Activists: Kurdish fighters advance on IS-held Syrian town

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists and Kurdish representatives say Kurdish fighters have captured dozens of villages following days of clashes with the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria.

The Kurdish fighters, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, have been making territorial gains since capturing the Syrian border town of Kobani last month following a several-month struggle.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Kurdish fighters, supported by Arab militias and air strikes from the U.S.-backed coalition, captured on Friday the eastern and southeastern approaches to the town of Tel Hamees in Hassakeh province.

Nawaf Khalil, a YPG spokesman, says Kurdish forces have actually entered the IS-held town.

The Observatory says ground battles and air strikes around Tel Hamees have killed at least 175 IS fighters in the past several days.

Former Israeli Mossad chief slams Netanyahu on Iran handling

JERUSALEM (AP) — A former chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency is slamming the prime minister’s handling of the Iranian nuclear threat.

Ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious speech to Congress, Meir Dagan says “the person who has caused the greatest strategic damage to Israel on the Iranian issue is the prime minister.”

The comments were published Friday in the Yediot Ahronot daily.

Dagan has been a fierce critic of Netanyahu’s approach to Iran, emerging as a key opponent of a potential Israeli military attack against its nuclear facilities. He says Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, over White House objections, is pointless and counterproductive.

Dagan directed the Mossad from 2002 to 2010, a period when it reportedly carried out covert attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists and unleashed cyber-attacks that delayed Iran’s progression toward a bomb.