Rebels surrounded a government-held Druze village on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line on the Golan Heights on Wednesday after heavy fighting, a monitoring group said.

The advance came a day after Israel, which has a significant Druze population, said it was preparing for the possibility that refugees fleeing fighting in the area might seek to cross to the Israeli-occupied side of the strategic plateau.

A missile siren sounded in Israel's Golan Heights just before an alliance of Syrian rebels launched an offensive against Syrian military bases in Quneitra province, just across the border, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The siren sounded when forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired artillery toward military posts that have been taken over by rebels, about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) northeast of the Syrian village of Khadr.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syria-clashes-between-military-and-rebel-groups-three-fronts-851998166

You’ve probably heard by now that the Syrian Kurds have taken Tal Abyad, the key border town due north of Islamic State’s capital, Raqqa.

It’s a huge loss for Islamic State, and a big boost for the Kurds. But it’s something more than that: a glorious victory. That’s not something I get to write very often.

Most war stories are the dead opposite of glorious. You start out, as a war-nerdy kid, believing that Gettysburg is the norm—a good clean fight between brave, simple soldiers, ferocious against each other but sparing non-combatants. There was exactly one civilian death at Gettysburg, and that was from a stray bullet.

Then you get serious about warfare and realize that massacre is the norm, genocide is more common than anyone wants to realize, and most conflicts are bad vs. bad, or bad vs. even worse.

http://pando.com/2015/06/17/the-war-nerd-a-glorious-victory-for-once/