PHOTO: Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad

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UPDATE 1925 GMT: Reports on social media indicate that the Islamic State has renewed its advance inside Hasakah, moving into the Aziziyah and Gweiran areas in the south of the city.

Kurdish police have reportedly issued an order for a curfew from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.: “We appeal to our people in the city of Hasaka to cooperate with Asayish [police] forces to support and consolidate security and stability in the city in order to preserve the safety of citizens.”


Trying to defend against offensives from both rebels and the Islamic State, the Assad regime has warned that it is facing “terrorists” from Daraa in southern Syria to Hasakah in the northeast.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad told State TV on Friday that the threats in “Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and other areas” are from groups “supported by the Turkish regime, Israel, and the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, in addition to other sides including the US and European states”.

He tried to win support by linking the fighting in Syria to Islamic State attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait, killing scores of civilians, on Friday:

The international community should recall that Syria sent hundreds of letters to the Security Council warning against the possibility of attacks similar to Friday’s attacks taking place, adding that if the world doesn’t stand united against the terrorism embodied by ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the world will drown in chaos, murder, and bloodshed….

[We] reiterate Syria’s readiness to do all that it can to push towards combating the terrorism targeting Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and Tunisia. Those who support terrorism, including the French leadership represented by President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, along with other European and US leaders, must cease their support for terrorists and their condoning of those who fund, harbor, and arm terrorists — otherwise these states will run the risk of being subjected to reprehensible terrorist attacks.

Rebels are continuing to press their offensive to capture the rest of Daraa city, on the Jordanian border, from the regime. Confirmed news from the frontline was scarce on Friday, although State media and pro-Assad outlets claimed the attacks, launched on Wednesday, had been repelled.

The pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees reported 26 rebels killed on Friday, bringing total to 63 in two days. The number of regime casualties is unknown.

Assad forces control the center of Daraa and about 30% of the city in total. Rebels are trying to take key positions such as the National Hospital and the State Security Branch.

The Islamic State is still inside Hasakah — a mixed Arab, Kurdish, and Assyrian area in northeast Syria — after a surprise attack on Wednesday night. Pro-Assad accounts say the militants have been pushed back, but acknowledged that they are still in at least one southwestern area of the city. Photographs on social media show heavy weapons, including anti-tank missiles, taken by the Islamic State’s forces.

The Governor of Hasakah Province, Mohammad Zaal al-Ali, insisted on Friday that the city is “safe” and the situation “stable”, with army units “firm in their positions”. State news agency SANA said “media outlets linked to the terrorist organizations have been circulating false news about them controlling areas in the city”.


Reports: Rebel “Ultimatum” to Islamic State Gets Some Fuel Into Northern Opposition-Held Areas

Reports indicate that a rebel ultimatum to the Islamic State has ensured that some fuel supplies have made it into opposition-held areas of Aleppo Province.

The rebels warned the Islamic State that, if fuel trucks were blocked, supply routes for food and essential to the IS’s areas would be cut.

The pro-opposition Syrian Mirror reported on Saturday that some fuel trucks have made it into the rebel-controlled districts.

The Islamic State has been blocking deliveries, going so far as to execute truck drivers who defied the ban.

See Syria Special: The Life-Threatening Fuel Crisis in Opposition-Held Areas


Video: Free Syrian Army Frees Civilians at Checkpoint North of Daraa City

Claimed footage of Free Syrian Army fighters freeing about 50 civilians, most of them women and children, from detention by regime forces inside several buildings near the al-Maftara checkpoint, north of Daraa city.

The FSA said a number of its fighters were killed and injured during the operation on Thursday, at the outset of the “Southern Storm” operation to liberate Daraa city.