The mother of Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab held by Islamic State in Syria as an alleged spy, weeps next to his photograph in her East Jerusalem home February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Islamic State said on Thursday it was holding an Israeli Arab who had posed as a foreign fighter in order to spy for Mossad, an account denied by Israel and by the man's family, who said he had been kidnapped.

In an interview published by Islamic State's online English-language magazine Dabiq, Muhammad Musallam, 19, said he had joined the insurgent group in Syria so as to report to the Israelis on its weapons caches, bases and Palestinian recruits.

After his conduct aroused the suspicion of Islamic State commanders, Musallam was quoted as saying, he broke cover by phoning his father in East Jerusalem, leading to his capture.

"I say to all those who want to spy on the Islamic State, don't think that you're so smart and that you can deceive the Islamic State. You won't succeed at all," he said, according to Dabiq.

"Stay away from this path. Stay away from helping the Jews and the murtaddin (apostates). Follow the right path."

Musallam's father, Said, denied his son was a spy, saying he went missing after traveling as a tourist to Turkey. Muhammad then phoned home, saying he had been abducted to neighboring Syria but could buy his way out, his father said.

"He said, 'Dad, I need $200 or $300 so they will let me go,'" Said Musallam told Reuters. Before he could send the money, he said, another man phoned to inform him Muhammad had escaped his captors but had been seized by Islamic State.

An Israeli security official said Musallam traveled to Turkey on Oct. 24 in order to fight for Islamic State in Syria.

"He went on his own initiative, without his family's knowledge," the official told Reuters. Asked whether his statement constituted a denial that Musallam was an Israeli spy, the official said: "You can understand it that way, yes."

POROUS BORDER

Worried that members of its 20-percent Arab minority might travel to Syria or Iraq to join Islamist insurgent groups and then return radicalized and battle-ready, Israel has stepped up monitoring and prosecution of suspected would-be volunteers.

Turkey draws many Israeli Arab holidaymakers. It is also a major conduit for foreigners who slip across the border to help insurgents trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Muhammad Musallam worked as an Israeli firefighter, his family said. A friend of his who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said Musallam had posted pro-Islamic State messages on social media. Reuters could find no social media accounts under Musallam's name.

In the first conviction of its kind, Israel in November jailed Ahmed Shurbaji, an Arab citizen who returned voluntarily after spending three months with Islamic State in Syria.

He received a relatively light term of 22 months in return for cooperation with security services that would likely "help the State of Israel defend itself against this organization in various ways," the court said, in a possible allusion to information he provided about Islamic State.

A source in the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, said Israeli Arabs returning from Syria were routinely questioned for intelligence on jihadi groups.

Shurbaji had phoned an Israeli security official from Syria to broker a deal. The Shin Bet source said such communications with Israeli Arabs who wanted to return from Syria had sometimes been handled by Ayoob Kara, an Israeli Druse politician and former army officer close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Contacted by Reuters, Kara said he was aware of Musallam's case and did not believe he was a Mossad spy.

While declining to discuss Musallam in detail, Kara said he knew of several young Israeli Arabs who had gone to Syria to aid refugees or for the thrill of available women or booty, only to be kidnapped and exploited by insurgents like Islamic State.

(Additional reporting by Ammar Awad and Sabreen Taha; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Roche)

F16 fighter jets from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrive at an air base in Jordan February 8, 2015. REUTERS/Petra News Agency

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian air force jets bombed the hideouts of Islamic State militants in Syria on Thursday, state television said, resuming the intensified raids that it first launched last week in retaliation for the killing of a pilot.

King Abdullah has vowed to avenge the burning to death of pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh by Islamic State and has ordered his commanders to prepare for a bigger military role in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the militants in both Syria and Iraq.

"The airforce has bombed and destroyed selected targets of the Daesh criminal gang this afternoon," it said. "Daesh" is a derogative term for the militants.

The raids are the first the Jordanian military have announced since three straight days of aerial bombing that ended last Saturday.

However, Jordanian military experts say the kingdom may soon struggle to sustain the intensity of air strikes, given the limited supply of F-16 jets at its disposal.

King Abdullah told U.S. lawmakers in Washington last week that Jordan needs precision munitions, aircraft parts and night vision equipment.

Separately, an army source said a squadron of F-16 fighters which arrived earlier this week in Amman from the United Arab Emirates had conducted a second series of sorties on Thursday against Islamic State targets.

A Jordanian military source said the kingdom had begun lending crucial logistical and intelligence backing to the Iraqi military as it prepares for a major offensive in coming months to regain control of the northern city of Mosul, which fell to the militants last year.

Another military source ruled out Jordan joining any ground offensive against Islamic State but said the country's elite special forces could have an important role to play.

TRENCH SOLIDARITY

The chief of Jordan's army discussed with top Iraqi commanders in Baghdad on Wednesday ways of "stepping up efforts" against the militants who control large swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq.

"Jordan and Iraq are in the same trench fighting these dangerous criminals and we will defeat them in every place," said General Mishal al-Zibn.

Despite the air raids and the tough language, many Jordanians fear greater involvement in the could trigger a backlash by hardline militants inside the kingdom.

Jordan, a major U.S. ally in the fight against hardline Islamist groups, hosted U.S. troops during operations that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It is home to hundreds of U.S. military trainers bolstering defences at Jordan's borders with Syria and Iraq.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Sureshbhai Patel is seen at Huntsville Hospital, in Huntsville, Alabama in this undated family handout photo. REUTERS/Patel Family Handout via Reuters

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) - An Alabama policeman faces assault charges after a man recently arrived from India said he was left partially paralyzed after an officer threw him to the ground during a morning walk, authorities said on Thursday.

Sureshbhai Patel, 57, sued the city and two officers in a civil rights complaint filed on Thursday, alleging race factored into his treatment, his attorney said. The FBI said it was also investigating.

Police officials in Madison, Alabama, apologized to Patel and his family at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. They added that one of the officers involved in the incident last Friday had been arrested on assault charges and officials had recommended he be fired.

Patel, who speaks no English, moved from India to Alabama about two weeks ago to help his son's family care for a 17-month-old child, said his lawyer, Henry Sherrod.

He was walking on the sidewalk outside his son’s home around 9 a.m., when police said they received a call about a suspicious person who reportedly was looking into garages, according to the lawsuit in the U.S. Northern District of Alabama.

Patel told police officers who stopped him: “No English, Indian,” and gave the house number for his son, the suit said.

A police officer then tossed Patel, who weighs about 130 pounds, to the ground, according to the complaint.

He was severely injured, requiring surgery to relieve pressure on his spinal cord, the complaint said. He has regained some movement in his arms and legs but remains very weak, his attorney said.

“I just can’t believe what they did to this very gentle man who wanted nothing more than to go out for a walk,” Sherrod said.

The police said in an earlier statement that Patel put his hands in his pockets and tried to pull away as officers patted him down. The department acknowledged forcing him to the ground, resulting in injury.

Patel's attorney noted that police had released no information from the call that led to the incident.

“I think that there was no call, and that Mr. Patel was taken down because he was brown,” Sherrod said.

The results of the federal probe will be turned over to the U.S. Justice Department, said Paul Daymond, a spokesman for the FBI division in Birmingham.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Letitia Stein and Peter Cooney)

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U.N. says Yemen collapsing, on brink of civil war

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Police troopers secure the entrance of the U.S. embassy in Sanaa February 11, 2015. The United State …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's senior counterterrorism official acknowledged Thursday that U.S. intelligence was surprised by the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen.

Nick Rasmussen, who directs the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate intelligence committee that Yemen's American-funded army failed to oppose advancing Houthi rebels in the same way the U.S.-supported Iraqi military refused to fight Islamic State militants last year.

What happened in Iraq with the onslaught of the Islamic State group "happened in Yemen" on "a somewhat smaller scale," he said. "As the Houthi advances toward Sanaa took place ... they weren't opposed in many places. ...The situation deteriorated far more rapidly than we expected."

Rasmussen made the admission under questioning by Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who noted that President Barack Obama recently touted Yemen as a success. Now, it's a "total disaster," Blunt said.

In response to other questioning, Rasmussen also noted that extremists in Libya, Afghanistan, Egypt and Algeria had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, suggesting a growing influence of that al-Qaida rival.

The Islamic State group is now the dominant extremist group in the Libyan cities of Derna and Benghazi, where a 2012 attack killed four Americans including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, he said.

"We've seen in recent months ISIL has looked to expand its reach in a number of places," Rasmussen said.

He acknowledged that efforts against al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate, considered one of the most dangerous to Americans, had been significantly diminished by the collapse of the government and this week's evacuation of the U.S. Embassy.