Two Senior IS Leaders Killed in Airstrike: Observers

Two senior leaders of the Islamic State were killed in an airstrike in northeast Syria, observers reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday that an Iraqi, Abu Osama al-Iraqi, and a Syrian named Amer al-Rafdan had been killed in an apparent U.S.-led strike, Reuters reported.

The U.K.-based observatory said al-Iraqi held the title of “governor” of the province Islamic State had declared in northeastern Syria. Rafdan had previously served as Islamic State’s governor of Deir al-Zor province, it said.

US President Barack Obama recently announced the U.S. military would intensify its air war against the Islamic extremist group in northern Syria, where the Kurdish YPG militia has notably had a series of successes against the group, including the capture of the Turkish border town of Tel Abyad.

Hezbollah and Syrian Army take ‘Main Entrance’ to Zabadani

The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Syrian army have taken the “main entrance” to the key border city of Zabadani, where the allies have been engaged in fierce battles with rebels over the past two weeks.

Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper quoted a security source as saying the joint forces took the Hay al-Sultani neighborhood in Zabadani’s southeastern region, and killed or wounded scores of rebels.

The source added that a counterattack by the rebels was repelled, and eight rebels’ bodies were left behind. The source added that one Hezbollah fighter was killed during the fighting, and that around 43 rebels were captured.

The latest advance has led to the closure of the “main entrance to the city,” isolating Zabadani from the neighboring mountain town of Madaya, the source said, according to the newspaper.

Malala Chides ‘Stingy’ World Leaders for not Helping more Syrian Refugees

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai chided world leaders as “quite stingy” for not doing more to help Syria’s millions of refugees. The girls’ education activist also said rich countries should spend less on weapons in the Syrian civil war and more on education, the Associated Press reported.

Yousafzai made the comments on Monday as she toured the Azraq refugee camp, which is home to some 20,000 people and made up of rows of white, prefabricated shelters, the news agency reported.

“There are rich countries in this world, there are world leaders who can afford spending money on weapons, who can afford spending money on the war that is going on in Syria,” she said in a speech. She said these countries and leaders have been “quite stingy” when it comes to spending on education and that shifting resources to schools is “the only way we can achieve success.”

Since the 2011 outbreak of Syria’s conflict, more than 4 million Syrians have fled their country, most settling in neighboring countries such as Jordan. Aid agencies asked for $4.5 billion for 2015 to help refugees, but have been forced to slash support programs because of large funding gaps, the Associated Press added.

Recommended Reads

• IJReview: Has the World Forgotten Syria? The True Scope of the Refugee Crisis Will Shock You
• NPR: Documenting Death Inside Syria’s Secret Prisons
• The Daily Star: Smugglers Dodge Turkish Army on Syria Border
• AlJazeera: Magazine: Syria’s School of War
• PBS: How ISIS Is Using Women To Police Other Women
• The National: Oil Hurdle Remains on Path to Kurdish Independence
• AlJazeera: Syrian Children Paint Life in Saddam’s Kurdistan Prison
• BBC: Making Wine in a War Zone: Syria’s ‘Dream’ Vineyard