Free Republic

Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has been buying oil from the Islamic State group, which has made over $500 million so far through the trade, a top U.S. Treasury official said Thursday. Adam Szubin added that some of the ISIS oil went to Turkey -- an allegation also made by Moscow after Ankara downed a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian border late November. Szubin, speaking at Chatham House in London, said that the militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was selling $40 million a month worth of oil, which is sent on trucks across the battlefront of...

Suspected US-led coalition air strikes killed at least 26 civilians in a Syrian village on Monday, piling pressure on the alliance after allegations another bombing raid left regime soldiers dead. The coalition has been bombarding the Islamic State group for more than a year in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where the jihadists have declared a self-styled caliphate. But according to a monitoring group, strikes on Monday on the village of Al-Khan in northeastern Syria only left civilians dead.

The U.S.-led coalition is denying a Syrian government accusation that coalition warplanes bombed a government building in Deir Ezzor province, killing three soldiers and wounding 13. Syrian government television called the alleged airstrike on a military position Sunday 'an outrageous aggression.' The report added that the Foreign Ministry sent an official letter of protest to the United Nations and to the current president of the Security Council.

The legislative assembly of Dagestan has prepared and drafted a bill that, if passed, would strip Russian terrorists of their citizenship in the event of attacks on Russian military and law enforcers or other Russians in any part of the world. The authors of the draft wrote in an explanatory note that such a step was necessary to secure the safety of the Russian Federation against international extremist and terrorist organizations, including groups which contain Russian members. New citizenship shortcut for Russian-speakers of Soviet, Imperial ancestry In its current form the draft orders the denaturalization of Russian citizens who participate...

Much hyperbole surrounds Russia's S-400 advanced surface-to-air missile system, which is now being exported abroad and was recently deployed to Syria. Unsurprisingly, Russia has leveraged this deployment to further build-up the public's perception of the S-400. Still, the S-400 is highly capable, and beating it, or any advanced air defense system, is far from simple.Video at link.The video was filmed at the Kapustin Yar test range in the Astakhan region of Russia, during a test of the S-400 against ballistic missile targets. The test supposedly took place while the S-400 was under heavy electronic jamming conditions. Despite this, Russia claims...

The Prosecutor General's Office has recognized the US-Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law (USRF) as undesirable organization, banning Russian citizens and companies from any cooperation with it. Agency spokesperson Marina Gridneva told reporters on Friday that the decision to put the NGO on the list of undesirable foreign organizations was made after prosecutors had thoroughly studied its work on Russian territory. She also noted that USRF is headed by a US citizen who has been banned from entering Russia until 2025. USRF was registered in Russia in 2009 as an affiliate of the US group bearing...

Israel has quietly tested ways of defeating an advanced air-defence system that Russia has deployed in the Middle East and that could limit Israel's ability to strike in Syria or Iran, military and diplomatic sources said. The sources said a Russian S-300 anti-aircraft system, sold to Cyprus 18 years ago but now located on the Greek island of Crete, had been activated during joint drills between the Greek and Israeli air forces in April-May this year. The activation allowed Israel's warplanes to test how the S-300's lock-on system works, gathering data on its powerful tracking radar and how it might...

Mainland Russia has started supplying electricity to Crimea after the first power bridge to the peninsula was completed across the Kerch Strait. Crimea has had a partial blackout since November 22, after power lines in Ukraine were sabotaged. The energy bridge will deliver 200 MW of electricity a day from the Krasnodar region in mainland Russia starting from Thursday. Another 200 MW will be delivered by a second power cable expected to be connected by December 20.This will cover 80-90 percent of Crimea's energy needs, according to Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak. He says another 400 MW energy bridge will...

Authorities on Thursday were trying to learn why a couple left behind their infant daughter and carried out a rampage that left 14 people dead and seriously wounded more than a dozen others in one of the nation's worst mass shootings.San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan identified one dead attacker as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, the other as Tashfeen Malik, 27, his wife or fiancee. Burguan said Farook was born in the United States; the chief said he did not know Malik's background.

A San Francisco police officer known as the "Hot Cop of Castro" was arrested 12 hours after allegedly hitting two pedestrians in North Beach early Sunday morning - too long after the incident for a drunk driving test to be administered. Officer Christopher Kohrs, 38, was arrested and booked into County Jail on Sunday afternoon on two felony counts of hit-and-run after turning himself in at the new Public Safety Building on 3rd Street. The seven-year department veteran entered the jail at 2:38 p.m. Sunday and was promptly released on bail at 4 p.m. on a $100,000 bond.

San Francisco police officer whose good looks earned him the nickname "Hot Cop of Castro" was on medical leave when he allegedly hit two pedestrians with his Dodge Charger, then abandoned his vehicle and ran away, police said. Officer Christopher Kohrs turned himself in to fellow officers at police headquarters Sunday, according to the San Francisco Police Department. He was arrested and later booked on suspicion of two felony counts of hit-and-run. Kohrs, a 7-year San Francisco police veteran, was off-duty at the time of the crash and on medical leave for an unrelated medical condition, police said. If Kohrs...

Turkish warplanes abruptly ceased violating Greek airspace after downing a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber on November 24. Previously, air intrusions made by Turkish fighter jets took place on a daily basis and amounted to thousands a year. The data comes from a diplomatic source in Athens, cited by RIA Novosti. The last time Turkish warplanes were spotted in Greek airspace was on November 25, when six jets, two of them carrying weapons, entered the neighbor's aerial domain.Intrusions of Turkish jets into Greek national airspace remain a constant headache for Athens. Turkey and Greece, while partners in NATO, have been adversaries...

Russian Su-34 bombers, additionally equipped with air-to-air missiles, have set out on their first mission in Syria, said Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Russian Air Force."Today, Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers have made their first sortie equipped not only with high explosive aviation bombs and hollow charge bombs, but also with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles," Klimov said. "The planes are equipped with missiles for defensive purposes," he added. The missiles have target-seeking devices and are "capable of hitting air targets within a 60km radius," he said.

Airstrikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes killed at least 18 civilians and wounded dozens more on Sunday in a northern Syrian town held by insurgents, Syrian opposition media reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes struck the town of Ariha, killing at least 18 people, including four children, and wounding dozens more. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist collective, said the airstrikes struck a busy market, inflicting heavy casualties. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said the airstrike destroyed three buildings in the center of Ariha. Ariha...

Israel's Ministry of Tourism is incentivising Russia's travel trade in a bid to redirect Russian tourists who have been deterred from travel to Turkey and Egypt to come to its Eilat resorts on the Red Sea primarily, but also to the Mediterranean in the Tel Aviv region. The Ministry has earmarked an extra ILS10m ($2.6m) to an existing campaign targeting Russians, according to Michal Gerstler, a spokesperson for the ministry. The additional funds follow the latest developments of a Russian fighter jet downed this week affecting travel to Turkey and a ban on Russians going to Egypt after a Russian...

Russia announced Friday that it will suspend visa-free travel with Turkey amid the escalating spat over the downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet at the Syrian border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Moscow will halt the existing visa-free regime starting Jan. 1, saying that Turkey has become a conduit for terrorists and has been reluctant to share information with Moscow about Russian citizens accused of involvement in terrorist activities. Turkey's downing of the Russian military jet Tuesday, the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane, has...

Russian and Syrian military have killed terrorists in the search area of the downed Russian Su-24 jet, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday. "The moment our pilot was in safety the area was heavily bombed by the Russian Air Force and shelled by Syrian government forces artillery," ministry spokesman General-Major Igor Konashenkov told a media briefing.He stressed that terrorists and other "mysterious groups" were killed in the assault.The Russian Air Force base in Latakia has been reinforced with an S-400 SAM system, which was deployed on Thursday. "Now we are going to ensure the safety of our planes fighting...

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated Wednesday as Ukraine decided to stop buying Russian natural gas, hoping to rely on supplies from other countries, and closed its airspace to its eastern neighbor.Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and its support for separatist rebels in the east has brought relations between the two countries to a post-Soviet low. Ukraine has since been trying to cut its dependence on Russian gas. Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom, said Wednesday that it stopped sending gas to Ukraine on Wednesday morning and will supply no more because Ukraine has not paid in...

American soldiers and airmen who killed and wounded dozens of civilians in a strike on an Afghanistan hospital violated the rules of engagement and have been suspended as they await disciplinary action, U.S. military officials said Wednesday.Briefing reporters on the results of two investigations, Gen. John Campbell, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, described an egregious series of human and technical failures that led a U.S. warplane to mistakenly destroy a medical charity's hospital in northern Afghanistan last month. But Campbell and other officials would not say how many people had been removed from their jobs nor whether those high up...

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered state-of-the art air defense missile systems to be deployed at a Russian air base in Syria following the downing of one of its warplanes by Turkey, a move that raised the threat of a military confrontation between the NATO member and Moscow.The S-400 missile systems will be sent to the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the border with Turkey. The systems are capable of targeting Turkish jets with deadly precision. If Russia shot down a Turkish plane, NATO would be required to...