Free Republic

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East. There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change....

Uproar in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has relieved Gen. Qassem Soleimani,the Al Qods Brigades chief and supreme commander of Iranian Middle East forces, of his Syria command after a series of war debacles. He was left in charge of Iran’s military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. This is revealed by exclusive Iranian intelligence sources. Since Soleimani last visited Damascus on June 2, in the aftershock of the historic town of Palmyra’s fall to the Islamic State, the situation of President Bashar Assad and his army has gone from bad to worse. The Iranian general’s...

In Jerusalem flyers were spread throughout the old city claiming to be ISIS.The bulletin which had the ISIS logo demanded that all Christian Arabs must leave eastern Jerusalem by the end of Ramadan accused of being “Israeli collaborators”. ISIS also demanded that in the case the Christians refuse to leave that Muslims in eastern Jerusalem are mandated to kill all the Christians living there.Photo Credit: Islamic State / JerusalemAl-Quds (Jerusalem Newspaper), the main Arab newspaper there had posted a reply from Theodosios (Hanna) of Sebastia, the Archbishop from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In his reply the Archbishop condemned the...

Marsyas, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons / ChurchPOP The Church is the mystical body of Christ. In Scripture, Jesus says “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Mt 18.20)So the Church doesn’t strictly need special buildings, because the Church is the people. Nonetheless, from early on, Christians dedicated buildings for their communal worship to God. Most of these early churches are long lost to history, yet a few from the first few centuries still remain, at least in some condition. Here is a picture of the oldest known church that’s still standing (at least partially): Wikimedia...

Savage jihadis fighting for the Islamic State in Syria have brutally beheaded 12 men accused of fighting for the terror group's Al Qaeda and Jaish al-Islam rivals. Filmed close to Syrian capital and regime stronghold Damascus, the sickening footage shows the terrified men being interviewed and paraded in front of the camera before their bloody execution. After 'confessing' to the crime of opposing ISIS and failing to declare allegiance to the terror group's bloodthirsty leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the men are led out into a desert clearing where they are forced to their knees and each man executed by a...

Turkey has been accused of allowing Islamic State jihadists to cross its border to attack the Kurdish town of Kobane. Twin car bombs exploded close to the crossing point with the Turkish town of Mursitpinar, and Kurdish activists and residents claimed they had come across the border, despite its being heavily policed on the Turkish side. Convoys of cars carrying up to 40 Isil fighters - reportedly using the uniform of Kurdish YPG militia as a guise - then attacked Kobane from three sides in the early hours of Thursday morning. Kobane became an important symbol in the battle against...

An ISIS fighter captured by Syrian Kurds last month described how easy it was for him to cross Turkey's notoriously porous border into Syria to join the Islamic State, according to a new video obtained by Al-Monitor. Turkish citizen Huseyin Mustafa Peri, who says he was wounded near the Turkish border, told his captors that getting into Syria “was an easy affair." Al-Monitor says it was unable to independently confirm details because Kurdish fighters would not allow him to be interviewed, noting that his statements aligns with the outlet's reporting. "[IS recruiter] Ibrahim Osama had given me a number ......

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ISIS is reportedly digging trenches and calling on reinforcements to prepare for a possible assault by Kurdish forces on their stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria, activists and a Kurdish official told CNN on Wednesday. ISIS moved a convoy of nearly 100 military vehicles packed with arms, ammunition and fighters from the eastern countryside of Raqqa to one of the terror group's bases within the city, Rami Abdurahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told CNN on Wednesday. The observatory is a London-based monitoring group. Fortification of the group's de-facto capital in Syria comes just a day...

The EU will indeed merit the "Jew-hater" tag - should its ill-considered and misconceived labelling action proceed. The European Union (EU) runs the risk of being labelled “Jew-hater” - should it proceed with its plans requiring supermarkets and other retailers to label products made by Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) differently from those made by Jews in Israel. No matter what spin the EU uses to justify any such discriminatory labelling—the EU will be seen to be actively supporting the 2005 Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel—whose manifesto states:

YouTube video of German World War II Era Wehrmacht Howitzer Used By Syrian Rebels On The Battlefield In Idlib

Islamic State militants have blown up two ancient shrines they consider sacrilegious in Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria, the ultra hardline Sunni Muslim group said on Tuesday. The report was the first of any damage being done by the militants to buildings in Palmyra since they seized control of the city, also known as Tadmur, in May. Syrian forces have bombed the city, and the militants camped within it, since then.

Syrian rebels receiving U.S. military training to battle Islamic State militants are being paid $250 to $400 per month, depending on their skills, performance and leadership position, the Pentagon said on Monday. It was not immediately clear how many Syrian rebels were currently being paid. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman, said last week that up to 200 Syrian fighters were undergoing training. A further 1,500 have completed the necessary screening. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in May that Syrian fighters participating in the U.S.-led mission would receive "some compensation," but he gave no figures. Navy Commander Elissa...

A travel warning for Iraq, updated by the State Department on Monday, continues to warn that “anti-U.S.” Shi’ite militias “may present a threat to U.S. citizens,” naming two groups that are playing a leading role in supporting the Iraqi government’s military campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL). The two Iran-backed groups, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Asaib al-Haq (“League of the Righteous”), are at the heart of the Popular Mobilization Forces, set up last year to help Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government fight the Sunni jihadists of ISIS. Although those groups and U.S. armed forces are both supporting Prime Minister Haider...

Kurdish-led forces in Syria seized a town from Islamic State on Tuesday after capturing a military base overnight, aided by U.S.-led air strikes in some of the most dramatic gains yet against the militants. The Kurdish march deep into the heart of Islamic State territory follows their capture of a town on the Turkish border last week, reversing the momentum of militants who had seized major towns in both Syria and Iraq last month. The Kurdish YPG-led forces had taken full control of Ain Issa, said YPG spokesman Redur Xelil. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the...

As a tall, lanky redhead born and raised in Colorado, 34 year-old Brother David Johnson definitely sticks out in Syria, the Middle Eastern country where he serves with the St. James the Persian Carmelite Monastery in Qara.He originally came as a student to study the language, but decided to stay after he fell in love with the country and felt GodÂ’s call to the religious life there.That love for language and for God would one day save Brother JohnsonÂ’s life. At a recent prayer breakfast in Denver, Brother Johnson recalled the story of Easter Monday, three years ago. He was...

This week, Pope Francis informed an audience in Turin that gun manufacturers—and those invested in the weapons industries—were hypocrites if they called themselves Christians. Francis, who earlier this year accused weapons makers of participating in an “industry of death,” explained: “It makes me think of … people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn’t it?” Well, not really. This piece comes with customary caveat that English-speaking media tends to tweak the translation of the Pope’s messages just enough to mislead or strip it of proper context—or sometimes, miss...

President Obama on Wednesday will announce that the government will no longer threaten criminal prosecution of the families of American hostages who are held abroad by groups like the Islamic State if they attempt to pay ransom for the release of their loved ones. The change is one of many that are intended to fix what the administration has acknowledged is a broken policy on United States captives, a senior administration official said. In a presidential directive and an executive order, Mr. Obama also plans to make clear that while he is keeping a longstanding federal prohibition against making concessions...

ransom Published June 23, 2015Associated Press Facebook237 Twitter105 Email Print Now Playing Report: US hostage policy to allow families to pay ransoms In a softening of longstanding policy, the Obama administration will tell families of Americans held by terror groups that they can communicate with captors and even pay ransom without fear of prosecution -- part of a broad review of U.S. hostage guidelines that will be released Wednesday. President Obama ordered the review last fall after the deaths of Americans held hostage by Islamic State militants. The families of some of those killed complained about their dealings with the...

A Syrian woman believed responsible for helping to deliver hundreds of young European girls to ISIS has defected, and is now warning young women of the hell that awaits them in the black-clad Islamist army's so-called caliphate. “You are young," the defector, who used the alias Um Asma in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, told young women considering running away to join ISIS. "The caliphate is not what you think it is. Women are whipped, sold and stoned. Corpses are on display publicly for weeks.” Asma described her efforts as a member of the women’s terror group...