Zartak was retaken in a short, sharp battle that left more than 30 IS fighters dead.

 

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Under the gunThe Kurdish forces said US air strikes had made a "big difference".
Nearby villages still occupied by the Islamic militants are now at the mercy of Kurdish guns that dominate the entire plain of Nineveh, our correspondent adds.
The commander of the Kurdish elite commandos who took the mountain, Gene Aziz Oweisi, told the BBC that its capture was important, not only for the defence of Kurdistan.
"For the Iraqis it's important too because it's a step towards taking back Mosul," he said.
Last week, Iraqi state media said senior Islamic State military commander Abu Alaa al-Iraqi had been killed in an air strike on Mosul, along with an aide to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Neither death has been confirmed.
IS, also known as Isis, has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring the land it holds a "caliphate".
The United Nations and human rights groups have accused IS of committing atrocities, including mass killings of ethnic and religious minorities.

 

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[h=1]Taking the fight to the heart of the caliphate: Syrian government airstrikes kill at least 29 in Islamic State stronghold city of Raqqa[/h]

• Eight blasts tore through IS-held north eastern city
• Nine extremist fighters killed alongside twenty civilians
• Most of dead killed when missile struck crowded bakery
• Islamic State fighters took hold of city earlier this year
• Local reports of destruction say area is being 'silently slaughtered'

At least 29 people have been killed by Syrian government airstrikes in the Islamic State stronghold city of Raqqa.


Eight blasts tore through the north eastern region today as President Assad's army takes further steps to regain control from the extremist group.


Nine IS fighters are thought to have been killed alongside 20 civilians, most of whom died when a missile struck a crowded bakery.

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Syrian government air strikes killed at least 29 people in the Islamic State stronghold city of Raqqa today

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Images and footage posted on social media and the Raqqa Media Centre showed rubble-filled streets in the north eastern city




Videos of the destruction were uploaded to social media websites accompanied, in one case, with the chilling observation of one activist who said: 'Raqqa is being silently slaughtered'.


Most of the dead were killed after the first blast which struck the Andalous bakery, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.




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Abu Ibrahim, an activist posting on a media collective, said one local morgue was inundated with charred bodies, making formal identification difficult.
He added eight members of the same family died in the strikes.
The Raqqa Media Centre uploaded a video of the aftermath showing hollowed cars and ravaged buildings.


It comes as Iraq's air force struck a hospital in an Islamic State-controlled town, killing seven patients and wounding 22 others.


The attack near Kirkuk city is one of a series of raids by war aircraft in the area according to witnesses.


Few journalists have been able to access conflict-torn Raqqa since IS fighters took hold of the city, home to an estimated 500,000 people, earlier this year.

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Residents fight to extinguish a fire after eight explosions tore through the region on Saturday

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Twenty civilians died in the blasts, with the majority thought to have been killed when a missile struck a busy bakery

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The city has been largely cut-off from the world's media after being taken by IS fighters earlier this year. Residents examine the sky for military aircraft after today's strikes



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The strikes come after Islamic State fighters swept into neighbouring Iraq, seizing parts of the country in a declared proto-state straddling of the border.
There has not been government comment on the airstrikes.
In a separate incident, a Syrian military helicopter is thought to have dropped a barrel bomb on a bus station in a rebel-held neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo killing 15 people.


Residents of Haydariyeh were still pulling bodies from beneath rubble on Saturday evening in the city's latest tragedy following months of unrelenting bloodshed.


Syrian forces are alleged to have unleashed hundreds of the explosive-filled barrels in Aleppo since anti-government rebels seized the country's second largest city earlier this year.



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[h=3]SECOND LEBANESE SOLDIER BEHEADED BY ISLAMIC STATE MILITANTS [/h]The mother of a Lebanese soldier claims her son is the second to have been beheaded by IS militants after seeing photographs of the apparent execution online.
Zeinab Noun said her 20-year-old son, Abbas Medlej, was 'sacrificed' after supporters of the militant Sunni group posted images celebrating his death on Twitter.
Medlej was among a group of 19 Lebanese soldiers taken captive after the extremist group stormed a border town earlier this month.
His captors claim to have killed him when he tried to escape after pretending to go to the bathroom.
A caption posted with the images on a Twitter account used to publish Islamic State statements named the soldier as Abbas Medlij, identifying him as a Shiite Muslim.


His mother urged revenge on the militant group, with the soldier's uncle threatening: 'Every Syrian in Lebanon is a target'.


His death would be the fourth publicised beheading at the hands of the Islamic State since it swept regions of Syria and Iraq last month.


American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were killed in similar circumstances, their murders filmed for propaganda which has circled the globe.



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[h=1]'My son's been slaughtered': Mother's agony as she learns of Lebanese soldier son's beheading by IS militants on Twitter after he tried to escape captivity[/h]

• Abbas Medlej is the second Lebanese soldier to be beheaded by IS
• The 20-year-old was kidnapped last month when militants stormed border town
• Mother learned of murder from photographs believed to be of young soldier on Twitter

.The mother of the second Lebanese soldier to have been beheaded by IS militants learned of her son's gruesome murder after seeing photographs of it on Twitter.

Zeinab Noun's 20-year-old son, Abbas Medlej, was among 19 Lebanese soldiers captured by the extremist militants last month when a troop of fighters stormed a border town.


The 20-year-old's murder was depicted in graphic photographs posted from a Twitter account used by ISIS.


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Abbas Medlej is the second Lebanese soldier to have been beheaded by IS militants after being captured by the extremist group in a border town last month. This image was shared by users on Twitter claiming to show the 20-year-old's beheading




Clutching a passport sized photograph of her son, Noun said this evening: 'My son has been sacrificed.'


A spokesman for Lebanon's military said it was investigating the images.


A statement believed to have been released by IS militants on Twitter read: 'In the name of god the merciful, in the Islamic country of Damascus city Kalmoun area, today and in a disgraceful way, the Lebanese soldier name Abbas Madlej tried to escape from prison.


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'He tried to shoot our comrade soldiers of our country.


'Thank god we managed to control the situation and neutralise him.


'His fate was slaughter.

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This image, thought to be of the soldier before he was captured, has circulated on social media

'Thank god. God meant it to be.'


Medlej, from the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbak, was taken hostage along with 19 other soldiers when the Syrian-based IS militants ravaged a Lebanese border town last month.


His beheading is the second of a Lebanese soldier and fourth publicised execution at the hands of the increasingly barbaric Islamic State.


The Shiite Muslim was being held by the group of Sunni militants when he attempted to escape by pretending to go to the bathroom.


Today his uncle confirmed the images were of the young soldier, threatening: 'Every Syrian in Lebanon is a target'.


The young man's mother reiterated his vow, warning: 'We have to take our revenge from those apostates'.


The Syrian conflict has inflamed tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, with the latter thought to be in support of President Bashar Assad's regime.


His death comes after that of Sgt Ali al-Sayyed whose death has been protested by mourners this week.


Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim, went missing alongside Medlej last month. It is thought there are also Christian hostages among them.


Thousands of people protested in the streets during Sgt Sayyed's funeral in the northern town of Fnaydek.


Rocking his flag-laden coffin from side to side in a traditional act to symbolise his youth, angry crowds claimed their government had neglected those kidnapped by IS.


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Jewish Museum gun suspect 'was captor in Syria'

Mehdi Nemmouche was arrested in Marseille and extradited to Belgium





A freed French hostage has claimed that one of the Islamists who held him captive in Syria was the suspect in the Jewish Museum shooting in Brussels.



Nicolas Henin told Le Point magazine that Mehdi Nemmouche regularly tortured captives in Syria in 2013.

Four people were shot dead in the attack at the museum in May this year.

Mr Nemmouche was arrested in France shortly afterwards and extradited to Belgium for questioning. He faces a hearing on his detention next week.

Marseille arrestMr Henin was among four journalists freed in April.

He told Le Point magazine that Mr Nemmouche was a feared figure.

Mr Henin said: "When Nemmouche was not singing, he was torturing. He was part of a small group of Frenchmen whose visits would terrify the 50-odd Syrian prisoners held in the cells nearby.

Police released security camera footage showing the suspect shortly after the attack on the museum

Flowers are placed outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels






"Every night the blows would start raining down in the room, where I was also interrogated. The torture lasted all night, until dawn prayers."


Mr Henin's lawyer, Marie-Laure Ingouf, told Agence France-Presse that "all the hostages" confirmed Mr Nemmouche was one of the jailers.


"They lived alongside him for several months," she said.
A judge in Brussels is scheduled to rule on Mr Nemmouche's detention order at a hearing on Friday.






Nicolas Henin said he was "certain" the fighter he met in Syria was Mehdi Nemmouch

Mr Henin was held for a period with American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, both of whom were recently beheaded by the Islamic State group.


Mr Nemmouche, who is of Franco-Algerian origin, appealed against the extradition from France,
fearing he might be sent on to Israel, but lost the case.
Two of the victims of the 24 May attack were Israeli tourists. A French female volunteer at the museum and a Belgian employee were also killed.


Mehdi Nemmouche is from Roubaix near the border with Belgium and was arrested in Marseille during a routine customs check as he arrived on a coach from Amsterdam a few days after the shootings.
Police said he was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun matching those used in the attack.


Prosecutors said that after spending a year in Syria he had returned to Europe, flying to Germany in March.

 

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[h=1]Jihadi John to be unmasked 'within days': Identity of masked executioner to be revealed as FBI prepares to arrest 12 of his British associates[/h]

• British and American authorities say they know identity of hostage killer
• FBI team flown into Britain last month is now closing in on 12 suspects in UK
• Believed to have provided money, contacts and helped him travel to Syria
• Suspects include several from West Midlands already known to services

Anti-terror police are set to arrest up to 12 British associates of Islamic State executioner Jihadi John, it has been reported.
British and American authorities say they know the identity of the hostage killer - and are set to reveal it within days.
The executioner is one of four British jihadis known as the 'Beatles' holding hostages in Syria.

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British and American authorities say they know the identity of the hostage killer 'Jihadi John' - and are set to reveal it within days. They are now in a race against time to save the life of British hostage David Haines






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Sources told the Mirror that anti-terror experts from the UK and U.S. know the identity of three of them and are tracking down the group.

An FBI team flown into Britian last month is now closing in on 12 suspects in the UK, who are believed to have provided money, contacts and helped Jihadi John travel to Syria.
An American source told the paper the 'hardened terrorists' include several from the West Midlands who are already known to UK security services.


.They said : 'We are 99.9% certain now as to who ‘John’ is but investigators have had to tread softly in charting and approaching his wider network in the UK.
'Familiar names of what can only be described as hardened extremists with a jihadi background have cropped up in this investigation.'

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American journalist James Foley was the first to be beheaded by the masked executioner. He is one of four British jihadis holding hostages in Syria known as the 'Beatles'

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Gruesome footage of the execution of fellow American hostage Steven Sotloff was released last week





The source said the identity of the executioners would most likely be revealed officially within the coming days.
Gruesome footage showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley was released last month by the Islamic State, followed by a video of the execution of fellow American hostage Steven Sotloff last week.





Authorities are now in a race against time to save the life of British hostage, aid worker David Haines, who the masked jihadi has revealed is next for execution.

It comes after it was reported that father-of-two Mr Haines has been struggling to hold down food and suffering from acute gastric and other health problems in his cramped captivity.

The disclosure that Haines, 44, has been suffering physical difficulties alongside inevitable mental turmoil must have added to the distress of his wife Dragana, who lives in Croatia with their four-year-old daughter, and family in Scotland during their agonising wait for news.
A security source familiar with the cases described the hostages’ internment as a ‘living hell’.

Mr Haines, originally from Perth in Scotland, has been badly tortured, especially during the first six months after his abduction in March last year at a refugee camp in northern Syria.

IS videos show British and US captives dressed in orange jumpsuits, a clear reference to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The most recent video showed a gaunt Haines held by th

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