01-04-2015: The geographic range of the Tehran-backed foreign mercenaries deployed in Syria to fight for the Assad regime continues to expand, with Souria.Net publishing photographs from rebels in Jisr al Shughour in Idlib province of an African mercenary killed in clashes there. Rebels in the region report that they are now seeing increasing numbers of African fighters alongside the regime’s Shiite mercenaries from Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with North Korean and Filipino fighters also fighting for Assad.

Iraq and Syria no longer exist.

By now, the world has gotten used to maps showing how ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, the Assad regime, the Baghdad government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Sunni tribes, Iranian-backed militia groups, and various other actors have filled the vacuum in the countries still officially known as Iraq and Syria.

#Iran, 30-04-2015: 'Iranian destroyers, sent to the Gulf of Aden to protect commercial ships, have reached the entrance of Bab el-Mandab, a strategic strait between Yemen and Djibouti, Iran's navy said Thursday.

In another sign of tensions between Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the Saudi charge d'affaires was summoned to the foreign ministry in Tehran to hear a "strong protest" over Saudi military action which prevented an Iranian plane from landing in Sanaa.