ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

The Washington Post.

Syria turns to harsh recruitment measures to boost army ranks
By Hugh Naylor

The Syrian regime has intensified efforts to reverse substantial manpower losses to its military with large-scale mobilizations of reservists as well as sweeping arrest campaigns and new regulations to stop desertions and draft-dodging.

The measures have been imposed in recent months because of soaring casualties among forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, as well as apparent increases in desertions and evasions of compulsory military service, analysts say. Some speculate that the moves also could be part of stepped-up military efforts to win more ground from rebels in anticipation of possible peace talks, which Russia has attempted to restart to end nearly four years of conflict.

But the government’s measures have added to already simmering anger among its support base over battlefield deaths. The anger may be triggering a backlash that in turn could undermine Assad’s war aims, Syrians and analysts say.

"These things have obviously angered core constituents, and they show just how desperate the regime is to come up with warm bodies to fill the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army," said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow and Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

In October, the government boosted activations of reserve forces. Tens of thousands of reservists have been called up, and soldiers and militiamen have erected scores of checkpoints and increased raids on cafes and homes to apprehend those who refuse to comply. Similar measures target those who avoid regular military service, a compulsory 18-month period for men 18 and older.

In recent weeks, the regime also began stepping up threats to dismiss and fine state employees who fail to fulfill military obligations, according to Syrian news websites and activists. New restrictions imposed this fall, they say, have made it all but impossible for men in their 20s to leave the country.

Since the start of the uprising in 2011, authorities have used arrests and intimidation to halt desertions, defections and evasion of military service - but not to the extent seen recently, Syrians and analysts say. Men who are dragooned into the army appear to be deserting in larger numbers, they say, and the government’s crackdown is driving many of these men as well as more of the many draft-evaders into hiding or abroad.

"I can’t go back. All these things would make it certain that I’d be forced into the military," said Mustafa, 25, a Syrian from Damascus who fled to Lebanon in September because of the new measures. Citing safety concerns, he asked that only his first name be used.

Joseph, a 34-year-old Christian from Damascus, learned two weeks ago that his name was on a list of thousands of people who would soon be activated for reserve duty. Having completed his compulsory military service in 2009, he wants to flee Syria.

"Of course I don’t want to return to the military," Joseph said by telephone from the capital. He also requested that only his first name be used.

A report issued this month by the Institute for the Study of War says the number of soldiers in the Syrian military has fallen by more than half since the start of the conflict, from roughly 325,000 to 150,000, because of casualties, defections and desertions. Combat fatalities alone have surpassed 44,000, according to the report, which used data from Syrian activists, monitoring groups and media reports.

Christopher Kozak, a Syria analyst at the institute who wrote the report, said in an email that reservist mobilizations and efforts to stop desertions appear to be partly related to the departure in recent months of pro-regime militiamen. Scores of these largely Shiite fighters, who come from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, left for Iraq in the summer to counter an offensive by the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni group.

Iranian fighters in particular have been crucial in helping the Syrian government restructure its forces. One such effort was the founding of the National Defense Force, a militia composed of paid volunteers. The foreign fighters helped Assad’s military win back strategic territory from rebels.

Kozak wrote that these supplemental militias "are no longer sufficient to meet the regime’s projected needs - spurring the regime to reinvigorate its conscription efforts" in the military.

Imad Salamey, a politics professor at the Lebanese American University, said that efforts to boost numbers in the military are partly driven by concern that Assad’s allies, Iran and Russia, appear increasingly interested in a negotiated settlement to the Syrian civil war. In recent weeks, Russia, with Iranian backing, has engaged in diplomatic efforts to restart the Geneva peace talks that collapsed in February.

"There is rising urgency in these countries for a settlement to the conflict and the regime senses this, so it’s trying to win as much ground as possible to strengthen its negotiating position," he said.

Yezid Sayigh, a Syria expert and senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said economic crises in Iran and Russia because of falling oil prices could affect their support for the Assad government, which until now has prevented its collapse. "The question for me really is whether Iran and Russia are going to push the regime harder to engage in diplomatic efforts," he said.

He added that a worsening problem for the government is anger among its supporters over mounting casualties. Rare protests over the issue have been held by the minority Alawite population, the backbone of the military.

Other minority groups, such as Syria’s Druze community, also show signs of dissent. In their villages in southern Syria, most Druze families have refused to allow their sons to join the military. In an incident this month, Druze villagers kidnapped government intelligence officers in an attempt to free a man apprehended for refusing to serve in the military.

"The people are turning on the regime here because they don’t want their children to die in this war. They don’t see the point of this war," said Qusay, 22, a resident of the mostly Druze city of Suwayda and an engineering student at Damascus University who asked that only his first name be used.

"If the regime tries to push us to serve, there will be a fight."

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east ... s-1.321421

[Anthea]

The growth of the Islamic State in Syria

Map 1: March 10, 2014



Map 2: January 1, 2015



Unless America and the coalition work with the Syrian government to rid Syria of ALL the armed rebel forces

A year from today there will NOT be a country called Syria

[Anthea]

The Telegraph

Coalition launches airstrikes on 'capital' of Islamic State

US-led coalition warplanes carried out more than a dozen airstrikes overnight in and around the Islamic State group's de facto capital in northeastern Syria, three activist groups said Friday.

The air raids on the outskirts of Raqqa were the heaviest coalition strikes on the city along the Euphrates River since Islamic State group militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his F-16 jet went down near the city on Dec. 24.

There were unconfirmed reports that coalition troops and helicopters also carried out a raid near Raqqa aimed at freeing British and American hostages still being held by the Islamic State. The reports, which claimed the raid was unsuccessful, could not be verified.

The anti-Islamic State activist group called Raqqa is Silently Being Slaughtered reported on Friday at least 13 coalition strikes. It said the Furoussiyeh area and the Division 17 military base were among the targets hit.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist collective also confirmed the air raids.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... State.html

[Anthea]

Mail Online

All-female Islamic State police squad tortured new mother with spiked clamp device called a 'biter' after she was caught breastfeeding in public
By Damien Gayle

Raqqa's al-Khansa brigade uses the bear trap-like device to torture women
'Batol' was arrested in the city centre because her veil was see-through
Dozens of Western radicals are believed to have joined al-Khansa brigade

The so-called Islamic State's all-female police unit tortured a breastfeeding mother by clamping her chest with a barbaric spiked clamp, it is claimed.

The al-Khansa brigade, the female religious police in Raqqa, the insurgency's de facto capital in Syria, is said to use the bear trap-like device to punish women who defy their strict laws.

Opposition media group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently claim that in one case it was used on a 24-year-old woman who was arrested while breastfeeding her baby in the city centre.


Police force: Dozens of Britons are understood to have joined the Al-Khansa Brigade in ISIS' Syrian de facto capital Raqqa, helping to patrol the city with guns and daggers hidden beneath their religious robes

The woman, given the name Batol to conceal her true identity, was quoted as saying: 'I was in the market buying a few items when Khansa battalion came and arrested me on the grounds that the niqab [Islamic face covering] which I was wearing does not meet Sharia requirement because it was transparent[.]

'[T]hey took me to the "Hesba" headquarters in the city, and escorted me to the torture chamber, then they asked me to choose between a whip or a "biter"[.]

'I did not know what a "biter" was and I thought it is a reduced sentence, I was afraid of whipping, so I choose the "biter", then they brought a sharp object that has a a lot of teeth and held me, placing it on my chest and pressing it strongly, I screamed from pain and I was badly injured. They later took me to the hospital.

'I felt then that my femininity has been destroyed completely, we no longer afford to live this way, I was not the only one that was tortured with this instrument, there were a lot of women in the headquarters and their situation was tragic.'

Raqqa's al-Khansa brigade has achieved notoriety in recent months after dozens of British women who have travelled to join the Islamic State's insurgency boasted of joining the police unit.

They used social media to brag about doling out savage beatings, punishment lashings, ordering executions and managing brothels where thousands of Yazidi sex slaves are believed to be imprisoned and raped daily.

Britons including privately-educated Glaswegian Aqsa Mahmood, 20, and Lewisham-born Khadijah Dare, 22, are understood to have joined, helping to patrol Raqqa with guns and daggers hidden beneath their robes.

The group operates as an ultra-oppressive police force monitoring the behaviour of females in Raqqa - meting out brutal punishments to anyone wearing shoes that aren't black, or those wearing veils made from the wrong material.


Armed and dangerous: Members of the Al-Khansa Brigade are reportedly paid a monthly salary of £100 and, thanks to them wearing full niqabs covering every inch of skin, operate quite literally under cover

While Batol's story could not be verified, it does fit with other stories of the behaviour of al-Khansa extremists, who are among the Islamic State's most feared members in the areas the insurgency controls.

In September Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, a member of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, told VICE News: 'The most difficult thing for us, is the al-Khansa Brigade...

'I don't know who's from al-Khansa and who isn't. So when I get out my cell phone and I am taking photos of the city I don't know if any of them are looking at me or not.'

'If you are taking photos and one of the women from al-Khansa is looking at you, they will catch you immediately, and you'll be executed immediately. This is a big problem for us,' he added.

Mr Raqqawi described how the majority of women in al-Khansa are foreigners 'from the UK, from the U.S, Dutch, Chechen.'

He added that even though many of them can only speak a few words of Arabic, their reputation is such that men and women alike fear their presence.


Guns and children: In September a Syrian woman agreed to carry a hidden camera to film daily life in Raqqa

A man also told activists that he was flogged and thrown in a cell for nothing more than smoking a cigarette, another vice now banned under the Islamic State's hardline regime.

Sami, 25, was quoted as saying: 'ISIS's Hesba bureau arrested me on charges of smoking and they took me to their headquarters and then put me to the torture chamber[.]

'[T]he room floor was full of blood, and then they flogged me 40 times and threw me in a cell, there were a lot of detainees, when I looked at them I saw death in their eyes and their situation was pitiful[.]

'[D]uring the three nights I spent at the headquarters, I heard the screams of women and men who ISIS was torturing.

'[T]o hear the screams of the people of my city when they are being tortured at the hands of strangers is a torture of another type, which has destroyed my dignity.

'It seems that this city is no longer ours, and we have become strangers here, then I began to seriously consider leaving it.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ublic.html

[Anthea]

This picture should not shock Americans - where people are legally allowed to carry concealed weapons - and toddlers are taught to fire guns

A woman was accidentally shot and killed at a Walmart store in northern Idaho on Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded handgun from her purse that then went off, a county sheriff said.

The 29-year-old woman was shopping at a Walmart in Hayden, Idaho, with the toddler seated in her shopping cart when the incident occurred, Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said in a written statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/ ... I820141230

Guns and children - never a good idea whatever country it is in

[Anthea]

BBC Video

INSIDE KOBANI

phpBB [video]

If you have problems with video go to link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kmra-P ... e=youtu.be

[Anthea]

How did they brainwash this - what appears to be very young man - into becoming a suicide bomber

And after watching this why would anyone want to follow him

There is NO GLORY in killing

phpBB [video]

Published on 4 Jan 2015

IŞİD (ISIS) ISIL الدولة الإسلامية Ebu Bekir Bağdadi İslamic State KOBANE KOBANİ AYN AL-ARAB YPG PKK PYD PEŞMERGE İRAN IRAK SURİYE SYRİA IRAQI TURKEY US AMERİ. The.

IŞİD (ISIS) ISIL الدولة الإسلامية Ebu Bekir Bağdadi İslamic State KOBANE KOBANİ AYN AL-ARAB YPG PKK PYD PEŞMERGE İRAN IRAK SURİYE SYRİA IRAQI TURKEY US AMERİ.

The Siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIL or ISIS) militants on 16 September 2014, in order to capture.

[Anthea]

Whatever Happened to besieged Kurdish City of Kobane?
By Juan Cole

Kurdish forces (including both the local YPG and Peshmerga units from Iraqi Kurdistan), and supported by Free Syrian Army troops and coalition air strikes, have largely recovered Kobane from rule by Daesh (called in the West ISIL or ISIS).

Kurdish forces have recovered control of the downtown where the government buildings are, as well as some 80% of the city. Daesh fighters still have about 20% of it, especially in the south. The air force of the US and other allied countries has conducted air strikes on Daesh fighters and equipment, killing 14 fighters.. The latter they have been much weakened. Kurdish forces are preparing to try to take some villages in the vicinity of Kobane, as well.

It is so far a remarkable story of resilience and even come-back. Kobane, which Arabs call `Ayn al-`Arab, has held out against all odds. Neighboring Turkey would not help because the YPG, which is an offshoot of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is the major local fighting force. Turkey did allow Peshmerga paramilitary units, loyal to the Kurdistan Regional Government of northern Iraq, into Kobane to fight Daesh.

Kobane lies in the north of the Syrian province of al-Raqqa, which is completely in Daesh hands. It is not an old Syrian city but a new town from a century ago, that grew up as a railway stop and then was used as a camp by the Ottomans for expelled Armenians. Kurds settled there from the countryside as Armenians emigrated elsewhere. There are two large longstanding Kurdish population centers in northern Syria that on the surface looked to have much better chances of holding out against Daesh.

Kobane’s position as a hold-out was quite difficult. Thousands of Kurds there and in its environs have fled to Turkey as refugees. That Daesh hasn’t succeeded there shows that coalition air strikes have attrited its heavy weaponry, leveling the playing field for the Kurdish defenders.

Air strikes were directed Monday at Daesh crude oil depots, as well, seeking to deny the terrorist gang of its income from smuggled petroleum.

http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/whateve ... ieged.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syrian opposition figure declines Moscow parley later this month

Prominent Syrian opposition figure Mouaz Al Khatib said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a Moscow meeting with Syrian government officials, in a further blow to Russian efforts to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.

"We decided to decline ... this is because the conditions we think are necessary to ensure the success of the meeting are not available," the moderate Islamist said in an online post.

When he headed the Western-backed Syrian political opposition in 2012, Khatib called for negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad to pave the way for a handover of power.

Russia, one of Assad's top allies, had extended invitations to senior opposition figures within Syria and outside to meet Syrian government representatives in late January.

The main Turkish-based National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has already shunned the meeting and said any of its members who attended would be expelled.

The role of Assad in Syria's future is a major stumbling block to any settlement in a war that has killed around 200,000 people and displaced millions since 2011.

The rise of hardline jihadist groups like Islamic State, at the expense of Western-backed rebel fighters, has complicated matters further.

Most of Syria's opposition considers Russia and Iran enemies without whose help Assad would not have survived the insurgency.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Andrew Roche)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... 2E20150109

Anthea: There you have it - a typical group of idiots who have no interest in bringing the suffering of millions to an end - they are only interested in themselves and as in the case of Mouaz Al Khatib - their self-aggrandisement

The fighting needs to be ended quickly - if not the Islamic State will continue to grow in strength and hold on to it's control the majority of Syria for many years to come

[Anthea]

AFP

Car bombs killed at least 16 people, most of them civilians, when they targeted Al-Qaeda and Kurdish fighters Saturday in Syria's northern province of Aleppo, a monitor said.

The first bomb hit a checkpoint manned by fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria franchise, killing 12 people, said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman.

Most of the dead were civilians but included two Nusra fighters, he said, adding that several people were also wounded.

The second bomb detonated less than 30 kilometres (18 miles) away at a checkpoint held by Kurdish fighters, killing four people, two of them civilians and causing an unspecified number of injuries.

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-car-bombs-k ... 30158.html

[Anthea]

Mail Online

Is this the Islamic State's youngest suicide bomber? Syrian boy 'aged about 14' shown detonating a lorry full of explosives
By Tom Wyke

New pictures emerge on social media showing young suicide bomber
Syrian boy named as Abu al-Hassan al-Shami who is thought to be 14
Images show him sitting in an armoured vehicle holding a hand grenade
Final image shows huge explosion after the detonation of armoured lorry
One ISIS supporter on social media said that 'his youth doesn't stop him'
Comes just hours after ISIS released new video of another lorry bomb
Video appears to show British fighter, Abu Abdullah al-Britani in the truck
According to Islamic State linked media, al-Britani killed ‘dozens of apostates’

Shocking pictures have emerged on social media showing what could be the Islamic State’s youngest suicide bomber.

The boy has been named as Abu al-Hassan al-Shami, a Syrian fighter who appears to be no older than 14 years old.

In a photo series, entitled 'Battle of Vengeance for the Mother of the Believers (Aisha)', the youngster is thought to be one of two Syrian fighters, who carried out a suicide truck bombings in the Iraqi province of Salahuddin.



He shown sitting in the driver’s seat of the large lorry filled with barrels of explosives.

The vehicle has been reinforced with plated armour, leaving the young driver with only a small rectangular window to navigate the final journey for his deadly vehicle.

In his hands, the young fighter appears to be playing with a hand grenade and the barrel of his AK-47 rifle can be seen resting near the steering wheel between his legs.

Whilst his age has yet to be independently verified, it is possible that al-Shami could be the Islamic State’s youngest suicide bomber in Iraq.

It is unclear whether video footage will be subsequently released with a final testimony of the young fighter.

A final image shows a huge explosion after the detonation of the lorry, killing him and a number of Iraqi security forces. The attack happened near the ancient Iraqi city of Samarra, currently still held by the Iraqi army.

It also shows a big ball of fire erupting into the orange sky, with pieces of shrapnel flying in all directions across the arid landscape.

One ISIS supporter on social media commented: ‘Abu al-Hassan al-Shami the martyr. His youth doesn’t stop him from supporting his religion.’

Link to Full Article Photos & Video:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... sives.html

[Anthea]

Up to 5,000 European fighters in Syria pose risk: Europol

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of Europe's police organization Europol said on Tuesday the continent was facing its greatest security threat in more than a decade, with as many as 5,000 Europeans who have joined fighting in Syria posing a risk to their homelands.

Europol Director Rob Wainwright also echoed warnings from spy chiefs and some political leaders in the wake of last week's deadly attacks by Islamist militants in Paris that European security agencies faced a "capability gap" which could leave their countries at risk.

"It is certainly the most serious terrorist threat Europe has faced since 9/11," Wainwright told a British parliamentary committee, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Many European countries are on high alert following last week's attack by Islamist gunmen on a satirical journal and a kosher supermarket in Paris which killed 17, with France planning to deploy 10,000 soldiers.

European security officials have long warned that radicalized fighters returning from Syria pose a threat and Wainright said 3,000-5,000 EU nationals could come back with the intent to carry out operations similar to the Paris attacks.

He told British lawmakers his agency had collated a database of 2,500 suspects.

Wainwright also warned of a risk of sleeper cells, noting that the two attackers who carried out the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo weekly, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi had traveled to Yemen in 2011 for training.

"The problem we are dealing these days is not just about Syria and Iraq it is about other terrorist networks around the world, in Africa, in the Arab peninsula for example, that have franchise movements of the al Qaeda brand," he said.

He said Europol had passed "60 urgent intelligence leads" to French police following the attacks.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to give security and intelligence services powers to monitor Internet communications, responding to calls from spy chiefs.

Wainright said highly encrypted online communications were for now effectively out of reach of law enforcement agencies. "The reality is today the security authorities don't have the necessary capability, I think, to fully protect society from these kind of threats," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/5-000-european-fi ... 39387.html

[Piling]

ISIS and Boko Haram used kids under teens for suicidal attack, ISIS shows a video of a Kazakh kid executing 'Russian spies' but the Mufti of Egypt is scandalized by Charlie Hebdo cover.

[Anthea]

The Telegraph

Islamic State fighters mass on Lebanon border and threaten to launch attacks across it

Exclusive: How Islamic State fighters have been training new recruits close to Lebanon – and could launch cross-border attacks
By Carol Malouf and Ruth Sherlock in Arsal

Islamic State fighters in Syria, massed close to the Lebanese border, are threatening to launch attacks across it, the Telegraph has witnessed.

The group has been training new recruits and defectors from smaller rebel factions in Qalamoun, a militarily strategically important province in the south-west of Syria that borders Lebanon.

Several of those smaller rebel groupings, some aligned with the more moderate "Free Syrian Army", have capitulated to the jihadists in recent months with many of their fighters joining Isil.

The growth of the group in the area means Sunni Isil fighters in Syria are now at the edge of the Lebanese heartland of its Shia arch enemy Hizbollah, whose men are fighting alongside the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

“The moderate rebel groups on the border have collapsed, and their men have joined Isil,” said Ahmed Flity, the deputy mayor of Arsal, a Lebanese border town that has effectively been cut off from the rest of the country by security forces, because of the threat from jihadists in the area.

The black flag bearing the Isil logo was clearly visible fluttering only a few hundred yards from the lone Lebanese army checkpoint marking the border between Arsal and Syria when the Telegraph visited last week.

This was once the principal route for smuggling money and satellite phones to Syrian activists opposed to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and later to moderate rebel fighters. This newspaper watched the jihadists move with confidence around the rocky mountainous terrain.

They bought weapons and refuelled their trucks with black-market oil sold by smugglers who have set up shop in this no-man's land, far from the reach of any country's laws.

Abbas Ibrahim, the head of Lebanon’s General Security office, has estimated that as many as “700” fighters from less extreme groups have “pledged allegiance” to Isil, swelling its ranks to over 1000 men.

While Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Isil’s leader is not yet interested in seeking to takeover Lebanon, a source close to the jihadist group said, the group is plotting to target a string of Lebanese towns and villages on the country’s border that form a base of support for Hizbollah.

The jihadists are now the dominant force in the mountains that form a no-man’s land, just miles from these villages, where - sleeping in Bedouin tents - the group is training its new recruits.

To reach these areas, Isil would have to first attack Lebanese army posts on the border - including a series of watchtowers partly funded by the British Government that were built in an initiative to shelter Lebanon from the Syrian war.

Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, whilst very active in the area, has not condoned targeting the Lebanese military, preferring to keep its fight with Hizbollah, a non-state actor, separate from the Lebanese state.

The differences have opened a dispute between the two groups.

“Now there are two plans for attacking Hezbollah,” the Nusra source in Arsal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not have the authorisation of his emir - leader - to talk to the media.

“The first plan is to launch a full scale attack in Qalamoun in Syria. The second plan is to attack Hizbollah in its stronghold in Hermel and Bekaa inside Lebanon. Our emir, Sheikh Abu Malik disagrees with the second option."

A wholesale attack on the Lebanese villages and on Lebanese military checkpoints would upset a longstanding, informal non-aggression pact between Jabhat al-Nusra and the Lebanese military and officials in Arsal.

Many fighters in the Nusra Front are originally from the Qalamoun region. When the region was attacked in a joint military offensive by Hizbollah and the Syrian military last year, thousands of family members of the Nusra fighters fled across the border to Arsal.

Whilst checkpoints around the town have prevented the families from leaving the area and travelling deeper into Lebanon, Lebanese officials have, for the moment, tolerated their living as refugees in Arsal.

"Abu Malik fears that if Isil attacks Lebanese military posts, there will be a retaliation against our families here in Arsal," said the Nusra fighter.

A Lebanese military source confirmed the informal pact to the Telegraph.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that, by the same token, the Lebanese army is not making incursions inside Arsal, for fear that arrests of Nusra members in the area would spark retaliatory attacks, as occurred last year.

Mr Flity said: "Nusra are not interested in attacking Lebanon. They say, don't attack us and we won't attack you."

Last August, when the Lebanese Army arrested Imad Ahmad Jomaa, an Islamist Syrian rebel commander, Nusra showed the limits of its patience. It joined Isil in retaliatory attacks against the army. Temporarily seizing control of Arsal, the groups kidnapped dozens of soldiers, 27 of whom are still being held by the groups.

In contrast to other parts of Syria where Isil and Nusra, though sharing a similar ideology, have become sworn rivals because of disputes between their leaders, on Lebanon’s border the two groups have, as was shown in August, remained cordial.

A reason for the working relationship between them is that Abu Malek al-Telli, Nusra’s leader in Qalamoun had a “personal relationship” with Isil emir Baghdadi even before the war, members of Nusra told the Telegraph.

After the attacks last year, through extensive negotiations, Nusra reinforced its informal ceasefire with the Lebanese military. It had, its fighters said, also succeeded in delaying Isil's attacks inside Lebanon.

But day by day, their power over Isil is weakening.

As Isil grows in numbers, Nusra is, by contrast, being crippled by a lack of funds from its backers.

Senior sources inside Nusra close to Lebanon, claimed that Qatar had been financing the group, but that it had stopped the operation last year because of a row with fellow Gulf states over the issue.

One local resident in Arsal who has dealing with both Isil and Nusra estimated that the former now has five times more followers than the latter.

The imbalance of power is causing increasing friction between the two factions.

In early December Isil's religious scholar Abu-Walid al-Maqdisi visited Qalamoun to persuade Abu Malek al-Telli, Nusra's commander, to vow allegiance to Isil.

"Abu Malik is a man of few words. He did not respond to the scholar's request: he just walked out of the meeting," the Nusra source recalled.

But despite Nusra's defiance, the group is increasingly incapable of defending its turf. Inside Arsal last week, fighters from Nusra were meeting arms dealers to sell their weapons.

"We are doing it because we need money to buy food for our families," one member told the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ss-it.html

[Anthea]

BBC News

Kobane: Kurdish fighters 'capture strategic hilltop'

Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) militants in the town of Kobane on the Syria-Turkey border have captured a strategic hilltop, reports say.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local officials said Kurdish units gained control of the hill after fierce clashes.

The Mishtenur hill overlooks the embattled town.

Monitors from the Observatory said its capture meant that key IS resupply routes were within the line of fire.

The Observatory said 11 Islamic State fighters were killed and large quantities of weapons and ammunition were seized.

A Kobane-based Kurdish official told the Associated Press news agency that the clashes had led to casualties on both sides.

IS militants have been trying to gain control of Kobane since September, but have been meeting fierce resistance from Kurdish fighters.

Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 200,000 refugees have fled into neighbouring Turkey.

In recent weeks Kurdish units have been advancing with the support of anti-IS air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition.

Link to Maps:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30883041