Excerpts: Iraqi Kurdistan crude oil arrives in Croatia. Syrian warplanes hammer ISIS in Syria. Israel re 'Iron Spade'. August 17, 2014


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 17 Aug.’14:”Oil cargo from Iraqi Kurdistan has
arrived in cratia”, by Reuters


SUBJECT: Iraqi Kurdistan crude oil arrives in Croatia


QUOTE:”A delivery of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan has arrived at Croatia's
Adriatic sea port of Omisalj”


FULL TEXT:A delivery of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan has arrived at
Croatia's Adriatic sea port of Omisalj, a Croatian government source said on
Sunday, confirming a report by daily newspaper Jutarnji List late on
Saturday[16 Aug.”.


"A tanker with 80,000 cubic metres of crude oil has arrived at the Omisalj
terminal and it should be unloaded on Sunday", the Jutarnji List said on its
website, citing a source from the state-owned oil transport operator
Janaf.No one at Janaf was available to comment.


"Four days ago we had an announcement about a delivery of crude oil from
(Iraqi) Kurdistan. It was bought by Hungary's (oil firm) MOL and the oil is
for their refinery. All the documentation is in order, so I see nothing
contentious in this shipment," the source was quoted as saying.


"It is indeed crude oil for MOL's refining business," the government source
said on Sunday[17 Aug.].


Reuters reported on Friday[15 Aug.] that Iraqi Kurdistan had delivered its
third major cargo of crude oil from a Turkish port and that a fourth was
sailing to Croatia, showing the autonomous region is finding more buyers
despite earlier shipments running foul of the long running objections of
Baghdad to the Kurdish Regional Government selling its oil independently.




+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 17 Aug’14:”Syrian warplanes hammer ISIS targets in
Raqqa” by Staff Writer with Reuters and Agence France Presse


SUBJECT:Syrian warplanes hammer ISIS in Syria


FULL TEXT:Syrian regime warplanes pounded an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) stronghold as well as other towns controlled by the militants
Sunday[17 Aug.], conducting more than a dozen airstrikes and killing at
least 31 militants, activists said.


For more than a year, President Bashar al-Assad’s air force rarely targeted
territory controlled by ISIS in northern Syria, instead focusing on
mainstream rebel groups. But government jets have begun hitting the
extremists more regularly since the militants overran much of neighboring
northern and western Iraq in June.


Even in that context, the intensity of Sunday's[17 Aug.] air raids appeared
unusually high, with at least 19 strikes hitting the group's stronghold of
Raqqa in northeastern Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said.


The Local Coordination Committees activist collective also reported the
airstrikes on Raqqa, but put the death toll at 11.Both activist groups also
reported government airstrikes on Islamic State-controlled areas in Aleppo
province as well, including the towns of Akhtarin and Dabiq.


Within striking distance


The Western-backed Syrian opposition called on Saturday[16 Aug.] for U.S.
airstrikes against ISIS as the militants captured three northern villages,
putting them within striking distance of a mainstream rebel stronghold.


ISIS fighters have overrun nearly a dozen towns and villages in Aleppo
province this week, crushing what little resistance they have encountered.
Those gains threaten rival factions’ supply lines to neighboring Turkey and
squeeze the mainstream armed opposition’s position in the country’s largest
city, Aleppo, which is also under assault by President Bashar Assad’s
forces.


With the mainstream rebels’ foothold in Aleppo becoming increasingly
precarious, the Syrian National Coalition urged the international community
to “quickly support the Free Syrian Army with weapons and ammunition” so it
could “defend its people.”


“We call on the international community to use the American air force, or
those of any other country to support the Free Syrian Army,” the Coalition
said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the group’s military wing.


The Coalition has long appealed for more robust military support from the
West to help in its fight to oust Assad, and more recently to counter the
rise of Islamic extremists.


But the group’s appeal Saturday[16 Aug.] appeared aimed at capitalizing on the recent U.S. aerial intervention in neighboring Iraq, where American military aircraft have targeted ISIS as the militants advanced on the largely autonomous Kurdish region and threatened Christians and other religious minorities.


But U.S. President Barack Obama has long refused demands for similar action
in Syria, fearing it could draw the U.S. into an increasingly complex and
bloody civil war.


ISIS, which moved aggressively into Syria in early 2013, has carved out a
self-styled “caliphate” in the territory it has seized in northeastern Syria
as well as northern and western Iraq.


Reuters quoted The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked
violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, as saying reliable
sources had reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat
tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.


The conflict between ISIS and the Al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about
70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.


“Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami
Abdelrahman told Reuters by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested,
judged and killed.”


Reuters cannot independently verify reports from Syria due to security
conditions and reporting restrictions.


The group has added to the territory under its control, taking over the
village of Maled near the town of Marea in Aleppo province late Friday[15
Aug.], the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Ultimate goal


An activist in the area who goes by the name of Fayez Abu Quteibah said the
group also captured two other villages near Marea - Hamidiyeh and Sonbol.


Those gains come days after the extremists overran several other villages
and two towns in Aleppo province. The extremist group’s ultimate goal
appears to be Marea itself, a stronghold of the once-powerful Islamic Front
rebel group, which has been fighting the militants since January.


“If Marea falls, this will open the road for them [ISIS] to march toward all
parts of northern Aleppo,” Abu Quteibah said via Skype.


The Observatory said ISIS fighters shelled Marea on Saturday[16 Aug.] with
mortar rounds.


The Syrian government, meanwhile, carried out airstrikes on two of the
localities the militants overran this week, hitting Akhtarin and Dabiq, the
Observatory said. There was no immediate word on casualties or what was
targeted.


On Friday[15 Aug.], the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on six men
for recruiting or financing foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, and
threatened additional sanctions against anyone supporting terrorist groups.

The Security Council also demanded in a unanimously adopted resolution that
ISIS and Al-Qaeda-linked groups disarm and disband immediately.



+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya 17 Aug.’14:”Israel to develop ‘Iron Spade’ to counter
Hamas” by Staff Writer




SUBJECT: Israel re ‘Iron Spade’


QUOTE:”Israel . . .said security will be restored ‘one way or another’ “


.

FULL TEXT: Israel is developing a new system that will detect and destruct
tunnels as they are dug by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Britain’s
weekly The Sunday Times reported.


The new system, which was developed by a consortium led by Elbit Systems,
Israel’s biggest developer of military technology, is expected to eliminate
any future threat from the tunnels without recourse to such large-scale
force.


It is described as the an underground version of the Iron Dome air defense
system which has destroyed around 90% of the rockets fired at Israel from
Gaza.


Rafael, the company behind the construction of the Iron Dome is also
involved in the new project.


The destruction of tunnels was cited by Israel as the pretext for its ground
invasion of Gaza on July 16.


The protection system will be based on a two-pronged approach, an officer
from the Israeli Defence Force told the Tel-Aviv based daily newspaper
Yediot Aharonot.


First, sensors and transmitters will be used to monitor underground
excavations and cavities before destroying them by a new generation of
robots.



In sensitive areas, a physical barrier will be inserted to a depth of 100ft,
Atai Shelach, a former commander of a tunnel destruction unit said.



The new high-tech shield, which is expected to cost around GBP430m, will be
deployed along Israel’s 42-mile border with Gaza.


Despite the new technological breakthroughs, many military experts warn that
the problem of “terror tunnels” is likely to remain.


“It’s a global strategic problem and threat,” Shelach said.


“It isn’t a wild guess to assume that [there are already] offensive tunnels
in the north, and even in Syria,” he added.


Israeli and Palestinian delegations are set to restart indirect Gaza
cease-fire talks in Egypt on Sunday.


Hamas said the Egyptian proposal on the table is unacceptable and threatened
to renew fighting.


Israel on the other hand said security will be restored “one way or
another.”

Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA