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For Extremists In Syria, Extortion Brings Piles Of Cash From Iraq

The renegade Islamist group known as ISIS now controls swaths of Syria and Iraq, and it’s partly because the fighters are so rich. ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is known for having the biggest guns and paying the highest salaries. While kidnapping, oil smuggling and donations from sympathizers have been well-known sources of money, the groups also run complex and brutal protection rackets, according to analysts. Charles Lister of the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar, says Iraqi intelligence sources estimate that extremist militants take in more than $1 million a month in extortion from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. "Mosul seems to have acquired a very central role in terms of making money," Lister says. "Certainly since late 2012, early 2013, I’ve seen a number of reports to suggest that ISIS’s activities in extortion and acquiring levies on transport and real estate having increased […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Advanced U.S. Weapons Flow to Syrian Rebels

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have supplied Syrian rebel groups with a small number of advanced American antitank missiles for the first time in a pilot program that could lead to larger flows of sophisticated weaponry, people briefed on the effort said. The new willingness to arm these rebels comes after the failure of U.S.-backed peace talks in January and recent regime gains on the battlefield. It also follows a reorganization of Western-backed fighters aimed at creating a more effective military force and increasing protection for Christian and other religious minorities—something of particular importance to Washington. This shift is seen as a test of whether the U.S. can find a trustworthy rebel partner able to keep sophisticated weapons out of the hands of extremists, Saudi and Syrian opposition figures said. The U.S. has long feared that if it does supply advanced arms, the weapons will wind up with radical […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syria Ships Out More Chemicals After a 2-Week Lapse

Syria has delivered a consignment of chemical weapons materials for export and destruction overseas for the first time in more than two weeks, a delay that revived concerns about the country’s readiness and ability to meet newly extended deadlines for completing the task this month. The delivery, completed on Friday, involved an unspecified volume of chemical agents, according to a statement by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international monitor group helping the United Nations oversee the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. However, Friday’s consignment involved only a small volume of chemical agents, Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the agency, said in an interview. Syria missed a February deadline for completing the shipment of all chemical weapons materials to be destroyed abroad and later agreed it would finish the job by April 27, so as to fulfill the agreement brokered by the […]

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Israeli Strikes on Syrian Army Sites Raise Concern About Entanglement

Israeli airstrikes against several Syrian Army positions across the decades-old cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Wednesday came as a specific response to a bomb attack against Israeli forces along the frontier a day earlier, according to Israeli officials. But for many here, the unusually sharp exchange signaled the possibility of a broader Israeli slide into regional turmoil. The airstrikes, against a Syrian Army training facility, a military headquarters and artillery batteries, were the first in Syrian territory that Israel has openly acknowledged since the Syrian civil war began three years ago. The bombing on Tuesday that prompted the strikes was the first to cause Israeli casualties, wounding four soldiers, one severely. Both events raised the stakes along a frontier that has been largely quiet for […]

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Israel bombs Syrian posts over Golan attack on its troops

Israel attacked several Syrian military sites on Wednesday in retaliation for a roadside bombing that wounded four of its troops on the occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, the Israeli military said. It said targets included a Syrian military headquarters, a training facility and artillery batteries. Aircraft carried out the overnight strike, said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman. He described targets as military facilities on the Syrian-held side of the Golan. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized abroad. Tuesday’s wounding of the soldiers as they patrolled the separation line on the strategic plateau marked Israel’s worst casualties there since an insurgency erupted in Syria more than three years ago. Israel blamed Damascus for the roadside bombing, though parts of the Syrian-held side of the Golan are controlled by rebels, including al Qaeda-inspired militants […]

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Syrian Government Forces Seize Town in a Deep Blow to Opposition

When Syrian government forces on Sunday swept into Yabrud, a town long held by rebels near the Lebanese border, it was a symbolic turning point for insurgents and government supporters alike in a conflict now heading into its fourth year. Yabrud was a rallying point for the government and its allies in the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who were instrumental in the fight, just as they were when they helped take another crucial border town, Qusayr, last spring. Thirteen Syrian nuns had been held hostage by insurgents in Yabrud until last week, and the government had long said that the town harbored a factory that was making the car bombs that have killed scores in southern Beirut in recent months. For Syrian opposition […]

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UN: 9 million Syrians now displaced as conflict ticks into fourth year

On the eve of the third anniversary of unrest that led to the  Syrian civil war , the  United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said Friday  that the country now leads the world in forced displacement, with more than 9 million people uprootedas a result of the conflict. The total number of displaced people is comprised of over  2.5 million refugees  who are living in neighboring countries and 6.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) within  Syria , according to the UNHCR. The number of people uprooted — half of which are children — equals 40 percent of the country’s pre-war population. In crossing the 9 million mark, experts believe that Syria has overtaken Afghanistan as the world’s leader in forcibly displaced persons. “It is unconscionable that a humanitarian catastrophe of this scale is unfolding before our eyes with no meaningful progress to stop the bloodshed," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees […]

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Amid carnage of war, Syria readies for Assad re-election

After three years of grinding conflict, the destruction of whole city districts and an exodus of refugees all triggered by an uprising against his rule, Bashar al-Assad is quietly preparing to be re-elected. The Syrian president has not yet announced whether he will stand for a third term, in defiance of protesters, rebel fighters and Western foes who have demanded he go; but in state-controlled parts of Damascus preparations for his candidacy are unmistakable. Public gatherings have become platforms to urge the president to nominate himself, despite a continuing civil war that has killed more than 140,000 people, fractured the country and destroyed any chance of a credible vote being held. Authorities are once again organizing demonstrations in support of Assad, accused by opponents of massacres of civilians. Shopkeepers are encouraged to show their support by painting national colors on their store fronts. Some express their […]

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Syria Ships Mustard Gas to Port to Be Destroyed

After weeks of deepening foreign frustration over missed deadlines and other delays in Syria’s elimination of its chemical weapons, the international mission policing the process reported on Wednesday that Syria had delivered a significant consignment of mustard gas, one of the deadliest toxic agents, to the Syrian port of Latakia to be exported and destroyed. Sigrid Kaag, the coordinator of the international mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, called the delivery “an important step” toward eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons in the middle of the three-year-old civil war there. Continue reading the main story The latest shipment came after a series of meetings at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in recent days, aimed at resolving a rift between Syria and its allies, notably Russia, Iran and China, and most Western governments over how to deal with the […]

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Hezbollah says Israel bombed its positions

Hezbollah says Israel carried out an airstrike targeting its positions in Lebanon near the border with Syria earlier this week, claiming it caused damage but no casualties. The Wednesday statement was the group’s first acknowledgement of the reported Monday night airstrikes. Hezbollah said the attack was near the eastern Lebanese village of Janta. It vowed to retaliate but said it will "choose the appropriate time and place." Lebanon’s state news agency has reported that Israeli aircraft carried out the strikes. Israel has refused to confirm them. Hezbollah, allied to President Bashar Assad in Syria, has been fighting alongside his troops in areas near the border. This was the first reported Israeli airstrike inside Lebanese territory since the start of Syria’s conflict three years ago. Israel has fired artillery across the border. © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple