– Pentagon considers plan to train fighters in Syria
– UN relief official calls for ‘immediate’ end to blockades in Syria
– Syrian opposition coordinator says US clearly backtracked over Syria 
– Syria rebels to cede heavy weapons in Homs deal
– Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after ISIS-claimed blasts
– Turkey identifies the Syrian bomber behind the Istanbul blast, detains one suspect

Pentagon considers plan to train fighters in Syria
The Pentagon is weighing a request from Turkish officials to help train and equip Sunni Arab fighters inside Syria as part of an effort to secure Turkey’s southern border, a long-sought goal of the Obama administration, according to US officials.If the proposal moves forward, it would be a significant development in the US role in the area and another effort to train and equip Western-leaning fighters inside of Syria after previous efforts faltered. [WSJ, 1/13/2016]

UN relief official calls for ‘immediate’ end to blockades in Syria
The head of the UN relief efforts for Syria pleaded with all parties on Tuesday to lift their sieges on key towns and let aid agencies deliver food and medical care. “The immediate thing to be done is to lift sieges everywhere,” the humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Yacoub al-Hillo said. Hillo’s comments come a day after he joined a carefully negotiated aid convoy into the besieged town of Madaya. He said he saw severely malnourished people there, especially children, and others who had gone hungry for a long time. He said some people there resembled “skeletons that are now barely moving.” Another convoy is due to go to Madaya on Thursday.[NYT, WSJ, 1/13/2016]

Syrian opposition coordinator says US clearly backtracked over Syria
Opposition coordinator Riad Hijab said the United States has softened its stance on Syria including the future of President Bashar al-Assad to accommodate Russia. Hijab warned that the opposition would face a hard choice on whether to attend peace talks this month. “The Russians and Americans did not cite Assad (during the negotiations) and did not talk about his departure and that is clear backtracking,” he said. On Wednesday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will meet ambassadors from all five permanent members of the UN Security Council in Geneva on Wednesday ahead of the peace talks planned for January 25. In related news, President Obama’s former ambassador to Syria told House lawmakers Tuesday that Russia’s military intervention in the country has set back, not advanced, efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the five-year-old conflict. The gloomy comments from Robert Ford, who served as Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, stand in direct opposition to the State Department’s growing optimism that a Syrian peace deal may be in sight. [Reuters, 1/13/2016]

Syria rebels to cede heavy weapons in Homs deal
Syrian rebels in a former opposition stronghold in Homs will relinquish nearly half their heavy weapons as part of a truce with the government, the Homs Provincial Governor Talal Barazi said Wednesday. According to Barazi, “the second phase of the Waer agreement began four days ago and will continue until the beginning of February.” Barazi explained that rebels are expected to hand over “nearly 50 percent of all medium- and heavy-weaponry, like machine guns and mortars,” whereas government forces will open a second crossing point into the neighborhood. Barazi described the implementation of the deal as a “trust-building process.” The deal was reached in December and envisions Waer coming under government control in exchange for the lifting of a devastating three-year siege. In the northwestern province of Latakia Wednesday, regime forces continued to expand their area of control seizing two additional villages near Salma with the aid of Russian air strikes. [AFP, 1/13/2016]

Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after ISIS-claimed blasts
At least ten Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in eastern Iraq were attacked on Tuesday, security sources and local officials said, a day after 23 people were killed in two blasts claimed by Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). Iraqi officials condemned both the mosque attacks as well as Monday’s bombings which ISIS said had targeted Iraqi Shia. Haqqi al-Jabouri, a member of the local council in Diyala province where the Muqdadiya attack took place, said both types of attacks hurt the social fabric of the community. [Al Jazeera, Reuters, 1/13/2016]

Turkey identifies the Syrian bomber behind the Istanbul blast, detains one suspect
Turkish authorities identified the bomber in the January 12 attack in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey. Turkish media, including newspapers close to the government, identified him as Nabil Fadli, and said he was born in Saudi Arabia. Ala said the suicide bomber had registered with Turkish immigration authorities but wasn’t on any Turkish or international watch lists for ISIS militants. One person has been detained over suspected connections to the attack, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala has announced. Turkish media reports said police raided a home in an affluent neighborhood of Istanbul, detaining one woman suspected of having links to ISIS, although it was not clear if she was the suspect Ala was referring to. [NYT, Daily Sabah, Reuters, 1/13/2016]