Free Republic

Irish authorities are investigating if a former member of the Defence Forces (Army) has been arrested in Syria for alleged membership of Islamic State. The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an Irish citizen is being detained in Syria. RTÉ News has learned that the person being detained is a woman, but her identity has not been confirmed. The Government, gardaí and the Defence Forces are aware that a former female member of the Defence Forces travelled to Syria around three years ago. The woman, who held the rank of private, left the Defence Forces around eight years ago...

Before the phrase was spray-painted on walls and stenciled on cars, Syrian military officers heard it in meetings to discuss how to quell an antigovernment uprising sweeping Syria in 2011. “Assad or we burn the country.” The stark words warned those who would defy President Bashar al-Assad. And when protests morphed into war, Mr. Assad, backed by hard-core members of his Alawite religious sect, made good on the threat, presiding over much of Syria’s destruction to maintain his grip on power. “In every meeting we had, the Alawite officers would say it—‘Assad or we burn the country,’” recalled Abduljabar al-Akidi,...

— well over 10,000 have filtered out over the past two weeks. “What we are seeing now is not the surrender of (IS) as an organization but a calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families and preservation of their capabilities,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, adding that the insurgents are going underground in remote areas, “waiting for the right time to resurge.”

An Isis jihadi fighter returned to his home in Sweden to have wounds to his shoulder treated for free at a state-run hospital, before returning to the front line in Syria, Sweden's Expressen newspaper has reported. Khaled Shahadeh, 28, returned to Sweden in 2015 for medical care before returning to Syria that summer, his father told the newspaper, a claim the newspaper has confirmed by other sources. Shahadeh is one of four Isis members from Gothenburg and the nearby city of Borås judged as a continuing threat to Sweden, alongside the convert Michael Skråmo, Nader el Shaya, and Mohamud Saeed...

While I was heartened to hear that USAF Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi, like Army Chaplain (Capt) James Yee before him, had been cleared of charges of espionage and treason, I am nevertheless still deeply disturbed by the lack of media attention given this case. Granted, the allegations made a huge splash when they first surfaced in the fall of 2003, fueled to a white hot frenzy by prosecutorial whisperings of possible death sentences. At that time, the government was happy to have us believe that the tentacled reach of Al Qaeda extended all the way to the ranks of...

BAGHUZ, SYRIA/WASHINGTON — In eastern Syria, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say Islamic State is trying to slow the attack on the terror group's last scrap of territory in the town of Baghuz by using snipers, suicide bombers and civilians as human shields.A VOA cameraman traveling with Kurdish fighters spoke to several about what appears to be the final days of the battle. SDF officials said Monday the vast majority of civilians have already left Baghuz, but a small number are still trapped in the town by IS. "We don't have an estimate of how many civilians are still inside Baghuz,"...

The Islamic State began as the Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad, created in 1999 by Jordanian career criminal Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Originally the group wanted to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, but after the American invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi’s goal became igniting a sectarian war between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East. He went to Iraq in 2003 and launched what was at that time the most violent insurgency in the region’s history. Many name changes later, the late Zarqawi’s group was virtually defeated. In 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—the current emir—recruited former intelligence and military officers from Saddam Hussein’s...

“ISIS bride” Hoda Muthana’s citizenship case will not be fast-tracked, a judge ruled Monday — waving off her family’s fears that the US might withdraw from Syria before her suit is resolved. DC federal court Judge Reggie Walton denied her family’s request to expedite their suit, saying their argument that she could get stuck in Syria or put in danger if American troops pull out involved too much speculation. “The case will need to adhere to the normal course of the flow of litigation” and “proceed on the normal track,” Walton said. Department of Justice attorney Scott Stewart argued Muthana’s...

At least 23 are reported dead after tornadoes ripped through Lee County, Alabama. The National Weather Service believes the first tornado to strike had winds up to 165 miles per hour, classified as an EF-3 tornado. The tornado said to be a half-mile wide..... Four American tourists and a pilot are dead in Kenya following a helicopter crash Sunday night.... Venezuela's Interim President Juan Guaido calling for mass protests Monday and Tuesday in Venezuela. Guaido asking for protests to start at 11 am Monday. Guaido set to return home Monday..... 16 Syrian soldiers killed, one captured and beheaded by Al-Qaeda...

There is a flash of light in the dark town as an airstrike hits an Islamic State weapons depot. A few seconds later, a ball of flame engulfs the entire neighbourhood. The sonic boom sends shockwaves through Baghuz, shaking the ground miles away, and for a second everything and everyone is stunned into silence. Then the artillery fire starts up again...(snip) Trapped from the east and the west by advancing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and by the Syrian regime and Russia on the other side of the river, the caliphate is a hellscape of smoke and fire. There is...

Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel and Russia are to form a joint team to examine the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria. Israel is seeking the removal of Iranian forces and has vowed to keep its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in the neighbouring country. Netanyahu met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow to discuss Iran's presence in Syria. "I made it unequivocally clear that Israel will not allow the military entrenchment of Iran in Syria, and I also made it unequivocally clear that we would continue to take military action...

GERSHIN, Iraq — A group of Yazidi women and children reunited with their families in Iraq Saturday after five years of captivity at the hands of the Islamic State group, hugging and kissing relatives in emotional scenes that underscored their yearslong ordeal and that of their devastated community. Elated families met their loved ones at a rural truck stop on the road between Sinjar and Dohuk, tossing candy in the air like confetti, the women ululating with joy. The 18 returning children, aged 10 to 15, appeared weary and at times uneasy with the attention of the media and officials....

U.S.-backed forces launched an attack on Friday to evict Islamic State from its last territorial bastion... The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removed the last batch of non-combatants and then moved in at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), said Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office. “Nothing remains in Baghouz except for terrorists. The battle ... will not end until the elimination of Daesh and the liberation of the village,” “We expect a fierce and heavy battle,” he said, adding that initial fighting involved heavy weapons. Several hundred people trickled out of the tiny cluster of hamlets and farmland. The...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - In pre-war Syria, Safaa Al-Kurdi sold wedding dresses. Fed up with the conflict, the mother-of-three fled Damascus four years ago and sought asylum in Moscow. Now, Russia is saying she must go home. Safaa is one of thousands of Syrian refugees that Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, is urging to return. Large parts of Syria are safe, Russian officials say, and there is no reason for asylum seekers like Safaa, 55, to remain. The Russian stance is creating problems for Syrians here who are seeing their asylum requests rejected. Banned from working, they face the...

The friendship between Russia and Israel serves both countries' interests right now, but eventually the spoils will draw the two powers into conflict. Jared Kushner's peace plan is nothing to fear, and Amir tells us why. Why Netanyahu and Trump are both having so much trouble lately. (Hint: Its initials are NWO.)Trump about to announce his acknowledgment that the Golan Heights is Israel's territory.Parts of ISIS still active. Much more in this news- and fact-filled up-to-the-minute summary.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is being accused of antisemitism again after accusing pro-Israel Americans of “allegiance to a foreign country” at an event on Wednesday evening in Washington, DC. Laura Kelly, reported at the Jewish Insider that Omar told an audience of supporters at the Busboys and Poets café: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” meaning Israel.....The idea that Americans who support Israel owe “allegiance” to Israel, or are guilty of dual loyalty, is a familiar antisemitic theme — and has been...

Mutlu Civiroglu @mutludc 19m19 minutes agohttps://twitter.com/mutludc/status/1101522664869515264 Flash/ Reliable sources report the start of SDF operation to clear Baghouz, last pocket under ISIS control #TwitterKurds @realdonaldtrump Mahmoud Bali‏ @bali_mahmoud 10m10 minutes agohttps://twitter.com/bali_mahmoud/status/1101524609495678976After evacuation of thousands of civilians and our comrades who held hostage in #Baghouz, operation to clear the last remaining pocket of ISIS has just started at 18:00 this evening. @mustefabali

The number of illegal border crossers in Canada will soon surpass the 25,000 Syrian refugees Canada accepted in 2016 There are so many Mounties needed to process illegal border crossings in rural Quebec that the federal government is now spending $250,000 to build an unofficial police station on the U.S. border. In Toronto last week, Mayor John Tory announced that the number of refugee claimants in the city’s shelter system has quadrupled from 459 per night in 2016 to an average of 2,351 in 2018. And at least one Quebec politician is calling for a border fence with the U.S....

ANKARA - White House adviser Jared Kushner discussed his Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, and the two also discussed increasing US-Turkish cooperation and ways to boost economic conditions in the region. Kushner, who has responsibility for Washington's Israel-Palestinian policy, has said the peace plan will address final-status issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including establishing borders. Photo: AFP Kushner and Erdogan Photo: AFP facebook print send to friend comment Kushner meets Erdogan on Israel-Palestinian peace plan After saying the US had forfeited its role as mediator in the Middle East by moving its embassy to Jerusalem,...

By: Hassan. Mahmoudi After the nationwide uprising started in Iran in Dec.2017 the US – Iran relation entered into a new phase of escalation, and now perhaps more so than ever, US relations concerns about Iran dominate the American media and policy-making discussions. The United States has a set of policies to change Iran’s behavior In his first speech as secretary of state, Pompeo declared that Iran must withdraw all its forces from Syria, stop supporting its allies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. It must halt production of long-range missiles, stop uranium enrichment allowed under the nuclear agreement,...