Staffan de Mistura echoes Donald Trump’s warning against bombing Idlib, the last major rebel enclave

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said panic is spreading among the 3 million citizens of Idlib province as he suggested the Assad government and its allies had set 10 September as the date for a full-scale bombardment of the last large rebel enclave.

De Mistura pleaded with the Russian and Turkish presidents to “look each other in the eyes” and find a solution that avoids a humanitarian tragedy in the region.

Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, who have backed the Syrian government and rebels respectively, are due to meet in Tehran on Friday to discuss Idlib. De Mistura suggested that if their discussions fail, it is likely that as many as 800,000 citizens will try to flee the province, including over the border to Turkey.

The northern province and surrounding areas are the last major swathe of territory held by insurgents fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in Syria’s seven-year-old civil war. It is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as “terrorists” by world powers. Syrian government forces are massing around the north-western province in preparation for the assault.

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REU: New book by Woodward says Trump wanted Syrian leader killed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior.

Excerpts from the book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on Sept. 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump’s 20-month-old presidency.

“It’s just another bad book,” Trump told the Daily Caller.

The Republican president said in a Twitter post that quotes in the book attributed to Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and others “were made up frauds, a con on the public.”

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REU: Spain confirms it has halted sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain has halted the sale of a shipment of bombs to Saudi Arabia amid concerns about their use in the conflict in Yemen, the Spanish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war which the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and left 8.4 million on the brink of famine.

Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser reported the Defence Ministry had started a process to cancel a contract signed between Spain’s former government and the Gulf Arab state in 2015 to sell 400 laser-guided bombs.

The broadcaster said the bombs would have been used in Yemen, where U.N. human rights experts have said air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have caused heavy civilian casualties and some may amount to war crimes.

“We confirm the news,” a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said, declining to give any further details. There was no immediate response from Saudi authorities…………….

The United States and Britain are amongst the main foreign arms suppliers to the Saudi-led coalition fighting to reinstate the internationally-recognized government that was ousted from the capital Sanaa by Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels in 2015.

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REU: Syrian and Russian warplanes pound Idlib before talks: monitor

BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) – Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.

The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.

For President Bashar al-Assad, the defeat of rebels in the northwestern province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule, though other large areas also remain beyond his control…………..Turkey’s Hurriyet daily reported that Turkish armed forces were reinforcing the Idlib border with M60 tanks, and Reuters television filmed a convoy heading toward the border.

Tuesday’s air strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Assad and his allies not to “recklessly attack” Idlib, saying that hundreds of thousands might die.

Trump has twice ordered U.S.-led air strikes against targets in Syria in response to what Washington called the Assad government’s use of chemical weapons against civilians.

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REU: Five protesters killed in Basra in second night of clashes with security forces

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Five protesters were killed and 16 more were injured during a second day of clashes with security forces in Iraq’s main southern city Basra, local health and security sources said.

Twenty-two members of the security forces were also wounded, some by a hand grenade, the sources said, in some of the worst unrest reported during months of protests sweeping the long neglected south, heartland of Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority…………….Hundreds of people gathered at local government buildings, hurled petrol bombs and stones and attempted to block roads leading to the building for a second night. Some protesters stormed one of the provincial government buildings and set it alight.

Security forces fired live rounds in the air as well as teargas to try to disperse the crowd, local sources said. Smoke could be seen billowing from the outer perimeter of the provincial government headquarters, where many had gathered earlier on Tuesday to mourn a protester who died on Monday night, Yasser Makki.

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NYT: Israel Says Struck Iranian Targets in Syria 200 Times in Last Two Years

JERUSALEM — Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, in a rare summary of its campaign.

According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus’s partners in Syria’s civil war.

Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations. On Tuesday, an Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment after Syria said it shot down rockets fired by Israeli planes at military targets near the city of Hama.

But Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day…………Asked to confirm Katz’s comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.

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NYT: Officials Say at Least 30 African Migrants Drown Near Yemen

REU: Al Qaeda trying to regain primacy as Islamic State loses ground: NATO

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Al Qaeda is trying to regain its primacy over international militancy as Islamic State loses ground, a senior NATO official said on Tuesday, seeing a potentially increased risk to the West from the groups’ rivalry.

But Arndt von Loringhoven, the alliance’s assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, said Islamic State retained some personnel strength despite its combat losses, including fresh recruits among women and children.

“ISIS-Daesh weakening has provided al Qaeda with an opportunity to attempt to regain its former status,” Von Loringhoven told a security conference hosted by Israel’s IDC Herzliya college, using a term for Islamic State.

“While ISIL-Daesh has occupied the world’s attention for the last four-five year, al Qaeda has been quietly rebuilding its global networks and capabilities,” he said, citing activity in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

“Rather like ISIL-Daesh, al Qaeda’s strategic aim is to regain leadership of like-minded militants and extremists. The competition for legitimacy, affiliates and recruits among the two major global extremist groups potentially increases the terrorism threat to NATO and our partners.”

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NYT: Official: Roadside Bomb Kills 2 Police in NW Afghanistan