At least four people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a busy shopping area in the Istanbul, officials say.
Another 36 were injured – among them 12 foreign nationals – as the bomb went off near a government building on Istiklal Street.
No-one has admitted carrying out the attack, the latest to target Turkey in recent months.
The Turkish government has blamed Kurdish militants for previous attacks and has retaliated against them.
Today’s attack in Istanbul – Turkey’s largest city – occurred at about 11:00 local time.
Photo Getty Images
Three Israeli tourists were among those injured, local media report say. The Israeli foreign ministry has confirmed Israelis were wounded, but has not given the number or said what condition they are in.
Both ISIS and Kurdish militants have claimed recent attacks in Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said terror groups are targeting civilians because they are losing their struggle against Turkish security forces.
Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against ISIS and allows coalition planes to use its air base at Incirlik for raids on Iraq and Syria.
It has also been carrying out a campaign of bombardment against Syrian Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it regards as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
A two-year-old ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK broke down last summer.
Since then, more than 340 members of Turkey’s security forces have been killed along with at least 300 Kurdish fighters and more than 200 civilians.
The TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Hawks) was formed in 2004. It is regarded as the hard-line offshoot of the PKK, rejecting any attempt at ceasefire talks with the Turkish state.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish minority for decades and has carried out regular attacks on Turkish security forces.
Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in last year’s Paris attacks, has been wounded and arrested in a raid in Brussels, Belgian officials have said.
According to officials, Salah Abdeslam, who had been on the run since the November attacks, was wounded in the leg as police moved in on a flat in the Molenbeek area.
“We got him,” said Theo Francken, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration.
Salah Abdeslam – one of Europe’s most wanted men – is a key suspect in the jihadist attacks in Paris which 130 people died.
Belgian PM Charles Michel had to urgently leave an EU-Turkey summit as details of the operation began to emerge.
The raid apparently continued late into the evening, as two more explosions were reported recently at the scene.
Salah Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found in a Brussels flat that was raided on March 15.
One man – identified as Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid and linked to the Paris attacks – was shot dead during the raid in the southern Forest suburb on March 15.
Officials said at the time they believed as many as two other suspects may have escaped.
Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national born in Brussels, had lived in Molenbeek before the November 13 attacks.
He is believed to have returned to Belgium immediately after the attacks, in which his brother Brahim blew himself up.
In January, Belgian police said they may have found a bomb factory in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels used as a hideout by Salah Abdeslam.
Police found traces of explosives, three handmade belts and a fingerprint of the suspect.
Salah Abdeslam has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks, claimed by ISIS militants.
Officials have identified most of the people they believe to have carried out the assaults.
Most of the suspects either died during the attacks or were killed in subsequent police raids.
Parts of Brussels were sealed off for days after the Paris massacre amid fears of a major incident. A number of suspected attackers lived in the Belgian capital.
A Syrian truce has come into effect after five years of civil war.
The “cessation of hostilities” began at midnight on February 27 with early reports saying front lines were silent.
UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said fighting had “calmed down” but one breach was being investigated.
In the run-up to the deadline, President Barack Obama warned the Syrian government and its ally Russia “the world will be watching”.
The truce involves government and rebel forces, but not ISIS or the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed in Syria’s civil war and millions more have been forced from their homes.
A few hours after the deadline passed, a car bomb killed two people outside the government-held town of Salamiyeh, near Hama, Syrian state media reported. It is not clear who carried out the attack.
Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said while some gunfire was heard in the northern city of Aleppo as the deadline passed, elsewhere it was quiet.
Staffan de Mistura has said that peace talks will resume on 7 March if the truce “largely holds”, adding that he had no doubt there would be “no shortage of attempts to undermine this process”.
Russia said it would continue to bomb militant targets. Russian jets were reported to have intensified attacks on Syrian rebel positions on February 26.
In the run-up to the truce, heavy attacks around Damascus and Aleppo were blamed on Russian airstrikes, but denied by Moscow.
The cessation was brokered by the US and Russia, and is backed by a UN resolution. Previous talks in Geneva collapsed in early February after making no progress.
One of the key aims of the cessation is to allow desperately needed aid to reach people trapped in besieged areas.
The UN resolution names about 30 areas in dire need of aid, including eastern and western rural Aleppo and the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, which is under siege by ISIS jihadists.
Almost 100 rebel factions have agreed to respect the truce, Syrian opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said.
However, the HNC warned the Syrian government and its allies not to use the “proposed text to continue the hostile operations against the opposition factions under the excuse of fighting terrorism”.
President Vladimir Putin says the Russian forces are targeting ISIS, Nusra Front and other extremist groups designated as legitimate targets by the UN Security Council.
However, Russia is widely accused of also attacking more moderate rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of the Kremlin.
World powers gathered in Munich, Germany, have agreed to seek a nationwide “cessation of hostilities” in Syria to begin in a week’s time.
The halt will not apply to the battle against jihadist groups ISIS and al-Nusra Front.
The 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) also agreed to accelerate and expand aid deliveries.
The announcement comes as the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advances in Aleppo province.
The move threatens to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in rebel-held parts of the major city of Aleppo.
The Syrian government has not yet responded, though a key rebel coalition welcomed the announcement.
More than 250,000 people have been killed and 13.5 million displaced in almost five years of fighting in Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry admitted the ceasefire plan was “ambitious” and said the real test would be whether the various parties honored the commitments.
“What we have here are words on paper, what we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground,” he said.
A task force chaired by the US and Russia will work to implement the truce through consultations with Syria’s rival groups.
Aid deliveries for besieged Syrian communities are due to begin as early as February 12.
Hohn Kerry made the announcement alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
Sergei Lavrov said there were “reasons to hope we have done a great job today”. An earlier proposal from Russia envisaged a truce starting on March 1.
At the news conference John Kerry again suggested that Russian strikes were targeting what the West sees as moderate opposition forces, rather than terrorists, as Moscow says.
The ISSG also agreed that peace talks involving the Syrian government and rebels should resume as soon as possible.
Initial talks were suspended just days after they began earlier this month in Geneva, in the wake of the Aleppo offensive.
Thousands of people displaced by the fighting have been stranded at the border with Turkey and aid agencies have warned of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.
Twitter has suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 “for threatening or promoting terrorist acts”.
In a blog, Twitter said the accounts “primarily related to ISIS”.
“We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism,” the statement said, adding that it had increased its report reviewing teams to react faster.
Twitter has more than 500 million users around the world.
“We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter,” the company said.
Photo Getty Images
Twitter added that it was co-operating with law enforcement bodies “when appropriate” as well as other organizations.
Governments around the world have been urging social media companies to take more robust measure to tackle online activity aimed at promoting violence.
In December 2015, US politicians put forward a bill that would force such companies – including Twitter and Facebook – to report any apparent terrorist activity they find.
EU officials have also been calling for talks with major social media companies to discuss the issue.
In March, Facebook revamped its “community standards” to include a separate section on “dangerous organizations”.
Facebook said it would ban groups promoting “terrorist activity, organized criminal activity or promoting hate.”
Israel has accused Turkey of buying oil from ISIS, thereby funding the militants’ activities.
Speaking in Athens, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said ISIS had “enjoyed Turkish money for oil for a very, very long period of time”.
Turkey denies permitting ISIS smuggling, and the US recently rejected Russian allegations that Turkish government officials were in league the militants.
ISIS has captured swathes of Syria and Iraq, including operational oil fields.
Moshe Yaalon told reporters after a meeting with his Greek counterpart: “It’s up to Turkey, the Turkish government, the Turkish leadership, to decide whether they want to be part of any kind of cooperation to fight terrorism.
“This is not the case so far. As you know, Daesh [Islamic State] enjoyed Turkish money for oil for a very, very long period of time. I hope that it will be ended.”
Moshe Yaalon also alleged that Turkey had “permitted jihadists to move from Europe to Syria and Iraq and back”.
US state department officials last month rejected Russian allegations of Turkish government involvement but a state department spokesman said IS oil was being smuggled into Turkey via middlemen.
Efforts by Israel and Turkey to repair damaged ties already hit a setback this month over demands for compensation for the deaths of 10 Turkish activists on an aid ship in 2010.
The Israeli navy had raided a flotilla of ships trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Senior Israeli and Turkish officials met in December to try to repair relations, raising hopes of progress in negotiations to import Israeli natural gas.
The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed by ISIS, satellite images confirmed.
St. Elijah’s monastery, or Dair Mar Elia, stood on a hill near the northern city of Mosul for 1,400 years.
Now, St. Elijah’s has joined a growing list of more than 100 demolished religious and historic sites, including mosques, tombs, shrines and churches in Syria and Iraq. The extremists have defaced or ruined ancient monuments in Nineveh, Palmyra and Hatra. Museums and libraries have been looted, books burned, artwork crushed – or trafficked.
Analysts said the images, obtained by the Associated Press, suggested St. Elijah’s had been demolished in late 2014, soon after ISIS seized Mosul.
Photo Flickr
A Catholic priest from Mosul warned that its Christian history was “being barbarically leveled”.
“We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land,” said Father Paul Thabit Habib, who now lives in Kurdish-administered Irbil.
ISIS has targeted Christians in Iraq and neighboring Syria, seizing their property and forcing them to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or flee.
The group has also demolished a number of monasteries and churches, as well as renowned pre-Islamic sites including Nimrud, Hatra and Nineveh in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria.
St. Elijah’s Monastery was believed to have been constructed by Assyrian monks in the late 6th Century. It was later claimed by a Chaldean Catholic order.
In 1743, its monks were given an ultimatum by Persian forces to convert to Islam. They refused and as many as 150 were massacred.
ISIS has confirmed the British militant Mohammed Emwazi known as Jihadi John died in a drone strike in November 2015.
The Islamic State group’s online propaganda magazine Dabiq published an obituary for the jihadist.
In November the US military said it was “reasonably certain” it had killed him in the ISIS-stronghold of Raqqa.
Mohammed Emwazi appeared in beheading videos of victims including UK aid worker David Haines and taxi driver Alan Henning.
In the eulogy, Kuwaiti-born Mohammed Emwazi is referred to as Abu Muharib al-Muhajir, his nickname in the group and the details of his death confirm the US version of events.
The jihadist group said Jihadi John was killed on November 12 “as the car he was in was targeted in a strike by an unmanned drone in the city of Raqqa, destroying the car and killing him instantly”.
A smiling picture of the militant, who appears unmasked looking towards the ground, accompanies the text, which is written in tribute form to a man they describe as an “honorable brother”.
Mohammed Emwazi first emerged in August 2014 when he appeared masked in a video in which US journalist James Foley was apparently murdered.
Dubbed “Jihadi John” by the media, he was identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a computer programming graduate who grew up in London, in February 2015.
Jihadi John also appeared in videos of the beheadings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Henning, as well as American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
He became a top target for US and British intelligence agencies, even though he is thought to have played no military role within ISIS.
At the time of Jihadi John’s reported death in November, UK’s PM David Cameron said targeting Mohammed Emwazi had been “the right thing to do”.
He said the UK had been working with its US allies “literally around the clock” to track Mohammed Emwazi down.
Three drones – one British and two American – were involved in the strike. One of the American drones hit the car, and it is believed there was one other person in the vehicle.
Jakarta attacks death toll rises to eight after an Indonesian wounded in the January 14 incidents dies in hospital, police said.
Officials originally believed there were five attackers, but later said one man thought to be a militant was actually a civilian.
All of the attackers, including two previously convicted militants, were killed.
ISIS has claimed it carried out the attacks.
At least 20 people were injured, several of them in a serious condition.
One of the militants seen carrying a gun and rucksack during the attacks was named as Afif Sunakim. He was previously given a seven-year jail term for attending a militant camp.
The others have been identified as Dian Joni Kurniadi, M Ali, and Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron.
The attacks began with a series of bomb blasts at an intersection near a shopping mall and a Starbucks coffee shop. As people inside ran out, two gunmen waiting outside opened fire.
At least two militants also attacked the police box in the centre of the intersection in a suicide bomb attack.
The attackers planned to target government offices and foreigners in other Indonesian cities, a spokesman said.
So far, 12 arrests have been made and police have also shut down at least 11 websites and social media accounts.
The attackers are thought to have belonged to an ISIS faction made up mainly of Indonesians and Malaysians. The guns they used came from the Philippines, officials said.
Hundreds of people from Southeast Asian countries with significant Muslim populations have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with the group.
Indonesian police have identified four out of five of the Jakarta attackers.
Two were previously convicted militants.
Police named one of them as Afif Sunakim. He was seen carrying a gun and rucksack during the attacks. He was given a seven-year jail term for attending a militant camp.
All five died in January 14 attacks, which left two civilians dead and were claimed by ISIS.
Three arrests were made on January 15 but it is unclear if they are connected.
Security forces battled militants for hours in the busy commercial district where the militants struck.
A Canadian and an Indonesian national died, and at least 20 people were injured.
The assault ended when two attackers died in a suicide bombing, police say, with the other three killed in gun battles.
Following recent ISIS threats, Indonesia, which had been attacked by Islamist militants several times in the past, had been on high alert.
Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the national police chief, said Afif Sunakim and one other attacker had both been convicted criminals.
Jakarta’s chief of police, Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian, said a hunt was under way for terror cells believed to be behind the attack.
Three men were arrested near Jakarta, police told local media.
A police spokesman, Anton Charliyan, confirmed on that those who organized the attacks were associated with ISIS.
Two of the perpetrators, he added, were “known to have committed similar radical activities some time ago”.
Earlier, Bahrum Naim, an Indonesian believed to be fighting with ISIS in Syria, was named as the suspected co-ordinator.
Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said Bahrum Naim’s “vision” was to unite various ISIS-supporting groups across South East Asia.
ISIS released a statement saying it had targeted citizens of countries which are part of the international coalition fighting the group, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.
Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said Indonesia had significantly developed its understanding of domestic militant networks since the 2002 bomb attack in Bali, which killed 202 people.
Some 1,000 people linked to radical networks had been brought to justice in Indonesia since 2000, he said, but some had since been released from prison and had “the potential to pose a threat”.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo tweeted on January 15 that there was “no place for terrorism on Earth” and that “every citizen in the world” needed to fight it.
Indonesia has suffered militant attacks in the past, but has been relatively successful in curbing home-grown Islamist extremism after a spate of attacks in the last decade.
At least seven people have been killed after a series of explosions hit the Indonesian capital Jakarta on January 14.
The explosions were centered around Thamrin Street, a major shopping and business district in Jakarta close to foreign embassies and the United Nations offices.
According to police, the situation is now under control, with five suspected attackers among at least seven people killed.
ISIS claimed it carried out the attacks, a news agency linked to the militant group said.
Separately, Indonesian police said they suspected a local group allied to ISIS was to blame.
President Joko Widodo described the attacks as an “act of terror”.
“We all are grieving for the fallen victims of this incident, but we also condemn the act that has disturbed the security and peace and spread terror among our people,” he said.
Images from Jakarta have shown several bodies lying on the road outside a cafe, as well as seriously injured people being carried away.
Details remain unclear, but at least one of the blasts hit a Starbucks cafe and a police security post.
It appears the gunmen then holed up in the Djakarta Theater, part of the complex that houses the Starbucks.
Armed police, snipers and armored vehicles were deployed on the streets of the capital.
Gunfire broke out after police arrived at the cafe – there were several further explosions and reports of police chasing suspects. Sporadic gunfire was reported for several hours afterwards.
A few hours later, police said four attackers had been killed, then shortly after revised the number to five, including a foreigner.
National Police Deputy Chief Commander Gen. Budi Gunawan said two had been killed in a shootout outside a theatre and two others blew themselves up at the police post in front of Starbucks.
Police spokesman Col. Muhammad Iqbal said the situation was “under control”, with no suspects hiding inside the shopping centre.
Police had initially said there could be up to 14 assailants. Three attackers have been arrested, reports say.
Indonesia has been attacked by Islamist militant groups in the past and was on high alert over the New Year period after threats from ISIS.
There has been no confirmation of the group’s claim it carried out the attack, but National police spokesman Anton Charliyan said the group had earlier warned of a “concert in Indonesia” which would be international news.
Anton Charliyan said the attackers had tried to imitate the co-ordinated attacks on Paris and there was a “strong suspicion that this is an ISIS-linked group in Indonesia”.
Up to 200 Indonesians are estimated to have gone to Syria to fight with ISIS.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation but by and large is secular, although in recent years the threat of radicalism has remained high as small networks of militants are still thought to be operating in the country.
At least six people were killed and other 39 injured after a car bomb explosion has hit a police headquarters in south-eastern Turkey, officials say.
Five civilians including a baby were among the dead. Rescuers searched the rubble for survivors at the scene in Cinar district, Diyarbakir province.
Turkish officials blamed the blast on Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) militants, who are active in the mainly Kurdish province.
No group has so far said it carried out the attack.
The bomb was detonated at the entrance of the Cinar district police complex, officials say. The attackers then reportedly fired rockets at the headquarters.
The explosion damaged nearby residential buildings, where a mother and her 5-month-old baby were killed. A girl aged one and a 5-year-old boy also died when a house collapsed.
Another police station, in Midyat town, in neighboring Mardin province, was also attacked by militants, according to Turkish media, but there are no reports of casualties.
A ceasefire between the army and the PKK collapsed in July.
A curfew was imposed on Diyarbakir and several other towns and cities as part of a security crackdown after PKK attacks in the east that left 16 soldiers and 14 police officers dead.
Photo AP
There have been repeated clashes between PKK separatists and the Turkish army in recent months, but the violence has escalated in the past week.
Civilians have been caught up in the clashes in the towns of Cizre and Silopi, close to the borders with Syria and Iraq.
Since August 2015, human rights activists say 170 civilians have lost their lives in areas under curfew.
More than 1,100 Turkish and foreign academics have signed a petition calling for an end to Turkish military operations in the south-east, drawing criticism from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Speaking after a suicide bombing in Istanbul blamed on ISIS jihadists, in which ten German tourists were killed, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the government drew no distinction between terror groups, whatever their name.
The hashtag #1128katil (1,128 killers) was trending in Turkey on January 14, particularly among government and nationalist supporters, apparently in reference to the academics.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu condemned the overnight bomb attack and echoed the president’s criticism of the petition.
Turkish jets have bombed PKK bases in northern Iraq and the army launched a ground operation there.
Turkey is also part of a US-led coalition that has been carrying out air strikes against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria.
However, Ankara has been accused of hitting mostly PKK targets, angering Kurds who are themselves fighting ISIS in the two countries.
At least 10 people have died and other 15 injured in an explosion in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district near the Blue Mosque, the city authorities say.
Foreign tourists are reportedly among those hurt in the blast.
Some reports suggest the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber.
Turkish police have sealed off the area and the authorities are investigating the type of explosive used, the governor’s office said.
Norway’s foreign ministry said a Norwegian man injured in the blast was receiving treatment in hospital, Reuters reported.
Germany’s foreign ministry is investigating reports that German citizens have been hurt in the blast, German media reported.
The ministry has on its website urged German tourists in the city to avoid large crowds and tourist attractions and warned that further violent clashes and “terrorist attacks” are expected across Turkey.
In recent months there have been sporadic attacks by a far-left group in Istanbul, while violence has soared between Turkish forces and PKK Kurdish militants, mainly in southeast Turkey, after a ceasefire broke down.
Turkey has also been hit by bomb attacks blamed by prosecutors on ISIS.
Two suicide blasts in the capital Ankara in October killed more than 100 people and more than 30 people were killed in an attack near the border with Syria in July.
At least 17 people have been killed in an attack on a shopping center in Baghdad, during which people were taken hostage.
About 20 gunmen stormed the al-Jawhara shopping center in the mainly Shia al-Jadeda area on January 11, after a car bomb exploded outside.
Security forces sealed off the area and then stormed the building, killing the assailants and freeing their hostages, an interior ministry spokesman said.
It is not clear who the gunmen were.
However, Sunni jihadist militants from ISIS have frequently target Shia districts of Baghdad.
According to police, two of the assailants detonated explosive belts they had been wearing, killing several hostages.
Two other gunmen were shot dead, and another four arrested, police say.
Two foreign tourists have been injured in an attack at Bella Vista hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Egyptian state TV says local security forces repelled the attack and one assailant has been killed.
Reports vary as to the nationalities of the victims, and whether they were shot or stabbed.
Egypt is battling Islamist militants based in the nearby Sinai Peninsula, including an Islamic State affiliate.
An attack on a bus at a hotel near the Giza pyramids on January 7 was claimed by ISIS, which said it was targeting “a tourist bus carrying Jews”.
Egyptian officials said no-one was hurt in the attack, near Cairo. Arab Israeli tourists were staying at the hotel, reports said.
Hurghada is on the Red Sea coast, across the water from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, from where the Russian passenger plane which crashed in the Sinai Peninsula took off on October 31.
A new propaganda video released by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab features Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
The video shows Donald Trump’s recent call for Muslims to be barred from entering the United States.
It also shows al-Shabab – al-Qaeda’s East African affiliate – urging African-Americans to convert to Islam and to take part in holy war.
The video says racism, police brutality and anti-Muslim sentiment are rife in the US.
Donald Trump’s campaign team has not responded to the video.
In recent years, several Somali-Americans from Minnesota have gone to fight for al-Shabab in Somalia.
Donald Trump is shown 10 minutes into the 51-minute film making his December call for the US to bar all Muslims, in the wake of deadly San Bernardino shootings on December 2.
He said a “total and complete” shutdown should remain until the US authorities could “figure out” Muslim attitudes to the US. His comments were widely condemned in the US at the time.
Recently, former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that, with his rhetoric, Donald Trump was becoming ISIS’ “best recruiter”.
Donald Trump’s statement is shown between two clips of militant leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
The video was distributed on Twitter on January 1 by the al-Kataib media foundation, an Islamist militant organization, intelligence agency SITE Monitoring reported.
Al-Shabab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose a strict version of Sharia, has carried out attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.
The Iraqi military has declared the city of Ramadi “liberated” from ISIS.
Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasul said forces had achieved an “epic” victory.
TV footages showed troops raising the Iraqi flag over the government complex.
However, some reports indicate there are still pockets of resistance in Ramadi.
Ramadi’s recapture marks a major reversal for the jihadist group. ISIS seized Ramadi in May, in an embarrassing defeat for the army.
Iraqi government forces have been fighting to retake it for weeks.
Photo AFP/Getty Images
State TV showed pictures of soldiers in Ramadi firing their guns in the air and publicly slaughtering a sheep in celebration.
Troops managed to capture the government compound on December 27, flushing out or killing ISIS fighters and suicide bombers who had been holding out in its buildings.
Brig. Gen. Majid al-Fatlawi of the army’s 8th division told AFP that ISIS fighters had “planted more than 300 explosive devices on the roads and in the buildings of the government complex”.
Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi praised the capture of Ramadi in a TV address.
“2016 will be the year of the big and final victory, when Daesh’s [ISIS’] presence in Iraq will be terminated,” he said.
“We are coming to liberate Mosul and it will be the fatal and final blow to Daesh,” he added, in a reference to the largest city under ISIS control in northern Iraq.
The operation to recapture Ramadi, about 55 miles west of Baghdad, began in early November.
It was backed by US-led coalition air strikes. But it made slow progress, mainly because the government chose not to use the powerful Shia-dominated paramilitary force that helped it regain the mainly Sunni northern city of Tikrit, to avoid increasing sectarian tensions.
The US military called the recapture a “proud moment for Iraq”.
It added that “the coalition will continue to support the government of Iraq as they move forward to make Ramadi safe for civilians to return”.
More than 200 civilians have been killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria, an Amnesty International report says, quoting witnesses and activists.
Amnesty International accused Russia of using cluster munitions and unguided bombs on civilian areas, and said such attacks could constitute war crimes.
Moscow insists it is targeting only the positions of “terrorist” groups.
The human rights said in its report it is also researching concerns about the US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.
The US has rarely acknowledged civilian deaths in its aerial bombardment of ISIS, which began in September 2014.
Russia began air strikes in September this year, saying it was acting at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is targeting ISIS and other groups it has designated to be terrorists, some of which are backed by the West.
In the report, Amnesty said it had “researched remotely” more than 25 Russian attacks that took place in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo between September 30 and November 29.
It had interviewed “by phone or over the internet” witnesses to the attacks, and had audio and video evidence, as well as “advice from weapons experts”, Amnesty said.
It said there was evidence that Russia’s military “unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely populated areas and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions”.
Amnesty set out its findings into six attacks – each of which, it said, caused dozens of civilian casualties, but had no obvious military target nearby.
On November 29, for example, it said at least one suspected Russian warplane fired three missiles into a busy public market in Ariha, in Idlib province.
A local activist group said a total of 49 civilians were either killed or missing and feared dead.
“It was a normal Sunday; there was nothing unusual. People were buying goods; children were eating,” the activist, Mohammed Qurabi al-Ghazal, told Amnesty.
“First there was a loud explosion – dirt flying in the air – followed immediately by shock. In just a few moments, people were screaming, the smell of burning was in the air and there was just chaos.”
Mohammed Qurabi al-Ghazal said the armed group Jaysh al-Fateh controlled the area, but did not have any presence inside Ariha itself.
“Some Russian air strikes appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military target and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians,” Amnesty’s Philip Luther said.
Russian officials have so far made no public comments on the report’s accusations.
However, Russia’s presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked on Monday if Russia was using cluster bombs, said Moscow was “conducting its operation in strict conformity with principles and norms of the international law”.
The Kremlin has previously described similar reports as attempts to discredit its operations in Syria, describing such claims as part of “information warfare”.
President Vladimir Putin said in October that reports of alleged civilian casualties had emerged before the first air strikes were even carried out.
More than 250,000 people are believed to have been killed and millions of people have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011.
Donald Trump has mocked former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for apparently taking a toilet break during a televised Democratic debate.
The Republican presidential hopeful told supporters at a rally in Michigan: “I know where she went. It’s disgusting.”
Hillary Clinton returned to the stage late after an advert break during December 19 debate with her party rivals for the presidential nomination.
Donald Trump also said Hillary Clinton had been “schlonged” by Barack Obama in 2008.
Using a vulgar Yiddish term, the Republican frontrunner was referring to Hillary Clinton’s defeat to the then senator in the primary contests that year.
Photo CBS News
“Even her race to Obama. She was going to beat Obama. I don’t know who’d be worse. I don’t know. How does it get worse?
“She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost.”
It is not the first time Donald Trump has referred to women in a controversial way.
In August, the property tycoon implied that he received tough questions from Fox News debate host Megyn Kelly because she was menstruating.
He has previously described comedian Rosie O’Donnell as a “fat pig”.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been feuding in recent days over claims she made that ISIS was using Donald Trump’s videos as a recruiting tool.
The billionaire has called for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, in light of the San Bernardino deadly terror attack carried out by a radicalized Muslim couple.
Donald Trump, who has no political experience, leads the polls nationally among Republican voters, and is also ahead in some key states.
The primary contests begin at the start of February and the presidential election is in November 2016.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has defended her claim that ISIS is using videos of Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric to recruit followers.
Donald Trump disputed that the videos exist and demanded an apology, to which Hillary Clinton’s spokesman said “hell no”.
During December 19 debate, Hillary Clinton said the Republican front-runner was becoming the group’s “best recruiter”.
Donald Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, drawing criticism from around the world.
Despite providing no evidence, Donald Trump has also said American Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. He has also opposed the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US.
Rivals in both parties have accused Donald Trump of xenophobia and preying on Americans’ heighten fears about terrorism after attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
Earlier, a spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign said they are not aware of a specific Islamic State video featuring Donald Trump, but that jihadis use his comments about Muslims for recruitment.
“She lies about everything,” Donald Trump said, adding that the Democratic front-runner was “making up tapes and video which don’t exist”.
Hillary Clinton’s spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN: “Hell no. Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump for correctly pointing out how his hateful rhetoric only helps [Islamic State] recruit more terrorists.”
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama told NPR that Donald Trump is “exploiting” the anger and fear among blue-collar men in the current US economy.
Economic and demographic changes in the country allows for Donald Trump to spread ideas, he said.
Of that fear and anxiety, “some of it [is] justified, but just misdirected,” Barack Obama said.
“I think somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign.”
NBC asked Donald Trump if he was holding Hillary Clinton to a double standard because he could not back up his own claim that people in New Jersey were cheering when the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11.
Donald Trump said he had been “totally exonerated” from that and that he had been proven right.
According to a new research, at least 15 rebel forces in Syria are ready to succeed ISIS if it is defeated by the US-led coalition.
The Centre on Religion & Geopolitics, linked to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, also says that 60% of the rebels could be classified as Islamists.
It argues that attempts by world powers to distinguish between moderate and extremist factions are flawed.
Western countries have stepped up air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
But the Centre on Religion and Geopolitics said the greatest danger to the international community was groups who share the ISIS ideology but are currently being ignored.
They number about 100,000 fighters, the centre said.
“The West risks making a strategic failure by focusing only on ISIS,” the centre said.
“Defeating it militarily will not end global jihadism. We cannot bomb an ideology, but our war is ideological.”
If ISIS is defeated, dispersed fighters and other extremists could attack targets outside Syria under a rallying cry that “the West destroyed the Caliphate”, the centre warned.
Such new groups could compete for the spotlight to ensure allegiance from the global fighters and financing that ISIS currently attracts.
By contrast, fewer than a quarter of the rebels surveyed were not ideological, the centre said.
But many of those were willing to fight alongside extremists and would probably accept an Islamist political settlement to the civil war, it claimed.
In response, the military campaign against ISIS must be accompanied by an “intellectual and theological defeat of the pernicious ideology that drives it”, the centre said.
It also said that unless President Bashar al-Assad leaves or is removed from office, the war in Syria is likely to spread further.
Democrat presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has apologized to fellow candidate Hillary Clinton after his staff stole valuable voting data from her campaign.
“This is not the type of campaign that we run,” Bernie Sanders said during Abc New debate on December 19.
The candidates criticized Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
They clashed over Syria, with Bernie Sanders accusing Hillary Clinton of being set on regime change while she said US leadership was needed.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley also took part in the debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner.
Photo AP
On Syria, Hillary Clinton insisted that the US should seek to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.
“If the US does not lead, there is not another leader – there is a vacuum,” she said.
Bernie Saunders however argued that the US should first concentrate on defeating ISIS.
“Getting rid of dictators is easy, but you have to think about what happens the day after,” he said.
Both the main speakers had strong words for Donald Trump, with Hillary Clinton calling him “the biggest recruiter for ISIS” and saying he used “bigotry and bluster to inflame people”.
The debate was the first for Democrats since 14 people were killed by a married couple that the authorities say had been radicalized.
All three candidates said it was important to work more closely with Muslim-American communities to tackle radicalism at home.
Bernie Sanders admitted that on two occasions his campaign could see proprietary data from Hillary Clinton’s campaign following computer breaches – which he said were the fault of the software vendor.
He said that the most recent breech involved inappropriate behavior by one of his staff members, adding that person had now been dismissed.
Bernie Sanders said that the Democratic Party’s decision to temporarily suspend his campaign’s access to the strategically crucial database was “an egregious act”.
The Sanders campaign on December 18 filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee in a federal court to restore its access to the voter data.
Strategically important information on voters is contained in the database, which campaigns use to decide strategy.
That data takes on a crucial role as campaigns prepare for early primary voting in just over a month’s time.
The black box of the Russian warplane downed by Turkey on the Syrian border last month is damaged, Russian investigators say.
The Su-24 jet’s flight recorder was officially opened in Moscow on December 18 in front of journalists and diplomats.
Nikolai Primak, head of the Russian investigation, said flight information appeared to be missing.
Data from the box could help resolve the dispute over the jet’s location when it was hit.
An analysis is expected to be released next week.
Photo RT
The downing of the jet plunged relations between Russia and Turkey into crisis, with Moscow imposing sanctions in response.
Turkey insists that the fighter jet, from the Russian air contingent deployed in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, ignored warnings to leave its airspace.
Russia says it was shot down within Syrian airspace and President Vladimir Putin vented his anger at Turkey’s government again on Thursday, accusing it of subservience to the US and of “creeping Islamisation”.
Turkey and Russia are heavily involved in Syria but take radically different positions despite both being ostensibly opposed to ISIS.
The Su-24 was shot down by F-16 fighters on November 24.
Both crew members ejected but the pilot was killed, apparently by militants on the ground while the navigator was rescued.
A Russian marine sent to rescue the crew was also killed and a helicopter destroyed on the ground.
Russia has demanded an apology from Turkey and in the meantime has imposed sanctions including a ban on package holidays, which could cost Turkey billions of dollars.
GOP presidential candidates sparred over how to stop ISIS, in the first debate since attacks in San Bernardino and Paris.
The national security focus yielded heated exchanges between Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio who clashed on surveillance and immigration policy.
Jeb Bush also sought to revive his struggling campaign by forcefully attacking front-runner Donald Trump.
“You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency,” he said.
Donald Trump was on the defensive early in the debate for his proposed ban on Muslims entering the US, saying: “We are not talking about religion, we are talking about security.”
However, the GOP debate quickly expanded to broader issues of foreign policy and national security.
The candidates repeatedly addressed heightened fears of terrorism in the US on the same day an emailed threat shut down Los Angeles’ school system.
The big question going into this last Republican debate of 2015 was how Donald Trump’s competitors would try to take the front-runner down.
It seems, however, that only Jeb Bush got that memo. He alone among the candidates engaged the real estate mogul directly, and if he had been as forceful several months ago as he was last night, his campaign might be in much better shape.
Photo Getty Images
Instead, most of the fireworks during the Las Vegas event occurred between the trio of first-term senators – Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
On the issues of national security and immigration, Marco Rubio faced off against his two congressional colleagues in often acrimonious exchanges.
Barely mentioned over the course of an evening that focused on foreign policy was Donald Trump’s call to close the US border to all Muslims.
Given how all the candidates assiduously avoided the subject, one would never have guessed that it was a story that merited global headlines and ignited a firestorm of controversy.
The top nine candidates disagreed over the scope of government surveillance and how to end the civil war raging in Syria.
“If terrorists strike again… the first question will be, <<Why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it?>>” said Marco Rubio, taking aim at Ted Cruz, who had voted to curtail government surveillance powers.
Another of Donald Trump’s proposals – “closing that internet up” to stop ISIS recruitment – has been hotly debated, with the candidate saying: “I don’t want them using our Internet.”
After defending it, he seemed confused by loud booing from the audience, and replied: “These are people that want to kill us folks.”
It was not the only time that the crowd played a part in the program; on several occasions the audience’s cheers and jeers forced a pause in the candidates’ conversation.
At one point, a heckler interrupted Donald Trump with inaudible comments.
Donald Trump loomed large over the so-called undercard debate, with the four candidates split over the efficacy of his proposed ban.
Senator Lindsey Graham apologized to US-allied Muslim leaders saying: “I am sorry. He does not represent us.”
Democrats debate on December 19, and both parties will hold debates in January.
The state-by-state primary contests in the presidential election begin in six weeks in Iowa on February 1st and will last for months.
Each party will formally nominate their candidate over the summer, with Hillary Clinton the favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
Americans will go to the polls in November 2016, and the newly elected president will assume office in late January of 2017.
A teacher at Paris’ Jean Perrin kindergarten, who said he had been stabbed by a man shouting “Islamic State”, has admitted he made the story up, prosecutors say.
The 45-year-old teacher said he had been attacked while alone in a classroom in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris.
However, prosecutors said he had wounded himself with a box cutter and was now being questioned as to why he lied.
France remains on high alert following the terror attacks in Paris on November 13 that left 130 people dead.
The teacher – who has not been named – has been treated in hospital for superficial wounds to his side and neck.
According to his account, a man had attacked him with a box cutter at about 07:10AM on December 14 and had shouted: “This is for Daesh [Islamic State]. It’s a warning.”
The incident sparked a manhunt in the northern suburb, as police tried to track down the alleged attacker.
The anti-terrorism branch of the Paris prosecutor’s office also opened an investigation for attempted murder in relation to a terrorist act.
After the incident, French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem visited the scene and vowed to increase security at schools.
All classes at the Jean-Perrin preschool were canceled.
Mayor of Aubervilliers Pascal Beaudet said it was not yet known what had motivated the teacher to lie.
He said the teacher had 20 years’ experience and was “appreciated” by parents at the school.
Last month, the ISIS’s French-language magazine Dar-al-Islam recently urged followers to kill teachers in France, describing them as “enemies of Allah” for teaching secularism.
Rachel Schneider, of the French primary school teachers’ union SNUipp, said many teachers had been alarmed by the threat.
“We have received many calls from colleagues, who are very worried,” she said.
“They don’t necessarily think there will be an organized attack, but they fear this message of murderous madness will inspire unstable people to action.”
Aubervilliers is in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of the Ile-de-France region.
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