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Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice had failed to prove something it insisted for years was true: that a Fremont man tried to travel to Syria in 2015, to join a terrorist organization.

A Syrian-born German national accused of helping to plan the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States has been detained by Kurdish forces in Syria, a senior Kurdish commander told AFP on Wednesday. “Mohammed Haydar Zammar has been arrested by Kurdish security forces in northern Syria and is now being interrogated,” the top official said, but did not provide further details. Zammar, who is in his mid-fifties, has been accused of recruiting some of the September 11 hijackers. He was detained in Morocco in December 2001 in an operation involving CIA agents, and was handed over to the Syrian...

Five men from a small French town that supplied around 20 jihadists to the war in Syria, most of whom never returned, went on trial Thursday accused of a terrorist conspiracy. Lunel, a town of 26,000 people outside the coastal Mediterranean city of Montpellier, became a symbol of the jihadist fervor sweeping parts of France when a group of friends slipped out of the country to Syria in 2013 and 2014. At least eight members of the group are believed to have been killed in Syria, with another seven missing in the war-torn country. The outsize number of recruits from...

The United Nations has issued a report in which it states that al-Qaeda's global terror network remains "remarkably resilient" as ISIS quickly heads towards defeat. In some regions, the reports argues, al-Qaeda now poses more of a threat than ISIS. The report, sent to the UN Security Council, says that AQAP -- al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen -- has now become the communications hub for the entire organization. "Al-Qaeda affiliates remain the dominant terror threat in some regions, such as Somalia and Yemen, a fact demonstrated by a continuous stream of attacks and foiled operations," the report...

A Russian pilot was killed Saturday after his warplane went down over Syria's northwest province of Idlib and he clashed with Islamists on the ground, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said. "The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman. According to the British-based monitor, the Sukhoi 25 was shot down over the town of Maasran in Idlib and the pilot came down in a parachute.

A Russian warplane was shot down Saturday in Syria, according to Russian state-run news agencies. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed one of its Su-25 warplanes was downed in Idlib province in northwest Syria, state media outlet RIA Novosti reported. Militants shot down the plane in an area controlled by al-Nusra Front fighters, according to the RIA Novosti report. Russia and Turkey, which is responsible for a de-escalation zone in Idlib, were taking measures to return the pilot's body, the defense ministry said. The ministry said more than 30 militants in the area were killed in a retaliatory strike, according...

Three-term Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators. Gabbard’s “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long...

A senior figure from a Syrian rebel group with links to al Qaida was allowed into the United States for a brief visit, raising questions about how much the Obama administration will compromise in the search for partners in the conflict. Labib al Nahhas, foreign affairs director for the Islamist fighting group Ahrar al Sham, spent a few days in Washington in December, according to four people with direct knowledge of the trip and who spoke on condition of anonymity. His previously undisclosed visit is a delicate matter for both sides – the conservative Salafist insurgents risk their credibility with...

Omar Mateen claimed at various times to be aligned with terrorist groups including ISIS, Hezbollah, and the al-Nusra Front. Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson does not consider any of those bloodthirsty outfits “the greatest threat to our homeland security today.” That description, Dickinson argues, best fits the National Rifle Association. “The NRA's unhinged gun advocacy,” he wrote in a Wednesday article, “has created a soft underbelly to our homeland security that radicals are exploiting to inflict mass murder.” Dickinson declared, “Make no mistake: The NRA paved the way for the Orlando attack,” given that -- “ The NRA's lobbyists and political...

The Orlando gunman who killed at least 50 and wounded many more, claimed to be loyal to a number of loyalist groups who are on opposing sides in the battlefield including Hezbollah and ISIS, US newspaper the Los Angeles Times reported. Omar Mateen called 911 to say he was attacking the LGBT nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, swearing allegiance with ISIS. The FBI's Director James Comey told the newspaper that since 2013 Mateen is known to have made a series elaborate claims linking his relatives to the Sunni terror network Al-Qaeda, while also claiming to have been a...

TEL AVIV – A top Islamic State-tied jihadist in the Gaza Strip claimed in an interview on Sunday that he “knows” that Omar Mateen, the Orlando club shooter, was a member of a terrorist organization. Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip, claimed he was told that Mateen was a member of one of the groups that fall under the jihadiya Salafiya franchise, meaning the network of loosely-based Salafist jihadist groups such as the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and the Al Nusra Front. Ansari made the claim in a pre-recorded interview to air in full tonight...

Russia's foreign minister said Washington has asked Moscow not to target the al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, but the U.S. insisted Friday that it only wants Russia to carefully select it targets to avoid hitting civilians and legitimate opposition groups. Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has long insisted that the moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups should leave the areas occupied by Nusra. He said in televised remarks that Russia and the U.S. have engaged in close dialogue on how to secure a cease-fire in Syria, but added that fighting the Islamic State group and Nusra should be a top...

Russia's foreign minister said Washington has asked Moscow not to target the al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, but the U.S. insisted Friday that it only wants Russia to carefully select it targets to avoid hitting civilians and legitimate opposition groups. Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has long insisted that the moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups should leave the areas occupied by Nusra. He said in televised remarks that Russia and the U.S. have engaged in close dialogue on how to secure a cease-fire in Syria, but added that fighting the Islamic State group and Nusra should be a top...

Russia has resumed bombing moderate opposition fighters in Syria, a U.S. military officer from Baghdad told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday. "We have seen them begin operations again in that region," Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, the U.S.-led coalition's deputy commander for operations and intelligence, told Fox News. President Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin last week asking him to help "press" Syria to end its airstrikes, according to a White House statement. The strikes appeared to violate the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in February. "The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore...

Officers seized thousands of uniforms and other military gear on the way to terror groups Isis and al-Nusra Front. Spain's National Police reported on Thursday that officers had intercepted 20,000 uniforms and other military gear that were being sent to terror groups Isis and al-Nusra Front - the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. "With nearly 20,000 uniforms and military accessories seized, they would have been able to equip an entire army, which would be perfectly prepared to enter combat in any of the centres of conflict where terrorist jihadist organizations operate in the world," the Interior Ministry reported on Thursday. Police...

Over 1,000 Militants Surrender To Syrian Army In Last 24 Hours The development came after President Bashar al-Assad in a televised address in July pardoned all soldiers who have fled the army, saying that his words served as a general decree to relevant officials. Hundreds of foreign-backed militants surrendered to the government troops in the province of Daraa, Syria's National Reconciliation Committee announced on Monday. Hundreds of foreign-backed militants surrendered to the government troops in the province of Daraa, Syria’s National Reconciliation Committee announced on Monday. Over 1,000 terrorists laid down arms and surrendered to the Syrian authorities over the...

The latest brilliant plan to curtail Isis in the Middle East? Give more weapons to current members of al-Qaida. The Daily Beast reported that former CIA director David Petraeus, still somehow entrenched in the DC Beltway power circles despite leaking highly classified secrets, is now advocating arming members of the al-Nusra Front in Syria, an offshoot of al-Qaida and a designated terrorist organization. Could there be a more dangerous and crazy idea?

Hezbollah, a radical Islamist movement, is recruiting Druze, Christian and Sunni men to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Lebanese daily news website the Daily Star reported Wednesday. The recruitment process, which is taking place in east Lebanon, is reportedly still ongoing. The new recruits are offered weapons and trainings to “to counter the threat of ISIS and its affiliates.” Lebanon is engaged in a battle against jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front along its northern and northeastern border with Syria

At least 49 civilians, including six children, have been killed in air strikes by government forces in north-western Syria, activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that missiles had hit a public square in the rebel-held village of al-Janudiya. Many people had gathered there to go shopping, the group added. Al-Janudiya is situated in the west of Idlib province, which is now almost completely controlled by rebel forces. An alliance including al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, seized control of the provincial capital at the end of March, and the major town of Jisr al-Shughour, near...

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria and allied rebel groups have taken control of two key army bases in the northern province of Idlib, activists say. Members of al-Nusra Front, supported by those from Jund al-Aqsa, captured Wadi al-Deif base on Monday after launching a fierce offensive on Sunday morning. Ahrar al-Sham later joined their assault on the nearby Hamidiya base. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had until now managed to repel a number of assaults on the facilities. Situated outside the town of Maarat al-Numan and next to the country's main north-south motorway, they have been surrounded since 2012. A...