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Islamic State issues video of beheading of US hostage

Islamic State issues video of beheading of US hostage

Dubai, September 3, 2014: The Islamic State militant group released a video purporting to show the beheading of a second American hostage, j...

Syrian refugees top 3 million, half of all Syrians displaced: UN

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbhUMQYztHjEMER9h_xcvGAq19w50TNqL1kmTmqFCWA21TOpXxC_15AuLZQzPlPDlivaIenjxOPYM-bDWT26WnWrE4K69NP26SOLdpMW0Sgdw9Cpr6BRWA9WtAXxPdbHgLNwseKgZpMcn4/s1600/Syrian+Refugees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbhUMQYztHjEMER9h_xcvGAq19w50TNqL1kmTmqFCWA21TOpXxC_15AuLZQzPlPDlivaIenjxOPYM-bDWT26WnWrE4K69NP26SOLdpMW0Sgdw9Cpr6BRWA9WtAXxPdbHgLNwseKgZpMcn4/s200/Syrian+Refugees.jpg" /></a></div>Geneva, August 29, 2014: Three million Syrian refugees will have registered in neighbouring countries as of today, an exodus that began in March 2011 and shows no sign of abating, the United Nations said. 
 
The record figure is one million refugees more than a year ago, while a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria, meaning that “almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their homes and flee for their lives”, it said. 
 
“The Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them,” Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement. 
 
The vast majority remain in neighbouring countries, with the highest concentrations in Lebanon (1.14 million), Turkey (815,000) and Jordan (608,000), the UNHCR said. Some 215,000 refugees are in Iraq with the rest in Egypt and other countries. 
 
In addition, the host governments estimate that hundreds of thousands more Syrians have sought sanctuary in their countries without formally registering, the agency said. 
 
Increasing numbers of families arrive in a shocking state, exhausted, scared and with their savings depleted, it said. “Most have been on the run for a year or more, fleeing from village to village before taking the final decision to leave.” 
 
“There are worrying signs too that the journey out of Syria is becoming tougher, with many people forced to pay bribes at armed checkpoints proliferating along the borders. Refugees crossing the desert into eastern Jordan are being forced to pay smugglers hefty sums (ranging from $100 per person or more) to take them to safety,” it added. 
 
Syrians now constitute the world’s largest refugee population under the care of the UNHCR, second only in number to refugees in the decades-old Palestinian crisis that falls under the mandate of a separate UN agency UNRWA, it said. 
A recent upsurge in fighting appears to be worsening an already desperate situation, the statement said. 
 
More than 191,000 people were killed in the first three years of Syria’s civil war, a UN report said last week in what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called a “wholly avoidable human catastrophe”. 
 
In another report issued on Wednesday, UN human rights investigators accused Islamic State insurgents of committing war crimes including amputations and public executions in northern Syria, sometimes in the presence of children. 
 
The government of President Bashar al-Assad is dropping deadly barrel bombs on civilian areas and Damascus is believed to have used chlorine gas in combating its enemies, they said. 
The United States is pushing to build an international campaign against Islamic State jihadist fighters in Iraq and Syria, including partners for potential joint military action, Obama administration officials said on Thursday. 
 
The UNHCR report said some areas of Syria were emptying out as the frontlines in the conflict shifted. “Recent arrivals to Jordan, for example, are running from attacks in the areas of al-Raqqa and Aleppo,” the UNHCR said, referring to northern areas of Syria. 
 
The agency voiced deep concern at the fate of several hundred Syrians trapped inside Al Obaidy refugee camp in Al Qa’im, Iraq, after UN agencies and foreign aid workers were forced to abandon their offices and warehouses due to violence. 
 
Source: The Shillong Times

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Syria ready to cooperate with U.N. to fight terror

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsMDzQP1Gn4LLPxgCrZhsRDPt06BCUKpd9s7SKTqSx7BmGX0DGj4hp3wZZPT857dGWAvS0DZmiXqb4sL9Oi3JMMpjRP9wZBeCfcz5SpEyb7wDmxVeerbiPlaweUOY7NufdwftPLb11uOh/s1600/Syria+UN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsMDzQP1Gn4LLPxgCrZhsRDPt06BCUKpd9s7SKTqSx7BmGX0DGj4hp3wZZPT857dGWAvS0DZmiXqb4sL9Oi3JMMpjRP9wZBeCfcz5SpEyb7wDmxVeerbiPlaweUOY7NufdwftPLb11uOh/s200/Syria+UN.jpg" /></a></div>By Jethro Mullen and Yousuf Basil 
 
Syria, August 26, 2014: The Syrian regime says it's ready to accept support from the United States and others working under the U.N. umbrella to fight "terrorists." 
 
The comments, by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, were made Monday as ISIS fighters seized control of a strategically important air base in the country. 
 
The war-racked nation has been losing control of the northeastern region to ISIS militants. 
 
Moallem, however, warned against any unilateral action or strikes in Syrian territory without permission. 
 
"Any effort to fight terrorism should be done in coordination with Syrian government," Moallem said. 
 
The U.S. military and intelligence communities are gathering intelligence on the locations of ISIS leadership and its troops in Syria, two U.S. officials told CNN on Friday. The information could be used in the coming days if President Barack Obama were to authorize airstrikes against the militants in Syria. 
 
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said on Monday, while speaking in general terms, that in order to conduct operations over Syria "you certainly want to get as much of a view on the ground as you can. You want as much situational awareness as you can." 
 
"Satellites can provide you good visibility, but you always want closer eyes on target if you can," Kirby added. 
 
Obama has authorized reconnaissance flights over Syria, which could begin at any point, a U.S. official told CNN on Monday. 
 
When asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer about how much coordination the United States would need to do with Syria to strike ISIS, Kirby said, "Not getting into the hypothetical operations, there's no intention to coordinate with Syrian authorities." 
 
U.S. considers containing ISIS in Syria U.S. prepared to strike ISIS in Syria 
 
Air base seizure 
ISIS seizes key Syrian air base ISIS attack 'a matter of time' Kurdish leaders: ISIS has been weakened 
 
The Islamic extremist group, which has taken over large areas of Syria and Iraq, wrested the Al-Tabqa air base from the Syrian military on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict. 
 
Syrian state television reported that the Syrian military had evacuated the air base in Raqqa province to regroup and was still carrying out strikes against ISIS fighters in the area. 
 
In Iraq, ISIS claimed responsibility for three suicide car bombs that killed at least 20 people in the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday. 
 
ISIS said in a statement posted Monday that the bombs were a response to secular Kurdish gangs that joined the war on ISIS and their involvement in the bombing and targeting of Sunni areas. 
 
The statement said that two of those who carried out the suicide attacks were German nationals, identified as Abu Yasser al-Almany and Abu Ibrahim al-Almany. 
 
When contacted by CNN, the German Foreign Ministry declined comment on the ISIS statement. 
 
ISIS, which refers to itself as the Islamic State, is part of the complex web of groups fighting in the long-running Syrian conflict -- a war that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 191,000 people. 
 
The spread of ISIS 
Rebels have been battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since March 2011, and the civil war has turned the country into a haven for jihadists. 
 
ISIS has thrived amid the chaos, gaining global notoriety for its brutal tactics, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley last week. 
 
After its break with al Qaeda this year, ISIS has grown in strength and reach. Its dramatic, murderous advance in northern and western Iraq this year provoked U.S. airstrikes aimed at helping Kurdish and Iraqi forces. 
 
U.S. and Kurdish officials say ISIS is now under pressure in Iraq. But the extremist group continues to win significant victories in Syria. 
 
Planes moved before base fell 
Al-Tabqa air base is the last major military base in Raqqa province, which borders Turkey, to fall into ISIS' hands. The group now is now understood to have effective control over the entire province, aside from a few villages in the south. 
 
The warplanes from the base had already been taken to other locations before ISIS took control, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. 
 
It said ISIS fighters were seen carrying the heads of Syrian regime soldiers. Both sides were reported to have suffered heavy losses in the battle for the base. 
 
ISIS controls major cities in Iraq and Syria, as well as oil fields, main roads and border crossings. It also has under its control more military hardware than some national armies after seizing both Iraqi and Syrian military bases and armories. 
 
Senior U.S. defense officials said last week that they hadn't ruled out extending airstrikes against ISIS into Syria. 
 
Source: CNN

Syria ready to cooperate with U.N. to fight terror

By Jethro Mullen and Yousuf Basil Syria, August 26, 2014: The Syrian regime says it's ready to accept support from the United States a...

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