Free Republic

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad. "The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to...

In the first Maternity Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, one in eight women died after giving birth. They called it childbed fever, marked by days of fever and severe pain, and explained it as miasma, bad air, or God’s will. They called it anything except what it was. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that doctors who moved between patients and performed autopsies — and walked straight from the corpses to the delivery room — without washing their hands. He introduced mandatory handwashing with chlorinated lime. The death rate collapsed immediately. The medical establishment dismissed him and attacked his methods, his tone,...

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted an airstrike in northwest Syria, June 19, that resulted in the death of a senior ISIS leader. The precision strike killed Ali Husayn al-‘Ulaywi and is part of ongoing U.S. efforts to disrupt and eliminate terrorists seeking to attack Americans abroad or the U.S. homeland. CENTCOM forces continue to work alongside regional partners. “CENTCOM and our partners remain committed to rooting out remaining remnants of ISIS to ensure its enduring defeat,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will continue to defend the U.S. homeland, our service members, and allies and...

KABUL — The notorious terrorist organization ISIS has claimed responsibility for an algae attack that has disrupted the beautiful blue color of the Reflecting Pool. An ISIS spokesman released a statement today stating that the group was behind the infiltration of the pool by algae, turning the radiant blue water an unsightly off-green hue. "You have now seen the carnage we are capable of," said ISIS spokesman Ali Kandrahar. "Look how gross that green color is. Nasty. We have brought the Reflecting Pool to its knees, and this is only but a taste of what we have in store...

British couple was kidnapped, murdered and fed to crocodiles while searching a nature reserve in South Africa for rare seeds, a court heard Tuesday. Horticulturist Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife, microbiologist Dr. Rachel Saunders, 63, were camping in the remote Ngoye Forest Reserve when they disappeared in February 2018, the Daily Mail reported. The couple was last heard from on Feb. 8, when they told an employee about their plans to camp in the reserve 30 miles north of Durban. Police now say that Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, his wife, Bibi Fatima Patel, and their tenant Mussa Ahmad Jackson...

An [terrorist]-linked gang who stabbed and battered a British couple to death then threw their bodies to crocodiles have been found guilty of their murder. World renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were ambushed in South Africa whilst out searching for rare gladioli flowers in remote mountains. The devoted couple who were married for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town met a bad end whilst setting up camp beside a forest dam in a national park. A court heard how they were viciously tortured for Rachel's gold credit card PIN number and bank account details...

The FBI arrested three men on Friday on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, and Bereen Dzayee, 25, were taken into custody following a complaint filed in the District of Kansas. They were accused of 'conspiring to provide material support to terrorism' after collectively giving over $2,000 in cryptocurrency to an individual believed to be a member of ISIS. The allegations in the complaint were found to be substantiated, and the funds were proven to have...

Two California men have been charged over an ISIS terror plot to kill US Special Forces operatives with grenades and drones. Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, near San Diego, and Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville in Tulare County were arrested Friday alongside Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, from Leawood, Kansas. Prosecutors allege the three paid $2,000 to someone they thought was from the jihadi group to buy rocket-propelled grenades and UAVs for the attack. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Kansas, the three men allegedly spent more than a year communicating about extremist plans, including discussions about leaving...

President Donald Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser confirmed that U.S. and Nigerian forces killed 199 suspected terrorists and seized massive new evidence about ISIS extremists during a recent secret mission deep in Africa. Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, dropped the details during an appearance on the “Just the News, No Noise” show, declaring the operation “the most successful counterterrorism operation since September 11.” “This is a historic moment, because that operation in Nigeria … that one operation led to the killing of 199 enemies,” Gorka stated. “That is the most successful counterterrorism operation since...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have killed “hundreds” of Islamic State militants in Nigeria, crediting President Donald Trump’s directive to protect Christians in the country from Islamist violence.During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Hegseth said Trump charged the military with taking steps to protect Nigerian Christians roughly a year ago after learning of their targeting by the Islamic State terror group.Building the partnerships necessary to carry out such a mission took time, the secretary said, but the president remained persistent, and the right assets were eventually put in place."And over the last month,...

Syria’s transitional government said on Tuesday it has recovered “remnants” of the secret chemical weapons program created by deposed dictator Bashar Assad and have arrested 18 suspects who were allegedly involved in the program. Assad was overthrown in December 2024 and sought refuge in Russia, one of the nations that propped up his rule during the long and brutal Syrian civil war. He was replaced by a “transitional government” run by an alliance of insurgents and jihadis and presided over by a former member of al-Qaeda named Ahmed al-Sharaa. The new Syrian government turned against Assad’s old patrons of Russia...

Faith FactsUnited Nations added Israel to its blacklist of entities accused of sexual violence in conflict zones, placing the democratic nation alongside terrorist organizations Hamas and ISISIsraeli Ambassador Danny Danon condemned the decision as disconnected from facts and reality, calling it a moral failure by the international bodyThe controversial listing comes despite documented evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians during the October 7 attacksIn a stunning and morally questionable decision, the United Nations has placed the nation of Israel on its official blacklist of entities accused of committing sexual violence in conflict zones. Israeli Ambassador...

On Monday, the European Union announced sanctions on Israelis, including Daniella Weiss, the 80-year-old former mayor of a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria, and on Tuesday, it invited the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group allied with Al Qaeda, to come to Brussels for talks. “Extremisms and violence carry consequences,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Israel. Obviously. And the consequence of extremism and violence is an invite to Brussels.At least if you’re a Muslim terrorist. Over the last decade, Islamic terrorists associated with ISIS, an Al Qaeda splinter group, have killed over 34 people in two bombing, four...

President Trump announced Friday evening that U.S. and Nigerian military forces had killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a leader of the Islamic State group, in a "meticulously planned and very complex mission." Mr. Trump described al-Minuki as the Islamic State's second-in-command globally and "the most active terrorist in the world." "He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans," Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. "With his removal, ISIS's global operation is greatly diminished." The Nigerian president's office also confirmed the operation, and said that "early assessments confirm the elimination" of al-Minuki. "Several of his...

In the Syrian conscience, April is not limited to World Heritage Day celebrated on April 18. Rather, the month unfolds as a full season of cultural rebirth, stretching from the ancient roots of Akitu to the solemnity of Easter and the feast of St. George, as well as the memory of the massacres of 1915 and Syria’s Independence Day. Within this time crowded with memory, the restoration of Syrian icons emerges as an act of safeguarding identity. It repairs the fractures of time and restores to sacred figures the radiance of a history that runs deep, declaring that protecting this...

Mali's defence minister has been killed in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence near the capital Bamako.Multiple news outlets reported the death of Sadio Camara, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by jihadist militants and separatists carried out across the country.State TV confirmed the death several hours later, saying he died of wounds received while engaging with the attackers. Reports say the head of the military junta, Gen Assimi Goita, was moved to a safe location after his home was targeted.Further north Russian mercenaries hired by Mali's military agreed to withdraw from Kidal after two days of...

Gizmodo reported on the leaks. A hostile offshoot of the defunct neo-Nazi group Vanguard America, Patriot Front formed in late August 2017 less than three weeks after the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (James Alex Fields Jr., who was convicted in December 2018 of killing 32-year-old anti-racist protester Heather Heyer at the rally, was seen there holding a shield emblazoned with the VA logo. VA later denied he was a member.) The split from VA followed months of infighting between Thomas Rousseau, the Front’s founder, and VA leader Dillon Irizarry, who was seen accusing Rousseau in...

Up to 60 Christians were massacred by Islamists in the province of Ituri, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on April 1. A source affiliated to Islamic State (IS – also known as ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) reported that its fighters “targeted Christians” after they “rejected the generous offer made to them by Islamic State, based on the just rulings of Islam.” This “generous offer” was likely a demand for members of the Christian community of Bafwakoa, a village in the territory of Mambasa, to convert to Islam or accept dhimmi status as subjugated, supposedly protected, people. One of several...

Lebanon this week remembered the outbreak of its civil war 51 years ago. If anything, April 13, 2026, ironically looked no different to the days of civil tension in the prelude to the breakdown of law and order among the Lebanese in 1975, between those who wanted to peel Lebanon away from regional discord and foreign agendas and those who wanted to see the country and its people used as cannon fodder. Half a century has passed but the similarities are striking. Lebanon is again facing its demons and the curse of division, as the majority of its people want...

During operational activity in the area of Bint Jbeil, IDF soldiers located more than 130 weapons inside a school. Among the weapons located were Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, and additional weapons. Alongside the weapons, the troops also found Hezbollah flags and other terrorist organization insignia. The forces confiscated the weapons and continued operations to search the area and clear it of terrorists. The Hezbollah terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population in Lebanon...