French citizen Omar Ismail Mostefai has been identified as one of the attackers who killed 129 people in Paris on November 13.
Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, was named by local media and a French parliamentarian.
He had a criminal record and was known to have been radicalized.
Investigators identified Omar Ismail Mostefai after his severed fingertip was found at the Bataclan concert hall, where three attackers blew themselves up, AFP news agency reports.
Friday’s attacks, claimed by ISIS militants, hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars in the French capital.
Prosecutors say seven assailants – armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide belts – were organized into three teams, and there are fears that some may have fled the scene.
PM Manuel Valls has said France will continue with air strikes against ISIS in Syria, and described the group as a very well-organized enemy.
Photo AFP
Police are trying to find out whether Omar Ismail Mostefai traveled to Syria in 2014, judicial sources told AFP.
His father and brother have been taken into police custody.
“It’s crazy, insane. I was in Paris myself last night, I saw what a mess it was,” Omar Ismail Mostefai’s older brother told AFP before being detained after voluntarily attending a police station on November 14.
Omar Ismail Mostefai came from the town of Courcouronnes, 15 miles south of Paris. He lived in the nearby town of Chartres until 2012, according to local lawmaker and deputy mayor Jean-Pierre Gorges.
He regularly attended the mosque in Luce, close to Chartres, AFP reported.
Omar Ismail Mostefai had a history of petty crime but was never jailed. The security services deemed him to have been radicalized in 2010 but he was never implicated in a counter-terrorism investigation.
His brother said he had not had contact with him for several years following family disputes, but said he was surprised to hear he had been radicalized.
He was one of six children in the family and had traveled to Algeria with his family and young daughter, the brother said.
The investigation is also focusing on a possible link to Belgium after police there arrested three men near the French border.
A black Volkswagen Polo with Belgian registration found at the Bataclan had been rented by a Frenchman living in Belgium, the Paris chief prosecutor said.
The French national was identified while driving another vehicle in a spot check by police on Saturday morning as he crossed into Belgium with two passengers.
Speaking in Paris, chief prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters: “We can say at this stage of the investigation there were probably three co-ordinated teams of terrorists behind this barbaric act.
“We have to find out where they came from… and how they were financed.”
Francois Molins said the police were also investigating a black Seat used by gunmen at two of the attacks, which remains untraced.
A Syrian passport, found near the body of one of the attackers at the Stade de France, had been used to travel through the Greek island of Leros last month, Greek officials have confirmed.
French President Francois Hollande has imposed a state of emergency after the worst peacetime attack in France since World War Two. It is also the deadliest in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.
ISIS and national security have dominated last night’s presidential debate with Democratic candidates in Iowa.
The Democratic presidential hopefuls have clashed over how to deal with the militant group, in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Paris.
Hillary Clinton said “it cannot be an American fight” and called on Turkey and the Gulf states to do more.
However, rival Martin O’Malley disagreed and said the US had to “stand up to evil” and lead from the front.
The attacks killed 129 people and injured hundreds in the French capital.
Hours after the near-simultaneous attacks on November 13, CBS News vowed to shift the focus of the debate to put more emphasis on counter-terrorism and foreign policy.
A moment’s silence was observed in Des Moines before the debate began, and the three candidates expressed their condolences to the French people.
Then they clashed over the rise of ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for the atrocities.
Photo CBS
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was challenged by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for backing the Iraq War, which he says led to the rise of the militants.
She disagreed, saying US foreign policy did not have the “bulk of responsibility” for the instability in the region, pointing instead to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iraq’s former leader, Nouri al-Malaki.
ISIS cannot be contained, it must be defeated, Hillary Clinton said, but she and the other candidates did not spell out how far they would go.
The US has been part of a coalition of countries taking part in air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but some of the Republican presidential candidates have called for the deployment of US ground forces.
In other debate highlights, Martin O’Malley attacked “immigrant bashing” Republican Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on Mexico border. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley repeated calls on US to accept 65,000 Syrian refugees. Hillary Clinton backed a minimum wage of $12/hour, but Bernie Sanders wants $15/hour. Bernie Sanders criticized Hillary Clinton for taking campaign donations from Wall Street to which she replied that she supported New York City’s financial sector to help it recover from the 9/11 attacks. Bernie Sanders said he will make public college tuition free, paid for by raising taxes.
This primetime showdown was the party’s second debate of the election campaign, two fewer than the Republicans, who have a much wider field.
In 79 days, Iowa will be the first state to pick a presidential candidate from each party.
Voters across the US will go to the polls finally in November 2016 to choose the new occupant of the White House.
According to French chief prosecutor Francois Molins, three teams of attackers were involved in the Paris attack in which 129 people were killed and more than 350 wounded.
“We have to find out where they came from… and how they were financed,” he told reporters.
Francois Molins said seven attackers had been killed, and that all had been heavily armed and wearing explosive belts.
Last night’s attacks, claimed by ISIS, hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars.
Francois Molins also said the arrests of three men in Belgium on November 14 were linked to the attacks.
Belgian PM Charles Michel said investigators were trying to establish whether one of the suspects picked up near Brussels may have been in Paris on Friday evening.
Speaking in Paris on November 14, Francois Molins told reporters: “We can say at this stage of the investigation there were probably three co-ordinated teams of terrorists behind this barbaric act.”
He also confirmed that one of the dead attackers had been identified as a 30-year-old Frenchman who had a criminal record but had never spent time in jail.
The man came from the town of Courcouronnes, 15 miles west of Paris. He had been identified by the security services as having been radicalized but had never been implicated in a counter-terrorism investigation.
Francois Molins said all seven militants had used Kalashnikov assault rifles and the same type of explosive vests.
He also gave details about the state of the investigation, which he said was at a very early stage.
The prosecutor said police were focusing on two vehicles. One was a black Seat used by gunmen at two of the attacks and still untraced.
The other is a black Volkswagen Polo with Belgian registration plates found at the concert venue that was targeted.
He said this had been rented to a Frenchman living in Belgium who was identified in a spot check by police on Friday morning as he drove across the Belgian border with two others.
A Syrian passport was found next to the body of one of three suicide bombers who struck near the Stade de France stadium during Friday’s game, Francois Molins said.
A Greek minister says the passport belonged to a Syrian refugee who passed through the island of Leros. An Egyptian passport has also been linked to the attacks.
President Francois Hollande imposed a state of emergency after the worst peacetime attack in France since World War Two. It is also the deadliest in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.
The violence began soon after 21:00 local time as people were enjoying a Friday night out in Paris.
A gunman opened fire on Le Carillon bar in the rue Alibert, near the Place de la Republique, before heading across the road to Le Petit Cambodge (Little Cambodia), killing 15 people.
A few streets away, diners sitting on the terrace of La Casa Nostra pizzeria in rue de la Fontaine au Roi, were also fired on, with the loss of five lives.
Frnacois Molins said 19 people were killed at the Belle Equipe bar, while the toll from the attack on the Bataclan concert hall stood at 89.
At around the same time, on the northern outskirts of Paris, 80,000 people who had gathered to watch France play Germany at the Stade de France heard three explosions outside the stadium.
President Francois Hollande was among the spectators and was whisked away after the first blast.
Investigators found the bodies of three suicide bombers around the Stade de France, Francois Molins said.
The 1,500-seat Bataclan concert hall suffered the worst of last night’s attacks. Gunmen opened fire on a sell-out gig by rock group Eagles of Death Metal, killing 89 people.
Within an hour, security forces had stormed the concert hall and all four attackers there were dead. Three had blown themselves up and a fourth was shot dead by police.
ISIS released a statement on November 14 saying “eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles” had carried out the attacks on “carefully chosen” targets, and were a response to France’s involvement in the air strikes on ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.
Shortly before, President Francois Hollande said France had been “attacked in a cowardly shameful and violent way”.
“So France will be merciless in its response to the Islamic State militants,” he said, vowing to “use all means within the law.. on every battleground here and abroad together with our allies”.
Many official buildings as well as Disneyland Paris have been closed, sports events have been cancelled and large gatherings have been banned for the next five days.
French President Francois Hollande has declared a national state of emergency and announced the country’s borders have been tightened after more than 120 people were killed in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris.
At least 80 people were reported killed after gunmen burst into the Bataclan concert hall and took dozens hostage.
The siege ended when security forces stormed the building.
People were shot dead at bars and restaurants at five other sites in Paris. Eight attackers are reported to have been killed.
French police believed all of the gunmen were dead but it was unclear if any accomplices were still on the run after the string of near-simultaneous attacks.
Paris residents have been asked to stay indoors and about 1,500 military personnel are being deployed across the city.
The gunmen’s motives were not immediately confirmed, but one witness at the Bataclan heard one of the attackers appear to express support for ISIS.
“It’s Hollande’s fault, he shouldn’t have intervened in Syria!” the man shouted, according to French news agency AFP, citing the French president’s decision to take part in Western air strikes on ISIS.
Paris saw three days of attacks in early January, when Islamist gunmen murdered 18 people after attacking satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman on patrol.
The attack on the 1,500-seat Bataclan hall was by far the deadliest of last night’s attacks. Gunmen opened fire on concert-goers watching American rock group Eagles of Death Metal. The event had been sold out.
The series of attacks not far from the Place de la Republique and the Place de la Bastille struck at the heart of the capital when cafes, bars and restaurants were at their busiest.
Customers were singled out at venues including a pizza restaurant and a Cambodian restaurant.
The other target was the Stade de France, on the northern fringe of Paris, where President Hollande and 80,000 other spectators were watching a friendly international between France and Germany, with a TV audience of millions more.
President Francois Hollande was whisked to safety after the first of at least two explosions just outside the venue to convene an emergency cabinet meeting. Three attackers were reportedly killed there.
As the extent of the bloodshed became clear, Francois Hollande went on national TV to announce a state of emergency for the first time in France since 2005. The decree enables the authorities to close public places and impose curfews and restrictions on the movement of traffic and people.
Within an hour, security forces had stormed the concert hall and all four attackers there were dead. Three had blown themselves up and a fourth was shot dead by police.
Another attacker was killed in a street in eastern Paris, reports said.
Speaking after arriving at the concert hall, Francois Hollande said the attackers would be fought “without mercy”.
President Barack Obama spoke of “an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians”.
Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo announced that all schools, museums, libraries, gyms, swimming pools and markets would be shut on November 14.
The Islamic State group militant “Jihadi John” was hit by a US forces airstrike with a “high degree of certainty”, US officials say.
Mohammed Emwazi, the Kuwaiti-born British militant, appeared in videos of the beheadings of Western hostages.
It is believed there was at least one other person in the vehicle targeted in the attack near Raqqa, in Syria.
A drone was used in the attack, according to a US official quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
A formal statement from the Pentagon stopped short of asserting that Mohammed Emwazi had definitely been killed, adding that it was assessing the operation.
Mohammed Emwazi is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013 and later joined ISIS militants.
Photo CBC
He first appeared in a video in August 2014, when footage was posted online showing the murder of American journalist James Foley.
Jihadi John was later pictured in the videos of the beheadings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines and taxi driver Alan Henning, as well as American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
In each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a black balaclava covering his face.
Initially dubbed “Jihadi John” by the media, he was subsequently named as Mohammed Emwazi, from west London, in February.
Earlier this year, details emerged about how Mohammed Emwazi made a number of journeys abroad before he left for Syria in 2013.
They included a trip to Tanzania in August 2009, when he is believed to have first became known to security services in the UK.
Jihadi John’s naming this year led to a row over the cause of his radicalization, with British advocacy group Cage suggesting that contact with MI5 may have contributed to it.
Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt following indications that the crash near Sharm el-Sheikh was caused by a bomb.
President Vladimir Putin made the announcement after UK investigators said they believed a bomb was put in the plane’s hold prior to take-off, killing all 224 people on board.
Militants linked to ISIS say they downed the plane.
The Metrojet Airbus A321 was flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it came down in Sinai on Saturday. Most of the victims were Russian.
Militants from the Sinai Province group, linked to ISIS, have not said how they destroyed the plane. ISIS has called for a war against both Russia and the US over their air strikes in Syria.
Photo Reuters
UK officials received intelligence based on intercepted communications between militants in the Sinai Peninsula, indicating an explosive device may have been put inside or on top of the luggage just before the plane took off.
Experts in Moscow are investigating pieces of debris from the crash site, Russian officials say.
Russia is also working to repatriate as many as 45,000 Russian holidaymakers currently in Egypt – and an official said it could take up to a month to bring them home.
Since November 4, several countries have joined Britain in restricting travel to Sharm el-Sheikh. They include Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
Tourism contributed more than 12% to Egypt’s economy in 2013 and the latest measures will hit it hard, analysts say. One in five foreign tourists in Egypt is Russian.
ISIS militants have reportedly captured the Syrian town of Maheen, in central Homs Province, from government forces.
The fighters launched the offensive with two suicide car blasts on October 31, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
Clashes were also taking place in nearby Sadad, a mostly-Christian town.
The latest development comes amid air campaigns in Syria by Russia and a US-led coalition.
ISIS has been expanding from its mainly northern and eastern strongholds towards Homs in central Syria in recent months. The group overran the town of Tadmur – home to the ancient ruins of Palmyra – and al-Qaryatain town.
The latest offensive on Maheen and Sadad brings ISIS to within 13 miles of the main road that links the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs and other cities further north.
The Observatory said at least 50 government soldiers were killed or wounded in the fighting. The attack on Maheen began late on October 31 with twin suicide car bombs, a favored tactic for ISIS militants launching an assault.
By November 1 the Observatory reported that the whole town was reported to be in ISIS hands. An ISIS statement also said the group had taken Maheen.
Maheen is home to a large military complex and arms depot.
Meanwhile, clashes between government troops and ISIS are said to be continuing on the outskirts of Sadad. The town is home to Syria’s Assyrian Christian minority, where the ancient language of Aramaic is still spoken.
It comes amid continued Russian air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Russian officials say are targeting ISIS and other “terrorist groups”.
However, activists on the ground say the strikes have been hitting moderate rebels and civilians in western areas, where ISIS have little or no presence.
They said more than 60 people were killed by Syrian army raids and Russian strikes in the northern province of Aleppo on October 31.
On October 30, more than 70 people were reported killed and hundreds more wounded in an air strike and shelling on a market in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma.
In an attempt to ward off the attacks, rebel groups in Douma are reportedly using captured soldiers and other people associated with the government as human shields.
The US-led coalition, which is also hitting ISIS targets in Syria, said on November 1 it had conducted nine air strikes across the country, including in Mar’a and al-Hawl, in the north.
This week the White House announced that fewer than 50 US special forces troops would be sent to Syria to assist anti-government rebels in fighting ISIS.
Separately on November 1, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem met UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura in Damascus to discuss ongoing international talks on the Syria conflict.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won Turkey’s parliamentary election, regaining the majority it lost in June.
Qccording to Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, with almost all ballots counted, AKP had won 49.4% of the vote, with the main opposition CHP on 25.4%.
PM Ahmet Davutoglu called the result a “victory for our democracy and our people”.
The pro-Kurdish HDP crossed the 10% threshold needed to claim seats.
The nationalist MHP will also take seats in Ankara.
Polls had indicated the AKP would receive only between 40-43% of the vote, in line with how it fared in June, when it lost its majority for the first time in 13 years.
Attempts to form a coalition government after the June election failed.
With almost all of the results counted, the AKP won substantially more than the 276 seats needed to get a majority, allowing it to form a government on its own.
However, the AKP fell 14 seats short of the amount needed to call a referendum on changing the constitution and increasing the powers of the president, the party founder Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
With 60 more seats, the new government would have been able to bring in those changes without a referendum.
The AKP’s opponents had said the vote was a chance to curb what it sees as the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Since elections in June, a ceasefire between the Turkish army and militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) collapsed after a suicide bombing in July by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
The attack near the border with Syria killed more than 30 Kurds.
Turkey then suffered its deadliest attack in its modern history when more than 100 people were killed after a peace rally in Ankara attended by mainly left-wing demonstrators, including many HDP supporters, was targeted by two suicide bombers.
The government said they were linked to ISIS.
Critics have accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan of renewing violence to curb support for the HDP – something the government denies.
The HDP won 10.7% of the vote – enough to give it 59 parliamentary seats, 21 fewer than it claimed in June’s election.
The party cancelled rallies following the Ankara attack, and its co-chairman Selahettin Demirtas said on November 1 that it had not been “a fair or equal election”.
Clashes were reported in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir as the results were being counted. Reuters said police fired tear gas at protesters throwing stones.
According to Egypt’s PM Sharif Ismail, a technical fault was the most likely to cause Russia’s Kogalymavia plane crash in Sinai dismissing claims from Islamic State militants that they were responsible.
An investigation is under way after all 224 people on board were killed.
However, three airlines – Emirates, Air France and Lufthansa – have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available.
The plane’s black boxes have been found and sent for analysis, officials said.
The Kogalymavia Airbus A-321 came down early on October 31, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Egypt’s civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight, contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing.
An Egyptian official had previously said that before the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers, the pilot had said the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and he intended to try to land at the nearest airport.
Russian and French investigators have joined the Egyptian-led probe, along with experts from Airbus, which is headquartered in France.
A criminal case had been opened against Kogalymavia for “violation of rules of flight and preparation for them”, Russia’s Ria news agency reported.
Police have searched the company’s offices.
Kogalymavia spokeswoman Oksana Golovina insisted the 18-year-old plane was “fully, 100% airworthy” and added that the pilot had 12,000 hours of flying experience.
In Sinai itself, where jihadists groups are active, militants allied to IS made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
However, Egyptian PM Sharif Ismail dismissed the claim, saying experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that “such reports cannot be considered true”. No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.
Egypt’s civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 31,000ft when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess.
However, German carrier Lufthansa said it would avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula “as long as the cause for today’s crash has not been clarified”.
On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM and Emirates said they were following suit.
British Airways and easyJet said their routes were regularly reviewed, but that they had no plans to alter their routes to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Former German rapper Deso Dogg, real name Denis Cuspert, who had become an ISIS fighter, has been killed by a US air strike in Syria, defense officials have confirmed.
Denis Cuspert had been designated a global terrorist by the US State Department and had threatened President Barack Obama.
Officials said Denis Cuspert, who encouraged Muslims to work for ISIS, was killed in an October 16 air strike near Raqqa.
He used the stage name “Deso Dogg” before converting to Islam in 2010.
“Cuspert is emblematic of the type of foreign recruit IS seeks for its ranks – individuals who have engaged in criminal activity in their home countries who then travel to Iraq and Syria to commit far worse crimes,” the State Department wrote of Denis Cuspert in February.
A spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry would not confirm or deny his death.
In April 2014 Denis Cuspert was reported to have been killed in Syria but that claim was later retracted.
Denis Cuspert, whose rap career ended before he starting working for ISIS, would use social media to attract youth and Westerners, especially Germans, to the group.
He left his music career behind in 2010. Previously, he had toured with American rapper DMX in 2006, the New York Times reported.
In Germany, Denis Cuspert became popular for singing nasheeds – Islamic devotional music – in German.
President Barack Obama has sent US troops to Syria to assist anti-government rebels in fighting the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), officials have said.
There will be “fewer than 50” forces deployed in the region to “train, advise and assist” vetted opposition forces, officials added.
This will be the first time US troops are working openly on the ground in Syria.
However, there have been US special forces raids on ISIS militants there.
For more than a year, the US and coalition forces have been carrying out air strikes on ISIS, which controls a large part of northern Syria and parts of neighboring Iraq.
The US recently abandoned its Syria rebel training effort, opting to provide equipment and arms directly to rebel leaders instead.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama wanted to provide additional support for Syrian rebel fighters who’ve been having success on the battlefield.
“There are now moderate opposition forces that are 45 miles outside Raqqa,” he said.
“The president is prepared to intensify the elements that have shown promise.”
Josh Earnest said: “This is an intensification of a strategy he discussed a year ago.”
US special operations forces have previously taken part in at least two raids in Syria.
In May, troops killed senior ISIS member Abu Sayyaf and captured his wife in eastern Syria.
Last summer, forces failed in an operation to rescue American hostages including journalist James Foley, who was later beheaded by ISIS fighters.
Last week, American forces assisted Kurdish troops in the rescue of dozens of hostages held by ISIS in Iraq. One American was killed in the raid.
ISIS militants have executed three captives in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra by tying them to columns and blowing them up, activists say.
The identities of those reportedly killed on October 25 have yet to be given.
However, they are thought to be the first to have been killed in that way since the jihadist group seized the ruins in May.
ISIS has destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers at Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world.
The Islamic State believes that such structures are idolatrous. The UN cultural agency, UNESCO, has condemned the destruction as a war crime.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict in Syria, cited local sources in Palmyra as saying that on October 25 ISIS militants tied three detainees to Roman-era columns and then blew up the structures with explosives.
An activist from Palmyra, Khaled al-Homsi, said ISIS had yet to tell locals the identities of the three individuals or say why they had been killed.
“There was no-one there to see [the execution]. The columns were destroyed and IS has prevented anyone from heading to the site,” he told the AFP news agency.
Another activist, Mohammed al-Ayed, said ISIS was “doing this for the media attention”.
After overrunning the ruins of Palmyra and the adjoining modern town, also known as Tadmur, ISIS militants used the ancient theatre for the killing of 25 Syrian soldiers.
They also beheaded archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, who looked after ruins for 40 years, after he reportedly refused to reveal where artifacts had been hidden.
Earlier this week, ISIS posted images online purportedly showing militants driving a tank over a captured soldier, who it alleged had himself driven over militants.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made a surprise visit to Moscow on his first overseas trip since the civil war broke out in his country in 2011, state TV says.
During his visit, Bashar al-Assad held talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Russia launched air strikes in Syria last month against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and other militant groups battling Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Bashar al-Assad said Russia’s involvement had stopped the spread of “terrorism” becoming “more widespread and harmful”.
For his part, President Vladimir Putin said the Syrian people had been “almost alone… resisting, fighting international terrorism for several years”.
“They had suffered serious losses, but recently have been achieving serious results in this fight,” he said.
Photo AFP
The visit happened on October 20, but was not announced until October 21 – after Bashar al-Assad had returned to Damascus.
In comments that were videoed and published by the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin thanked Bashar al-Assad for coming despite the “dramatic situation” back home.
Vladimir Putin said Moscow had joined the fight against “international terrorism”, not just to help the Syrian people, but to better protect Russians too.
He said some 4,000 people from the former Soviet Union were believed to be fighting in Syria right now.
“We cannot permit them – once they get fighting experience there and ideological training – to turn up here in Russia,” he said.
Bashar al-Assad thanked Russia for “standing up for the unity of Syria and its independence”, and said its intervention had “prevented the events in Syria from developing along a more tragic scenario”.
Both presidents spoke of the need for a political solution to the crisis.
Vladimir Putin said Russia stood “ready to contribute” to any political process that could bring about a peaceful resolution.
At least 5 people have been killed and nine wounded in an attack on a Shia gathering hall in Saihat, eastern Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry says.
The killings, in Saihat in Eastern Province on October 16, come two days after the start of Ashura commemorations, a holy occasion for Shia Muslims.
A group claiming links to Islamic State (ISIS) said it carried out the attack.
The Saudi Arabian interior ministry said a gunman opened fire at random before police intervened and shot the attacker dead.
Later, a group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain State said that one of its “soldiers” had attacked “a Shia infidel temple” with an automatic weapon.
Photo Reuters
The group warned that “infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed”.
Correspondents say the name of the group appears to be a reference to the historic area of Bahrain, which once encompassed parts of what is now Saudi Arabia.
Other, smaller attacks against the Shia community in the east of Saudi Arabia were also reported on Friday evening.
The minority Shia community in Saudi Arabia is increasingly being targeted. Most live in the oil-rich east, and many complain of discrimination.
In May, ISIS said it had carried out a deadly bomb attack outside a Shia mosque in the city of Damman.
A week before, more than 20 people were killed in the village of al-Qadeeh when an ISIS suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque.
That attack was the first to be claimed by a Saudi branch of ISIS.
Hardline Sunnis regard Shia Muslims as heretics.
Saudi Arabia, which is part of a US-led coalition against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, has previously been threatened by ISIS.
The Saudis are also leading a coalition of Arab states in an air campaign against Shia rebels in Yemen.
In the Ashura commemorations, Shias mourn the death of Hussein, a venerated grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Yunus Emre Alagoz and Omer Deniz Dundar, the two suicide bombers who carried out last week’s attacks in Ankara, are thought to have links to Islamic State (ISIS), Turkish officials have said.
Ankara attacks, the worst in Turkey’s modern history that left 97 people dead, triggered widespread anger against the government.
Police, intelligence and security chiefs in Ankara have been suspended.
The bombers struck as crowds were gathering for a rally against violence between Turkish government forces and the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).
According to Turkish officials, Yunus Emre Alagoz was the brother of the man who carried out the bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc in July, killing more than 30 people.
Omer Deniz Dundar is said to have been in Syria on two occasions.
However, PM Ahmet Davutoglu has said ISIS militants may have collaborated with their PKK counterparts.
The interior ministry meanwhile has said the move to suspend the police, intelligence and security chiefs would enable a “robust” investigation to go ahead.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the site of the bombing on October 14. He has been criticized for not yet addressing the nation four days on from Turkey’s worst ever attack and a time of national tragedy.
Separately, two people have been arrested with alleged links to the PKK for apparently tweeting before the attack that a bombing in Ankara was imminent.
ISIS militant group is the prime suspect in the Ankara bombings that killed at least 97 people on October 10, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.
No group has said it carried out the attack, but the Turkish government believes that two male suicide bombers caused the explosions.
Ankara explosions official death toll is 97, but one of the main groups at the march put the number of dead at 128.
The funerals of more of the victims are taking place on October 12.
The twin explosions ripped through a crowd of activists gathering outside Ankara’s main railway station.
They were due to take part in a rally calling for an end to the violence between Turkish government forces and the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Speaking on Turkish television, Ahmet Davutoglu said the bombings were an attempt to influence the forthcoming elections, due to take place on November 1 after a vote in June left no party able to form a government.
Many of the victims were activists of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, which says it is now considering cancelling all election rallies.
The HDP believes its delegation at the march was specifically targeted.
The party gained parliamentary seats for the first time in June’s vote, depriving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing AK Party of its majority.
On the day of the attack, the PKK unilaterally declared a ceasefire. However, this was rejected by the Turkish government, which carried out cross-border air strikes on PKK positions in southern Turkey and Iraq on the following day.
PM Ahmet Davutoglu said authorities were close to identifying one of the suicide bombers.
Some local media have implicated the brother of a man who carried out an ISIS bombing in the southern border town of Suruc in July, which killed more than 30 people.
HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said the state had attacked the people – and that the people of Turkey should be the recipients of international condolences, not President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russia has intensified airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, its defense ministry has announced.
The ministry said on October 10 that it had hit 55 ISIS targets in Syria in the last 24 hours.
Later, US defense officials said progress had been made during talks with their Russian counterparts on avoiding accidents over Syria.
Syrian rebels and Western governments say Russia has mainly been hitting non-ISIS targets.
The US has accused Russia of running a “fundamentally flawed” campaign in Syria that risks further escalating the conflict there.
On October 10, the Russian military said that the most recent airstrikes – carried out in the provinces of Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Raqqa and Idlib – destroyed 29 “terrorist” training camps as well as 23 defensive positions, two command centers and an ammunition depot.
To explain the intensified strikes it cited “a significant increase in the number of ground targets” located by air-based and space-based reconnaissance teams across Syria.
While Raqqa in eastern Syria is an ISIS stronghold, the militants are not known to be strong in the other provinces.
“In the initial stage of our operation, our aircraft destroyed the principal and largest logistical hubs of the ISIS terrorist group,” the Russian defense ministry statement said.
“This has led to a significant reduction in the fighting potential of armed groups, and a reduction in their mobility and their capacity to launch offensives.”
Russia maintains that rebel fighters are running short of arms, ammunition and fuel, leading many rebels to abandon their combat positions and head for the country’s east and north-east.
There have been concerns that there could be an accidental clash as the two countries pursue separate bombing campaigns over Syria.
The US and its NATO allies have expressed alarm at violations of Turkish air space by Russian jets last weekend.
On October 10, officials at the Department of Defense said they had held a conference call of around 90 minutes on air safety during Syria bombing campaigns.
“The discussions were professional and focused narrowly on the implementation of specific safety procedures,” a spokeswoman said, adding that another discussion would take place in the near future.
Russia and the US have agreed to resume talks on air safety during Syria bombing campaigns, the Pentagon has announced.
The talks “are likely to take place as soon as this weekend,” said press secretary Peter Cook.
There have been concerns that there could be an accidental clash as Russia and the US pursue separate bombing campaigns over Syria.
The US and its NATO allies have also been alarmed at violations of Turkish air space by Russian jets.
US and Russian officials conducted talks on air safety via video conference on October 1, but the US had complained that they had heard nothing from Moscow since then.
Earlier this week, Pentagon officials said they had had to carry out at least one “safe separation” maneuver to avoid a US jet coming too close to a Russian aircraft over Syria.
They said this happened after October 1, without giving a specific date.
Talks are likely to deal with how much separation there should between US and Russian aircraft and which language and radio frequencies crews should use for communications.
Russia has said it is targeting positions of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) but there are concerns that it is bombing other rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
Reports on October 9 said IS had seized several villages near the northern city of Aleppo from rival insurgents.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on the same day accused Russia of running “fundamentally flawed” operations in Syria which would “inflame the civil war and therefore extremism”.
But Moscow has dismissed claims that its week of strikes has mainly hit non-ISIS targets.
Russia has also launched cruise missiles against targets in Syria from warships in the Caspian Sea, about 930 miles away.
Ashton Carter said there were indications that four missiles that crashed in Iran before reaching their targets in Syria had malfunctioned.
Russia has denied that any of its missiles crashed, saying all 26 hit their targets.
Turkish army jets have intercepted a Russian warplane while violating Turkey’s airspace on October 3, Turkey’s foreign ministry says.
The Russian fighter plane “exited Turkish airspace into Syria” after being intercepted, the ministry said.
The Turkish minister has spoken to his Russian counterpart, as well as ministers from other NATO countries.
Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Russian embassy in Ankara said a Russian plane did violate Turkish airspace, and Russia has “explained it” to Turkey, Interfax reports.
However, a Kremlin spokesman in Moscow did not confirm the incident: “Our ambassador was called to the foreign ministry and given a note, which mentions certain facts, which will be checked.”
The Russian air campaign began on September 30 with Moscow insisting it was targeting ISIS positions.
However, Syrian activists say Russian planes have also targeted other Syrian groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
On October 5, Russia said it had “continued performing pinpoint strikes” on ISIS targets in Syria, carrying out 25 sorties and hitting nine ISIS targets.
Among those targets was a communications centre in Homs, and a command centre in Latakia, it said.
NATO said its Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg would meet the Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels on October 5.
Last week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the Russian intervention in Syria as a grave mistake that would further isolate Moscow.
Saturday’s interception took place south of the Yayladagi/Hatay region, Turkey says.
The foreign ministry in Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to issue a “strong protest” against the incident, it said.
ISIS militants have blown up the Arch of Triumph in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syrian officials and local sources say.
The Arch of Triumph was “pulverized” by the ISIS fighters who control the city, a Palmyra activist told AFP.
The monument is thought to have been built about 2,000 years ago.
ISIS has already destroyed two ancient temples at the site, described by UNESCO as one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world.
“The Arch of Triumph was pulverized. ISIS has destroyed it,” Mohammad Hassan al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra told AFP on October 5.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the conflict, said sources on the ground had confirmed the destruction.
Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim also confirmed the news, and told Reuters news agency that if ISIS remains in control of Palmyra, “the city is doomed”.
UNESCO’s director general Irina Bokova has said the destruction constitutes a “war crime” and called on the international community to stand united against IS efforts to “deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history”.
ISIS believes shrines or statues represent idolatry, and should be destroyed.
In August, ISIS destroyed the ancient Temple of Baalshamin – one of the city’s best-known buildings built nearly 2,000 years ago.
The group has also published photos of militants destroying what it said were artifacts looted at Palmyra.
ISIS militants captured the historic site from Syrian government troops in May, amid a series of setbacks for forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s conflict, which began in 2011, has left more than 250,000 dead and about half the country’s population displaced.
Russia has conducted the first airstrikes in Syria against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
The strikes reportedly hit rebel-controlled areas of Homs and Hama provinces, causing casualties.
The US says it was informed an hour before they took place.
Russian defense officials say aircraft targeted the Islamic State (ISIS) group, but an unnamed US official told Reuters that so far they did not appear to be targeting ISIS-held territory.
Syria’s civil war has raged for four years, with an array of armed groups fighting to overthrow the government.
The US and its allies have insisted that President Bashar al-Assad should leave office, while Russia has backed its ally remaining in power.
Photo CNN
The upper house of the Russian parliament granted President Vladimir Putin permission to deploy the Russian air force in Syria.
The Russian defense ministry said the country’s air force had targeted ISIS military equipment, communication facilities, arms depots, ammunition and fuel supplies.
A Syrian opposition activist network, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said Russian warplanes hit five towns – Zafaraneh, Rastan, Talbiseh, Makarmia and Ghanto – resulting in the deaths of 36 people, including five children.
None of the areas targeted were controlled by ISIS, activists said.
In a TV address, President Vladimir Putin said the air strikes were targeting Islamist militants – including Russian citizens – who have taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
“If they [militants] succeed in Syria, they will return to their home country, and they will come to Russia, too,” he said.
Vladimir Putin added that Russia was not going to send ground troops to Syria, and that its role in Syrian army operations would be limited.
“We certainly are not going to plunge head-on into this conflict… we will be supporting the Syrian army purely in its legitimate fight with terrorist groups.”
Vladimir Putin also said he expected President Bashar al-Assad to talk with the Syrian opposition about a political settlement, but clarified that he was referring to what he described as “healthy” opposition groups.
A US defense official said: “A Russian official in Baghdad this morning informed US embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would begin flying anti-ISIL [ISIS] missions today over Syria. He further requested that US aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during these missions.”
State department spokesman John Kirby told reporters: “The US-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL [ISIS].”
President Vladimir Putin says Russia is considering whether to follow the US and its allies in conducting air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) targets.
The Russian president spoke after meeting President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
However, the meeting, and the two presidents’ speeches at the UNGA, also highlighted splits about how to end the Syrian war.
Russia said it would be an “enormous mistake” not to work with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to tackle ISIS.
On September 28, the US and France again insisted that Bashar al-Assad must go.
Photo Getty Images
In response, Vladimir Putin said: “They aren’t citizens of Syria and so should not be involved in choosing the leadership of another country.”
Russia would conduct air strikes only if they were approved by the United Nations, Vladimir Putin said, while also ruling out Russian troops taking part in a ground operation in Syria.
Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the UNGA in talks that the Russian president called “very constructive, business-like and frank”.
It was Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin’s first face-to-face meeting in almost a year, with the Ukraine war also on the agenda.
A senior US government official said neither president was “seeking to score points” in the talks. Both sides agreed to open lines of communication to avoid accidental military conflict in the region, the official added.
In his speech to the UNGA, President Barack Obama said compromise among powers would be essential to ending the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives and forced four million people to flee abroad.
“The US is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict,” he said.
“But we must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo.”
Vladimir Putin said it was an “enormous mistake to refuse to co-operate with the Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting terrorism face-to-face”.
He also called for the creation of a “broad anti-terror coalition” to fight ISIS, comparing it to the international forces that fought against Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin have long differed on Syria: the US opposes President Assad remaining in power, while Russia has been a staunch ally of the regime in Damascus and has recently stepped up military support.
Some Western leaders have recently softened their stance towards Bashar al-Assad, conceding that he might be able to stay in power during a political transition.
ISIS has blown up three funerary towers at the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karim has said.
Maamoun Abdul Karim told the AFP that “the best preserved and most beautiful” had been destroyed.
Photo Flickr
The multi-storey sandstone monuments, standing outside the city walls in an area known as the Valley of the Tombs, belonged to rich Palmyrene families.
Their demolition comes only days after ISIS blew up Palmyra’s two main temples.
The group, which captured the UNESCO World Heritage site from government forces in May, has previously destroyed two Islamic shrines near Palmyra, which they described as “manifestations of polytheism”.
According to the United Nations, a satellite image confirms that Palmyra’s Temple of Bel in northern Syria has been destroyed.
There had been earlier reports of an explosion at Palmyra’s main temple, which is held by ISIS militants.
Syria’s antiquities chief had earlier said the basic structure of the 2,000-year-old site was intact.
However, UN satellite analysts UNOSAT say the image shows almost nothing remains.
On August 31, Maamoun Abdul Karim, the head of the Syrian Department of Antiquities and Museums, had said the Temple of Bel suffered a large explosion, but that he believed most of the site had remained intact.
Witnesses had struggled to get close to the site to confirm the extent of the damage.
ISIS has previously targeted historical sites in areas under its control in Iraq and Syria, regarding their ancient temples and sculptures as heretical.
The sale of looted antiquities is one of the group’s main sources of funding. It has also been accused of destroying ancient sites to gain publicity.
Authorities removed hundreds of statues and priceless objects before ISIS tightened its grip on Palmyra earlier this year.
Last week, it was confirmed that another site at Palmyra, the Temple of Baalshamin, had been blown up.
UNOSAT released satellite images showing the extent of the damage, proving that parts were heavily damaged or completely destroyed.
ISIS militants seized control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears for the World Heritage site.
Earlier this month the group murdered 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad, the archaeologist who had looked after the Palmyra ruins for 40 years.
The world-famous Greco-Roman ruins of Palmyra are in the desert north-east of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The Temple of Bel is dedicated to the Palmyrene gods and was one of the best-preserved parts of the ancient city of Palmyra.
Syrian government forces have sought to drive ISIS out of the Palmyra area in recent months and there has been fierce fighting in nearby towns.
ISIS has destroyed part of Palmyra’s Temple of Bel, which is considered the most important temple at the ancient Syrian site, activists and witnesses say.
The extent of the damage to the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel is not clear but local residents have described being shaken by a large explosion.
The reports come a week after ISIS blew up another Palmyra temple.
ISIS seized control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears for the site.
The world-famous Greco-Roman ruins are in the desert north-east of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“It is total destruction,” one Palmyra resident told the Associated Press news agency.
Photo Wikipedia
“The bricks and columns are on the ground.”
“It was an explosion the deaf would hear,” he went on, adding that only the wall of the temple remains.
The temple was dedicated to the Palmyrene gods and was one of the best preserved parts of the site.
It was several days after the initial reports of the destruction of another part of the site, the Temple of Baalshamin that ISIS itself put out pictures showing its militants blowing up the temple.
Satellite images have confirmed the destruction.
For the extremists, any representation implying the existence of a god other than theirs is sacrilege and idolatry.
Earlier this month ISIS murdered 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad, the archaeologist who had looked after the Palmyra ruins for 40 years.
Khaled al-Asaad’s family told Syria’s director of antiquities that he had been beheaded.
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova praised Khaled al-Asaad, saying ISIS “murdered a great man, but they will never silence history”.
The ancient city of Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was a major tourist attraction before Syria descended into civil war.
UNESCO has condemned the deliberate destruction of Syria’s cultural heritage as a war crime.
The modern city of Palmyra – known locally as Tadmur – is situated in a strategically important area on the road between the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
ISIS has used Palmyra’s theatre to stage the public execution by children of more than 20 captured Syrian army soldiers.
The militant group has ransacked and demolished several similar sites in the parts of neighboring Iraq which they overran last year, destroying priceless ancient artifacts.
The UN estimates that over 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began in 2011.
Over 4 million people have fled Syria and 7.6 million are displaced inside the country.
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