SALAHUDDIN, Iraq: Iraqi forces are expected to face much fiercer resistance from Daesh in the next phase of the battle for Mosul, including booby traps that can blow up entire neighborhoods, the top Kurdish security official said on Sunday.
Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Security Council, said that even if Daesh is driven out of its main stronghold Mosul, that will not be enough to eliminate the group, and its radical ideology will survive.
“The fight against ISIS is going to be a long fight,” Barzani told Reuters. “Not only militarily but also economically, ideologically.”
He spoke as Iraq’s special forces worked Sunday to clear neighborhoods on the eastern edge of Mosul as bombings launched by the extremist group elsewhere in the country killed at least 20 people.
“There are a lot of civilians and we are trying to protect them,” said Lt. Col. Muhanad Al-Timimi.
“This is one of the hardest battles that we’ve faced till now.”
Barzani also said that Iraqi forces have made quick progress clearing out terrorists from eastern Mosul after Kurdish peshmerga units broke through its first lines of defense.
“As they are getting more desperate, expectations are that they might fight more fiercely as you close in,” said Barzani, 47, son of veteran Kurdish leader and KRG President Masoud Barzani. So far in the three-week operation, Daesh has deployed drones strapped with explosives, long-range artillery shells filled with chlorine and mustard gas and highly effective snipers, said Barzani. Kurdish forces have destroyed more than 50 car bombs.
And he cautioned that western Mosul will be a more complex campaign, with a vast number of narrow streets that can’t accommodate large military vehicles and an enemy that will fight to the death to defend the capital of its so-called caliphate.
“There are many different IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that they put in different places, come up with different tactics. Many that are used like networks,” Barzani said.
“So in one house they are putting one IED and trying to hide it. And once it explodes then the entire neighborhood explodes.”
The Mosul campaign is the most critical land battle in Iraq since a US-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraqi leaders are also under pressure to ensure that the offensive does not inflame sectarian tensions in Mosul and in the country as a whole.
That’s why Shiite militias and Kurdish peshmerga forces are not fighting inside Mosul, although some Iraqi forces who are taking part have been flying Shiite banners on their vehicles, an act that has angered Sunni residents.
Barzani called on Iraq’s complex patchwork of sects and ethnic communities to set aside their political differences or risk long-term instability.
When the Daesh seized Mosul in 2014, some members of that minority sect supported the group after accusing the government of widespread discrimination, an allegation it denied.
“Winning the peace after winning the war is equally important,” said Barzani.
“The number one point to prevent the rise of terrorist and radical organizations is to make sure there is political reconciliation and a political agreement among all the components so that no one will feel like an outcast.”
The KRG’s counter-terrorism forces and intelligence agencies report to Barzani, 47, son of veteran Kurdish leader and KRG President Masoud Barzouni. As a teenager, Masrour joined the peshmerga, who were fighting Saddam Hussein at the time.
Some 35,000 Daesh terrorists have been killed inside Iraq yet there are still tens of thousands arrayed against the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga, said Barzani.
“Every day, every week, every month they are trying to recruit new people, new fighters are joining,” he said, though he added the numbers have recently decreased.
Hundreds of Daesh terrorists have been caught trying to disguise themselves as displaced Iraqis since the Mosul campaign began on Oct. 17, said Barzani.
The world’s most feared and violent militant group has tried to set up sleeper cells in Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, and elsewhere, in order to try and divert attention away from the Mosul campaign.
“We have captured a number of sleeping cells, or people that were disguised as IDPs (internally displaced people). Hundreds of them actually,” Barzani said.
Daesh terrorists, who have been fighting Iraqi forces, are mosty Iraqis but there are also significant numbers of foreign fighters from other parts of the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa, said Barzani.
“We do believe that Daesh is the byproduct, is the result of a political failure, the political system that failed in this country,” he said.
Fight against Daesh will not end in Mosul: Masrour Barzani
Fight against Daesh will not end in Mosul: Masrour Barzani

Lebanese PM to visit Syria, discuss disappearance of prisoners

- Nawaf Salam lays wreath at Martyrs’ Monument in Beirut to commemorate 50th anniversary of Lebanese Civil War
LONDON: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is scheduled to visit the Syrian Arab Republic on Monday to discuss common interests with the new leadership in Damascus.
It will be Salam’s first visit to Syria since he formed a government in February, and he is scheduled to discuss the issue of Lebanese citizens who disappeared in Syrian prisons during the Bashar Assad regime that collapsed in December. It has been reported that 622 Lebanese nationals remain forcibly disappeared in Syrian prisons.
“I hope to return with good news about those missing in Syria, and I will update the Lebanese people on this issue tomorrow,” Salam said, according to the National News Agency.
Salam laid a wreath at the Martyrs’ Monument in Beirut on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of April 13, the date when Lebanon’s Civil War began in 1975.
Salam wrote on X: “We pause not to reopen wounds, but to recall lessons that must never be forgotten. All victories were false, and all parties (from the war) emerged as losers.”
He added: “There can be no true state unless legitimate armed forces have the exclusive right to bear arms.”
Aid worker missing after deadly attack on colleagues is held by Israel, ICRC says

- PRCS demanded the immediate release of Nsasrah, who it said was “forcibly abducted” while carrying out humanitarian duties
CAIRO: A Palestinian Red Crescent staff member who went missing in late March when 15 humanitarian workers were killed by Israeli fire is being detained by Israeli authorities, the rescue service and the Red Cross said on Sunday.
Hisham Mhana, the spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza, confirmed to Reuters that it had received information that the Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedic Assad Al-Nsasrah was being held in an Israeli place of detention.
“As per standard practice, we informed the families immediately. In this case, we also informed the Palestine Red Crescent Society as they have special standing as a partner of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” he said.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment.
Mhana said the ICRC has not been granted access to Nsasrah, who until Sunday had been declared missing, and also has not been able to visit any of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails since October 7, 2023.
In a post on X, The PRCS demanded the immediate release of Nsasrah, who it said was “forcibly abducted” while carrying out humanitarian duties.
It added that Nsasrah and his colleagues came under heavy gunfire, which led to the killing of eight of them in a “grave violation” of international humanitarian law.
The bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency Service and the UN were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza in March.
The UN and the Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them after they were dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli military referred Reuters to its statement from Monday, in which it said that a thorough inquiry into the incident was still underway and that it would provide further details only once the investigation is complete.
It said that a preliminary inquiry indicated that “the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists.”
The Israeli military has provided no evidence of how it determined that the six were Hamas militants, and the Islamist faction has rejected the accusation.
The only known survivor of the incident, PRCS paramedic Munther Abed, said soldiers had opened fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
Moroccans demonstrate in support of Palestinians

- Demonstrators marched through the streets of Rabat under pouring rain in response to a call from the National Action Group for Palestine
RABAT: Several thousand people demonstrated in Morocco’s capital on Sunday to show support for Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.
Under pouring rain, demonstrators marched through the streets of Rabat in response to a call from the National Action Group for Palestine, a coalition of several political organizations, including the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD).
“The Moroccans are with Gaza,” said the principal of a private school in Rabat who spoke to AFP.
The North African kingdom has officially called for “the immediate, complete and permanent halt to the Israeli war on Gaza,” but has not publicly discussed reversing the official establishment of ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-led Abraham Accords.
The latest protest followed another large rally held a week earlier, part of a spate of demonstrations across the country since the Israeli army resumed its offensive on March 18 against the Islamist group Hamas after a two-month truce in Gaza.
Israel denies entry to Jerusalem for Palestinian Christians marking Palm Sunday

- Israeli restrictions at checkpoints around Jerusalem require Palestinians to obtain security permits to access religious sites
- Only 6,000 permits were issued this year to the West Bank’s 50,000 Christians
LONDON: Israeli authorities prevented Palestinian Christian worshippers from entering Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank to participate in Palm Sunday.
Israeli authorities imposed strict restrictions on Jerusalem over the weekend, limiting the access of Palestinian Christians to the city, the Wafa news agency reported.
Only a limited number of worshippers, primarily residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel, were able to attend religious services at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Wafa added.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week leading up to Easter. It commemorates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem and is observed by Eastern and Western Christian churches.
On Sunday, Patriarch Theophilos III of the Greek Orthodox Church and Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa led liturgies attended by the clergy and a small group of worshipers.
Israeli restrictions at checkpoints around Jerusalem require Palestinians — Muslim and Christian — to obtain permits to access religious sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Father Ibrahim Faltas, Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, noted that only 6,000 permits were issued this year to the West Bank’s 50,000 Christians. Permit issuance requires a security clearance and often asks that applicants download a mobile application managed by Israeli authorities.
“This is the second consecutive year that only a small number of pilgrims are able to participate in Holy Week and Easter celebrations in Jerusalem due to the ongoing conflict (in Gaza),” Faltas told Wafa.
“Churches would continue to pray for peace, justice, and freedom for all people in the Holy Land,” he added.
The Catholic Palm Sunday procession took place on Sunday afternoon, starting from Jerusalem's Church of Bethphage and ending at the Church of Saint Anne.
Christians gathered for services at the Holy Family Catholic Church and Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing Israeli attacks since late 2023. In the West Bank, Palm Sunday services were held in churches throughout Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin.
Syrian President Sharaa heads to UAE on official visit - SANA

CAIRO: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will travel to the United Arab Emirates for his second visit to a Gulf state as president on Sunday, Syria's official news agency reported.
He will be accompanied by foreign minister Assad al-Shibani, who visited the UAE earlier this year.
They are expected to discuss issues of mutual interest, the SANA state news agency reported.
Sharaa visited Saudi Arabia in February on his first foreign trip since assuming the presidency in January.
His visit to the UAE comes as the new Syrian leadership attempts to strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December at the hands of Sharaa's Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
(With Reuters)