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Leaders of the Syriac Military Council, a Christian force that is part of the US- backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighting ISIS (Photo: Courtesy)The battle for Raqqa, the Syrian city serving as the “capital” of ISIS’ caliphate, has begun. You’d never know it from the media coverage, but a Christian force is taking part and is asking for U.S. support and prayers.The Syriac Military Council (SMC) and its female wing, the Bethnahrin Women Protection Forces (HSNB), have issued a press release announcing their participation in the offensive on Raqqa. The SMC is a part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed,...

As John F. Kerry tries to bounce out of Boston and into a decisive fall campaign lead, a skeleton from the past will slink out of jail - possibly looking to score headlines and undercut the new nominee. David Paul, a central figure in a 1980s savings and loan scandal, is set to be sprung from a halfway house in Miami Sunday - a decade after his conviction on 97 counts of banking fraud. TV news outlets are scrambling to line up the first interview, hopeful the long-silent Paul might spill some beans about his close fund-raising ties to Kerry...

Roughly 100 people turned out in New City Monday evening to protest a plan to build a Syrian Orthodox church in their neighborhood. The Malankara Catholic Church purchased a 11,000-square-foot property on Mountain View Avenue to build a place of worship and a 55-space parking lot.

The US military and intelligence community has intercepted communications featuring Syrian military and chemical experts talking about preparations for the sarin attack in Idlib last week, a senior US official tells CNN.

The Times of Israel reports: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of Syrian students on Saturday gathered outside the offices of the United Nations in Damascus to protest a US missile attack on an air base. The protesters held banners and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

The United States launched dozens of cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in response to what it believes was the Syrian government's use of banned chemical weapons blamed for having killed at least 100 people on Tuesday, U.S. military officials told NBC News. The U.S. military fired at least 50 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target — Ash Sha'irat in Homs province in western Syria, the officials said.

In a stark contrast to statements from the Barack Obama administration, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that the future of the Bashar al-Assad regime “will be decided by the Syrian people.” Tillerson made the remarks at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in response to a reporter’s question about Assad. “The previous administration said that Syrian President Assad must go,” the reporter asked. “Nikki Haley said yesterday that the fight in Syria cannot move forward without the issue of Assad being resolved. How do you see that issue being moved forward as you...

A 32-year-old computer whiz who was raised in Stoughton is suspected of using the high-tech skills he honed at Hub colleges to spread the bloodthirsty message of ISIS terrorists on social media, according to a Herald source and news reports. Ahmad Abousamra — who was educated at Northeastern University and UMass Boston — had already been placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list last year with a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to his capture and return. The FBI said Abousamra “has shown that he wants to kill United States soldiers.” He is now believed to be a...

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Saturday that an aircraft belonging to the Syrian regime crashed in Turkey and that a search was being conducted for the pilots, the Diken news website reported. Erdal Ata, the governor of Hatay, said gendarmerie and medical teams have reached the wreckage of the Syrian plane and that no one was in the cockpit. Yıldırım said that “the cause of the crash is not yet clear, but poor air conditions were reported in the region.”

Reports that a man accused of sexual assaults on six Edmonton teenage girls was a Syrian refugee have ignited a firestorm of reaction, from anti-immigration diatribes to criticism about how the media dealt with the story. Groups that work with refugees in the city have been inundated with calls and texts over the past 24 hours, some from people calling for an end to the refugee program and others from refugees themselves apologizing on behalf of their community. Erick Ambtman, executive director of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, said his organization received a message on Twitter from a white...

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

The lone 15-year-old pilot who stole a small private plane and crashed it into a high-rise office block in Tampa, Florida, left a note expressing sympathy to Osama bin Laden. Tampa Police Chief Bennie Holder said the note was found on the body of Charles Bishop, who was the only person killed in Saturday's incident. "I would characterize it as a suicide note," Holder said.. He said Bishop's note clearly stated that he had acted alone without any help from anyone else. "Troubled Young Man" But Holder said that in the note Bishop expressed sympathy for bin Laden, the Saudi-born ...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hookah smoke drifted through the restaurant as Elias Shetayh and Aziz Wehbey spoke intently about their support for President Trump, whose temporary halt on immigration from war-torn Syria — their homeland — had touched off a political firestorm. Nearby, a waitress carried out several platters of Mediterranean food to a large Arab American family. Trump is right, in a way, to do what he’s doing,” Shetayh said, discussing the executive order banning certain immigrants from entry into the United States. “This country is going into a disaster. Allentown and surrounding Lehigh County have one of the country’s...

A number of Arabic and Pashtu interpreters at the terror-war detention center at Guantanamo Bay are under active investigation for omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of detainee interrogations, among other security breaches. This could taint some of the evidence at the "9/11 trial" in New York and proceedings against other detainees. Remarkably, the Pentagon never cleaned up the "mole infestation" at its highest-security facility after the FBI busted a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo in 2003. The 2003 probe involved at least two Arabic interpreters with high-level security clearance. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian native, and former Army...

John F. Kerry was late to his own party. Staffers, journalists and other officials were gathered in the ornate Benjamin Franklin salon at the State Department on Dec. 14 for early Christmas festivities. But the secretary of State was nowhere to be seen. Kerry was on the telephone to various world leaders, trying to find out about a major diplomatic meeting — from which the United States had been excluded. The gathering, which sought to broker a resolution to the devastating Syrian conflict, took place six days later in Moscow and involved the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey.

States that refuse to help resettle Syrian refugees are guilty of illegal discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, delivering a judicial rebuke to GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who as Indiana’s governor had tried to halt Syrian resettlement. Judge Richard Posner, writing for the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said there’s no evidence that Syrians are more dangerous, and he said even if they are, allowing Indiana to refuse to resettle them would only foist the problem onto neighboring states. “Federal law does not allow a governor to deport to other...

Despite resistance by Idaho’s top political leaders, 118 Syrian refugees have moved to the Gem State since last Oct. 1, all of them settling in Boise, according to new data from the State Department. Compared with larger cities, Boise took in a disproportionate share, accepting more than twice as many refugees as New York, with 9, and Los Angeles, with 45, combined. ... Overall, the United States had admitted 11,469 Syrian refugees as of Sept. 9, ... no state took in more Syrian refugees than California, with 1,300. San Diego accepted more than half of them, or 690, while Sacramento...

George Soros to invest $500 million in help for refugees http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/20/george-soros-to-invest-500-million-in-help-for-refugees-through-his-open-society-foundations.html George Soros to invest $500 million in help for refugees Nyshka Chandran | @nyshkac 9 Hours Ago CNBC.com Soros invests $500m for refugees Billionaire investor George Soros pledged on Tuesday to invest up to $500 million in programs and companies benefiting migrants and refugees fleeing life-threatening situations. Announced against the backdrop of an ongoing United Nations (U.N.) summit in New York, Soros explained that he wished to harness the power of the private sector for public good. "We will invest in startups, established companies, social impact initiatives, and businesses...

Russia and the US have agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria from sunset on 12 September after intensive talks in Geneva. Under the plan, the Syrian government will end combat missions in specified areas held by the opposition. Russia and the US will establish a joint centre to combat so-called Islamic State and al-Nusra fighters. The plan follows a day of talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

VIDEO – Bill Clinton: Rebuild Detroit with Syrian Refugees Julia Hahn 29 Aug 2016 Washington D.C.340 In a previously little-noticed video from February at the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton suggested that the U.S. use Syrian refugees to rebuild Detroit. “The truth is that the big loser in this over the long run is going to be Syria. This is an enormous opportunity for Americans,” Bill Clinton said about the Syrian migrant crisis. Detroit has 10,000 empty, structurally sound houses—10,000. And lot of jobs to be had repairing those houses. Detroit just came out of bankruptcy and the...