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The US-led coalition killed more than 100 Assad regime fighters in eastern Syria on Wednesday, officials said, in the largest deliberate strike carried out by Western forces against pro-Syrian government troops. The coalition said it struck regime fighters with airstrikes and artillery after they launched an "unprovoked attack" against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Western-backed rebels fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria. "We estimate more than 100 Syrian pro-regime forces were killed while engaging SDF and coalition forces," a US military official said.

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...

Regime, terror group maintain tactical cooperation in areas where fighting is expressly forbiddenSyria’s Assad regime, backed up by Russian fighter jets and the Daesh terrorist group, have seized over 3,000 square kilometers of opposition-held territory in southern and southeastern Idlib within the last three months, according to measurements carried out by Anadolu Agency. Regime forces secured eastern Hama in October of last year, allowing Daesh terrorists to enter several parts of Idlib, which is held by opposition forces and armed anti-regime groups. Operating in coordination, both Daesh and Assad regime forces have advanced far into Idlib following three months of...

George Washington University’s Program on Extremism released a study Monday focused on Americans who traveled to Iraq or Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS). The study, titled “American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq,” provides details on 64 of the 300 or so jihadists the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified as those who attempted to or did travel abroad to join the radical Islamic group. The 64 on whom the study focused made it to the Middle East, and 12 of those returned to the United States. Of those twelve, nine were arrested, one returned to Syria and died...

“The real tools Israel uses today, more important than the most recent strikes, are the terrorists in Syria,” Assad told the Al-Manar TV station, run by his Lebanese ally group Hezbollah. “What they are doing is far more dangerous than what Israel has done recently. “This is the core issue,” he continued. “If we want to fight Israel, we must first deal with its emissaries in Syria.” Israel said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards planned the Thursday attack, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried it out. According to a senior Israeli security official, it was Saeed Izadi, the head of the...

On a reporting trip to Gaza, Amman, and Damascus in 1994, I made a habit of asking Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leaders whom I met the following question: Did they think the Jews had a plan to dominate the world? I’ll never forget the enthusiastic answer of a pediatrician named Abdelaziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader, whom I met in his doctor’s office in Gaza. “Yes, indeed,” he said. “I have a copy right here.” And he pulled down from a shelf an Arabic-language copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was a response I heard again and...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Vatican City on Sunday evening to meet with Pope Francis. During a news conference at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport State Guest House, Erdoğan called the visit a "significant opportunity" to convey messages of peace. "I see this visit as a significant opportunity in terms of drawing attention to common human values, friendship and peace messages," the president told reporters. "We will discuss Palestine, Jerusalem, Syria, Iraq, the fight against terrorism, the problems of refugees, humanitarian aid and the fight against rising Islamophobia and cultural racism in the West," he said, referring to his...

Nearly half the Russian public currently want the operation conducted by the country’s Air Force in Syria wrapped up, with only a third of respondents saying that the strikes on terrorists ought to be continued, an independent pollster reports. According to public opinion research conducted by the Levada Center--49 per cent of Russians think that the government should end the counter-terrorist operation that the Russian Air Force is conducting in Syria. 30 per cent of respondents said that they support the continuation of the strikes and 22 per cent said they did not have a solid opinion on the issue....

full title: TurkeyÂ’s Erdogan to meet with Pope, thank him for opposing TrumpÂ’s recognition of Jerusalem as IsraelÂ’s capital. The United StatesÂ’ controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is expected to dominate talks between President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and Pope Francis on the presidentÂ’s first trip to the Vatican on Sunday. According to presidential sources, ErdoÄŸan will thank Pope Francis for his stance against U.S. President Donald TrumpÂ’s decision and his efforts to protect the status quo in the holy city. The Turkish president previously expressed his appreciation to Pope Francis who strongly opposed the bitterly-contested move...

The New York Times is reporting that there is a "secret alliance" between Egypt and Israel to combat ISIS along the Sinai border between the two countries.The report claims that Israel has flown more than 100 missions in the last two years, striking targets in the terrorists' stronghold in Egypt with the full knowledge and cooperation of Cairo's government. Egypt appeared unable to stop them, so Israel, alarmed at the threat just over the border, took action. For more than two years, unmarked Israeli drones, helicopters and jets have carried out a covert air campaign, conducting more than 100...

The U.S. military is pulling its forces from an American-led coalition base in Iraq and shifting them to Afghanistan following the defeat of Islamic State group militants in the country. Western contractors at the base say U.S. troops began the drawdown over the past week, with groups of soldiers leaving the base on daily flights. The exact scale of the redeployment was unclear. According to various estimates, as of 2016, there were more 5,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq, with nearly 4,000 deployed to support and assist local groups fighting ISIS militants. The remaining personnel included special operations forces,...

Many observers have warned that Putin’s military campaign in Syria may backfire at home. Russia’s 144 million people include about 20 million Muslims; the overwhelming majority are Sunnis. Some analysts believe that these Russian Sunnis will recoil from Russia’s support for Assad’s Alawite-dominated regime and its attacks on Sunni rebels, and from Russia’s effort to lead a coalition of Shiite powers, Iran, Iraq and Syria. If pundits’ predictions were true, Muslims would be more likely to choose the anti-war response and less likely to support Putin’s intervention. But that’s not exactly what we found. ...There wasn’t a consensus among any...

Aina Gamzatova, a 46-year-old woman from Dagestan, has made it official. She wants to run against Russian President Vladimir Putin in the March 2018 election. Some see her campaign - irrespective of its results - as a way to boost the image of Muslim women in Russia and to attract attention to the needs of impoverished, overpopulated and multi-ethnic Dagestan. Her husband, Akhmad Abdulaev, is the Mufti of Dagestan, Russia's troubled province where a confrontation between fighters, clans and federal forces has killed thousands. She belongs to a Sufi order that has tens of thousands of followers and whose leader,...

Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility Saturday for the downing of a Russian warplane in northern Syria, apparently using a surface-to-air missile to target the aircraft. The pilot was killed after he ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split from al-Qaeda last year, said it had used a shoulder-fired weapon to down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the opposition-held town of Saraqeb.

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.

In what has ironically been designated “Operation Olive Branch,” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been trying to put the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin into a stranglehold. Turkey is now in its second week of bombardment over Afrin from the air and heavy tanks are now carrying out a ground offensive into the Kurdish region. Erdogan is a brute and a thug, who has made a habit of trampling on the human rights of his own people. He used the failed military coup of July, 2016 to arbitrarily arrest and imprison anyone whom he considers to be his opposition,...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Tired of all this Winning yet? – President Donald Trump (I never tire of typing those words) gave a wonderful State of the Union Address Tuesday night. The speech was filled with soaring rhetoric about American unity, American greatness and America’s renewed place of leadership in the world. So naturally the Democrats hated it. The speech talked about the creation of 2.4 million new jobs since Trump took office, record low unemployment and the booming stock market. So naturally the Democrats hated it. The speech talked about our flag and what it...

KABUL — Islamic State gunmen stormed the offices of a British charity in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday morning, killing three people and wounding at least 20, officials said. The attack came as the country was still reeling from an even deadlier assault on an international hotel in Kabul on Saturday night that left at least 22 people dead. The toll could have been much higher in the course of the nine-hour gun battle between the militants and soldiers, but it appears that staff of the Save the Children charity were able to hide in a “safe...

Azaz (Syria) (AFP) - Turkey on Saturday urged the United States to withdraw personnel from a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria after Washington told Ankara it would stop arming a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey is fighting. As Turkey's offensive in Syria entered its second week with new air strikes and artillery, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was "necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij", where Washington has a military presence. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its western enclave of Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition...

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkish forces would sweep Kurdish fighters from the Syrian border and could push all the way east to the frontier with Iraq -- a move which risks a possible confrontation with U.S. forces allied to the Kurds.The Turkish offensive in northwest Syria's Afrin region against the Kurdish YPG militia has opened a new front in the multi-sided Syrian civil war but has strained ties with NATO ally Washington. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group but the militia has played a prominent role in U.S.-led efforts to combat the hardline Islamic State in Syria.