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PARIS -- A police officer shot and wounded a man who attacked a group of three officers with a hammer near Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, authorities said. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters that the man yelled "this is for Syria" when he attacked the officers. Collomb said that an officer used his weapon to shoot the assailant. The man was also armed with kitchen knives, Collomb said. Paris police tweeted that one officer was wounded in the attack. CBS Radio News' Elaine Cobbe reports that the investigation has been handed over to the police's anti-terrorism unit. The incident...

Its in the interest of the Israeli state to see a swift and peaceful end to the Syrian conflict. The day of judgment for thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters is coming. Raqqa – the military capital of their fanatical state – is surrounded. All over northern Syria tens of thousands of Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians are mobilizing for the push into the city. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has grown enormously over the past year; the renewed commitment from the United States to provide weapons is transforming the only democratic and multi-ethnic force in Syria into the country’s most...

Julian Assange on terror attacks: intelligence agencies left to "run amok" in Syria, Iraq & Libya--producing ISIShttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSRQ5RU9Gg

UN Watch today demanded that UNRWA Chief Pierre Krahenbuhl apologize for using images of a girl from a bombed-out Syrian building as part of a global campaign to raise money for the organization by pretending the girl is a Gaza victim of Israeli actions. UNRWA is now running the above photo on Facebook and in paid Twitter ads. It is also now UNRWA’s cover page photo on both Facebook and Twitter. UNRWA's narrative of the photo tells of a girl named Aya from Gaza who is said to be 11 years old now, and who has suffered from the Israeli...

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to launch a major operation aimed at liberating Raqqa city from ISIS militants. The key operation will start in a few days, the official spokesman of the Kurdish Peope’s Protection Units (YPG) said on Saturday. The YPG is a leading force within the US-backed SDF. ...After the fall of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria will be ISIS’s last major foothold in Syria and Iraq.

IRAQI Shi’ite militia fighters pushed south along the Syrian border against Isis yesterday, causing the United States and Iraqi Kurds to voice alarm at the Iranian-backed force’s advance. The Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) said they had surrounded the Isis-occupied border village of Jayar Ghalfas and were ready to storm it. Further east, they liberated the village of al-Khibrah as part of their efforts to drive the terrorist death cult from the region. PMU forces reached the border on Monday after a rapid advance from the area around Tal Afar, west of Mosul. The next day, PMU spokesman Karim al-Nouri said...

The long-awaited offensive by U.S.-backed Syrian forces to liberate the self-proclaimed Islamic State capital of Raqqa, Syria, will begin in days, Pentagon officials told the Washington Examiner Thursday. While the Pentagon is not saying publicly when the offensive will kick off, it has acknowledged that all the forces are in place, small arms are being handed out to the Syrian Democratic Forces, and civilians have been told to get out of Raqqa so they are not caught in the crossfire. "The SDF is poised around Raqqa. They are within 3 kilometers [1.8 miles] from the north and the east, and...

[snip] In his now-stalled immigration executive orders, Trump also wanted to halt for 90 days the entry of almost all citizens from six terror-prone countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Although that provision applied to most citizens of those countries rather than to refugees specifically, since Trump took office the six countries have accounted for 4,478 refugee arrivals in the U.S. – 1,655 from Somalia, 1,603 from Syria, 779 from Iran, 425 from Sudan, 16 from Yemen, and none from Libya. All but two of the Somali refugees are Muslims, as are about three-quarters of the Sudanese...

Between 80,000 to 100,000 positive asylum decisions are being re-examined after a German soldier managed to obtain protected status through a fake identity, the Interior Minister announced on Wednesday. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said that immigration officials will re-check positive asylum decisions this summer in response to the revelation that a German soldier had managed to gain asylum through a fake identity as a Syrian refugee, despite speaking no Arabic. This re-examination process is already conducted anyway by law, but typically only after three years. The soldier, Franco Albrecht, was arrested in April over suspicions that he was plotting...

Under Power’s watch at the UN death and chaos is proliferating across the globe. With Samantha Power needlessly choosing to snub Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations two weeks ago, there is renewed focus on her actions and friendship with Israel. Much more serious, however, is her passivity in the face of the ongoing slaughter of our Arab brothers in Syria. For many years Samantha Power was my hero. She emerged as one of the world’s foremost voices against genocide. She championed and defended the human rights of oppressed groups everywhere. She was one of the most...

Combined Joint Task Force    Operation Inherent Resolve       May 31, 2017   Release # 20170531-01  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria and Iraq    SOUTHWEST ASIA --On May 30, Coalition military forces conducted 21 strikes consisting of  49 engagements against ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.    In Syria, Coalition military forces conducted 13 strikes consisting of 15 engagements against  ISIS targets.  •  Near Abu Kamal, five strikes destroyed 12 ISIS oil stills, two ISIS well heads, two ISIS oil  separation tanks, and an ISIS oil truck.  •  Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike destroyed an ISIS well head. •  Near Raqqah, four strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed a fighting position  and a VBIED.  •  Near Tabqah, three strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed a vehicle, an ISIS  headquarters and a fighting position.   In Iraq, Coalition military forces conducted eight strikes consisting of 34 engagements against  ISIS targets.  •  Near Bayji, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle, an  ISIS staging area, and a front-end loader.  •  Near Mosul, four strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed two mortar systems,  two ISIS staging areas, a vehicle, a VBIED, and a fighting position; and damaged nine ISIS supply routes, two fighting positions, and a command and control node.  •  Near Tal Afar, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two ISIS-held  buildings and an ISIS staging area.   Additionally, six strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on May 29 that closed within the last 24 hours. •  Near Raqqah, Syria, four strikes destroyed three ISIS-held buildings, two VBIEDs, and a  weapons cache.  •  Near Bayji, Iraq, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle. •  Near Mosul, Iraq, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed four ISIS  roadblocks, three VBIEDs, a tactical vehicle, a fighting position, and damaged 26 ISIS supply routes. 

MSD Co-chair Îlham Ehmed said Russia is threatening Rojavan Kurds with Turkey’s attacks. Syrian Democratic Council (MSD) Co-chair Îlham Ehmed stated that Turkey approached Russia when they couldn’t find the support they wanted in the US to attack Rojava, and that Russia in turn threatened the Kurds with Turkey’s attacks. Îlham Ehmed wrote at her column in the Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspaper: “Russia forcing the Kurds to choose between the Baath regime and Turkey’s attacks is a mistake of historic proportions.” Ehmed’s article, translated by ANF English service, is as follows: “Russia has been making statements implicating the Syrian Democratic Forces...

BREAKING 25.05.2017 17:31 News AFRIN- Meanwhile, the Turkish occupation army are launching an attack on Azry, Topal, and Gurda villages in Bulbul district in Afrin canton using heavy weapons and shelling. The attack is still ongoing till this minute. Moreover, the Turkish warplane and scouting plane hovered over Rajo, Shieh and Jendairs districts two days ago.

The U.S. sent aircraft to strike Syrian regime vehicles on Thursday that violated a deconfliction zone set up around al-Tanf, an army base where special forces are training Syrian militias, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. American officials and Syrian activists said the strike hit the pro-Syrian government forces as they were setting up fighting positions in a protected area in the desert near the border with Jordan. A bulldozer and a tank were hit, although it was unclear if it struck the Syrian army or just militias allied with the government. Russia-brokered Syria no-fly zone deal bans...

Defense Secretary James Mattis said U.S. forces are using "annihilation tactics" in their fight against the Islamic State. "We have already shifted from attrition tactics where we shove them from one position to another in Iraq and Syria to annihilation tactics where we surround them," Mattis said on CBS' ‘Face the Nation.' "Our intention is that the foreign fighters do not survive the fight to return home to north Africa, to Europe, to America, to Asia, to Africa, we are not going to allow them to do so. We are going to stop them there and take apart the caliphate."...

Amid the war against the Islamic State, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is bombing our villages and soldiers on an entirely false pretense. Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bombed and shelled our villages in northern Syria. The strikes killed our soldiers and unnecessarily escalated the conflict between Turkey and us at a time when we are engaged in a historic battle alongside U.S.-led international coalition forces to retake Raqqa and end the Islamic State’s reign of terror. I am a member of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), an umbrella organization made up of six political parties...

Former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie urged pop singer Katy Perry to try holding a concert in Syria if she wants to “hug it out” with Islamic terrorists. Higbie, appearing as a guest on Fox News Thursday, said, “Go to hell, Katy Perry. Hold one of your concerts in Syria and see how that goes.” The ex-Navy SEAL was responding to Perry’s recent interview Tuesday on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show in which the singer made a plea for people to “co-exist” and to remove “barriers” and “borders” after the Manchester, U.K. Islamic terrorist attack that took the lives...

Moscow, May 24, Interfax - Stavropol Cossacks will visit ancient Christian city Maaloula in Syria to study historical sites in the Aramaic language. "After debauchery committed by the terrorists we consider it necessary to go there and start working over monuments of learning in the Aramaic language, the language of Jesus, which terrorists were not able to demolish. Besides, we want to write down the dialogues with local residents, who speak the modern dialect of Aramaic," deputy ataman of the Stavropol City Cossack Society Dmitry Tarasov was quoted as saying by the Izvestia paper on Wednesday. Then the documents will...

Had Hillary Clinton been elected, she would likely have turned the Syrian war into a global conflict within weeks of taking the oath. However, Clinton may yet prevail. “With Donald Trump now dutifully in synch with the War Party, the U.S. has countered the Syrian-Russian-Iranian-Turkish ‘de-escalation’ in Syria with a major escalation: ‘no-go zones.’ ___ Four months after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. military is fighting Hillary Clinton’s war in Syria. Last week’s U.S. airstrike against a mixed column of Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese soldiers marks a major escalation, as the U.S. draws lines in the sand to claim...

Syria Civil Defense, popularly known as the White Helmets, can be seen in a new video assisting in a public execution in a rebel-held town in Syria. It is at least the second such execution video featuring members of the Nobel Prize-nominated group. The White Helmets have received at least $23 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a wing of the State Department. The British Foreign Office and other European governments have pitched in as well. Frequently cited as an invaluable source of information by major Western media outlets, the group was the subject of...