Free Republic

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...

BEIRUT — The Obama administration’s Syria strategy suffered a major setback Sunday after fighters linked to al-Qaeda routed U.S.-backed rebels from their main northern strongholds, capturing significant quantities of weaponry, triggering widespread defections and ending hopes that Washington will readily find Syrian partners in its war against the Islamic State. Moderate rebels who had been armed and trained by the United States either surrendered or defected to the extremists as the Jabhat al-Nusra group, affiliated with al-Qaeda, swept through the towns and villages the moderates controlled in the northern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be a concerted push...

Syrian Rebels Armed And Trained By US Surrender To al-Qaeda Moderate rebels in Syria that the US have armed and trained to fight jihadists have surrendered to al-Qaeda By Ruth Sherlock, 02 Nov 2014 Two of the main rebel groups receiving weapons from the United States to fight both the regime and jihadist groups in Syria have surrendered to al-Qaeda. The US and its allies were relying on Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front to become part of a ground force that would attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). For the last six months the...

As part of the new phase of maybe-kinda-probably war against ISIS, Obama is seeking to arm the Syrian rebels, hoping they’ll fight against the ravenous terrorists who cut through the Iraqi army like a hot Jihadist knife through butter. There’s just one tiny problem with this strategy – those rebels have signed a non-aggression pact with ISIS: The U.S. backed, Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF), have signed a ceasefire agreement with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) in the Rif Dimashq Governate. According to the ceasefire agreement, the two militant groups will not engage in violence with...

The leader of a Syrian rebel group feted as an alternative to the tide of Islamism which dominates most other rebel brigades has said he has no interest in fighting Al Qaeda. Jamal Maarouf's Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF) had received cautious support from western powers for its prominent role in fighting Al Qaeda-breakaway group ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), but speaking to Britain's The Independent he clarified that as far as he was concerned the wider fight against Al Qaeda is "not our problem". Moreover, Maarouf - who has been forced to flee the front lines...

Russia's state arms procurement program through 2020 provides for the development of a new heavy ballistic missile, a leading missile designer said on Monday. The final decision should be made in 2012-13 by the expert community, not solely the Defense Ministry, said Yury Solomonov of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT), the developer of the troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile. "This matter is beyond the Defense Ministry's competence. It is a matter of state importance," he said. "Heavy ICBM" refers to a class of missiles with a heavy throw weight between five and nine metric tons and a length...

Sri Daya Mata, who for more than five decades was the leader of one of the most influential Hindu groups in the United States and an ardent advocate of the healing power of meditation, died on Tuesday at the group’s retreat for nuns in Los Angeles. She was 96. The society, whose monks and nuns adopt Indian names, teaches that there is a unifying truth behind all religious experience, and the group encourages its members to honor their roots in other faiths. Most members follow a vegetarian diet, practice yoga, chant and meditate Sri Daya Mata, who was born Faye...

The Rs-24 Yars missile system has been put on combat duty, a high-ranking official in the space and rocket industry told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The chief designer of the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute, which created the system, said earlier that one of the RS-24 systems had already been delivered to the Strategic Rocket Forces and put on combat duty. Institute Director Yuri Solomonov said, “All journalists are writing about Bulava, but are saying little about the new mobile missile system RS-24 Yars with multiple warheads that we created at the same time.” The Strategic Rocket Forces intended to deploy the...

On August 5, 2004, speaking to about 7,000 minority journalists at the "Unity 2004: Journalists of Color Conference", John Kerry reportedly said "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror" than President Bush. While briefly reported by USA Today, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution, it was largely ignored by the press at the time the comment was made. John Tierney's commentary in The New York Times "Political Points" did award Kerry the "Kumbaya Prize" for the week based on the comment. (Kumbaya Prize, Runner-Up: Teresa Heinz Kerry, for telling...