Head of the Daesh in Iraq and Syria has been killed, Iraqi prime minister says

BAGHDAD: The Syrian Arab Republic’s interim foreign minister arrived in Iraq on Friday, conducting his first visit to the country since his Islamist alliance toppled Bashar Assad.
Relations between neighbors Syria and Iraq have become more complicated since the fall of Assad, who was a close ally of the government in Baghdad.
In Baghdad, Syria’s top diplomat Asaad Al-Shaibani met his counterpart Fuad Hussein, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
Iraq is home to a Shiite Muslim majority, and while it is a strategic partner of the United States, it is also a key ally of Iran, once a main backer of Assad’s rule.
While Assad’s key support came from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi armed groups were also engaged in defending his rule during the 13-year civil war sparked by his crackdown on democracy protests.
The rebels who ended up ousting Assad in December are Sunni Muslim, and interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who has sought to present a more moderate image since coming to power, once fought with Al-Qaeda in Iraq against US forces and their allies.
Iraq condemned the massacre of at least 1,383 civilians in coastal Syria earlier this month by security forces, allied groups and jihadists.
The vast majority of the civilians killed were Alawites, members of Assad’s sect, itself an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Iraq said earlier this week that it was investigating an attack on Syrian workers in the country after a newly formed Iraqi group vowed to avenge the mass killing of Alawite civilians.
Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq have launched an online campaign against Syrians who they say support the mass killings.
Iraqi forces have in recent days arrested at least 13 Syrians accused of “promoting terrorist groups” and supporting the mass killing in Syria, two interior ministry officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Syria’s foreign ministry on Wednesday slammed the violence against its citizens, urging Baghdad in a statement to take “necessary measures to ensure the security of Syrians residing in Iraq.”

MAJDAL SHAMS: Dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into Israel on Friday for their community’s first pilgrimage to a revered shrine in decades.
On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to northern Israel.
According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 clerics is due to meet the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, in northern Israel.
They are then set to head to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee — the most important religious site for the Druze.
Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
A source close to the delegation said that the visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, but that it had been met with “strong opposition” from other Druze in Syria.
The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
In Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, there are around 150,000 Druze, with most of those living in Israel holding Israeli citizenship and serving in the army.
However, of the some 23,000 living in the occupied Golan Heights, most do not hold Israeli citizenship and still see themselves as Syrian nationals.
Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
The pilgrimage comes as Israel has voiced support for Syria’s Druze and mistrust of the country’s new leaders.
Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to “the Druze community in battle areas of Syria” over the past few weeks.
“Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters,” he told journalists.
During a visit to military outposts in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain in the area and ensure the protection of the Druze.
In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria’s new rulers “to harm the Druze.”
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz’s warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.