MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016 INTERNATIONAL Cities retaken from IS in Iraq and Syria BAGHDAD: Iraqi commanders announced the com- with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to just west of cut a key supply line linking areas held by the looted ancient relics. Syrian regime forces backed plete recapture of key Islamic State group strong- the capital. IS seized Ramadi, located 100 kilometers jihadists in Iraq and Syria. IS captured Sinjar in by Russian warplanes and allied militia retook the hold Fallujah yesterday after declaring victory in the west of Baghdad, in May 2015 in an assault involv- August 2014 and carried out a brutal campaign ancient city from IS in March this year. city a week earlier. Here is a recap of key cities and ing dozens of suicide bombers driving explosives- against its Yazidi minority that included massacres, KOBANE: A Kurdish town in northern Syria on towns retaken from IS in Iraq and neighboring Syria: rigged vehicles. Iraqi forces launched an operation enslavement and rape. the Turkish border. It became a symbol of the fight to retake the city late last year and declared full con- BAIJI: Iraqi forces recaptured the town of Baiji, against IS, and the jihadists were driven out of Iraq trol over the area earlier this year. 200 kilometers north of Baghdad in October 2015. Kobane in January 2015 after more than four FALLUJAH: Anbar province’s second city and TIKRIT: Hometown of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Baiji and the country’s largest refinery, located near- months of fierce fighting with Kurdish forces one of IS’s most emblematic bastions in the country, Hussein located 160 kilometers north of Baghdad, it by, were the scenes of some of the longest-running backed by US-led strikes. The city, known in Arabic located just 50 kilometers from Baghdad. It was was the second city after Mosul to fall to IS. It was battles with IS in Iraq. The town lies at a major cross- as Ain Al-Arab, is the capital of one of three semi- seized by anti-government fighters in 2014 and lat- recaptured in April 2015 by Iraqi troops, police and roads and its recapture was seen as key to prepar- autonomous “cantons” established by Kurds after er became a key IS stronghold. While the battle has Shiite-dominated paramilitaries. The operation, ing the ground for offensives in Anbar and Mosul, the Syrian war erupted. been won, Iraq still faces a major humanitarian crisis which was at that time the largest by Iraqi forces the last major Iraqi city held by IS. TAL ABYAD: Another city on the Turkish bor- in its aftermath, with tens of thousands of people against IS, was helped by the fact that much of der, it was captured by Kurds in June 2015. Tal who fled the fighting desperately in need of assis- Tikrit’s civilian population had fled the city. Syria Abyad lies on a key supply route between Turkey tance in the searing summer heat. SINJAR: Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by US-led PALMYRA: Known as the “Pearl of the Desert”, and IS stronghold Raqa, and jihadist fighters and RAMADI: The capital of Anbar, the country’s coalition air strikes recaptured Sinjar, 400 kilometers Palmyra was overrun by IS in May 2015, after which arms regularly passed through the city before its largest province that stretches from the borders northwest of Baghdad, from IS last November. That the jihadists blew up UNESCO-listed temples and recapture. — AFP Jerusalem Gay Pride stabber marchers sentenced to life JERUSALEM: An Israeli court yesterday ‘Comforts us a little’ sentenced an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man Schlissel, born in the Yad Binyamin to life in prison for killing a 16-year-old community of central Israel, was married girl and wounding others during a stab- with four children, though he divorced bing spree at a Jerusalem Gay Pride after the first attack, Israeli media report- parade. The Jerusalem District Court con- ed. He had also lived in Modiin Illit, an victed Yishai Schlissel in April of murder ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement in the and six counts of attempted murder. The occupied West Bank. He attended reli- July 2015 stabbings had triggered harsh gious school as a child and was described criticism of the police, with Schlissel hav- by one newspaper as being a gifted, but ing been released from prison only three withdrawn student who preferred to weeks earlier after serving a 10-year sen- keep to himself. When he was charged in tence for a similar attack. court in August, Schlissel lashed out at They had also sparked an outpouring of homosexuality. grief for 16-year-old Shira Banki, who was “The pride parade must be stopped in stabbed in the back and died of her order for the soul of Shira Banki to wounds a few days later. Led into the court- ascend to heaven,” Schlissel told the room yesterday with his hands and feet court. “With all the sorrow, it must be shackled, Schlissel was sentenced to life known that whoever marches in the plus 31 years, a court statement said. He Jerusalem Gay Pride march is declaring was also ordered to pay 2,064,000 shekels war on God. And whoever is warring ($531,000, 478,000 Euros). Prosecutors had against God, can’t really complain,” he requested life plus 60 years. “This guy told reporters during a remand hearing showed no remorse,” Noam Eyal, 31 and in August. The annual Gay Pride parade one of the victims, told AFP outside the in Jerusalem, a city sacred to Jews, court. “In the last hearing before this he Muslims and Christians, is far smaller said that this is a religious war.” than the one held in nearby Tel Aviv. FALLUJAH: This image made from Associated Press video shows, Iraqi troops turn the Islamic State flag upside down.— AP In addition to Schlissel having been Tel Aviv’s parade typically attracts tens released from prison only weeks before, of thousands of people to what is consid- he had also posted a letter on the Internet ered one of the world’s most gay-friendly speaking of the “abomination” of a Gay cities, while Jerusalem is far less welcom- Iraq forces take full Pride parade being held in the Holy City. ing to homosexuals. Sarah Kala, executive He spoke of the need to stop it, even at director of Jerusalem Open House LGBT the cost of one’s life. Many questioned centre, said after the sentencing that “it’s how Schlissel, 40 when he was convicted, another step to try and deter the terrible was allowed anywhere near the parade, homophobia raging on our streets. control of Fallujah which saw thousands marching through “They don’t usually give the maximum central Jerusalem. Witnesses described possible sentence, but in our view to terrifying scenes of Schlissel, with a long know that Yishai Schlissel will stay in Last remnants of resistance wiped out beard and dressed in the dark suit worn prison for the rest of his days is certainly by ultra-Orthodox Jews, storming the something that comforts us a little,” she FALLUJAH: Iraqi forces took the Islamic State Major blow to IS mythology and in 2004 saw US forces suffer some parade with a knife. Six senior Israeli told public radio. Prosecutor Oshrat group’s last positions in the city of Fallujah yester- “We still have an ongoing fight northwest of of their worst losses since the Vietnam War, is a policemen were eventually removed from Shoham said “the court gave a heavy ver- day, establishing full control over one of the Fallujah. We never made central Fallujah the ulti- blow to IS. The organization has lost several key their posts over the attack. dict today to Yishai Schlissel.” — AFP jihadists’ most emblematic bastions after a month- mate goal of our operation... the aim is to clear the leaders in air strikes, more than two thirds of the long operation. Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi had whole area,” he said. The offensive began on May territory it controlled in Iraq two years ago and it already declared victory on June 17 after IS defens- 22-23 with an initial phase of staging operations also faces multiple offensives in Syria. es collapsed, with Iraqi forces facing only limited aimed at tightening a months-old siege on resistance in subsequent clearing operations. Fallujah and led by the Hashed Al-Shaabi, a para- Humanitarian disaster The offensive saw tens of thousands of civilians military organization dominated by Tehran- Facing a seemingly inexorable decline of its risk death to flee their homes, leaving Iraq to grap- backed Shiite militias. de facto state, IS had reverted to old tactics and ple with a humanitarian crisis as its forces prepare Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s recently ramped up bombings against key infra- to attack the country’s last remaining major IS hub elite Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations structure and civilian targets. Few major attacks of Mosul. “The Iraqi security forces now control the arm, was more visible than ever before in Iraq dur- have been reported in Baghdad since the start whole city of Fallujah,” said Sabah al-Noman, ing the early days of the operation. The US-led of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan how- spokesman for the elite counter-terrorism service coalition offered some aerial support but was less ever. The aid community was largely caught flat- (CTS) that has been leading the fight. involved than six months ago during the opera- footed however by the scope of the humanitari- CTS fighters yesterday eased into Jolan, a north- tions to retake Ramadi, the capital of Anbar an crisis that resulted from mass displacement western neighborhood of Fallujah where the last IS province in which Fallujah is also located.