Attack on Syria church gathering kills 2

Two people were killed and 12 injured Sunday by bombardment of a church as it was being inaugurated in Syria’s central province of Hama, the official SANA news agency reported.

Sunday’s attack came two days after bombardment killed seven people including four children in the rebel-held Idlib region.

Around half of Idlib province as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former franchise in Syria of al-Qaeda.

Attack on Syria church gathering kills 2

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Conflicting reports on Islamic State leader arrested in US operation in north Syria

The US-led coalition has revealed the identity of the Islamic State leader it arrested during an airdrop operation in northern Syria, saying he was a prominent bombmaker. But some Syrian opposition sources say they got the wrong man.

Conflicting reports on Islamic State leader arrested in US operation in north Syria

Related:

The operations of the international coalition against ISIS west of the Euphrates: significance and importance (machine translation of link by Al-Monitor)

Disclosure of arrested ISIS leader identity | ISIS top leader and son of top sharia official, but not the “Wali” of Al-Raqqah (English article linked by Al-Monitor)

U.S. Forces Have Captured Another Daesh Senior Leader During Night Helicopter Raid

Oopsie! 🤷🏼‍♀️

How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

Nick Turse, Alice Speri, The Intercept, Jul 1 2022

Small teams of US SOF are involved in a low-profile proxy war program on a far greater scale than previously known, according to exclusive documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials. While The Intercept and other outlets have previously reported on the Pentagon’s use of the secretive 127e authority in multiple African countries, a new document obtained through the FoIA offers the first official confirmation that at least 14 127e programs were also active in the greater Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as recently as 2020. In total, between 2017 and 2020, US commandos conducted at least 23 separate 127e programs across the world. Separately, Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general who headed both SOCOM & CENTCOM, which oversees US military efforts in the Middle East, confirmed the existence of previously unrevealed 127e “counter-terrorism” efforts in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

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America Is Quietly Expanding Its War in Tunisia