Free Republic

Belgrade, October 26, Interfax - The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society will open a Russian school in Damascus. "The foundation of a Russian school will be laid down in Damascus before the end of 2015," Sergey Stepashin, chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, said. "The construction of the school will be funded solely using the money provided by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society," he said. Stepashin recalled that "once there were some forty Russian schools in Syria." "Now we should revive this tradition," he said.

This is surreal footage captured by a flying drone camera as the Russian backed assault on rebel held Damascus is happening.

"Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the Lord of hosts." (Isaiah 17:1-14) Rabbi Sholom Berger, the Mishkolitz Rebbe An important Hassidic rabbinical leader recently offered a surprising Biblical interpretation of the War of Gog and Magog. At the festive meal that concluded the...

Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed How Bill Clinton concealed it from the public and U.S. intelligence. October 7, 2015 Arnold Ahlert    A bombshell report by the Washington Times reveals that fecklessness in the face of terror isn’t a condition exclusive to the Obama administration. "Bill Clinton’s administration gathered enough evidence to send a top-secret communique accusing Iran of facilitating the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist bombing,” the Times states, "but suppressed that information from the American public and some elements of U.S. intelligence for fear it would lead to an outcry for reprisal, according to documents and interviews.” Nineteen American...

A former Army Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was cleared of spy accusations is now a Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Sen. Barack Obama. Former Capt. James J. Yee was among the delegates who were elected by precinct representatives Saturday at the party's 9th Congressional District convention at North Thurston High School. Others chosen at the gathering were Zach Smith, a former supporter of ex-Sen. John Edwards who is now pledged to Clinton, and Natalie Stevens, an alternate pledged to Obama. Yee, a West Point graduate, was accused in 2003 of being part of a spy ring...

Anyone who spends some time in the hills of Galilee or the Golan Heights is familiar with the arresting sight of flocks of ravens, eagles, vultures and other birds of prey, circling the same spot in the sky for hours. Their objective is clear: down below that circle lies the body of a cow, sheep or other animal, whose movements attest to its approaching death. The birds follow the death throes carefully, flying lower and lower as the signs of life become fainter. As soon as the animal ceases to move, they pounce on their prey to begin gouging out...

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19 2001The wife who was shunnedBY IAN COBAINHamida: Bin Laden's motherHAMIDA Al-Attas, a tiny woman in her early sixties, has probably had little to say about the way the world has changed since September 11. But today, as she sits in her villa overlooking the highway linking Jedda to Mecca, she will be watching events as closely as any.Were she able to lift the veil of her burka, moreover, and talk openly, she could offer astonishing insights into the mind of the man that the West believes is to blame. Al-Attas is Osama bin Laden’s mother.Many hastily concocted ...

Maronite leader appeals to worldwide faithful for help The Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, Samir Nassar, has written to Christians in the West asking them to help his country’s 12 million refugees and displaced people.In a letter to Aid to the Church in Need, the Maronite archbishop called the Syrian crisis “the cruelest human drama since the Second World War”, pointing out that 5.6 million children were affected by the war and that many people were dying in the conflict from wounds because of the exodus of doctors and a shortage of medical drugs. He also noted that 1,400 mosques and...

The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is systematically targeting civilians and hospitals, often with chemical weapons, to reverse recent setbacks in the country’s civil war, witnesses told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Assad’s forces have suffered a number of battlefield defeats in recent months, with the Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra gaining ground north of the capital Damascus and more moderate rebel groups achieving victories in the south. The Syrian army has also lost about half of its soldiers throughout the course of the four-year civil war and has increasingly relied on outside militant...

At least 27 people were killed and over 60 injured near the Syrian capital of Damascus in attacks by pro-government forces on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported. The attacks, which were allegedly carried out using improvised weapons known as “elephant rockets,” reportedly targeted rebel-held areas in the city of Douma, about 6 miles from Damascus. These weapons are made by attaching rocket motors to much larger bombs -- a process that increases their destructive power while greatly reducing accuracy.

Israel has often complained that UNRWA, the UN body dealing with "Palestinian refugees," merely exists to continue the conflict without resettling the people it treats as the UN does with all other refugees, but apparently the Palestinian Arabs are unhappy with the organization too - for not giving them enough, and for giving too much to their brethern in Syria's Yarmouk neighborhood. Residents of Gaza defined as "refugees," namely the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, are protesting against UNRWA after the latter transferred resources to displaced Palestinian Arab residents of the Yarmouk...

A coalition of moderate rebel factions known as the Southern Front took control of the Brigade 52 base by early afternoon, spokesman Issam al-Reis said. Brigade 52 is the largest military installation in Daraa province, which borders Jordan, and is key to the defense of northern routes leading to the Syrian capital, Damascus... The loss of the base is another blow to Assad's forces, which have recently suffered a string of battlefield defeats. A largely Islamist rebel alliance that includes al-Qaeda's powerful Syria affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, has seized most of northwestern Idlib province. The Islamic State militant group has captured...

Thousands of Iranian, Afghan and Iraqi fighters have arrived in Syria to defend Damascus and its suburbs against Islamic State (IS), which has said it will mount an offensive against the capital following recent battlefield successes in Deir al-Zor and Palmyra. So far, 7,000 have reportedly been positioned around the city. They are expected to go on the offensive to retake from fundamentalist militiamen the suburb of Jobar from which they can easily access the eastern gates of the city. The total number of reinforcements sent by Iran could rise to 15,000 when fighters reach the northern port of Latakia...

Four years ago, it would have been unheard of for a woman to be part of the Syrian Army, let alone driving one of the tanks and shooting rockets. But the women pictured here are now part of the Syrian regime's most elite force, the Republican Guard, tasked with defending Damascus' suburbs from rebel attacks. Women were first recruited to the elite group of soldiers - the only battalion allowed within the boundaries of Damascus - nearly a year ago. Today, 800 are on the streets of the city, filling in for the soldiers who have been sent out to...

Obama desecrates Memorial Day. The U.S Military will now be committed to advance an Islamic Grand Caliphate. Hard to imagine? Its easy if you try, by simply reading our report. Yesterday, on Memorial Day we open the papers to read the headlines Turkey and US ‘agree in principle’ to provide air support for Syrian rebels. And it wasn’t the president of the United States or a spokesperson from the White house that broke the news, but through the mouth of the Turks, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister told the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper in comments published Monday on Memorial Day.On Memorial Day, the Turks told...

Weakened by years of war, Syria's government appears ready for the country's de facto partition, defending strategically important areas and leaving much of the country to rebels and jihadists, experts and diplomats say. The strategy was in evidence last week with the army's retreat from the ancient central city of Palmyra after an advance by the Islamic State group (ISIS or IS)... Syria's regime labels all those fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad "terrorists," and has pointed to the emergence of ISIS and Al-Nusra as evidence that opponents of the regime are extremists. Since the uprising against Assad began in...

The Islamic State terror group now controls over half of Syrian territory after seizing the village and archaeological site of Palmyra Thursday, activists monitoring Syria's civil war said. Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the Associated Press the extremists overran the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the modern settlement on Palmyra, shortly after midnight local time. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town. A Facebook page close to ISIS published a statement Thursday, purportedly from the group, saying "the soldiers of the Islamic State" completed their control...

The following are excerpts from the televised confessions of Muayed Al-Nasseri, who commanded Saddam Hussein's "the Army of Muhammad" throughout 2004. The confessions were aired by the Iraqi TV channel that operated from the UAE, Al-Fayhaa TV, on January 14, 2005. Interrogator: What is your name? Muayed Al-Nasseri: Colonel Muayed Yassin 'Aziz 'Abd Al-Razaq Al-Nasseri, commander of the Army of Muhammad, one of the resistance factions in Iraq. The Army of Muhammad was founded by Saddam Hussein after the fall of the regime, on April 9, 2003. At first, Yasser Al-Shab'awi was put in charge, until his captured in July...

Don’t look now but ISIS fighters are just a few short miles away from Bashar al-Assad’s Presidential Palace in Syria after taking control of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus where some 18,000 are trapped in what the UN calls a “beyond inhumane” situation. The camp, which has been under siege by the Assad regime for years came under attack by ISIS earlier this month who reports indicate may be working alongside al-Qaeda’s Syrian arm al-Nusra in what would be a break with recent precedent. Some Palestinian factions — who, alongside the Free Syria Army are battling ISIS for control...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State has taken control of 90 percent of a Palestinian refugee camp on the Damascus outskirts where 18,000 civilians have suffered years of bombing, army siege and militia control, a monitoring group said on Saturday. The hardline group's offensive in Yarmouk gives it a major presence in the capital. Islamic State, the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, is now only a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power. The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrians and Palestinians in the camp. Civilians trapped there have...