Revealed: UK ‘mercenaries’ fighting Islamic State terrorist forces in Syria
Former infantryman James Hughes from Reading, and Jamie Read from Lanarkshire, are said to be in Rojava, northern Syria A former British infantryman who served in Afghanistan is among a growing cohort of Britons joining the ranks of westerners travelling to Syria and Iraq to fight Islamic State (Isis) militants, the Observer has learned. James Hughes, from Reading, Berkshire, is understood to be in Rojava, northern Syria, helping to defend the beleaguered city of Kobani as a de facto “mercenary” fighting on behalf of the Kurdish P…
Syrian war death toll crosses 200,000
Syria n Observatory for Human Rights documents killing of 202,354 people including 63,074 civilians of which 10,377 are children. Syria ’s civil war has killed more than 200,000 people in less than four years, a monitoring group said on Tuesday, adding that most were fighters from the two sides. “We have documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011,” Syria n Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that more than 130,000 of them were combatants. “Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were…
Israeli, US defense chiefs powwow at the Pentagon
Moshe Ya’alon discusses Iran elections and chemical weapons in Syria with Chuck Hagel during first official visit since taking office Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met with his US counterpart Chuck Hagel in Washington Friday. The two leaders discussed elections in Iran and developments regarding Syria, and reaffirmed that their two countries will continue to work together to counter threats posed by Iran and remain prepared for a range of contingencies. “Secretary Hagel and Minister Ya’alon also discussed the ongoing violence in Syr…
Syria urgently needs a political solution - John Kerry
Unless the bloodshed in Syria stops, the region could descend into a chaotic sectarian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday, as he called for an urgent political resolution to the war that has dragged on for two years and claimed 93,000 lives. The top U.S. diplomat and his counterparts from 10 Arab and European nations agreed at a daylong meeting in Qatar to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. But Kerry would not disclose details of the aid, saying only that it would re-balance the fight…
Key Assad opponent urges talks with Syria regime
Beirut: A prominent Syrian opposition figure called Tuesday for direct talks with President Bashar al-Assad`s regime to try to end the country`s raging civil war. Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, the former head of the opposition National Coalition, said a deal could see Assad remain in power for a limited time, despite previous demands for his immediate resignation. "It is in the Syrian people`s interest for us to sit down together once and for all, and to find a way to save the people from this pain and suffering," Khatib told AF…
US Military Conducts 30 Airstrikes Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq
(TAMPA, Fla.) -- The U.S. military continued its attack against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) targets in Iraq and Syria, launching 30 more airstrikes between Wednesday and Friday. According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), six of the strikes were in Syria, near Kobani. They destroyed four staging areas, two buildings and two tactical units, and suppressed a fighting position. Another airstrike in Syria damaged a barrack near Ar Raqqah.
ISIS’s Oil Revenue Is Falling, Administration Says
The Obama administration believes it has sharply cut back the oil revenues that have made the Islamic State the best funded terrorist organization in history, according to senior US officials. The US has been combining military strikes that target energy infrastructure controlled by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with heightened tracking of smuggling routes used to move oil through Turkey and Kurdistan, according to these officials. In October, the US Treasury Department estimated that Islamic State , also known as ISIS or ISIL, w…
Gen. Hayden: We Might Have to Declare Assad US Enemy
President Barack Obama may have to declare the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an enemy of the United States in the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS), said Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency. The short-term strategy against the Islamic militants in Syria should be to "contain and punish ISIS," Hayden said, adding that it didn't solve the long-term problem, but just "buys us time and space." He said Obama might have to employ U.S. ground forces…
IS seven times bigger than Western estimates: Kurds claim
LONDON: The West may have severely underestimated the strength of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical organization, which may have raised an army of at least 2,00,000 fighters, a Kurdish leader has claimed. This number is seven to eight times more than Western intelligence estimates of up to 31,500 fighters, said Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Kurdish president Massoud Barzani, in an exclusive interview to The Independent on Sunday. Hussein speculates that the CIA and US intelligence agencies may only have been speaking abou…
Hagel’s expulsion reflects deeper problems within the White House
The knives were out for Chuck Hagel as soon as he was appointed secretary of defense. At first, however, those blades belonged to the snarky and dubious members of the press corps assigned to him. The Washington buzz was that Hagel, despite his years in the Senate and accomplishments in business and the military, was not up to the job. But this week, with word of Hagel being ousted from the Obama cabinet, many of those who doubted him feel he was wronged. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure from President…
A 26-Year-Old Woman Is ISIS’s Last American Hostage
The extremists didn’t show her off in their latest snuff film. And her family doesn’t want her name released. But what is known about ISIS’s remaining U.S. captive is heartbreaking. With ISIS’s brutal murder of Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old American aid worker who dedicated his life to the plight of Syrian refugees, the militant group has one more U.S. citizen remaining in its clutches, according to current and former U.S. officials, as well as individuals involved in efforts to free the Americans. The hostage is the only Americ…
US Defence: Hagel, under pressure, resigns as U.S. defense secretary
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned on Monday, leaving under pressure as President Barack Obama faces critical national security challenges, including fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and revising plans to exit Afghanistan. It was the first major change to Obama's Cabinet since his Democrats were routed in midterm elections three weeks ago, and Republicans, who now control both houses of Congress, are looking for a new approach from the White house. Hagel was appointed less than two years ago as Obama pu…
France has deployed 3 Mirage fighter in Jordan
France has deployed three Mirage fighter jets in Jordan to help in the battle against ISIL Takfiri militants. The warplanes arrived on Friday as part of the “operational strategy to confront threats in the region,” said Jordanian Army spokesman, Colonel Mamduh al-Amiri, on Saturday. Earlier in the month, France, which takes part in airstrikes in Iraq by the so-called US-led coalition, said it would send six jet fighters to Jordan. Al-Amiri refrained from giving the location of the jets' deployment or when the remaining thr…
US flies roughly 85 percent of airstrikes against Islamic State, in complex mix of tactics, politics
The United States is conducting roughly 85 percent of the multi-national air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to the most recent Pentagon report. U.S. fighter planes and drones have conducted 819 strikes, compared to 157 from the 10 other countries, states the detailed report obtained last week. The U.S. began the strikes in Iraq on Aug. 8 and was joined roughly five weeks later by Australia, followed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They joined as part of President Obama’s plan …
Will Iran supply the world with low-cost weapons?
DefenseNews : Tehran claims to have the most successful arms industry in the world despite decades of economic sanctions. The regime states that 5,000 knowledge-based companies are cooperating with its defense industry to develop innovative weapons. In November 2022, Iran launched a hypersonic ballistic missile for the first time. The aerospace commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Amir Ali Hajizadeh described the event as “a great generational leap in the field of missiles.” International experts have greeted this …
India, Israel discuss counter-terrorism, homeland security
New Delhi: India and Israel on Friday discussed the implementation of agreement on counter-terrorism and homeland security between the two countries. Israel's Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon met Home Minister Rajnath Singh here. The ambassador told the Home Minister that Israel is looking forward to a meaningful cooperation with India in the area of homeland security. He said that the recently signed agreement is a step further in this direction. The Home Minister welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza and hoped that it would usher in p…
ISIS may possesss nuclear material stolen from Iraq
LONDON: Islamic State terror group may have developed a nuclear device by using radioactive uranium stolen from Iraq 's Mosul University after seizing control of the city last June, a British media report says. Militants boasted of the device on social media, with one even commenting on the destruction such a bomb would wreak in London, four months after the chemical went missing from Mosul University, Mirror newspaper reported. One of the extremists making online threats to the west is British explosives expert Hamayun T…
U.S. Army General meets Kurdish leader in Erbil
U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey met with Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani in Erbil on Saturday, an official statement said. Dempsey said that the U.S. government follows the Kurdish armed forces' struggle against the ISIL closely. The two officials discussed how the peshmerga and Iraqi army are working together in the battle against ISIL. The Pentagon has plans to establish a center in Erbil so that U.S. troops may provide assistance to Kurdish peshmerga forces. The U.S. also is planning to set up a training s…
Top U.S. military leader in Iraq amid ISIS airstrike campaign
BAGHDAD -- America's top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a surprise visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group. The visit by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, came just two days after he told Congress that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops against the extremist group. The Iraqi military and security forces, trained by the U.S. at the …
Turkey trains Kurdish peshmerga forces in fight against ISIL
Turkish soldiers are training Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq and will give similar assistance to a new national army unit in Baghdad as part of the struggle against ISIL, a senior Turkish official said on Saturday. Turkish soldiers began special forces training with Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq three weeks ago, peshmerga spokesman Brigadier General Halgurd Hikmat said. The Turkish official said similar assistance would be given to Iraq 's National Guard.
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