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Prominent cyberactivist was secretly executed in Syria 2 years ago says widow

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International human rights groups have long pressed for information on the fate of  prominent cyberactivist Bassel Khartabil Safadi. He was secretly executed in Syrian regime custody nearly two years ago, his widow says.

Beirut (AFP) - A prominent cyberactivist who was detained on the first anniversary of the 2011 uprising that sparked the Syrian civil war was secretly executed nearly two years ago, his widow said.

Bassel Khartabil Safadi, an open-source software developer who put his skills to use to promote free speech during the uprising, was put to death in October 2015, two and a half years after his arrest, Noura Ghazi Safadi said.

That month, rumours had begun circulating that he had been sentenced to death after being transferred from the regime's notorious Adra prison near Damascus to an unknown location. 

His widow gave no indication on her Facebook post late Tuesday how she had confirmed her husband's death.

"Words are difficult to come by while I am about to announce, on behalf of Bassel's family and mine, the confirmation of the death sentence and execution of my husband," she said.

"He was executed just days after he was taken from Adra prison in October 2015. This is the end that suits a hero like him. 

"This is a loss for Syria. This is loss for Palestine. This is my loss." 

Safadi, who was 34 at the time of his death, was born to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He was well known as an advocate for freedom of information and greater access to the internet.

In 2010, he launched Aiki Lab, which brought together engineers, artists and hackers in Damascus, and also contributed to open-source projects including Creative Commons and Wikipedia. 

"Because of Khartabil's work, people gained new tools to express themselves and communicate," British newspaper The Guardian said in a 2015 profile.

Syria had no internet access until 2000, and state censorship and monitoring have remained rampant. 

Safadi's expertise was particularly important after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011. 

Calls for demonstrations were often issued through Facebook pages, and activists broadcast news and videos through social media. 

International human rights groups have long pressed for information on Safadi's fate.

In a 2016 appeal for his release, Human Rights Watch said it believed his detention was "a direct result of his peaceful and legitimate work for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression."

More than 300,000 people have been killed in the civil war that erupted after the uprising, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based monitoring group estimates that more than 60,000 of those have been executed or tortured to death in regime prisons. 

SEE ALSO: British forces used a drone to stop an ISIS execution in Syria

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Russia's military appears to be covering up its growing death toll in Syria

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A portrait of Russian private military contractor Yevgeni Chuprunov is seen at his grave in Novomoskovsk, in Tula region, Russia June 1, 2017.  REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova

BELORECHENSK, Russia (Reuters) - Ten Russian servicemen have been killed fighting in Syria so far this year, according to statements from the Defence Ministry.

But based on accounts from families and friends of the dead and local officials, Reuters estimates the actual death toll among Russian soldiers and private contractors was at least 40.

That tally over seven months exceeds the 36 Russian armed personnel and contractors estimated by Reuters to have been killed in Syria over the previous 15 months, indicating a significant rise in the rate of battlefield losses as the country's involvement deepens. (For a graphic on Russian casualties in Syria's conflict click http://tmsnrt.rs/2hjq3Et)

Most of the deaths reported by Reuters have been confirmed by more than one person, including those who knew the deceased or local officials. In nine cases, Reuters corroborated a death reported in local or social media with another source.

The data may be on the conservative side, as commanders encourage the families of those killed to keep quiet, relatives and friends of several fallen soldiers, both servicemen and contractors, said on condition of anonymity.

The true level of casualties in the Syrian conflict is a sensitive subject in a country where positive coverage of the conflict features prominently in the media and ahead of a presidential election next year that incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to win.

The scale of Russian military casualties in peace time has been a state secret since Putin issued a decree three months before Russia launched its operation in Syria. While Russia does not give total casualties, it does disclose some deaths.

Discrepancies in data may be explained partly by the fact that Russia does not openly acknowledge that private contractors fight alongside the army; their presence in Syria would appear to flout a legal ban on civilians fighting abroad as mercenaries.

Asked about Reuters' latest findings, the Defence Ministry and Kremlin did not respond.

The government has previously denied understating casualty figures in Syria, where Moscow entered the conflict nearly two years ago in support of President Bashar al-Assad, one of its closest Middle East allies.

Months after soldiers die, Russia quietly acknowledges some losses, including private military contractors. Their families get state posthumous medals and local authorities sometimes name schools, which fallen soldiers attended as children, after them.

Of the 40 killed, Reuters has evidence that 21 were private contractors and 17 soldiers. The status of the remaining two people is unclear.

MISSION CREEP?

Little is known about the nature of operations in Syria involving Russian nationals. Russia initially focused on providing air support to Syrian forces, but the rate of casualties points to more ground intervention.

The last time Russia lost airmen in Syria was in August, 2016, and it suffered its first serious casualties on the ground this year in January, when six private military contractors died in one day.

Reuters has previously reported gaps between its casualty estimates and official figures, although the difference widened markedly this year.

Russian authorities disclosed that 23 servicemen were killed in Syria over 15 months in 2015-2016, whereas Reuters calculated the death toll at 36, a figure that included private contractors.

IN IT FOR THE MONEY?

One private contractor whose death in Syria was not officially acknowledged was 40-year-old Alexander Promogaibo, from the southern Russian town of Belorechensk. He died in Syria on April 25, his childhood friend Artur Marobyan told Reuters.

Promogaibo had earlier fought in the Chechen war with an elite Russian paratroops unit, according to Marobyan, who was his classmate at school.

He said his dead friend had struggled to get by while working as a guard in his hometown and needed money to build a house to live with his wife and small daughter.

Last year he decided to join private military contractors working closely with the Russian Defence ministry in Syria and was promised a monthly wage of 360,000 rubles ($6,000), about nine times higher than the average Russian salary.

According to multiple sources, Russian private military contractors are secretly deployed in Syria under command of a man nicknamed Wagner.

Private military companies officially don't exist in Russia. Reuters was unable to get in touch with commanders of Russian private contractors in Syria through people who know them.

"I told him it was dangerous and he wouldn't be paid the money for doing nothing, but couldn't convince him," Marobyan said, recalling one of his last conversations with Promogaibo.

According to Marobyan, he got the job offer at a military facility belonging to Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU) near the village of Molkino. The agency is a part of the defense ministry and does not have its own spokesperson.

The Kremlin did not reply to requests for comment.

Promogaibo went there for physical fitness tests and failed twice. He was accepted only after showing up for the third time having losing 55 kg after seven months of training.

"He left (Russia) in February," said Marobyan, who only learnt that his friend had been killed in Syria when his body was delivered to his hometown in early May.

One more person who knew Promogaibo said he died in Syria.

Reuters was unable to find out where in Syria Promogaibo was killed.

Igor Strelkov, former leader of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine who stayed in touch with Russian volunteers who switched to battlefields in Syria, said in late May that military contractors from Russia recently fought near the Syrian town of Homs alongside Iranian-backed Hezbollah. 

GRAVESTONES COVERED UP

Fifty-one-year-old Russian Gennady Perfilyev, a lieutenant colonel, was deployed in Syria as a military adviser. He was killed in shelling during a reconnaissance trip on April 8, his former classmates at Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School said.

"Several grammes of metal hit his heart," Pavel Bykov, one of his classmates, told Reuters.

One more classmate confirmed to Reuters Perfilyev was killed in Syria on a reconnaissance trip.

His name has not appeared in the Defence Ministry's official notices of military deaths in Syria.

He was buried at a new heavily guarded military cemetery outside Moscow where visitors have to show their passports and are asked at the entrance whose grave they want to visit.

On Perfilyev's gravestone, his name and the date of his death are covered by his portrait.

Several other servicemen killed in Syria and buried nearby also have photos obscuring their names and the dates of their death, which if visible would make it easier to trace how and where they died.

Names on other graves, of non-Syrian casualties, were visible.

Asked if this was a special secrecy measure, a cemetery official, Andrei Sosnovsky, said the names were covered up temporarily until proper monuments could be built.

(Additional reporting by Natalya Shurmina in Yekaterinburg, Russia; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mike Collett-White)

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A British volunteer fighting ISIS in Syria reportedly killed himself to avoid being captured

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Ryan Lock

A British man who had volunteered with the Kurds to fight ISIS in Syria reportedly killed himself after getting surrounded by militants. 

Ryan Lock, 20, from West Sussex, sustained a leg injury while fighting in Raqqa on Dec. 21 before getting surrounded by ISIS fighters, The Guardian reported. He then shot himself to avoid getting captured.

The YPG told the BBC that a "trace of a gunshot wound was found under the chin." 

In August, Lock told his mom that he was going backpacking in Turkey, and only later told her that he had volunteered with the YPG, Sky News reported

Lock had previously worked as a chef, and had had no military training, Sky News said. The YPG, however, provided him with some training, and he posted on Facebook that he had been trained to use a sniper rifle and night vision goggles, the Guardian said. 

The Guardian reported that he was a "quiet and reserved" man who liked to play military video games. But he was also "quite political," his mom, Catherine, said.

Lock had reportedly experienced a fair amount of fighting before his death. The Guardian said that he got struck under rubble in November during Turkish air raids. He ended up receiving facial wounds and later posted on social media: “We got hit by Turkish jets in the night ... I’m staying to finish out my six months.”

Turkey and the YPG have gotten into a number of skirmishes in the last few months. 

Lock's mom began to worry in early December when she hadn't heard from her son for two weeks, Sky News said. His dad, John Plater, later found a picture of his son's body on an ISIS website, with a militant standing over him acting as if his son was a "trophy," the Guardian said.

A Canadian man who fought with Lock later wrote his mom and said he "died a true hero," Sky News said.

"Since we heard the devastating news of Ryan, it's been pretty tough, especially the difficulties surrounding the repatriation," Lock's dad told BBC. "We are grateful to the YPG for bringing him home."

Although ISIS had Lock's body for a number of months, it was later recovered by the YPG and sent back to England, the BBC and Guardian said. Approximately 30 Kurdish people greeted Lock's body upon his return home with roses and framed pictures of him. 

“We bless the resistance of British martyr Berxwedan Givara for the families of all martyrs and the British people. Our martyr fell putting up a brave fight," a YPG commander named Mihyedin Xirki said, according to the Independent. 

The coroner of Portsmouth and South East Hampshire said he was a "heroic young man."

Lock is the third British citizen to die fighting for the YPG, the Guardian said. 

SEE ALSO: Turkey and the Kurds are on the brink of war — and the Pentagon is right in the middle of it

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Syrian refugee graduates as a doctor in London after going to medical school in 4 countries over 10 years

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syrian refugee Dr Tirej Brimo becomes a doctor

A refugee from Syria has graduated as a doctor in London 10 years, four countries and 21 homes after first starting medical school.

Dr Tirej Brimo, 27, was congratulated by Mayor Sadiq Khan at his graduation from St George's, University of London. He wants to specialise in emergency medicine or trauma surgery.

Dr Brimo said: "Now I know what pain is, I am so ready to start my new role as a doctor and I am so ready to look after others' loved ones. I promise I will do it with a heart full of love and a smile full of hope."

Dr Brimo started medical school at the age of 17 in Aleppo, Syria, but the civil war broke out in 2011 and he was forced to flee 10 months before finishing the six-year course. He crisscrossed the Middle East via Lebanon, became separated from his family and spent time in Egypt, where he twice tried to finish his course but had to leave.

He made it to the UK four years ago and applied to every medical school in the country to fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor. He was rejected by most because of differences in the courses. Some suggested he retake his A-levels.

However, St George's offered him a place after interviewing him and he was allowed to start the five-year course in the third year. Dr Philippa Tostevin, the university's medicine course director and reader in surgical education, said: "I interviewed Tirej when he applied to St George's and I did not hesitate to offer him a place. I remember the passion for medicine that he demonstrated at that interview and I am so proud of what he has achieved. I am truly delighted to see him graduate this year."

Dr Brimo, whose mother, brother and sister have since made it to Britain, told the Standard: "I have learnt that the UK is a fair place. If you put the effort in you get a result. I feel attached to the British community. It welcomed me, gave me love and believed in me.

"I feel attached to [Syria and the UK] and want to contribute to both of them. One day I might go somewhere where there is war because I understand how difficult it is to lose everything at once, and how important it is to have someone be compassionate towards you. But that wouldn't compromise the love I feel towards the British community."

Dr Brimo's graduation ceremony was held four years to the day after he applied for asylum in Croydon. He said: "To move from a moment of non-trust where your fingerprints are being taken, to a moment where you are not only trusted, but trusted with people's lives and health, is an honour and a big responsibility. I am so proud."

Dr Brimo paid for his studies by working as a phlebotomist at Croydon University Hospital and also had a student loan. He is now working as a junior doctor at County Hospital in Stafford. Speaking about his time as a refugee, he said: "I still remember the way I cried when I first realised that everything was lost and I became just a number. We all became numbers — it was not only me."

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The Air Force is testing out the B-52 bomber for use in psychological operations

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B-52 bomber bombs PDU-5B cluster bomb leaflet bomb

The US Air Force has successfully completed two tests of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber in leaflet-drop operations, moving closer to including one of the service's biggest bombers in psychological operations.

Personnel from the 419th Flight Test Squadron performed two sorties with the B-52, dropping eight PDU-5/B leaflet bombs over test ranges in California.

"We are primarily looking to see safe separation from the external Heavy Stores Adapter Beam"— an external pylon that can carry up to a 2,000-pound payload — said Kevin Thorn, the squadron's B-52 air-vehicle manager, according to an Air Force release.

"We are ensuring that the bombs do not contact the aircraft, and/or each other, creating an unsafe condition," Thorn added. "Additionally we are tracking the reliability of the bomb functioning."

The PDU-5/B is a variant of the CBU, or Cluster Bomb Unit. The Air Force's Information Warfare Battlelab repurposed Rockeye cluster munitions to pack them with leaflets. The weapon's designation is based on its contents, the Air Force said.

B-52 bomber leaflet bomb drop

The current model of the PDU-5/B can carry about 60,000 leaflets and costs less than $500 each. When released from the aircraft, a fuse detonates the bomb at a certain time to release the leaflets.

According to The Aviationist, which first spotted the news, PDU-5/Bs were used to drop leaflets over ISIS militants in Syria in 2015. Previously, they were used in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq — in the latter, they were dropped over Baghdad before actual bombing started.

The PDU-5/B can be dropped from helicopters and other aircraft.

A b52 afghanistan

US F-15E Strike Eagles deployed them over Syria in 2015, and Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft dropped them over Afghanistan's southern Helmand province in 2012.

"The PDU-5/B is just another tool that the B-52 uses in its vast and reliable tool box,"said Earl Johnson, B-52 PDU-5/B project manager.

"Without the capability to carry PDU-5s on the B-52 aircraft, the impending shortfall on leaflet dispersal capability will jeopardize Air Force Central Command information operations."

Business Insider asked Air Force Materials Command about the reason for that looming shortfall and why the B-52 specifically was being considered for this new role but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Johnson said this round of testing was finished, but the B-52 will undergo further trials using its internal weapons bays to deploy the PDU-5/B.

SEE ALSO: Watch the Navy's newest, most sophisticated aircraft carrier land and launch its first aircraft

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Russia just deployed the 'Terminator' to Syria, and you'll be shocked to see what it can do

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Russian Terminator

We just heard how the U.S. Army’s top general wants to put lasers, rail guns and all kinds of high-tech wizbangery on the service’s next-generation tank.

Sure, that sounds awesome. But let’s face it, those types of technologies built tough enough to be soldier-proof and deployed on a ground vehicle are still years off.

But what would happen if you slapped on a crap ton of totally badass weaponry that’s available today, wrapped it in some truly tough armor and gave it some go-anywhere treads?

Well, that’s what those mad scientists in Chelyabinsk (Russia’s main weapons development lab) did with the BMP-T “Terminator.” And by the looks of it, what trooper wouldn’t want this Mecha-esque death dealer backing him up during a ground assault.

This machine is festooned with about everything a ground-pounder could ask for, aside from a 125mm main gun. With two — count ’em — twoside-by-side 30mm 2A42 autocannons, the Terminator can throw down up to 800 rounds of hate per minute out to 4,000 yards.

Take that Mr. Puny Bradley with your itty bitty 25mm chain gun…

Those 30 mike-mikes will take care of most ground threats for sure, but the Russians didn’t stop there. To blow up tanks and take down buildings and bunkers, the BMP-T is equipped with four launch tubes loaded with 130mm 9M120 “Ataka-T” anti-tank missiles. These missiles are capable of penetrating over two-feet of tank armor.

Enough badassery for one vic? No sir. The Terminator is also loaded with a secondary 7.62mm PKTM machine gun peeking out between the two 30mm cannons, and it’s got a pair of secondary, secondary 30mm grenade launchers just to add a little close in bang bang.

The Russians reportedly developed the BMP-T after its experience in Afghanistan and more recently in Chechnya, were the armor of a tank was needed in an urban fight, but with more maneuverability and better close-range armament than a tank gun.

Reports indicate the Terminator has been deployed to the anti-ISIS fight in Syria for field trials, but it’s unclear how many of these wheeled arsenals Moscow actually has in its inventory.

That said, the video below shows just how freaking full-on this infantry fighting vehicle is and the devastating punch it packs for bad guys.

Watch the Terminator in action: 

SEE ALSO: This is the famed Russian tank corps that Putin is sending to NATO's borders

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How a plan to resettle 100 Syrian refugees ripped apart a small Vermont town

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Christopher Louras Rutland Vermont

  • Chris Louras, the former mayor of Rutland, Vermont, had a plan to bring 25 Syrian refugee families to town.
  • Many residents criticized Louras over what they saw as the 'secrecy' in which the plan was carried out.
  • The issue divided the town into two camps, with both sides furious with the other. A recent town meeting devolved into insults and shouting.
  • Louras lost his reelection bid, and only three of the 25 families made it to Rutland.

The plan was supposed to revitalize the economy of a sleepy Vermont town, and give its small workforce a much-needed boost. It seemed like a win-win. But when Rutland's five-term mayor Chris Louras announced in April 2016 that 25 refugee families would be coming to the struggling postindustrial town, he awoke fear and vitriol that eventually cost him his job.

This was around the time Donald Trump, then a candidate for the Republican nomination, proposed national bans on refugees and immigrants from certain majority-Muslim countries. Rutland became a referendum on the nation's willingness to welcome displaced people from around the world.

Some in the town formed a group called "Rutland Welcomes," a volunteer group that planned to find housing, transportation, and jobs for prospective refugees, and even gave the few who arrived baskets of fruit and vegetables.

Those against the plan formed "Rutland First," a loose-knit coalition of residents whose opinions ranged from skepticism at whether Rutland could bear the costs of resettling the refugees to outright hostility and fear-mongering.

Then, on March 6, came the mayoral election.

Louras, an Army veteran who had been a popular and uncontroversial mayor for a decade, was ousted by alderman David Allaire, who had lost to Louras in two previous elections. Allaire clobbered Louras, centering his campaign on opposition to the plan, which he criticized for freezing out the board of aldermen and Rutland residents.

The election was "absolutely" a referendum on refugees, Jennie Gartner, a local high-school history teacher and a representative of Rutland Welcomes, told Business Insider.

Allaire’s election win, combined with Trump’s travel ban barring refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq and Syria, all but decided the issue.

Only three refugee families — two Syrian and one Iraqi — have been resettled so far.

Rutland vermont

An American town like any other

In 2015, Louras had an idea to fix the town’s "unhealthily low unemployment rate."

Rutland was shedding population. Since the 1970s, 16% of its people have moved away, leaving homes empty and nearby businesses looking for workers.

"That’s the story of many small postindustrial cities that have a declining population and a graying population," Louras told Business Insider.

Louras spotted an opportunity to get Rutland involved in the US’s newly announced plan to resettle thousands of refugees from the Middle East. Rutland’s businesses have tons of open, entry-level jobs, and the town has cheap, vacant housing stock for 3,000 additional residents, according to Louras, who thought refugees would be perfect candidates to solve some of the town's problems.

While only a few refugees made it to town before Louras was ousted, those who did confirmed Louras’ intuition, he says. One refugee, who arrived in January, secured a full-time job at The Bakery, a popular local café, within weeks. He now splits his time between an early-morning baking shift and English-language classes, Louras said.

What Louras didn’t count on was that Rutland’s debate would get sucked into a larger divide stretching across the country.

Wendy Wilton Rutland treasurer

Rolling out the unwelcome mat

A month after Louras presented his plan, the town, much of it divided between Rutland Welcomes and Rutland First, began to unravel.

Some accused Louras of hatching the plan in secret.

Tim Cook, one of the founders of Rutland First and an Iraq War veteran, alleged that Louras submitted a State Department application for refugees six months before the April announcement. Breitbart, the far-right website, picked up the story. Small Rutland was becoming big news.

“The national story out there is that we’re hateful and biased, and that’s bulls---,” Wendy Wilton, a member of Rutland First, said. “We just wanted to know what was in that application.”

Like other critics, she accused Louras of lying about the plan, saying that he told the town he intended to resettle only 100 refugees but that his actual plans were to bring 100 a year. According to Wilton, the town aldermen requested a copy of the refugee application from the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants twice, and the nonprofit was uncooperative.

“If this was the most wonderful thing in the world, why wouldn’t you want to cooperate with the local governing body?” said Wilton, who, like Cook, added that she wasn’t opposed to resettling a few refugees, just not 100.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Rutland Welcomes was holding regular meetings at a Unitarian Church with hundreds of residents forming committees to push the resettlement process along, arrange English tutors, and gather donations of household goods and clothing.

Rutland vermont

Then criticism of Rutland Welcomes spread across the town.

Gartner, the high-school history teacher and a member of Rutland Welcomes, says she and others were criticized online by people associated with Rutland First for teaching her class about Islam, which is part of the state curriculum.

Gartner, Louras, and others in favor of resettlement have said that very few of those against the resettlement actually care about the secrecy of "the process," seeing it as a cover for fear. The vast majority of Rutland First, she says, is people who “were afraid of Muslims, afraid of people from other countries,” she said. If Louras was planning on bringing a new tech firm to Rutland, people wouldn't criticize the way the decision came about, she added.

Many Rutlanders have said that much of the criticism falls on Louras, who they say did little to allay the concerns and anger of those against the plan. Christopher Ettori, a pro-refugee town alderman, told Business Insider that Louras didn’t have "a real dialogue with people" and failed to arrange speakers or panels to educate residents why the plan would benefit the town and not sacrifice security.

Instead, Meg Hansen, a columnist for the Rutland Herald, wrote in March, Louras "chose to malign his critics as racist."

For his part, Louras seemed to have little patience for Rutland First’s objections.

Cook, the local doctor, maintained that he wanted to see the refugees succeed — and has even offered his services as a physician — but says he wants them to succeed by "Americanizing" themselves.

"Getting them a baseball bat, and Keystone beer by the suitcase, whatever it takes," Cook said. "You succeed in this country by accepting the fact that there is such a thing as American culture, and by practicing it."

protest jfk airport

The national conversation

Things came to a head in the run-up to this year's election in March. Days after Trump was sworn into office in January, he signed the executive order temporarily barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries. While his base loved it, protests broke out in cities and at airports across the country.

Rutland's mayoral election soon became a microcosm of the national debate about immigration and refugees, according to Louras, who said residents used language that echoed the rhetoric of the Trump campaign.

Trump "definitely influenced what happened here," said Gartner, who added that the administration’s position on refugees gave Rutland First cover to "feel pretty safe in their fear."

As a result, Louras says, the Rutland First side wasn’t willing to listen to the pro-resettlement side’s explanations for why the refugees would be a boost to the town’s economy.

"The noise around the irrational concerns didn’t allow a lot of those rational people to listen to the facts," Louras said.

At the same time, David Allaire, Louras’ opponent, ran his campaign on a message criticizing the mayor’s handling of the refugee issue and called for "healing the divide" in the community. The refugee issue, combined with fury over Louras’ unrelated attempt to reform the fire department, led to a landslide victory for Allaire.

"This is what sunk him, from my perspective," Gartner said of the refugee issue. “This is what Louras had to fall on his sword for."

Rutland Vermont

Allaire declined requests for an interview.

In the months that followed, Allaire has done little publicly to bring the town together, alderman Ettori said. He added that he doesn’t expect the new mayor to lead "some sort of reconciliation."

In some ways, Allaire is repeating Louras' mistakes. While no new refugees are expected in 2017, Allaire has met with the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and the State Department to discuss bringing 100 more refugees to the city in 2018, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting. Publicly, Allaire has said that he is deferring to the federal government on the refugee issue, according to Ettori.

And the issue, in some ways, is still raw. 

At a board of aldermen meeting at the end of May, a number of anti-refugee aldermen publicly lashed out at representatives from the USCRI, who were present. Members of the public, some of whom had threatened violence against the USCRI representatives, were permitted to lob personal attacks from the microphone. Policemen in the room had to step in to maintain order. Ettori called the meeting a "debacle."

Those that championed the resettlement, like Hunter Berryhill, a high-school English teacher in town, say that as the refugees who did make it are successful (there were three families total). He and others hope the "false stereotypes start to crumble."

Sana Mustafa, a Syrian student who arrived in the US in 2013 and visited Rutland in June, said that she too thinks that refugees suffer from stereotypes.

“There’s no name. There are no faces. There are only numbers, and we’re always associated with guns and terrorists,” said Mustafa. “When people see me, they see me as a civilized, normal person … and that’s how we all look.”

Business Insider made several attempts to speak with the refugees who have settled in Rutland but was told by USCRI officials that interviews weren't a good idea for the refugees' safety, given the tense situation.

Louras, who is in regular contact with the families, said they are “faring very well.”

Still, he struggles, he says, with what went wrong with the plan.

“If I had the silver bullet, I’d still be in office,” Louras said.

Rutland Vermont

Unemployed

Rutland is the kind of place where people can’t escape one another. Even now, Louras sees his replacement, Allaire, regularly when he goes to maintain his garden, which is a few hundred feet from the new mayor’s home. The two even have the same nieces and nephews through marriage.

Louras said it's not his responsibility to help the new mayor or give him advice.

"I'm an unemployed former army helicopter test pilot. And now, I'm an unemployed former small-town mayor. I'm just looking for a job that I can be successful at," Louras said.

He doesn't think Allaire has done much to fix the issues that Louras was once criticized for.

"I'm not sure anyone can communicate the value of refugee resettlement in a way where an entire community will accept it. It's the families themselves who provide the best argument."

SEE ALSO: America is not as divided as you might think — here's the proof

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H.R. McMaster: Russia is trying to 'break apart Europe' with disinformation and propaganda

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h.r. mcmaster

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, addressed heightening tensions between the US and Russia, as well as Trump's understanding of the threat Russia poses, during an interview with MSNBC's Hugh Hewitt that aired on Sunday.

When Hewitt asked McMaster whether Trump has a "clear-eyed understanding of the nature of his counterpart in Russia and the nature of the regime," McMaster replied that "the nature of the Russian regime is one person," Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

McMaster did not specifically address Hewitt's question as it related to Trump, but went on to note that Russia's actions in recent years, like its aggression toward neighboring Ukraine and its 2014 annexation of Crimea, have drawn censure from the international community, which responded by imposing tough economic sanctions on Russia. 

"Russia must play a much more responsible role in the world if it's going to be a full-fledged member of the international community," McMaster told Hewitt. 

He did not broach the subject of Russia's latest transgression, a wide-ranging and multifaceted attack on the 2016 American election that was undertaken to tilt the race in Trump's favor, until Hewitt brought it up.

McMaster characterized it as a "sophisticated campaign of subversion and disinformation and propaganda that is going every day in an effort to break apart Europe and that pit political groups against each other ... to sow dissension and conspiracy theories." He did not elaborate on specific actions Russia took with respect to its interference in the US election, but criticized Russia's role in escalating the Syrian civil war and its support for Iran's objectives in the Middle East.

McMaster's apparent reluctance to comment directly on Russia's US election interference seems to be a reflection of Trump's own views. Trump has so far offered a lukewarm acknowledgment that Russia meddled in the 2016 race after repeatedly casting doubt on the conclusions of the US intelligence community, which found that Putin personally ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's servers and the Clinton campaign, as well as an elaborate disinformation campaign that included flooding social media with "fake news" designed to undermine Clinton and boost Trump.

McMaster also told Hewitt that while there should be consequences for Russia's "destabilizing behavior" across the globe, it should not prevent the US from cooperating with Russia on certain national security goals, like deescalating the situation with North Korea, which has significantly ramped up its missile testing program in recent weeks. 

 

SEE ALSO: The White House has a credibility crisis — and it's started to engulf one of its most independent voices

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NOW WATCH: ABC calls out Kellyanne Conway over Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer after previously denying any contact with Russians


US-backed Kurds release video showing them destroying a Turkish tank in Syria

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YPG firing at Turkey Syria

US-backed Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in Syria released a video on Saturday showing them destroying a tank being used by Turkish-backed rebels in northwest Syria, Military Times first reported.

"Today at about 9:30 am our forces targeted and destroyed a tank belonging to terrorist groups under the Turkish army’s command near Azaz hospital in Afrin's Shera district," the YPG said on Facebook.

The video shows YPG fighters lying a concrete platform and then firing an anti-tank missile at the tank. The amount of damage or number of casualties is unknown.

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the PKK, which has been trying to set up its own Kurdish state within Turkey for decades.

Turkish and YPG forces have been clashing on and off since at least the end of April, when the two sides exchanged rocket fire, which Turkey says killed 11 YPG fighters. In another skirmish in July, the YPG claimed they killed three Turkish-backed rebels and wounded four more.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the US sells and supplies weapons to both Ankara and the YPG.

The YPG also released other videos showing their forces firing 122 mm rockets from Russian-made BM-21 Grad systems at Turkish rebels in northern Syria, Military Times said.

Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, told Business Insider that he couldn't go into detail about whether the US supplied the anti-tank missile or Grad systems to the YPG.

Whatever the case, the US supplying the YPG with weapons in the fight against ISIS has angered Turkey and is considered by some to be, at least in part, why Ankara has begun moving more toward Russia.

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Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, also told Military Times that the YPG possessing anti-tank missile systems is a "direct threat" to Turkey.

Turkey has consistently reinforced its border along northwestern Syria, where its military and the YPG regularly exchange rocket fire. These incidents have continued unabated because of the lack of US military presence in northwest Syria.

While the US insists that it will collect the weapons it has supplied to the YPG after the fight against ISIS is over, many doubt that will even be possible, and questions remain about what will happen with rising tensions between Turkey and the YPG after ISIS has been defeated.

"We will not leave the [YPG] organization in peace in both Iraq and Syria," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. "We know that if we do not drain the swamp, we cannot get rid of flies."

SEE ALSO: Turkey and the Kurds are on the brink of war — and the Pentagon is right in the middle of it

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Veteran UN prosecutor: There's enough evidence to convict Syria's Assad of war crimes

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Del Ponte made the shock announcement earlier this month that she would resign from the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria

Geneva (AFP) - A UN commission probing Syria rights abuses has gathered enough evidence to convict President Bashar al-Assad of war crimes, an outgoing member of the commission said in interviews published Sunday.

Veteran former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is preparing to step down after five years serving in the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss media the evidence against Assad was sufficient to secure a war crimes conviction.

"I am convinced of that," she told Le Matin Dimanche and the Sonntagszeitung weeklies, adding though that with no international court or prosecutor tasked with trying the Syria war crimes cases, justice would remain elusive.

"That is why the situation is so frustrating. The preparatory work has been done, but nevertheless, there is no prosecutor and no court," she told Sonntagszeitung.

'It's a tragedy'

bashar al-assadDel Ponte, a 70-year-old Swiss national who came to prominence investigating war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, made the shock announcement earlier this month that she would resign from the UN commission because it "does absolutely nothing".

She lamented that "everyone in Syria is on the bad side. The Assad government has perpetrated horrible crimes against humanity and used chemical weapons. And the opposition is now made up of extremists and terrorists."

In Sunday's interviews, she said she had handed in her resignation letter last Thursday, and that she would officially step down on September 18, after the commission presents its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council.

UN chief Antonio Guterres appealed last week for the commission to continue its work despite Del Ponte's departure.

Resigning to provoke action

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The commission has been tasked with investigating human rights violations and war crimes in Syria since shortly after the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests that have evolved into a complex proxy war.

The continued violence has left more than 330,000 people dead and displaced millions.

The commission, which once Del Ponte leaves will count just two members, has repeatedly urged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, in vain.

"I do not want to be an alibi for an international community that is doing nothing at all," Del Ponte told Le Matin Dimanche, explaining her decision to leave the UN commission.

"My resignation is also meant as a provocation," she said, adding that she hoped it would "put pressure on the Security Council, which must deliver justice to the victims."

Del Ponte however said that if an international judicial process is eventually established for Syria, "I am ready to take on the position of international prosecutor."

She stressed that international justice was vital for Syria, where the crimes committed were "far worse" than what she had seen in the former Yugoslavia. 

"Without justice in Syria, there will never be peace and thus no future," she said.

SEE ALSO: MATTIS: 'No doubt' Syria still has chemical weapons

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Syrian army comes closer to encircling Islamic State in central Syria desert

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FILE PHOTO: Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand on their military vehicle in northern Deir al-Zor province ahead of an offensive against Islamic State militants, Syria February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies advanced in the central Syrian desert on Monday and could soon encircle an Islamic State pocket, part of a multi-pronged thrust into eastern areas held by the jihadist group.

A Syrian military source said the Syrian army and its allies had taken a number of villages around the town of al-Koum in northeastern Homs province.

This leaves a gap held by Islamic State of around only 25 km (15 miles) between al-Koum and the town of al-Sukhna to its south, which was taken by the Syrian government on Saturday.

If the army, supported by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, closes this gap they will encircle Islamic State fighters to their west in an area of land around 8,000 km square, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that it had contributed to this advance by advising on an airborne landing of pro-government troops north of al-Koum on Saturday.

The operation allowed them to take the al-Qadeer area from Islamic State militants before proceeding to al-Koum, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Islamic State has lost swathes of Syrian territory to separate campaigns being waged by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran, and by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic (SDF) Forces, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia. The SDF is currently focused on capturing Raqqa city from Islamic State.

Syrian government forces advancing from the west have recently crossed into Deir al-Zor province from southern areas of Raqqa province.

Islamic State controls nearly all of Deir al-Zor province, which is bordered to the east by Iraq. The Syrian government still controls a pocket of territory in Deir al-Zor city, and a nearby military base.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Syrian rebels shot down a government fighter plane and captured its pilot alive

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Beirut (AFP) - A Syrian rebel group said it shot down a government warplane on Tuesday and captured its pilot alive near a ceasefire zone in the war-ravaged country's south.

The Ahmad al-Abdo Forces shot down the Syrian government MiG-21 near Wadi Mahmud in the southern province of Sweida, the group's communications head Fares al-Munjed told AFP.

"The pilot is in our hands. He is injured and being treated," Munjed said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, confirmed the rebel faction had shot down the plane and captured its wounded pilot.

According to Munjed, the area where the aircraft was downed is outside a ceasefire zone negotiated last month by the United States, Russia and Jordan. 

Parts of Daraa, Quneitra, and Sweida provinces are included in the agreement, which has brought relative quiet to the zone though some violence has been reported. 

Days after the deal went into effect, the Ahmad al-Abdo Forces hit a Syrian government jet but it landed safely in regime-controlled territory.

Munjed said his group had used a "23 millimetre anti-aircraft gun" to down the warplane on Tuesday.

"We will take care to treat the captured pilot in accordance with international law," he told AFP.

The rebel group's leadership was still debating what would happen to the pilot after his treatment, he said.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests. 

Multiple attempted ceasefires, including nationwide truces, have failed to bring a long-term end to the war. 

 

SEE ALSO: Syrian 'de-escalation' zones that exclude US warplanes to begin at midnight

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US military: ISIS fighters are hopped up on speed 'to maintain their murderous fervor'

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Smoke rises after an air strike during fighting between members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

As U.S.-backed Syrian fighters close in on Islamic State forces in Raqqa, they are encountering captured ISIS fighters who show signs that they are using amphetamines to continue fighting.

"The few ISIS terrorists the SDF managed to capture alive, and the even fewer who have surrendered, show vividly their desperation," said Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve. "They are malnourished, emaciated and, many of them, pocked with needle tracks from what is assessed as amphetamines they used to maintain their murderous fervor."

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have cleared about 55 percent of Raqqa, and continue to advance through dense urban terrain despite fierce resistance and "scores" of improvised explosive devices.

"ISIS has had time to rig up thousands of fiendishly clever explosives and to dig extensive tunnels throughout the city," Dillon said in a Pentagon briefing, piped in from Baghdad.

"They are using these tunnels and improvised explosive devices to attack advancing SDF fighters, as well as noncombatants trying to flee their homes."

But Dillon said ISIS has been reduced to a small group of "desperate and fanatical terrorists" who "cling to territory with no escape."

The U.S.-led coalition has conducted more than 200 airstrikes this week in and around Raqqa, destroying more than 180 ISIS fighting positions, car bombs and other various improvised explosive devices.

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US-backed forces think the American military is going to stay in Syria 'for decades'

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Washington's main Syrian ally in the fight against Islamic State says the U.S. military will remain in northern Syria long after the jihadists are defeated, predicting enduring ties with the Kurdish-dominated region.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias dominated by the Kurdish YPG, believes the United States has a "strategic interest" in staying on, SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters.

"They have a strategy policy for decades to come. There will be military, economic and political agreements in the long term between the leadership of the northern areas (of Syria) ... and the U.S. administration," Silo said.

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State has deployed forces at several locations in northern Syria, including an airbase near the town of Kobani. It has supported the SDF with air strikes, artillery, and special forces on the ground.

Asked about long-term strategy, Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition, referred Reuters to the Pentagon. He said there was "still a lot of fighting to do, even after ISIS has been defeated in Raqqa".

Islamic State remained in strongholds along the Euphrates River Valley, he added, in a reference to its stronghold in Deir al-Zor province southeast of Raqqa.

"Our mission ... is to defeat ISIS in designated areas of Iraq and Syria and to set conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability," Dillon said, without elaborating.

Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, said in Washington: “The Department of Defense does not discuss timelines for future operations. However we remain committed to the destruction of ISIS and preventing its return.”

The SDF and YPG dominate a swathe of northern Syria where Kurdish-led autonomous administrations have emerged since the onset of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

The YPG and its allies hold an uninterrupted 400-km (250-mile) stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

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The U.S. alliance with the SDF and YPG is a major point of contention with neighboring Turkey, a U.S. ally. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Silo said: "The Americans have strategic interests here after the end of Daesh," using a pejorative term for Islamic State.

NEW BASES?

"They (recently) referred to the possibility of securing an area to prepare for a military airport. These are the beginnings - they're not giving support just to leave. America is not providing all this support for free," Silo said.

He suggested northern Syria could become a new base for U.S. forces in the region. "Maybe there could be an alternative to their base in Turkey," he added, referring to the Incirlik air base.

The head of the YPG said last month the United States had established seven military bases in areas of northern Syria controlled by the YPG or SDF, including a major air base near Kobani, a town at the border with Turkey.

The coalition says it does not discuss the location of its forces, citing operational security.

Reuters reporters have seen Blackhawk and Apache military helicopters taking off from a cement factory southeast of Kobani, a Kurdish town on the border with Turkey.

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) run across a street in Raqqa, Syria July 3, 2017. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Washington under the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump started distributing arms to the YPG in March ahead of the final assault on Raqqa city, infuriating Turkey which has been unsuccessfully lobbying Washington to abandon the SDF.

Despite SDF confidence that U.S. forces will stay, there is concern that Washington will not give enough backing to YPG-allied forces and civil councils that control northeast Syria.

"We're constantly asking them for clear, public political support," Silo said. He said the U.S. State Department held its first public meeting with SDF officials this month.

"At the moment there are no meetings being held for a real discussion of Syria's future. There are initiatives for developing political support for our forces, but we hope this will be bigger," he said.

SEE ALSO: US-backed Kurds release video showing them destroying a Turkish tank in Syria

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NOW WATCH: Amazon has an oddly efficient way of storing stuff in its warehouses

How Syria continued to gas its people as the world looked on 'powerless'

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syria chemical weapons attack

In the spring of 2015 a Syrian major general escorted a small team of chemical weapons inspectors to a warehouse outside the Syrian capital Damascus. The international experts wanted to examine the site, but were kept waiting outside in their car for around an hour, according to several people briefed on the visit.

When they were finally let into the building, it was empty. They found no trace of banned chemicals.

"Look, there is nothing to see," said the general, known to the inspectors as Sharif, opening the door.

So why were the inspectors kept waiting? The Syrians said they were getting the necessary approval to let them in, but the inspectors had a different theory. They believed the Syrians were stalling while the place was cleaned out. It made no sense to the team that special approval was needed for them to enter an empty building.

The incident, which was not made public, is just one example of how Syrian authorities have hindered the work of inspectors and how the international community has failed to hold Syria to account, according to half a dozen interviews with officials, diplomats, and investigators involved in eliminating Syria's weapons of mass destruction.

A promise by Syria in 2013 to surrender its chemical weapons averted U.S. air strikes. Many diplomats and weapons inspectors now believe that promise was a ruse.

They suspect that President Bashar al-Assad's regime, while appearing to cooperate with international inspectors, secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability. They say Syria hampered inspectors, gave them incomplete or misleading information, and turned to using chlorine bombs when its supplies of other chemicals dwindled.

There have been dozens of chlorine attacks and at least one major sarin attack since 2013, causing more than 200 deaths and hundreds of injuries. International inspectors say there have been more than 100 reported incidents of chemical weapons being used in the past two years alone.

"The cooperation was reluctant in many aspects and that's a polite way of describing it," Angela Kane, who was the United Nation's high representative for disarmament until June 2015, told Reuters. "Were they happily collaborating? No."

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"What has really been shown is that there is no counter-measure, that basically the international community is just powerless," she added.

That frustration was echoed by U.N. war crimes investigator Carla del Ponte, who announced on Aug. 6 she was quitting a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria. "I have no power as long as the Security Council does nothing," she said. "We are powerless, there is no justice for Syria."

The extent of Syria's reluctance to abandon chemical weapons has not previously been made public for fear of damaging international inspectors' relationship with Assad's administration and its backer, Russia, which is giving military support to Assad. Now investigators and diplomatic sources have provided telling details to Reuters:

  • Syria's declarations about the types and quantities of chemicals it possessed do not match evidence on the ground uncovered by inspectors. Its disclosures, for example, make no mention of sarin, yet there is strong evidence that sarin has been used in Syria, including this year. Other chemicals found by inspectors but not reported by Syria include traces of nerve agent VX, the poison ricin and a chemical called hexamine, which is used to stabilize sarin.
  • Syria told inspectors in 2014-2015 that it had used 15 tonnes of nerve gas and 70 tonnes of sulphur mustard for research. Reuters has learned that inspectors believe those amounts are not "scientifically credible." Only a fraction would be needed for research, two sources involved in inspections in Syria said.
  • At least 2,000 chemical bomb shells, which Syria said it had converted to conventional weapons and either used or destroyed, are unaccounted for, suggesting that they may still be in the hands of Syria's military.
  • In Damascus, witnesses with knowledge of the chemical weapons program were instructed by Syrian military officials to alter their statements midway through interviews with inspectors, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Syria Chemical Weapons

The head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international agency overseeing the removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, conceded serious questions remain about the completeness and accuracy of Syria's disclosures.

"There are certainly some gaps, uncertainties, discrepancies," OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu, a Turkish diplomat, told Reuters.

But he rejected criticism of his leadership by Kane and some other diplomats. Kane told Reuters that Uzumcu should have turned up the pressure on Syria over the gaps in its reporting and done more to support his inspectors. Uzumcu countered that it was not his job "to ensure the full compliance" of treaties on chemical weapons, saying that the OPCW was mandated to confirm use of chemical weapons but not to assign blame.

Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Meqdad, insisted that Syria was completely free of chemical weapons and defended the country's cooperation with international inspectors.

"I assure you that what was called the Syrian chemical weapons program has ended, and has ended with no return. There are no more chemical weapons in Syria," he told Reuters in an interview.

Sharif did not respond to requests for comment about the incident at the warehouse.

Sarin attack

On Aug. 21, 2013, hundreds of people died in a sarin gas attack in Ghouta, a district on the outskirts of Damascus. The colorless, odorless nerve agent causes people to suffocate within minutes if inhaled even in small amounts. Assad's forces were blamed by Western governments. He has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and blames insurgents for the attack.

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In the wake of the atrocity, the United States and Russia brokered a deal under which Assad's government agreed to eradicate its chemical weapons program. As part of the deal, Syria joined the OPCW, based in the Hague, Netherlands, promising to open its borders to inspectors and disclose its entire program – after previously denying it had any chemical weapons.

Syria declared it had 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons or industrial chemical stocks, precisely the amount that outside experts had estimated. In an OPCW-led operation, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, that stockpile was shipped overseas for destruction with the help of 30 countries, notably the United States.

But there were two significant problems. First, inspections did not go smoothly. Days after the Ghouta sarin attack, OPCW inspectors heading for the area came under sniper fire. They made it through to Ghouta eventually and were given just two hours by Syrian authorities to interview witnesses and take samples. The team confirmed that sarin had been used.

And in May 2014 a joint United Nations-OPCW convoy was hit by explosives and AK-47 fire while attempting to get to the site of another chemical attack in the northern town of Kafr Zita. That mission was aborted. On the return journey some of the team were detained for 90 minutes by unidentified gunmen. Syria's foreign ministry issued a statement blaming terrorists for attacking the convoy.

Reuters was unable to determine exactly how many times the work of inspectors has been hampered, but Syrian tactics have included withholding visas, submitting large volumes of documents multiple times to bog down the process, last-minute restrictions on site inspections and coercing certain witnesses to change their stories during interviews, four diplomats and inspectors involved in the process told Reuters.

The OPCW team has carried out 18 site visits since 2013, but has now effectively given up because Syria has failed to provide sufficient or accurate information, these sources said.

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The second problem was a switch of tactics by Assad's forces. While the United Nations and OPCW focused on ridding Syria of the stockpile it admitted having, Assad's forces began using new, crude chlorine bombs instead, according to two inspectors. As many as 100 chlorine barrel bombs have been dropped from helicopters since 2014, they said. Syria has denied using chlorine.

Although less poisonous than nerve gas and widely available, chlorine's use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria signed when it joined the OPCW, an intergovernmental agency that works with the United Nations to implement the convention. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by drowning victims in body fluids.

A source involved in monitoring Syria's chemical weapons for the OPCW said Damascus began using chlorine as "a weapon of terror" to gain a battlefield advantage when one of its bases in Kafr Zita was threatened with being overrun in 2014.

"The base was surrounded by opposition. The government forces wanted to depopulate the area. That's why they started using chlorine," said the source.

A senior official who has worked with United Nations and OPCW investigators said two helicopter squadrons dropped chlorine barrel bombs, drums filled with chlorine canisters, from two air bases. To produce such a quantity must have required technical staff and logistical support, suggesting the operation was overseen by senior commanders, the official said.

The introduction of a new type of chemical weapon came at an awkward time for the OPCW, said the source involved in studying Syria's chemical weapons for the weapons monitoring group. It was keen to remove Syria's declared stockpile and reluctant to start a probe into alleged government violations that could jeopardize Syrian cooperation. The goal of removing the stockpile, which Western governments feared could fall into the hands of Islamic State, took precedence over the chlorine attacks, the source said.

Chemical Weapons

OPCW head Uzumcu denied there had been a reluctance to investigate reports of chlorine attacks, pointing out that in 2014 he set up a fact finding mission to look into them. This mission was not tasked with assigning blame, however. It concluded that the use of chlorine was systematic and widespread.

Uzumcu said the team's conclusions were handed to the OPCW executive council. It condemned the use of chlorine and passed the findings to the United Nations. A spokesman for the United Nations said it was the role of the OPCW to determine whether or not a member state was in breach of the chemical weapons ban.

Kane, the former U.N. high representative for disarmament, told Reuters that Uzumcu should have tackled Syria over its lapses in reporting to the OPCW, including undeclared chemicals and a failure to report the government's Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which was, in effect, the program's headquarters.

"Why, my God, three-and-a half years later, has more progress not been made in clearing up the inconsistencies? If I was the head of an organization like that ... I would go to Damascus and I would confront these people," Kane said.

Uzumcu said the OPCW was constrained by its founding treaty, the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. The OPCW has no obligation to act when one of its members violates the convention, he said. Determining blame for the use of chemical weapons is the task of a separate United Nations-OPCW mission in Syria, the Joint Investigative Mechanism, established in 2015. A spokesman for the Joint Investigative Mechanism referred questions to the OPCW.

"The secretariat has fulfilled, accurately and entirely, the tasks they were asked to fulfil and will remain within our limitations as far as our mandate is concerned," Uzumcu said.

He said some states have suspicions that the Syrian government hid stocks of chemical precursors that might be used for the production of certain nerve agents, including sarin. But he said there was no conclusive evidence.

Syria

Uzumcu said he regretted that relations had broken down between Russia and the United States on the OPCW executive council, which has the power to impose restrictions on Syria's membership and report it to the U.N. Security Council for non-cooperation.

Uzumcu said his office was still seeking answers from the Assad administration about undeclared chemicals, aerial bombs and the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which has overseen Syria's chemical weapons since the 1970s. Syrian officials have maintained that no supporting documentation exists for the program, which included dozens of storage, production and research facilities.

Political deadlock

The Syrian crisis has had a profound effect on the way the OPCW operates. For two decades the organization had reached consensus on most decisions, only calling on the 41-member executive council to vote on a handful of occasions. Syria marked a clear divide on the council.

In 2016, when an inquiry by the United Nations and OPCW found that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks, the United States sought to impose sanctions on those responsible through the executive council, but then dropped the proposal, the details of which were not made public. A text drafted by Spain condemned the attacks but removed any reference to sanctions. It was supported by a majority, including Germany, France, the United States and Britain, but opposed by Russia, China, Iran and Sudan.

The United States has since placed sanctions on hundreds of Syrian officials it said were linked to the chemical weapons program. President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian air base, but division on the OPCW governing body and at the United Nations has prevented collective action against the continuing attacks.

Western governments accused Moscow of trying to undermine investigations by the United Nations and OPCW in order to protect Assad; Syria says the inspection missions are being used by Western countries to force regime change.

Russian officials did not respond to a request for comment.

syria assad chemical WEAPONS

Sarin found

Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom, who is now chief scientist for the U.N.-OPCW mission, said it is critical that perpetrators of chemical attacks are put on trial to deter future use of weapons of mass destruction. His team should be reporting back to the U.N. by mid-October, he said.

A key unsolved question is what happened to the 2,000 aerial bombs that Syria said it had converted to conventional weapons, a process that would be costly and time-consuming.

"To my knowledge, the Syrian government never furnished any details of where, when and how they changed the bombs' payload," said an OPCW-U.N. source, who took part in investigations in 2015-2016. He said there clearly was "a real, high-level, command structure behind this."

Syrian officials did not respond to requests for comment about the bombs.

The team is also examining the deaths of almost 100 people on April 4 when a gas attack hit Khan Sheikhoun, a town in the rebel-held province of Idlib near the Turkish border. Samples taken from people exposed to the chemicals and tested by the OPCW confirmed sarin use. Meqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, said in the interview that Syrian forces were not to blame, repeating earlier denials by Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.

Sellstrom said the presence of sarin so long after Syria was supposed to have dismantled its chemical weapons program posed difficult questions. "Is there a hideout somewhere, or is there production somewhere and how much is available?" he said, adding that the reported use of aerial bombs in Khan Sheikhoun could point to the Syrian forces keeping some strategic weapons as well.

The attack means either "that someone can produce sarin today, or sarin has been hidden," Sellstrom said.

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Rocket fire attack near trade fair kills 5 in Damascus

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Beirut (AFP) - Five people were reported dead Sunday when a rocket hit near an international trade fair in Syria's capital Damascus being held for the first time in five years.

The Damascus International Fair was once the leading event on Syria's economic calendar but had not been held since shortly after the outbreak of the country's war in March 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said five people were killed and around a dozen more injured in the rocket fire near the entrance to the fair.

A source at a hospital in Jaramana, an area southwest of the capital, told AFP he had seen dead and injured evacuated from the scene.

A Facebook page that tracks fire on the capital reported four people killed and four others injured in the incident.

There was no confirmation of the toll from officials, and no mention of the incident on Syria's state news agency SANA.

Syrian state television briefly carried a breaking news alert reporting the rocket fire and saying it had caused injuries, citing its reporters on the scene.

But the alert was removed shortly afterwards, and a reporter broadcasting live from the fair interviewed several officials who made no mention of the rocket fire or casualties.

"We were preparing to receive visitors when I heard an explosion... then I saw smoke to the side of the of the entrance to the exhibition hall," 39-year-old Iyad al-Jabiri, a Syrian working at a textile stand at the fair, told AFP.

The fair opened on Thursday at the capital's Exhibition City and is scheduled to last 10 days.

It was touted as a sign that work towards rebuilding Syria and revitalising its ravaged economy was getting underway, despite the violence that continues in parts of the country.

Its general director, Fares al-Kartally, said the decision to hold it this year was a result of "the return of calm and stability in most regions" of Syria.

"We want this fair to signal the start of (the country's) reconstruction," Kartally told AFP earlier this week.

While Damascus has been insulated from much of the worst violence of the country's war, several key rebel enclaves remain in the Eastern Ghouta region outside the city.

Fighters in the area have regularly fired rockets into the capital, and government warplanes have frequently carried out devastating raids across Eastern Ghouta.

FILE PHOTO: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with AFP news agency in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on April 13, 2017. SANA/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Decades-old trade fair 

In recent weeks, much of the area has been quieter after the implementation in July of a "de-escalation zone" covering parts of Eastern Ghouta.

The trade fair dates back to 1954 but was last held in the summer of 2011, months after the eruption of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Since then, the country has spiralled into a bloody civil war that has killed over 330,000 people, displaced millions and devastated the economy.

The fair is hosting firms from 23 countries that have maintained diplomatic relations with Damascus throughout the conflict.

The United States and European countries, which maintain economic sanctions on the Assad regime, were not officially invited, although a handful of Western companies are attending on an individual basis.

Syria's government has seized large parts of the country from rebels and jihadists in recent months and talk has begun to turn to reconstruction and even the reestablishment of ties with Western nations.

But Assad said Sunday that countries seeking to resume ties or reopen their embassies must end their support for Syria's rebels.

"We are not isolated like they think, it's their arrogance that pushes them to think in this manner," he said in a speech to members of Syria's diplomatic corps broadcast on state television.

"There will be neither security cooperation, nor the opening of embassies, nor a role for certain states that say they want to find a way out (of Syria's war), unless they explicitly cut their ties with terrorism," he added.

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US-backed Kurds release another video of their forces striking a Turkish vehicle

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YPG firing Turkey

US-backed Kurdish fighters released yet another video of their forces striking a Turkish vehicle in northwest Syria last week.

The video shows a Kurdish fighter firing what the Military Times reported was either a US BGM-71 TOW or Iranian Typhoon anti-tank guided missile system, and blowing up a Turkish tractor.

The fighter firing the missile system is part of the US-backed YPG faction called Jaish al Thuwar, and the video was uploaded to the Facebook page of Jabhat al-Akrad, a sub-faction of Jaish al Thuwar, the Military Times reported.

Turkey views the Kurdish YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the PKK, which has been trying to set up its own Kurdish state within Turkey for decades.

And the two sides have been engaged in regular skirmishes and shelling exchanges near the Syria and Turkish border for at least a couple months.

On Aug. 5, the YPG posted a video of their fighters destroying a Turkish-backed rebel tank in northwest Syria, and in late April, the two sidesexchanged rocket fire, which Turkey says killed 11 YPG fighters.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the US sells or supplies weapons to both Ankara and the YPG.

An Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson, Col. Joseph Scrocca, told Military Times that Jaish al Thuwar is allied with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighting ISIS, but they are not specifically supported in any way by the Coalition.

But Jabhat al-Akrad is supported by the Coalition, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Kyle Orton, told Military Times.

While the Coalition is trying to distance themselves from the two YPG factions, Military Times reported, US support for the YPG and it's factions has increasingly angered Ankara since May.

YPG firing at Turkey Syria

As a result, Turkey has begun to move away from the west and towards Russia. Ankara and Moscow recently agreed to build a pipeline through Turkey, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine, and last week, Turkey signed an agreement with Russia for the $2.5 billion purchase of Moscow's advanced S-400 missile-defense system.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Puting also met on Aug. 9 and pledged to continue repairing ties since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in November 2016.

In an attempt to improve relations between the US and Turkey, Defense Secretary James Mattis plans to visit Turkey in late August.

Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Business Insider that Mattis will probably tell Ankara that US support for the YPG is merely "tactical" and that Washington DC "will try to mitigate [their] security concerns" by helping take out PKK leaders. But he will also probably ask Ankara to keep such support quiet so that the US doesn't lose YPG in the fight against ISIS.

It's the "most logical way forward" Stein said.

SEE ALSO: US-backed Kurds release video showing them destroying a Turkish tank in Syria

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UN investigating claims North Korea tried to supply Syria with chemical weapons

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syria assad chemical WEAPONS

The United Nations is investigating claims that North Korea attempted to ship munitions — including chemical weapons — to the Assad regime in Syria.

According to a confidential UN report seen by the Reuters news agency, Kim Jong-Un's government made two attempts to send munitions to the Middle East.

They were bound for an agency of the Syrian government in charge of its chemical weapons programme, according to independent experts cited in the report.

The document said that both shipments were intercepted by officials from UN member states.

It was not immediately clear where or when the interceptions took place, or exactly what was found.

The report said an expert panel is "investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and the DPRK (North Korea)."

One passage said a UN member state had "informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria."

KOMID is the Korea Mining and Development Trading Company, which is North Korea's main arms exporter. The state-owned enterprise has offices in multiple countries around the world, according to the US Treasury Department.

Nikki Haley Syria chemical weapons

Earlier this month the UN Security Council unanimously agreed on further sanctions on North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore, and seafood, which threatened to slash the country's annual export revenue by a third. They are meant to pressure North Korea into ending its nuclear missile programme.

The US on Tuesday also announced sanctions against 16 Russian and Chinese companies and individuals, accusing them of helping North Korea develop its nuclear programme.

The Russian government, an ally to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, is also involved in Syria. Russia entered the Syrian war in September 2015, with a purported aim of targeting Islamic State militants "and other terrorists" in the country. Russian aircraft have caused some 1,900 civilian casualties, according to Airwars.

At least 470,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which is well into its sixth year, according to the independent Syrian Center for Policy Research. The war has produced 4.8 million refugees and 6.1 million internally displaced people, it added.

Neither the UN nor the European Union have arms embargoes on Syria at the moment, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The EU implemented an arms embargo on Syria between 2011 and 2013, but it was lifted in June 2013 after EU states disagreed over supplying arms to anti-Assad rebel forces, SIPRI noted.

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ISIS posts video of what appears to be an American child threatening Trump

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american child in isis video

ISIS has posted a video of what appears to be a young American boy — who says he traveled from the US to Syria two years ago — threatening President Donald Trump, according to The Daily Beast.   

“My message to Trump, the puppet of the Jews: Allah promised us victory, promised you defeat,” the boy, who identifies himself as Yousef, says to the camera, The Beast reported. “This battle is not gonna end in Raqqa or Mosul. It’s gonna end in you lands.”

“My father’s an American soldier who fought the mujahideen in Iraq,” Yousef, who appears to be scripted, says to the camera in perfect English, The Beast reported.  

Yousef is thought to be 10 years old, according to Mirror UK, citing Site Intelligence Group, a group investigating the video's authenticity. 

"It’s significant that he identifies his father as a former US soldier and makes an overt threat to Trump,” Georgia State University Professor Mia Bloom told The Beast. “The use of children in this way is intended to show the conflict is multi-generational. That even the kids are radicalized.”

Bloom also told The Beast that while this is the first time that they've used an American child in a propaganda video, ISIS uses more than 20 children a month for operations on the battlefield.

ISIS has consistently used children to carry out suicide attacks and to mutilate captured prisoners. They've also been known to use children as human shields, and even female ISIS fighters have used their own children as human shields. 

SEE ALSO: US-backed forces have retaken half of Raqqa from ISIS — Here's what the fighting on the ground looks like

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Macron says fighting terror, stabilizing Iraq and Syria is 'a vital priority for France'

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FILE PHOTO French President Emmanuel Macron waits for a guest at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 28, 2017.    REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has made the fight against "Islamic terrorism" in Syria and Iraq the top priority in his foreign policy agenda.

Speaking Tuesday to French diplomats gathered at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Macron called the Islamic State group "our enemy."

"Restoring peace and stability — Iraq then Syria — is vital priority for France," he said.

He proposed creating a new contact group including the other permanent members of the UN Security Council to help handle negotiations with Syria. He didn't give more details about the exact role and composition of this group, saying the main players of the Syrian crisis would be involved.

The group will first meet at the United Nations in New York next month.

Macron also announced the organization in Paris of an international summit "against the financing of terrorism" at the beginning of next year.

In Libya, a key country in Africa's unstable Sahel region, Macron said only a political process will help "eradicating terrorists." He vowed to help Libya's neighbors, especially Tunisia, to protect those nations against the risk of destabilization.

On French territory, Macron confirmed that he plans to lift a state of emergency that has been in place since deadly November 2015 attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris. At the same time, he pledged to harden permanent security measures to fight Islamic extremism and other threats.

The state of emergency expires Nov. 1.

Macron recalled France's commitment toward the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers — an agreement President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of.

"There's no alternative" to this deal, Macron said, calling for a "constructive and demanding" relationship with Iran.

The French president praised a new European-African plan to grant asylum to migrants in Chad and Niger before they try dangerous, illegal sea crossings, calling it "more human and more effective" than any policies tried in the past.

He insisted that taking in refugees "is a question of dignity and loyalty to what we are," but stressed the importance of sending home illegal migrants who don't qualify for asylum.

Macron announced he is naming a new ambassador to oversee migration issues and said his government would step up European-African cooperation efforts to stop migrant smuggling.

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Angela Charlton contributed in Paris

SEE ALSO: Emmanuel Macron's approval rating is taking a massive nosedive

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