SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coincided with the visit by a U.N. envoy to Damascus on Thursday.<br /> Two Syria-based groups as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say warplanes carried out at least 12 airstrikes across the city. They reported casualties but had no specific figures.<br /> <br /> It was not immediately clear what was hit.<br /> <br /> The city in northern Syria is the self-declared capital of the Islamic State group's so-called Islamic caliphate it has established across parts of Syria and Iraq. The region is often targeted by a U.S.-led coalition fighting IS from the air. The Syrians have occasionally targeted the city as well, but Syrian government airstrikes typically concentrate on other opposition-held areas of the country.<br /> <br /> Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated in an interview with Russian media aired Wednesday that that the U.S. refuses to coordinate with his government in the fight against IS.<br /> <br /> For the U.S. officials, "if they cooperate with the Syrian army, this is like recognition of our effectiveness in fighting ISIS," Assad said, using another acronym for the group. He also said that his priority is "defeating terrorism" in Syria.<br /> <br /> Russia is trying to convince the West of the need to work with Syria in the fight against IS.<br /> Thursday's airstrikes on Raqqa coincided with a visit by the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to Damascus. De Mistura met with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who repeated to him that fighting terrorism was the Syrian government's priority, according to the state-run news agency SANA.

SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coin...

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PAPERS BEING SOLD TO ISIS TERRORISTS SNEAKING INTO EUROPE

<div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">ISIS fighters and economic migrants are able to buy Syrian identity documents that allow them to hide among refugees travelling to Europe with frightening ease, an investigation by MailOnline can reveal.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Our reporter was able to buy a Syrian passport, identity card and driving licence from a fraudster in a Turkish border town this week.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The genuine documents were stolen from Syria when they were blank. The forger added our reporter's picture and gave him the identity of a Syrian man from Aleppo killed last year.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Easy: Our reporter was able to acquire the $2,000 haul of documents within just four days from criminals. Above are Syrian passport, driving licence and identity card" class="blkBorder img-share" height="447" id="i-f4637034a61552da" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/16/15/2C622BED00000578-3235320-image-a-1_1442413844251.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Easy: Our reporter was able to acquire the $2,000 haul of documents within just four days from criminals. Above are Syrian passport, driving licence and identity card</div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Fake identity: The documents are all genuinely made - having been plundered by Syrian opposition forces including ISIS - as they overran offices held by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad" class="blkBorder img-share" height="408" id="i-ecab64aa36200819" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/16/15/2C622D8900000578-3235320-image-a-8_1442415427377.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Fake identity: The documents are all genuinely made - having been plundered by Syrian opposition forces including ISIS - as they overran offices held by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad</div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Dead man walking: The passport was in the name of a real man who had died in the Syrian city of Aleppo" class="blkBorder img-share" height="889" id="i-279636822856e9c6" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/16/15/2C622B7000000578-3235320-image-a-3_1442413903661.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Dead man walking: The passport was in the name of a real man who had died in the Syrian city of Aleppo</div> </div> <br /> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The documents, on sale for around $2,000, would help an asylum claim in Europe.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The forger who sold us the papers, said that they are being used by ISIS fanatics to travel undetected across borders into Europe hidden among tens of thousands of genuine refugees fleeing the terror and destruction.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Once in Europe they can set up sleeper cells or live freely under a new identity without facing the consequences of their brutal past actions. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote nochannel floatRHS" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper ccox" style="font-size: 20px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px; position: relative;"> ISIS fighters are among the people going to Europe in this way. They are going to Europe to wait for the right time to become a fighter for ISIS again </div> <div class="mol-article-quote-attribution" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Forger </div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">As the forger chillingly put it: 'ISIS fighters are among the people going to Europe in this way. They are going to wait for the right time to become a fighter for ISIS again.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The revelation comes as Lebanon warned two in every 100 Syrian migrants smuggled into Europe are ISIS-trained fanatics, with most travelling overland through Turkey to Greece.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The extremist group is sending trained jihadists 'under cover' to attack targets in the west, Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bousaab told British Prime Minister David Cameron during his visit to the country on Monday.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'ISIS will not stop at the border with Lebanon, before you know it ISIS will be in Europe,' Mr Bousaab claimed. </span></div> <div class="moduleFull mol-video" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <a class="namedLink" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="video" style="color: #003580; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></a><div class="item" style="font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <div class="vjs-video-container vjs-fixed vjs-span-two-col news" id="v-4491288002001" style="background-color: black; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 636px !important;"> <video class="video-js vjs-default-skin" controls="" data-opts="{"useFreewheel":false,"linkBaseURL":"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3235320/PASSPORT-TERROR-MailOnline-reporter-buys-Syrian-papers-sold-ISIS-fighters-sneaking-Europe-hidden-refugees.html#v-4491288002001","isMobile":false,"src":"http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/bc/rtmp_uds/1418450360/2015/09/17/1418450360_4491306324001_4491288002001.mp4","source":"MailOnline","playerId":"default","title":"Nick Fagge shows his Syrian passport and ID documents","initialVideo":true,"thumbnail":"http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/17/11/2C6AC5BC00000578-0-image-a-1_1442487203311.jpg","poster":"http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/17/11/2C6AC5BC00000578-0-image-a-2_1442487205403.jpg","plugins":{"video-quality":{"sources":[{"width":480,"src":{"src":"http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/bc/rtmp_uds/1418450360/2015/09/17/1418450360_4491306319001_4491288002001.mp4","type":"video/mp4"},"height":270},{"width":640,"src":{"src":"http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/bc/rtmp_uds/1418450360/2015/09/17/1418450360_4491306330001_4491288002001.mp4","type":"video/mp4"},"height":360},{"width":960,"src":{"src":"http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/bc/rtmp_uds/1418450360/2015/09/17/1418450360_4491306331001_4491288002001.mp4","type":"video/mp4"},"height":540},{"width":1024,"src":{"src":"http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/bc/rtmp_uds/1418450360/2015/09/17/1418450360_4491306324001_4491288002001.mp4","type":"video/mp4"},"height":576}]},"flyout":{},"related-videos":{"videos":"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/api/player/1214748/related-videos.json"},"tracking":{"trackingType":"embedded","channelShortName":"news","sponsored":false,"referenceId":1214748},"social-share":{"embedUrl":"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1214748.html"},"ads-setup":{"screen":{"width":636,"height":358},"videoAdServerUrl":"http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=[size]&iu=%2F5765%2Fdm.video%2Fdm_video_news&ciu_szs=&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast3&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&correlator=[timestamp]","adsEnabled":true,"adsCancelTimeout":5000}},"videoId":"4491288002001","descr":"MailOnline reporter buys Syrian papers being sold to ISIS fighters sneaking into Europe hidden among refugees."}" style="-webkit-user-select: none; bottom: 50px; color: #b1b1b1; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; height: calc(100% - 85px); left: 0px; margin: auto; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 36px; transition: opacity 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: middle; width: 636px;"></video></div> </div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Terror: The forger told MailOnline that ISIS fighters are buying the passports so they can sneak back into Europe to plan attacks or escape Syria without having to face the consequences of the crimes they committed" class="blkBorder img-share" height="380" id="i-9027db985b747eca" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/15/14/2C3DA40B00000578-3235320-image-a-5_1442324184379.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Terror: The forger told MailOnline that ISIS fighters are buying the passports so they can sneak back into Europe to plan attacks or escape Syria without having to face the consequences of the crimes they committed</div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The bogus papers are also being used by economic migrants from other Middle Eastern states who know that a Syrian asylum claim will be met with more sympathy following the civil war which has so far forced an estimated four million people to flee. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The recent death of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy pictured after he was washed up on a Turkish shore, has heightened demands for countries to take in Syrian refugees and propelled their plight to the top of the international agenda.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Germany alone is expected to take in a million Syrians this year and is putting other European nations under pressure to sign up to a quota system.  </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The forger told MailOnline: 'Everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians'  </span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote nochannel floatRHS" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper ccox" style="font-size: 20px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px; position: relative;"> Everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians. There are Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, people from all over the Arab world who are pretending to be Syrian so they can have a new life in Europe </div> <div class="mol-article-quote-attribution" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Forger </div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The passport book MailOnline acquired is genuine, made from a batch seized from one of the many Syrian government offices captured by advancing opposition forces.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The forger explained that the militias fighting the forces of Assad make a beeline for government offices when they over-run a town. They know the value of the documents there and steal the passports, papers and even the printers that are used to create identity cards and driving licences.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'I don't know which town this passport came from because it has happened many times,' he said.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Fighters – from the Free Syrian Army, Al Nusra, ISIS or whatever – they know the value of these documents. They take them and they give them to us. They ask us to make new identities for them and their families so they can travel outside Syria.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'We do this for them and they leave us some of the books so we can sell them. There are many people – Syrian people – who have lost their passports and identity cards because of the chaos of the war. They want new documents to help them in Europe.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">He went on: 'Everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians. There are Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, people from all over the Arab world who are pretending to be Syrian so they can have a new life in Europe.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Claims: The forger told MailOnline that 'everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians. There are Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, people from all over the Arab world pretending to be Syrian so they can have a new life in Europe'. Pictured are migrants at Salzburg station, Austria on Tuesday" class="blkBorder img-share" height="432" id="i-6040e789d022fa55" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/16/16/2C60B3CC00000578-3235320-Claims_The_forger_told_MailOnline_Everyone_wants_to_be_Syrian_no-m-10_1442415812412.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Claims: The forger told MailOnline that 'everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians. There are Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, people from all over the Arab world pretending to be Syrian so they can have a new life in Europe'. Pictured are migrants at Salzburg station, Austria on Tuesday</div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'ISIS fighters are among the people going to Europe in this way. They are going to wait for the right time to become a fighter for ISIS again.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Alarm bells began to ring as to the scale of the problem earlier this month when German customs officers seized packages containing a large number of blank Syrian passports. The packages contained both genuine and fake passport books. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Frontex, the EU border agency, has reported an increase in the seizure of Syrian passports for sale although they admit they as yet have no idea of the size of the problem. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'The latest figures confirm that document fraud is on the rise,' a spokesman told MailOnline. 'Imposters use another person's documents taking advantage of their physical resemblance to the original holders, as often difficult to identify.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Research studies show that the extent of the problem is much wider than can be assessed from the number of revealed cases.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote nochannel floatRHS" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper ccox" style="font-size: 20px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px; position: relative;"> There is little doubt that evil jihadists will be keen to exploit the present refugee crisis to infiltrate their way into Europe and the UK. In the present chaos fake passports provide almost perfect cover </div> <div class="mol-article-quote-attribution" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Tory MP Philip Hollobone </div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'[Syrian passports] are found in the hands of Iraqis and Palestinians. There is also a rising phenomenon of migrants from Algeria, Egypt or Morocco claiming falsely to be of Syrian nationality.' </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The blue passport book is printed with the words Syrian Arab Republic in Arabic, English and French on the cover. It bears a Syrian coat of arms – an eagle holding a shield of the national flag and a scroll with an inscription in Arabic.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The 48-page booklet has a bar code and serial number.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The passport states in Arabic, English and French that the photograph is the image of a 48-year-old Christian man called Jak Abdullah Fraam who was born in 1967 in Aleppo. It states that his father is called Mishail and his mother Lena.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The document gives the holder permission, from the Syrian government, to travel to countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, African and South America. However Syrians need visas to enter almost every country apart from Sudan and Lebanon. Other Syrian passports have restrictions on which country the bearer can travel to.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The identity card bears the official government seal and is printed using machinery captured by opposition forces and handed over to master forgers.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The Syrian coast of arms is embossed into the card. An image of the Syrian coat of arms sits underneath the photograph. There is a watermark-style image on the right-hand corner and on the back of the ID card.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The international driving licence was issued by the Traffic Police Department of the Syrian Ministry of Interior. It bears the official stamp of the Chief of Governorate Police.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">These three documents together provide almost irrefutable evidence of a life in Syria before the war and would support a claim for asylum in Europe. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Warning: As British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Syrian refugees in camps in Lebanon this week,  a minister warned two in every 100 Syrian migrants smuggled into Europe are ISIS-trained fanatics" class="blkBorder img-share" height="422" id="i-da83b8b8233af8b1" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/15/14/2C4D7B1D00000578-3235320-image-a-4_1442323940594.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Warning: As British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Syrian refugees in camps in Lebanon this week,  a minister warned two in every 100 Syrian migrants smuggled into Europe are ISIS-trained fanatics</div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The manufacture of passports and identity documents by forgers began innocently following the collapse of Assad's Syrian regime, when many citizens lost their official papers in the chaos and society broke down.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">But this 'public service' has been hijacked by unscrupulous criminals who will sell anyone the documents to claim they are Syrian.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'At first it was a way to keep normal life going,' a Syrian with knowledge of the practice of creating new passports told MailOnline.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'When someone got married they needed a certificate. When a baby was born they needed a certificate. When someone wanted to go abroad they needed a passport. But in much of the country there was no government.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'However, the people who had worked for the government, local people in each town or city liberated from the regime, were still there.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote nochannel floatRHS" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper ccox" style="font-size: 20px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px; position: relative;"> The extent of the problem is much wider than can be assessed from the number of revealed cases </div> <div class="mol-article-quote-attribution" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> EU border agency Frontex </div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'They understood that p</span><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">eople needed documents, so they helped them and got a bit of money for themselves. But now there are people who are only interested in the money. They don't care who they sell a passport to - even if they are terrorists.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Former Scotland Yard detective, and passport and identity fraud expert, Tom Craig, told MailOnline that the passport and other documents would be enough to get someone into the EU.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'While there are some discrepancies the passport is good enough to get someone into Greece or Italy. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'It appears to be an old style passport rather than a modern one. The booklet appears genuine and so does the paper.' </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">It took just four days for MailOnline investigators to buy the haul in Turkey.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Publishing precise details of the operation would put the lives of Syrian and Turkish investigators in danger, but in essence it was surprisingly easy. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The reporter sent a photograph via social media to the forger in Syria, who made the documents and then smuggled the documents over the porous border and dropped off for collection.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs committee told MailOnline the revelations were 'deeply disturbing'.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"></span></div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <img alt="Concern: Tory MP Philip Hollobone told MailOnline that 'there is little doubt that evil jihadists will be keen to exploit the present refugee crisis to infiltrate their way into Europe and the UK' " class="blkBorder img-share" height="427" id="i-e57e85b563745483" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/16/15/2C622C3100000578-3235320-Fake_identity_The_documents_are_all_genuinely_made_having_been_p-m-4_1442415026706.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> Concern: Tory MP Philip Hollobone told MailOnline that 'there is little doubt that evil jihadists will be keen to exploit the present refugee crisis to infiltrate their way into Europe and the UK' </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">He said: 'The ease with which a fake Syrian identity card has been obtained so easily is deeply disturbing. It is essential that all countries need to obtain the necessary equipment to check the validity of these documents. This represents a huge problem that needs to be addressed immediately.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, said the MailOnline investigation had brought a serious security to light.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">He said: 'I would like to congratulate MailOnline for your work in exposing this very serious security issue.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'There is little doubt that evil jihadists will be keen to exploit the present refugee crisis to infiltrate their way into Europe and the UK. In the present chaos fake passports provide almost perfect cover.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'The UK Border Force will need to be extra vigilant to separate genuine refugees from ISIS operatives.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: 'This is a very worrying development and highlights why we need to properly control our borders and not get so get so overwhelmed by a compassionate desire to help people that we let down our guard.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'There are many people who want to exploit our generosity and the Government must not let it happen.'</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;">MailOnline has contacted the Turkish authorities to inform them of the scam.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">By Nick Fagge - On The Syria Border For The MailOnline</span></span></div>

PAPERS BEING SOLD TO ISIS TERRORISTS SNEAKING INTO EUROPE

ISIS fighters and economic migrants are able to buy Syrian identity documents that allow them to hide among refugees travelling to Europe w...

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U.S. TRAINING CREATED TOP ISIS COMMANDER

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ADyKj-cmB4Q6n9Evk9JGxzt9BS0mdlM17xEvE_6VoK7dQ_S2MU4a2L783D20WKVxy2rpiCn9dkj_V1yCN8SRaapxoTrU7ds4tMG-PkC4L1ksXrN8z1N0hYy5x7PNdtn7lm7Nt8fgccQ/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ADyKj-cmB4Q6n9Evk9JGxzt9BS0mdlM17xEvE_6VoK7dQ_S2MU4a2L783D20WKVxy2rpiCn9dkj_V1yCN8SRaapxoTrU7ds4tMG-PkC4L1ksXrN8z1N0hYy5x7PNdtn7lm7Nt8fgccQ/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The 15 Chechens looking to cross the border from Turkey to Syria didn’t strike Abdullah as particularly important or unusual.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> It was early summer in 2012, and as a smuggler based in the Turkish border town of Killis, Abdullah, who’d fled his home village in Syria because of fighting on the outskirts of Aleppo, was used to secretive groups of foreigners – journalists, aid workers and many recently aspiring jihadists – hiring him to cross Turkish military lines at the border while avoiding what was then still a significant Syrian government presence in northern Syrian.</div> <div class="reorder_story-target_2" id="related-gallery" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 30px; width: 231px;"> <div class="mi-slick-gallery-container clearfix" id="slick-gallery-container-29508007" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; visibility: visible;"> <div class="preroll-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> <div class="slick-gallery slick-initialized slick-slider" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; position: relative; touch-action: none;"> <div aria-live="polite" class="slick-list draggable" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px);" tabindex="0"> <div class="slick-track" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 237px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; position: relative; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 231px; zoom: 1;"> <div aria-hidden="false" class="gallery-item image slick-slide slick-active" data-slick-index="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 237px; min-height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 231px;"> <span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-320="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_480/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-480="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-640="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_768/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-768="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-960="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_1140/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-1140="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><img alt="Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters." data-preload="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; left: 0px; margin: auto; max-width: 231px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); vertical-align: middle;" title="Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters." /></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="current-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 40px; padding: 10px 0px;"> <span class="caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters. </span><span class="photographer" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Screenshot from ISIS Video</span></div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “In 2012, everyone was coming to Syria and we had too much work leading all kinds of people across the border,” he explained over lunch in Killis, a Turkish town just a few miles from the rebel-held Syrian city of Azzaz. “A lot were Muslims who had come to support the revolution against Bashar Assad from every country. So many from Europe, Russia, Germany, France. . . .”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The 15 men had reached Abdullah through a network of contacts that were funneling new fighters to northern Syria, and Abdullah recalled they said they were going to Syria to assist in the fight against Assad. They were quiet, disciplined and for the most part spoke only a bit of crude formal Arabic.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Only later did Abdullah realize that the network that funneled these men to him was the beginnings of the Islamic State, and that one of the 15 would turn out to be the most important non-Arab figure in the Islamic State hierarchy, a former American-trained noncommissioned officer in the special forces of the nation of Georgia, who’d led his men heroically during the 2008 Russian invasion of his homeland.</div> <div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-1" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"> WE TRAINED HIM WELL, AND WE HAD LOTS OF HELP FROM AMERICA.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Former Georgian defense official</span></div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Abu Omar al Shishani, as he’s now known, had been born Tarkhan Batirashvili 27 years earlier in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, a tiny enclave of ethnic Chechens, known locally as Kists, whose roughly 10,000 residents represent virtually all of the Muslims in predominantly Orthodox Christian Georgia.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> But analysts of extremist groups said Batirashvili’s impact has been far greater than the small numbers of Muslims in Georgia would suggest. Since he swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2013, thousands of Muslims from the Caucasus have flocked to Syria to join the extremist cause.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “More than anything else, Batirashvili has legitimized ISIS in the Caucasus by the power of his exploits, which is amplified by slick ISIS propaganda,” said Michael Cecire, an analyst of extremism for the Philadelphia-based <a href="http://www.fpri.org/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76ba; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Foreign Policy Research Institute.</a></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Batirashvili’s battlefield successes, including orchestrating the capture of Syria’s Menagh Air Base after two years of failed attempts, “helped to legitimize ISIS in militant circles, including in the North Caucasus,” Cecire said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “Batirashvili’s ability to demonstrate ISIS’ tactical prowess attracted fighters in droves from other factions and tipped the scales in foreign fighter flow and recruitment,” Cecire said. “In the North Caucasus, young people no longer wanted to fight in Syria with the increasingly marginalized Caucasus Emirate (groups), but wanted to fight with the winners – ISIS.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Batirashvili’s story also was compelling, Cecire said: “A man with a modest background, sickly and impoverished before he went to Syria,” becomes “a great battlefield commander defying the world” . . . a “seemingly emulable, rags-to-riches story.”　</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Those seeking an explanation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence on sending military supplies and manpower to Syria to bolster the government of President Bashar Assad would do well to consider Batirashvili. Putin not only personally oversaw the Russian push into Georgia, but he has twice waged war against Islamist-led factions in Chechnya whose cause Batirashvili has supported since he was a teenager. Ethnic Chechens are thought to be one of the largest groups of foreign fighters in the Islamic State.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Now 30, Batirashvili is a key figure, reportedly a member of the group’s governing council, is said to be the Islamic State’s supreme military leader in northern Syria and Aleppo, and is perhaps the group’s most fearsome ground commander. His current status is an irony for a man once considered a Georgian soldier with a bright future.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “We trained him well, and we had lots of help from America,” said a former Georgian defense official who asked to not be identified because of the sensitivity of Batirashvili’s role in the Islamic State. “In fact, the only reason he didn’t go to Iraq to fight alongside America was that we needed his skills here in Georgia.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Even before Georgia and Russia came to blows in 2008, Batirashvili had earned a reputation for fighting Russians. While a part of Georgia, the Pankisi Valley’s northern end abuts Chechnya, where separatists fought a brutal war for independence from Russia in the 1990s. Batirashvili’s mother was Chechen, and his father has told local journalists that young Batirashvili had seen a handful of military operations as a rebel in Chechnya before joining Georgia’s military in 2006 at age 20.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The choice of a military career was natural, say Georgian officials and journalists who knew him and his community. Pankisi is a tiny and isolated sliver of Georgia with little economic activity, and the choices for its youth are narrow: leave home to fight the Russians, become a subsistence farmer, join one of the legendarily nasty Chechen criminal gangs, or join the military.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> According to Batirashvili’s ex-comrades in the Georgian military, Batirashvili was tapped immediately upon his enlistment to join Georgia’s U.S.-trained special forces.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “He was a perfect soldier from his first days, and everyone knew he was a star,” said one former comrade, who asked not to be identified because he remains on active duty and has been ordered not to give media interviews about his former colleague. “We were well trained by American special forces units, and he was the star pupil.”</div> <div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-2" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"> HE WAS A PERFECT SOLDIER FROM HIS FIRST DAYS, AND EVERYONE KNEW HE WAS A STAR.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Georgian soldier</span></div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Fighting the Russians in Chechnya would not have disqualified him, the former comrade said. “Having fought the Russians as a Chechen is hardly unusual and not the sort of thing that would have meant you were a bad guy,” he said. “It just means you’re from Pankisi.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> None of the people who knew Batirashvili during his military service noted any sort of dedication to Islam or jihadist tendencies, but that’s not considered particularly unusual in a country where Muslims tend to adhere to a moderate strain of Sufi Islam despite Chechnya’s reputation as a incubator of extremism.</div> <div class="highline highline-fact" id="highline-fact-1" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 7px 30px 40px 0px; width: 350px;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #cda01e; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-transform: uppercase;"> BATIRASHVILI’S EXPLOITS IN THE 2008 WAR WITH RUSSIA ARE THE STUFF OF LOCAL LEGEND. WHY HE LEFT THE MILITARY ISN’T CLEAR.</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “Chechens have a reputation as crazy Islamic warriors, but our Islam has always been moderate,” according to one Pankisi community and clan leader who’s been ordered by the government not to talk about the man many Georgians laughingly refer to as “Pankisi’s most famous son.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> That reputation for moderation, however, began to change in the wake of the Chechen wars, which devastated Chechnya, and by the construction in 2000 of a second mosque to serve the valley’s six small villages.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The new mosque, the community leader said, was built with a donation from Saudi Arabia and “preached a kind of alien Wahhabi-style Islam,” not the Sufi-style Islam that had characterized the regions for hundreds of years.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “It told our people that it was wrong to pray at graves of saints and ancestors, as our people have done for hundreds of years, and even to share our religious rites with our Christian brothers,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> By the mid-2000s, multiple residents say, the situation had split the community, mostly by age, with the original Sufi mosque attended by the older members of the community, while the young people were radicalized by the new mosque. This led to significant tensions with police until it was resolved by a revolution almost 1,000 miles away.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “They all started leaving for Syria,” the community elder said. “Things are safer here now because all the radicals – our children – have gone to Syria.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> American and Georgian intelligence estimates put that number at between 150 and 200 young men who have left Pankisi to fight in Syria.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Batirashvili’s father, who still lives in Pankisi, couldn’t be reached for comment. Local officials who were asked to help contact him said his son had warned them not to let foreigners interview him, and outsiders are easily noticed riding along the single main road that spans the tiny valley.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Batirashvili’s exploits in the 2008 war with Russia are the stuff of local legend. At the time, the region was tense. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, had been waging a verbal war over what Saakashvili called Russian interference in Georgian affairs with its support of South Ossetia, a Georgian region that had declared its independence.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> In what is generally seen now as an enormous miscalculation, Saakashvili ordered a Georgian military offensive to retake the autonomous breakaway region. According to his former comrade and the Georgian defense official, Batirashvili led a special forces detachment of forward artillery observers who’d infiltrated deep into South Ossetia to set up an observation post overlooking the Dzara Bypass Road, which connected South Ossetia through the critical Roki Tunnel to Russia.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> As Georgian troops attacked the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, Batirashvili’s unit rained artillery on the Russian reinforcements that began pouring in to reinforce the break away republic.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The Russians crushed the Georgians within days, but not before Batirashvili’s unit inflicted serious damage, including an ambush on Aug. 9, 2008, that wounded the commander of the Russian 58th Army, one of the highest ranking Russian military officers wounded since World War II.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “He was a magnificent fighter and one of the best men I have ever known,” said a veteran of that battle who remembered Batirashvili as quiet and dedicated to his men. “He controlled the forward positions and called in the artillery on the Russians. Maybe he more than any other single soldier in the Georgian army fought the Russians the best during that terrible week.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The story of how Batirashvili left the Georgian army and later ended up in prison for a year on suspicion of arms trafficking is muddled. Georgian military records show that he was discharged for medical reasons in 2010 – he’d contracted tuberculosis, according to the records – but some colleagues and residents of Pankisi say the real reason for the discharge were concerns about his family.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “The guy has two brothers, both of whom fought in Chechnya, and he is known to have helped the rebels before joining the army,” the defense official said. “As good a soldier as he was, there was a lot of concern about the guy’s being radicalized over the Chechen conflict next door.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> By late 2010, Batirashvili was under arrest for weapons possession, which his father told the BBC was merely an old box of ammunition in the house. But prosecutors asked for a significant jail term out of fear that Batirashvili already had been radicalized. Regardless of when this radicalization took place, by the time he left prison 16 months later, Batirashvili reportedly was telling people that prison and his Muslim mother’s death from cancer shortly after his release had convinced him to become religious.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> In early 2012, Batirashvili disappeared from Georgia. He told his father he was headed to Istanbul to get away from Georgian military intelligence.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Traveling to Turkey, even before the Syrian civil war, wouldn’t have been an unusual choice. Istanbul had been a destination for Chechen jihadists and gangsters for years. With Turkish roots, Chechens were welcome in Istanbul, able to disappear easily among the ethnic Chechens living in Turkey’s largest city.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “You must understand this about Chechens, they’re really good at two things: Fighting and extorting other Chechens,” said one Pankisi resident. “So if you run a grocery story or a tea shop or some other business anywhere in the world, if you’re Chechen, you will end up having to pay other Chechens to leave you alone.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “And Istanbul had too many unemployed guys trying to be gangsters all at once,” he added. “But when Syria came along they had something to do.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> A Chechen fighter who spent two years fighting in Syria and currently lives in Istanbul agreed.</div> <div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-3" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"> WE WERE ALL BORED AND STARVING HERE IN ISTANBUL BEFORE THE SYRIAN WAR.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Chechen refugee in Turkey</span></div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “We were all bored and starving here in Istanbul before the Syrian war,” said Ramzan, a huge man with a bushy red beard. He was talking over a cup of tea, buried in the Chechen market on the Asian side of Istanbul.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Ramzan, who asked to not be identified further because of security concerns, had been fighting against the Russians in Chechnya when he was wounded outside of the Chechen capital, Grozny. After members of his family were kidnapped by security forces in the hunt for him, Ramzan decided to flee to Turkey in 2002. For a decade he’d scraped out a living doing low-level extortion and protection rackets.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “Once the jihad in Syria began, people began to tell us, ‘Come to Syria, there’s fighting and paychecks and wives.’ So we started leaving by the hundreds,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Ramzan fought for nearly two years as a member of Jaysh al Muhajireen, or the “Army of the Immigrants.” Abu Omar al Shishani, aka Batirashvili, was its commander.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “Abu Omar – we never used our Chechen names – was my emir (commander) for two years in Syria,” said Ramzan. “I fought with him in Aleppo and at the capture of the Menagh Air Base. He is an excellent military commander and a very good Muslim. He also helped the Islamic State get many Russian-speaking recruits from Chechnya, Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and even Afghanistan. He was responsible for bringing them in through a network that I think was controlled by al Qaida.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Cecire, the analyst, said there’s little doubt Abu Omar found many ethnic Chechens, living in poverty, willing to join the fight. “The ‘poverty’ explanation for foreign fighter flow has taken a lot of flak,” he said. “But in Pankisi and many rural Caucasus regions, that poverty is intertwined with the fame and international demand for the Chechen warrior.” That intersection was a draw for Chechens “in search of means as well as meaning,” Cecire said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “At rock bottom, it’s no wonder that Batirashvili availed himself of that demand,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Abu Omar quickly turned Jaysh al Muhajireen into one of the most effective anti-Assad fighting forces, in part by insisting that Syrians be mixed among his primarily Russian-speaking force. The Syrians’ local knowledge and the Chechens’ fighting prowess soon made Jaysh al Muhajireen the leading Syrian rebel unit.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “He was the most brilliant commander in the Syrian revolution,” said Yousef, a Syrian who served as Abu Omar’s deputy and spoke freely of his time with him during lengthy interviews in Gaziantep and Killis, two Turkish cities with large Syrian rebel presences.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Abu Omar’s string of victories included leading broad coalitions of disparate rebel groups to victory in Aleppo. In August 2013, he was the leader of the group that captured the Menagh Air Base, which rebels had been trying to take for two years.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Yousef, who asked to not be identified further because of security concerns, remembers his time with Abu Omar fondly. “I fought with him for two years, he was like a brother to me,” he said. “He would talk about the best military tactics and why we should never be afraid of dying, because we would go to paradise and marry black-eyed virgins and eat with the Prophet Muhammad.”</div> <div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-4" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"> HE’S ONE OF THE BEST MEN AND BEST MUSLIMS I HAVE EVER KNOWN.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Syrian rebel</span></div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Ramzan also has warm memories of Abu Omar as a commander. “I fought alongside Abu Omar a lot,” he said. “And I respect him as a person and a leader, he’s a good man.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> But both Yousef and Ramzan said they eventually broke with Abu Omar over his decision in November 2013 to throw in with the Islamic State. At the time, tensions were running high between the Islamic State and other rebel factions, including al Qaida’s Nusra Front. Abu Omar had remained above the fray, but it eventually became apparent that he had sided with the Islamic State.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Yousef remembers a series of suicide bombings that targeted Free Syrian Army units at Tal Rifaat, his hometown, while he was visiting family.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “The FSA unit in Tal Rifaat was made of very good men. They did not have a reputation for being gangsters or foreign spies like many of the other FSA units,” he said. But the Islamic State attacked them anyway.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “I called Omar and told him ‘Stop, these are good men, why is this happening?’” Yousef recalled. “And he told me not to worry and that he would have them stop fighting. He told me wait a day and not to take action.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The next day, two suicide car bombs dispatched by the Islamic State struck Tal Rifaat, killing a number of Yousef’s friends. A horrified Yousef called Abu Omar again, who denied knowing about the car bombs but said the only FSA units being targeted had ties to Western intelligence.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Yousef found himself the middle man in a negotiation between the FSA and Islamic State representatives, who included Abu Omar’s nephew.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “I thought the meeting was good and that we would resolve things,” Yousef said. That night another suicide bomb struck a command post for the FSA killing several top officials in the local unit.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Yousef called Abu Omar again in a panic only to be told that the car bombs must have been from Assad forces because he had not authorized an operation. “The next day they murdered my cousin in a cemetery,” Yousef said. “He wasn’t even a fighter with the FSA and they shot him to death for being Syrian.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Yousef visibly teared up as he told of the final text messages he sent Abu Omar, ending their friendship and announcing his split from the group.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “I told him that an enemy is an enemy, but he was a brother who became an enemy and it was much worse. That I would forever oppose him.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Still, Yousef, who now fights with a moderate Syrian rebel movement outside Aleppo, absolves Abu Omar of the worst crimes of the Islamic State.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “He’s one of the best men and best Muslims I have ever known,” said Yousef. “I am obligated to confront him if he remains with these people, but if he were to leave them or take control of the Islamic State, I would forgive him. If he ran the Islamic State I would have never had to leave.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> by MITCHELL PROTHERO of McClatchy DC</div> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; height: 1px; line-height: normal; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article35322882.html#storylink=cpy</div>

U.S. TRAINING CREATED TOP ISIS COMMANDER

The 15 Chechens looking to cross the border from Turkey to Syria didn’t strike Abdullah as particularly important or unusual. It was ...

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80% OF SYRIANS BELIEVE US CREATED ISIS - POLL

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZIQRSgBA49vIlEziZR4DPWYObF3eKzaebDwKI0QYEv_urXxdqYzd0hEngfWm2Jri4poyIXl-SPRRpIab7gnYwpkKihdBc8QZNL7-ESU0_5lJIIENbn9JOtRfBkcqdE5ueDQcqySvIik/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZIQRSgBA49vIlEziZR4DPWYObF3eKzaebDwKI0QYEv_urXxdqYzd0hEngfWm2Jri4poyIXl-SPRRpIab7gnYwpkKihdBc8QZNL7-ESU0_5lJIIENbn9JOtRfBkcqdE5ueDQcqySvIik/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> More than 81 percent of Syrians believe the United States and its allies are behind the creation of the Islamic State terrorist group, a recent survey found.<br /> <br /> Conducted by research firm ORB International, the survey questioned 1,365 Syrians throughout the country on matters regarding the Islamic State and the nation’s ongoing turmoil.<br /> <br /> “81% [of Syrians polled]… believe that ISIL is a foreign/American made group,” the survey states.<br /> <br /> The poll’s conclusions are unsurprising given both comments and the general sentiment from residents in the Middle East in light of the Islamic State’s continued advance across the region.<br /> <br /> Just last June, a Wall Street Journal reporter speaking with Iraqi refugees in Baghdad found a growing number of residents believed the United States was directly supporting ISIS terrorists after multiple US weapons airdrops reportedly fell into the hands of jihadists in 2014.<br /> <br /> <h2> <i style="background-color: #e69138; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My Comment: Remember this photo? It was all over the news media a few years ago. It shows McCain together with Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the so called ISIS Caliphate. </span></i></h2> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKax9LCiWGsmYHZomz7fB-BXolwrrwSgJywhnRCb-YrhUSQvZzA29rwXLTw0zuk3ztZbB_AH5ER33R37Mn1at1e5ohPB4HodGl5aSLKQNhC4Nd_9xC6H1JHqtOBKSXyHZYHEtMV9ucnlM/s1600/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKax9LCiWGsmYHZomz7fB-BXolwrrwSgJywhnRCb-YrhUSQvZzA29rwXLTw0zuk3ztZbB_AH5ER33R37Mn1at1e5ohPB4HodGl5aSLKQNhC4Nd_9xC6H1JHqtOBKSXyHZYHEtMV9ucnlM/s640/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> “We don’t have any trust in Americans anymore,” said prominent lawmaker Alia Nusseif. “We now think ISIS is being used as a tool by America to divide and weaken Iraq.”<br /> <br /> Regardless of whether Western powers created ISIS as some claim, Pentagon documents recently uncovered by political watchdog Judicial Watch revealed that the US deliberately used al-Qaeda and other radical groups to destabilize Syria – leading to the rise of the Islamic State.<br /> <br /> “According to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely rise of the ‘Islamic State’ as a direct consequence of this strategy, and warned that it could destabilize Iraq,” Insurge Intelligence writer Nafeez Ahmed wrote. “Despite anticipating that Western, Gulf state and Turkish support for the ‘Syrian opposition’ — which included al-Qaeda in Iraq — could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the document provides no indication of any decision to reverse the policy of support to the Syrian rebels.”<br /> <br /> During an interview with Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), openly admitted that the policy of supporting terrorist groups was a “willful decision” of the Obama administration.<br /> <br /> “I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision,” Flynn said.<br /> <br /> Despite clearly having a role in Iraq and Syria’s destabilization, Western governments continue to justify further intervention overseas in the name of fighting ISIS terrorists.

80% OF SYRIANS BELIEVE US CREATED ISIS - POLL

More than 81 percent of Syrians believe the United States and its allies are behind the creation of the Islamic State terrorist group, a ...

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US MILITARY “BOOTS ON THE GROUND” IN SYRIA; CONFIRMED

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2_Vo1CH2l3N5q503KjLHeLylX-90ojxBb7qGI7afETssGg5wSwM8V-ws_vSt_hdPd8irhRBVzAB6101xaioZzb3YHMBvxwoIGF6sl7mjYAXkd7w0Fl-dJEArzUmuYUaEUjyBi9FJ8WM/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2_Vo1CH2l3N5q503KjLHeLylX-90ojxBb7qGI7afETssGg5wSwM8V-ws_vSt_hdPd8irhRBVzAB6101xaioZzb3YHMBvxwoIGF6sl7mjYAXkd7w0Fl-dJEArzUmuYUaEUjyBi9FJ8WM/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> With the Russians on the ground at Latakia shoring up the Assad regime and with tensions between Washington and Moscow at a fever pitch over the Kremlin’s involvement, the Pentagon now says US boots are officially on the ground in Syria – you know, to help fight ISIS…<br /> <br /> <u><b>CNBC Tweeted:</b></u><i> "BREAKING: Defense officials tell NBC News that US special ops. forces are on ground in Syria assisting Kurdish forces in fight against ISIS"</i><br /> <br /> Of course, if true, the whole “assisting Kurdish forces” won’t go over well with Turkey’s Erdogan, the US’s brand new coalition partner against ISIS who has made no secret of his distrust for the YPG.<br /> <br /> Then again, there had to be some pretext for an imminent escalation with Russia and since it’s all a convoluted, bloody mess at this point, “helping Kurdish forces” is just as good as any other excuse we suppose.<br /> <br /> by Kurt Nimmo of InfoWars.com<br /> <div> <br /></div>

US MILITARY “BOOTS ON THE GROUND” IN SYRIA; CONFIRMED

With the Russians on the ground at Latakia shoring up the Assad regime and with tensions between Washington and Moscow at a fever pitch o...

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YEMEN DRONE STRIKES KILL MORE CIVILIANS THAN TERRORISTS

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqp8ucCJSDtNlERXIDnbrEcvefjdhZdBDkn_YvSao0I__CF1NlrBCe-wXSBfvgovTni_0U8O104ClLaN1h5rDRO45ezaIvO0LF-0A-PcdOJcxkl3vBcspuVXoYyK6Drb9nwh1wyj7C98/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqp8ucCJSDtNlERXIDnbrEcvefjdhZdBDkn_YvSao0I__CF1NlrBCe-wXSBfvgovTni_0U8O104ClLaN1h5rDRO45ezaIvO0LF-0A-PcdOJcxkl3vBcspuVXoYyK6Drb9nwh1wyj7C98/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> American drones strikes may have killed as many as 40 Yemeni civilians over the past year, the UN reported on Monday, offering a tally of the human cost of the long-running US campaign against al Qaeda in Yemen, which has continued amid the chaos of country's current war.<br /> <br /> The data on drone strikes came from the latest report on Yemen issued by the UN's Office of the High Commissioner For Human Rights (OHCHR), which compiled accounts of human rights violations from July 1, 2014 to June 30 of this year.<br /> <br /> The US first launched armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Yemen in 2002, but the bulk of strikes carried out by the aircraft have taken place since since 2011. According to figures maintained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's Drone War program, at least 101 people have been killed by confirmed drone strikes in Yemen, plus 26 to 61 others killed by "possible extra drone strikes." Between 156 and 365 civilians have also been killed in other covert missions since 2002, according to the group.<br /> <br /> If accurate, the UN's estimates would represent a significant rise in confirmed civilian casualties in the country as a result of drone strikes.<br /> <br /> "OHCHR received reliable information indicating that as many as 40 civilians, including a child, may have been killed during the period under review as a result of drone attacks in Al-Baida, Al-Jawf, Marib and Shabwah," the OHCHR report states.<br /> <br /> Chris Woods, an investigative journalist with the airstrike-tracking website Airwars, said it is well known that the US is the only country operating armed drones in Yemen, particularly after Houthi rebels forced the Yemeni government to flee to Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh in March. The US claims to exclusively target alleged members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), widely considered the terror group's most dangerous franchise. In recent years, AQAP has had a hand in several of the most notorious planned terror attacks on aircraft, including a failed bombing attempt on Christmas Day in 2009 when a passenger tried to set off plastic explosives sewn to his underwear.<br /> <br /> Though the US operates deadly drone-based counterterrorism operations in other countries, including Pakistan and Somalia, Woods said the strikes in Yemen appear to be carried out with fewer safeguards.<br /> <br /> "The drone ops we tend to see in places like Yemen, I am absolutely sure they are using a different rule book because they are counter-terrorism targets and they're deemed to be higher value targets," Woods told VICE News. "That places civilians at greater risk on the ground. We see more civilians killed when it's counter-terrorism ops, because the targets are deemed as a threat to the US homeland and therefore there's a greater tolerance of collateral damage."<br /> <br /> As Yemen's war worsened this year, US military forces in the country, who were involved in targeting drone strikes, were forced to leave. That development, said Woods, could make the strikes even less accurate, and lead to greater civilian casualties.<br /> <br /> "The UN numbers are deeply worrying," said Woods. "Time and again we find that civilian casualties on the ground are completely counterproductive to America's long term strategic interests in the region."<br /> <br /> The drone data was only a small part of OHCHR's reporting, which largely pertained to the ongoing conflict.<br /> <br /> The UN cited both Houthi rebels and allies loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh as responsible for 508 civilian casualties, predominantly due to indiscriminate shelling. The Saudi-led coalition that has fought the Houthis and their allies since they drove Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to Riyadh in March were cited for 941 civilian deaths. Al Qaeda, which has capitalized on the ensuing chaos to capture some territory, claimed responsibility for attacks that killed 24 civilians — fewer non-combatants than the UN says may have been killed by the American drone program.<br /> <br /> Last Thursday, the UN announced that Hadi, along with representatives from the Houthis and Saleh's General People's Congress, had agreed to commence peace talks this week. Over the weekend, however, Hadi said he had no such intentions, and refused to broach the question of peace talks until the Houthis retreat from all territory they have seized and lay down arms seized during their insurrection.<br /> <br /> The abrupt turnaround recalled a July announcement about a humanitarian pause that the UN claimed was agreed to by all parties. That pause was violated almost immediately and wholly ignored by all sides.<br /> <br /> Peace talks, unlike the pause, do not require a cessation of hostilities, and it remained unclear what made Hadi reportedly change his mind.<br /> <br /> An email, written by UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and leaked earlier this month, showed that officials felt the Saudis were not invested in peace talks, and appeared intent of defeating the Houthis militarily. On Monday, some UN officials said that they believed Hadi was pressured by the Saudis.<br /> <br /> by Samuel Oakford of VICE Media

YEMEN DRONE STRIKES KILL MORE CIVILIANS THAN TERRORISTS

American drones strikes may have killed as many as 40 Yemeni civilians over the past year, the UN reported on Monday, offering a tally of...

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ISRAEL AND US FATHERED ISIS - FIDEL CASTRO

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEMK1SI03cdNeSLgN_3FEW_b8kek1M1mGUoclsUCuLX2m6DtTFr-9UKKqNv76vlqTv1c_nmSyqc9q6SvLtIwSJMsfy7pq7fDyimPc9Dmx9yGfam2w1fuIFAKLz-n75dxKvbv8iBv5YHI/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEMK1SI03cdNeSLgN_3FEW_b8kek1M1mGUoclsUCuLX2m6DtTFr-9UKKqNv76vlqTv1c_nmSyqc9q6SvLtIwSJMsfy7pq7fDyimPc9Dmx9yGfam2w1fuIFAKLz-n75dxKvbv8iBv5YHI/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed that Israel and the United States are behind the creation of the Isis (now known as the Islamic State) terror group, according to local media reports.<br /> <br /> In a piece written for official Cuban state media, Castro accuses Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, and US Senator John McCain of conspiring to create the IS. His comments were translated into English by Russia Today.<br /> <br /> In the article, Castro writes that John McCain is Israel's "most unconditional ally" and has been in cahoots with Mossad to create IS.<br /> <br /> The former Cuban leader alleges that the US Senator, "together with [Mossad, conspired] in the creation of the Islamic State, which today controls a considerable and vital portion of Iraq and reportedly one-third of Syria as well."<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtcBROaUIDRYVotQi2_sgvEyRGkHiOR_Odpr-nPFgl_YSxsl34ygvlIRLcSW9SczLXbR8LeJvzBZWzgsgYe2Que-ANFh9pBadzWMymI7xKHy3tGMR0IvsAc42-y5_a2wxn4fiPWGC9BE/s1600/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtcBROaUIDRYVotQi2_sgvEyRGkHiOR_Odpr-nPFgl_YSxsl34ygvlIRLcSW9SczLXbR8LeJvzBZWzgsgYe2Que-ANFh9pBadzWMymI7xKHy3tGMR0IvsAc42-y5_a2wxn4fiPWGC9BE/s640/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Castro then turns to Nato and compares the alliances leaders to that of Nazi Germany's SS corps.<br /> <br /> "Many people are astonished when they hear the statements made by some European spokesmen for Nato when they speak with the style and face of the Nazi SS," he writes.<br /> <br /> "Adolf Hitler's greed-based empire went down in history with no more glory than the encouragement provided to Nato's aggressive and bourgeois governments, which makes them the laughing stock of Europe and the world."<br /> <br /> Responding to Castro's comments, a western diplomat said "no-one believes anymore that Fidel has any real influence over day-to-day policy. But that doesn't mean he is never consulted on big questions or that when he comes out it isn't important."<br /> <br /> Castro, 88, passed the baton of power to his younger brother Raul in 2006 as his health continued to deteriorate. He is a fierce critic of Israel and last month compared their military operation in Gaza to a "disgusting form of fascism."<br /> <br /> From International Business Times

ISRAEL AND US FATHERED ISIS - FIDEL CASTRO

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed that Israel and the United States are behind the creation of the Isis (now known as the Isla...

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