ISIS poster girl ‘beaten to death’ for trying to escape terrorists after pal was killed

Samra Kesinovic was just 16 when she left Austria with Sabina Selimovic, then 15

A TEENAGE girl who fled to join Islamic State in Syria along with her friend has reportedly been beaten to death during an attempted escape from the terror group’s self-styled capital, Raqqa.

Samra Kesinovic was just 16 when she left Austria with Sabina Selimovic, then 15.

The pair, of Bosnian-origin, became ‘poster girls’ for the jihadis after they arrived in the war zone last April.

But sources in Austria are claiming that Samra, now aged 17, was murdered by ISIS militants during a failed attempt to flee the city after she had become disgusted by the brutal regime.

A Tunisian woman who also travelled to Syria to join ISIS last year but later escaped and returned home was quoted by local newspapers as the source of the claims.

The unnamed women said she lived with Samra and Sabina in Raqqa.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Thomas Schnöll told the Austria Press Agency: “We cannot comment on individual cases.”

The girls after arriving in Syria

Her friend Sabina was reported have died in December last year after a high-ranking United Nations anti-terror expert claimed one of the girls had been killed while the other was missing.

David Scharia, from the UN Security Council, said at the time: “We received information just recently about two 15-year-old girls, of Bosnian origin, who left Austria, where they had been living in recent years; and everyone, the families and the intelligence services of the two countries, is looking for them.

“Both were recruited by Islamic State.

“One was killed in the fighting in Syria, the other has disappeared.”

The pair, of Bosnian-origin, became ‘poster girls’ for the jihadis.

In September 2014, Austrian police also reported that one of the two jihadi girls was dead and the parents had been informed.

However, the following month the teens reportedly contacted their families and said they wanted to return home after seeing the brutal regime first hand.

At the time both of the girls were said to be pregnant after marrying Chechen fighters soon after their arrival in Syria.

Police believe the teens travelled to the Turkish border in April 2014 and then went by car to Raqqa.

The pair were recruited after allegedly becoming radicalised through a cell led by unemployed Ebu Tejma, 33, in Vienna.

Tejma is alleged to have been involved in the radicalisation of a further 166 youngsters in Austria.

Photos of both girls have appeared on social media with them holding Kalashnikov rifles and surrounded by armed men, in an apparent attempt to recruit other young girls to join ISIS.

http://www.msfanpage.link/isis-poster-girl-beaten-to-death-for-trying-to-escape-terrorists-after-pal-was-killed/

ISIL claims hotel attack killing seven in Egypt’s Sinai

A brazen attack involving a suicide car bombing and claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targeted a hotel in Egypt's restive northern Sinai region on Tuesday, killing seven people including two judges, the state MENA news agency said.

The attack on the Swiss Inn hotel in the coastal city of El-Arish was the latest violence convulsing the troubled peninsula, where Egyptian troops are struggling to put down an insurgency. ISIL's Sinai-based affiliate quickly claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

The assault came a day after Egypt held a second round of parliamentary elections. Judges who supervised the vote in Sinai were staying in the heavily guarded hotel.

MENA's report said that four policemen and a civilian were also among the seven killed, and that at least 10 people were wounded. The agency cited an unnamed security official as it often does.

MENA gave a higher death toll than the casualty tolls provided by the military and police in statements issued earlier in the day. The military said 12 people were wounded in the attack. It wasn’t immediately clear why the army didn’t update its tolls later Tuesday.

The attack began as Egyptian troops and policemen guarding the Swiss Inn opened fire on a suspicious, explosives-laden car approaching the building, blowing it up before it reached the hotel, the military said.

In the meantime, two attackers slipped inside the hotel. One detonated an explosive vest in the hotel's kitchen, while the second opened fire in a hotel room. The military said all perpetrators involved in the attack were killed, but no other details were given.

The Sinai branch of ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement apparently posted by sympathizers on social media accounts. It said the assault was carried out by two attackers: the suicide car bomber and a gunman, who is alleged to have opened fire inside the hotel before blowing himself up.

The group also posted pictures of the two attackers and identified them as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer and Abu Wadhaa al-Muhajer. “Al-Muhajer” means “migrant” in Arabic, and is used by some armed groups to refer to foreign fighters, an indication that they could have been from outside Egypt.

The group’s account didn’t mention the third attacker cited in the military statement, and ISIL offered no evidence to back up the claim. The authenticity of the claim couldn’t be verified.

Sinai was also shaken last month when a Russian passenger airliner crashed in the north of the peninsula, killing all 224 people onboard. Russia has said an explosive device placed onboard the Airbus 321-200 was to blame for the Oct. 31 crash, which occurred 23 minutes after takeoff from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in southern Sinai.

The local ISIL branch claimed responsibility for the crash and posted a photo purportedly showing the bomb used to down the plane. The crash led Russia to suspend all flights to and from Egypt, while Britain suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh. The suspensions have dealt a severe blow to Egypt's vital tourism industry, deepening the country's economic woes.

Egypt has been battling insurgents in Sinai for years, but the rebellion has gained steam since the ouster in 2013 of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president. His ejection by the military was led by then-Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who last year was elected president.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/24/isil-fighters-hit-hotel-in-egypts-sinai.html

Nuclear War Over Turkey Shooting Down Russian Jet ‘Likely’ – Russia’s Top Defense Analyst

Is Turkey downing a Russian plane going to spark World War 3? That’s the question everybody has been asking today. The answer is: it’s going to spark a nuclear war, according to Russian defense analysts familiar with the downing of the jet.

The Turkish military said it had shot down a Russian warplane early in the morning on Tuesday, triggering a furious response from the Kremlin and escalating the already hot tensions in the Syrian conflict.

Turkey said two of their F-16s shot down the Russian Su-24 attack aircraft after it violated Turkish airspace, according to USA Today. The Turkish military issued 10 warnings in five minutes before bringing down the Russian jet.

However, Russia’s defense ministry denies the warplane ever breached Turkey’s airspace. NATO and U.S. defense officials later confirmed the Russian jet briefly entered the airspace of the NATO member – Turkey.

“As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally, Turkey,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after an emergency meeting of NATO.

So what are the chances that Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to give a brutal response to the downing of Russia’s warplane by Turkish forces? According to Russian defense analysts, the chances are very high.

Despite the fact that Turkey is backed by NATO’s 5th Article, which states that an attack on one Ally shall be considered an attack on all NATO members, the chances that Putin will unleash a nuclear war over the Tuesday incident are very “likely,” according to Pavel Felgenhauer, Russia’s most respected military analyst.

Russia ‘likely’ to start nuclear war with NATO over the jet

Felgenhauer said Turkey is seeking to protect a zone in northern Syria controlled by its allies, the Turkmens, while the downing of the Russian jet in the region must prompt Moscow to either accept the zone or “start a war with Turkey,” which means starting a war with NATO.

And the only way Russia could win a war against NATO is by going nuclear, Felgenhauer said.

“It is most likely that it will be war,” said Felgenhauer, as reported by Mirror. “In other words, more fights will follow when Russian planes attack Turkish aircraft in order to protect our [Russia’s] bombers. It is possible that there will be fights between the Russian and Turkish navies at sea.”

Russia’s top defense analyst also warned that Ankara will probably shut down the Bosphorus, and other NATO members will join this conflict, thus unleashing an all-out war with Russia. The Bosphorus is the only way by which Russia’s mighty Black Sea fleet can reach the Mediterranean.

“And in such a conflict Russia has very little chance unless it uses its nuclear weapons,” Felgenhauer warned.

But a nuclear war involving NATO and Russia would probably spell, if not the end of humanity, the end of any possibility of a comfortable future for humanity,” as reported by ValueWalk, citing Press TV’s interview with Don DeBar, U.S. political analyst.

Most alarming NATO-Russian military incident in 50 years

Turkey downing the Russian jet on Tuesday is the most alarming military indecent between a NATO member country and Russia in half a century. And with Vladimir Putin warning of “serious consequences,” U.S. President Barack Obama is already trying to avoid escalation.

After an emergency meeting in Washington, French President Francois Hollande and Obama issued a joint statement, in which they called on Putin to avoid escalation, according to RT.

“Turkey, like every country, has the right to defend its territory and its airspace,” Obama said, defending the Turkish side of the conflict but admitting that he had no details on the incident yet.

Putin called the bombing of the Russian warplane a “crime” and stressed that Moscow will never tolerate it. The Russian President added that the Su-24 plane crash in Syria goes beyond normal struggle against terrorism, and it is “a stab in Russia’s back delivered by terrorist accomplices,” as reported by ITAR-TASS.

“I understand each country has its own regional interests, and we have always respected that. But we shall never tolerate crimes like today’s one,” the Russian leader said on Tuesday following a meeting with King of Jordan Abdullah II.

Is Obama capable of leading NATO into nuclear war with Russia?

“Today’s loss is linked with a stab in our back delivered by terrorism accomplices. I can’t characterize otherwise what has happened today,” Putin said, accusing Turkey of financing and protecting ISIS.

On Oct. 31, ISIS claimed responsibility for shooting down a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. A total of 224 people, including 17 children, were killed in the plane crash.

Moreover, ISIS described how it bombed the Russian plane over three weeks ago in the latest publication of its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, also featuring an image of what appears to be the bomb that was placed in a soft drink can.

Putin also noted that Turkey’s contacts with NATO members after the bombing of the Su-24 jet on Tuesday look like an attempt to make the Alliance serve terrorists.

The question is whether Obama is capable of leading NATO at a serious time like this one? Turkey will obviously want to feel secured and protected from Russia’s possible military response, which is why it will be expecting the U.S. to have its back.

But has Obama enough authority to prevent Turkey and Russia from escalating the conflict into a nuclear war? And if he fails to do so, is he capable of leading NATO into a nuclear war with Russia?

http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/11/russia-vs-turkey-nuclear-war-likely/

Russian rescue helicopter 'shot down by US-Backed Syrian rebels' while searching for pilots of plane downed by Turkey

A Russian rescue helicopter has been shot down by Syrian rebels while searching for pilots missing after Turkey downed a Russian jet.

The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in a government-held area in Syria's Latakia province.

A Syrian insurgent group, which uses U.S. Tow missiles, said its fighters hit the helicopter with an anti-tank missile.

Video footage has emerged online appearing to show the helicopter after it crashed in dense woodland.

Plumes of smoke can be seen coming from the aircraft.

Vladmir Putin earlier warned Turkey of "significant consequences" after the Russian plane was shot down.

Video footage was posted online which appeared to show a dead Russian pilot after a jet was shot down by Turkey

The Russian President also said the action by Turkey was a "stab in the back" and said it would have serious consequences for his country’s relations with Turkey.

Turkey claimed it shot down the fighter jet because it violated its airspace.

However, Putin said the jet was shot down in Syria, 4km from the Turkish border.

He told a media conference: "This event is beyond the normal framework of fighting against terrorism.

"Of course our military is doing heroic work against terrorism... But the loss today is a stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists.

"....Our aircraft was downed over the territory of Syria, using air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16."

A gruesome video appears to show Syrian rebels with a dead pilot from the jet.

A Syrian rebel group has distributed footage which they say shows the pilot.

Two pilots ejected but footage online now appears to show that one of the pilots has died. Sources now claim that the second pilot is also dead.

In the gruesome footage, a voice is heard saying "A Russian pilot.

A voice then adds: "God is great" .

It is not known what has happened to a second pilot who was in the plane.

Turkish military officials say a warplane shot down the jet because it violated its airspace.

The plane exploded in the air causing a huge fireball which fell on the Turkmen mountain on the Syrian side of the border.

Video footage captured in the area shows the jet covered in flames plummeting to the ground.

Russia has since confirmed one of its jets was shot down. Officials in Moscow also say they can prove it was flying in Syrian airspace.

The Russian Su-24 fighter plane was believed to be flying at 6,000 metres.

 The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement: "We are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet.

"The Ministry of Defence would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight."

A Turkish military statement said the plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province.

"On November 24 2015 at around 9.20am, a plane whose nationality is not known violated the Turkish airspace despite several warnings (10 times within five minutes) in the area of Yayladagi, Hatary," the military said before the plane's nationality was confirmed.

"Two F-16 planes on aerial patrol duty in the area intervened against the plane in question in accordance with the rules of engagement at 9.24am."

The decision to shoot down the jet was taken directly by the Turkish Prime Minister.

Russian fighter planes have been flying in the area as part of the Russian bombing campaign in Syria.

Turkish officials say the plane was warned 10 times in five minutes before it was eventually shot down.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the warplane crashed in a mountainous area in the northern countryside of Latakia province.

This is where there had been aerial bombardment earlier and where pro-government forces have been battling insurgents on the ground.

Both Russia and its ally, Syria's government, have carried out strikes in the area.

A Syrian military source said the reported downing was being investigated.

Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it.

The plane went down in area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain", it said.

Separate footage from Turkey's Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed.

Turkey called this week for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in neighbouring Syria, and last week Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the bombing of their villages.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with Syrian Turkmens, who are Syrians of Turkish descent.

About 1,700 people have fled the mountainous Syrian area to the Turkish border as a result of fighting in the last three days, a Turkish official said on Monday.

Russian jets have bombed the area in support of ground operations by Syrian government forces.

 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russian-rescue-helicopter-shot-down-6891003

Turkey has ‘all but closed its borders’ to Syrian refugees, HRW says

Turkey has "all but closed its borders" to Syrian refugees, many of whom say they have been beaten, detained and expelled by Turkish border guards while trying to escape the devastating civil war that has sent millions fleeing Syria, nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday.

The U.N. refugee agency says Turkey has registered more than 2 million Syrians as refugees since the conflict began nearly five years ago. Although traffickers have continued to help refugees cross into Turkey through smuggling routes, HRW said Monday that Ankara had stepped up border enforcement at unofficial crossing points in July after closing its last two official crossings in March of this year to all but those with urgent medical needs.

Those official crossings have not been re-opened, HRW said, citing "nongovernmental agencies in Turkey close to the Syrian border."

"Turkey’s border closure is forcing pregnant women, children, the elderly, the sick, and the injured to run the gauntlet of Turkish border officials to escape the horrors of Syria’s war," HRW’s Gerry Simpson, a senior refugee researcher, said in a statement issued by the group. 

Al Jazeera is trying to independently confirm that Turkey has shut its official border channels. HRW's report appeared to contradict comments made earlier this month by Fuat Oktay, the head of The Turkish government’s disaster management agency AFAD, who said the country wouldn’t shut its borders to those fleeing Syria. 

"An open-border policy is the main policy we have been following since the beginning of this crisis," Oktay told Reuters. 

But at the same time, Oktay said Turkey — which has become a launching point for refugees trying to make their way to European countries via the Mediterranean Sea — wasn’t promoting the services available to Syrian refugees in the hope that they would be dissuaded from crossing borders. 

"Any individual would like to stay in his or her country ... [we] promote them to stay in their own country," Oktay said.

While HRW said that Turkey "deserves credit" for it efforts in hosting millions of refugees — and spending what the country's government said was $7.6 billion to do so since Syria's war began — Ankara is "obliged to keep its borders open to people seeking asylum," the rights group said. 

The Syrian conflict, which started with protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 and spiraled into a civil war, has left more than 250,000 people dead and displaced millions of others, according to the United Nations. 

For its report HRW interviewed 51 Syrian refugees who made it to Turkey, and detailed their tumultuous journey. Some related accounts of pregnant women, as well as elderly people and children, being injured in Syria while trying to navigate the crossing route’s difficult terrain in the dark.

Other refugees — some beaten by border guards — described being caught as soon as they crossed into Turkey, and being detained overnight at a military base before being sent back to Syria along with hundreds of others, the rights group said. 

"The police caught most of us. One of the guards hit me on the back of my head and in my ribs with the butt of his rifle and I fell over and started to bleed. Then another guard kicked me in the head and broke my glasses. It hurt so much I vomited. I don’t know why they attacked me," one man from the southwestern Syrian city of Daraa, who traveled with a group of 20 others, told HRW. 

Many of those interviewed said stepped-up Russian airstrikes against anti-Assad rebels in northern Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Idlib over the past several weeks had given them no choice but to flee.

"We heard that 50 people died in an airstrike in a village three kilometers from our home. That was the last straw. We were suffering from a lack of electricity and gas and no jobs and no schools for our children, but the fear of being killed from the air was too much," one Syrian woman told HRW. 

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/23/turkey-closes-borders-to-syrian-refugees-hrw-says.html

Paris Attacks Spur Emergency Edict and Intense Policing in France

PARIS — All over France, from Toulouse in the south to Paris and beyond, the police have been breaking down doors, conducting searches without warrants, aggressively questioning residents, hauling suspects to police stations and putting others under house arrest.

The extraordinary steps are now perfectly legal under the state of emergency decreed by the government after the attacks on Nov. 13 in Paris that left 130 dead — a rare kind of mobilization that will continue. The French Parliament voted last week to extend the emergency for three more months, which means more warrantless searches, more interrogations, more people placed under house arrest.

There have been 1,072 police searches already and 139 police interrogations, and 117 people have been placed in custody, the Ministry of the Interior said on Monday. Those included a weekend raid on a restaurant selling halal burgers and Tex-Mex food in the Paris suburbs, where officers found nothing suspicious after breaking down the doors.

Many of those being swept up are among the hundreds of French who have already been flagged as potential security threats in the notorious S-files of the security services. The police are now free to pick up and interrogate suspects virtually at will.

An indication of the lingering shock of the attacks — and the fear coursing through French society — is that few, publicly at least, are protesting these exceptional measures. But critics of the broad net now being cast by the security services say the results are meager given the looming threat to civil liberties.

Concern is rising, particularly in Muslim communities being singled out, that France now runs the risk of tipping steeply in favor of security at the expense of individual freedoms and of instigating tension with a Muslim population — the largest in Western Europe — that has already long felt aggrieved and second class.

“These measures are going to place a spider’s web over all of France,” said Danièle Lochak, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Paris. “But in a discriminatory manner, because it will concern Muslims. It’s out of control. What are they going to do with all these people who are under house arrest?” The answer, so far, is not clear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/europe/in-france-some-see-the-police-security-net-as-too-harsh-paris-attacks.html?_r=0

Defences tightened as £178bn to be spent on Armed Forces in fear of jihadi missile attack

BRITAIN is to boost its defences against ballistic missiles amid warnings of a growing terrorist threat, chiefs revealed yesterday.

The missiles can be used to deliver payloads from conventional explosives through to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Now the Strategic Defence and Security Review has warned that terrorists “are now acquiring ballistic missile technology”.

The news came as David Cameron announced that spending on defence equipment will be boosted by £12billion to £178billion over the next decade.

The Prime Minister also said that 10,000 troops could be deployed in the event of a Paris-style terror attack on a UK city.

The SDSR warned that ballistic missiles pose a threat to the UK, the UK Overseas Territories and military bases.

Iran is understood to have given Hezbollah Fateh-110 ballistic missiles with a range of up to 220 miles.

And President Assad’s Syrian forces also have their own version of the Fateh-110 – which raises the possibility of them being seized if bases are overrun by terror groups such as Islamic State.

Last week Iraqi and US intelligence warned that Islamic State is aggressively trying to acquire deadly chemical weapons as part of its campaign against the West.

The SDSR report stated: “States outside the Euro-Atlantic area and non-state actors [terrorists] are now acquiring ballistic missile technology.”

The MoD yesterday pledged to pump cash into Nato’s ballistic missile (BM) defence network and back research and development at the UK’s Missile Defence Centre.

Britain is also investing in a ground-based BM defence radar and may use Type 45 destroyers to spot and shoot down any missiles fired at Britain or Nato allies.

Colonel Richard Kemp, head of the International Terrorism Intelligence Team at the Cabinet Office and chairman of the Cobra Intelligence Group between 2002 and 2006, said while ballistic missiles did “not seem like a major threat at present… My main concern would be Iran itself, specially as we have signed an agreement which will ultimately result in them having nuclear weapons within 10 years at the most”.

The SDSR also stated that the number of British jihadis has risen to about 800 – an increase of 100 on previous estimates – with about 450 thought to have returned from fighting in Syria.

Setting out the SDSR yesterday, Mr Cameron pledged funding for 1,900 more spies across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and more money to increase the network of counterterrorism experts in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Iran is understood to have given Hezbollah Fateh-110 ballistic missiles with a range of up to 220 miles.

And President Assad’s Syrian forces also have their own version of the Fateh-110 – which raises the possibility of them being seized if bases are overrun by terror groups such as Islamic State.

Last week Iraqi and US intelligence warned that Islamic State is aggressively trying to acquire deadly chemical weapons as part of its campaign against the West.

The SDSR report stated: “States outside the Euro-Atlantic area and non-state actors [terrorists] are now acquiring ballistic missile technology.”

The MoD yesterday pledged to pump cash into Nato’s ballistic missile (BM) defence network and back research and development at the UK’s Missile Defence Centre.

Britain is also investing in a ground-based BM defence radar and may use Type 45 destroyers to spot and shoot down any missiles fired at Britain or Nato allies.

Colonel Richard Kemp, head of the International Terrorism Intelligence Team at the Cabinet Office and chairman of the Cobra Intelligence Group between 2002 and 2006, said while ballistic missiles did “not seem like a major threat at present… My main concern would be Iran itself, specially as we have signed an agreement which will ultimately result in them having nuclear weapons within 10 years at the most”.

The SDSR also stated that the number of British jihadis has risen to about 800 – an increase of 100 on previous estimates – with about 450 thought to have returned from fighting in Syria.

Setting out the SDSR yesterday, Mr Cameron pledged funding for 1,900 more spies across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and more money to increase the network of counterterrorism experts in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Iran is understood to have given Hezbollah Fateh-110 ballistic missiles with a range of up to 220 miles.

And President Assad’s Syrian forces also have their own version of the Fateh-110 – which raises the possibility of them being seized if bases are overrun by terror groups such as Islamic State.

Last week Iraqi and US intelligence warned that Islamic State is aggressively trying to acquire deadly chemical weapons as part of its campaign against the West.

The SDSR report stated: “States outside the Euro-Atlantic area and non-state actors [terrorists] are now acquiring ballistic missile technology.”

The MoD yesterday pledged to pump cash into Nato’s ballistic missile (BM) defence network and back research and development at the UK’s Missile Defence Centre.

Britain is also investing in a ground-based BM defence radar and may use Type 45 destroyers to spot and shoot down any missiles fired at Britain or Nato allies.

Colonel Richard Kemp, head of the International Terrorism Intelligence Team at the Cabinet Office and chairman of the Cobra Intelligence Group between 2002 and 2006, said while ballistic missiles did “not seem like a major threat at present… My main concern would be Iran itself, specially as we have signed an agreement which will ultimately result in them having nuclear weapons within 10 years at the most”.

The SDSR also stated that the number of British jihadis has risen to about 800 – an increase of 100 on previous estimates – with about 450 thought to have returned from fighting in Syria.

Setting out the SDSR yesterday, Mr Cameron pledged funding for 1,900 more spies across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and more money to increase the network of counterterrorism experts in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

But the Army, which is to have two 5,000- soldier “strike brigades”, will not be increased above 82,000 personnel – its smallest force in 200 years. The review also revealed that the estimated cost of replacing the four submarine Trident nuclear deterrent has soared from £25billion to £31 billion, with another £10million for contingencies.

Mr Cameron also announced the acceleration of the purchase of new F35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers, with 24 available by 2023.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/621582/Defences-tightened-178bn-spent-Armed-Forces-fear-jihadi-missile-attack

Did Nostradamus predict ISIS rise? 16th century warnings of terror reign and what's NEXT

Nostradamus is believed by some to have accurately predicted the rise of Napolean and Hitler as the world's first two appearances of three anti-christs.

So when the 16th century prophet predicted a "third and Final" anti-Christ, more hideous than the first two combined, coming to power on Earth before a 27-year Third World War", was he referring to ISIS?

Many researchers of the infamous French prophet, who died in 1566, are convinced he has correctly foretold the current barbaric acts being committed by ISIS in the Middle East including its recently declared bid to capture areas of Europe to fulfil its Caliphate.

One website - Nostradamus 2242 - even claims WWIII will begin this year as a result of the struggle with ISIS and the world could end in 2242 - 27 years from now.

The website lists the four-verse quatrain from which it is claimed it warns of the unfolding events in Iraq and Syria.

It said Nostradamus had been translated as saying: "He will enter wicked, unpleasant, infamous, tyrannizing over Mesopotamia.

"All friends made by the adulterous lady, land dreadful and black of aspect."

The website says: "An amazing quatrain about Iraq's ordeal and tyranny in the ongoing sectarian violence, particularly on the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion, the surging of Al-qaeda leading to the organisation of ISIS.

"ISIS' target is Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. ISIS is also the most wealthy terrorist organization in the world, thanks to its numerous contributors.

"ISIS flag and uniform, black! their combat method infamous and Islamic Sharia law - tyrannical."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/598434/Nostradamus-predict-ISIS-prophecies-linked-extremists-what-happens-next-Hitler-war

Russia jet SHOT DOWN by Turkey: Pilot 'killed' as Putin calls summit over 'serious' act

The plane crashed in Syria after violating Turkey's airspace, the country claims

The aircraft was shot down after it was warned 10 times in five minutes to leave Turkish airspace, a Turkish military official has said.

It was just over the Syrian border when it was downed by F16 Fighting Falcon jets belonging to Turkey, the official added

But the Russian Defence Ministry said the plane had not violated Turkey's airspace and was flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres.

NATO has announced it will be holding an extraordinary session at 4.30pm GMT after Turkey requested it following the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called an emergency meeting in Russia over the downing of the jet and unverified sources have claimed Russia is currently sending a warship across the Dardenelles from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean.

Two pilots managed to eject from the jet and were seen landing with the help of parachutes.

The jet is reported to be a Russian Su-24 flown by a pair of Russian pilots, with one believed to have been captured by Syrian rebels from the Alweya Al-Ashar (Brigade of the 10th) which consists of Turkmen with strong links to Turkey.

Russia is currently fighting in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad's troops against the rebels and Islamic State (ISIS).

Sources say the brigade has now launched "a counter-offensive" against President Bashar and Russian troops in a bid to take back the Turkman mountains.

It is believed the other pilot died in the crash after footage was released by Syrian rebels appearing to show them crowding around a body saying "Allahu Akbar" - God is Great in Arabic.

Turkish presidential sources have said the jet was downed in line with the rules of engagement after violating the country's airspace and failing to heed warnings.

He said the pilot was warned 10 times before they deployed the F16s to shoot it down.

A government official said: "We are trying to identify the nationality of the plane."

Russia's foreign minister Sergy Lavrov was expected to land in Istanbul at 4.30pm today - the same time as the urgent NATO meeting - ahead of talks with the Turkish government tomorrow, but so far there is no indication he will be leaving Moscow soon as he is in meetings with Mr Putin.

The jet was seen in a fireball of flames

 

The Kremlin called it a "very serious incident" but said it's too early to draw conclusions.

A statement said: "It would be wrong to talk about consequences and relations between Russia and Turkey at the moment."

Video footage shows a plane exploding in the air before the fireball fell onto a Turkmen mountain near a village on the northern Syrian side of the border.

British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said: "Clearly this is a serious incident but it wouldn't be wise to comment further until we have the facts."

aTurkish military have said it warned the Russia jet 10 times before it was shot down

 

One of the Russian pilots has been captured by Syrian rebels

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the warplane crashed in a mountainous area in the northern countryside of Latakia province and it was not immediately clear whether it was an aircraft from the Russian or Syrian air force.

The fate of the crew was unknown, the Observatory said, adding that there had been aerial bombardment in the area earlier, where pro-government forces have been battling insurgents on the ground.

Turkish military

The Russian fighter jet went over a small section of Turkey, according to the Turkish military

 

Turkey called this week for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in neighboring Syria, and last week Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the bombing of their villages.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with Syrian Turkmens, who are Syrians of Turkish descent.
About 1,700 people have fled the mountainous Syrian area to the Turkish border as a result of fighting in the last three days, a Turkish official said on Monday.

Russian jets have bombed the area in support of ground operations by Syrian government forces.

 

The plane was seen careering down then bursting into flames before smoke billowed from the crash

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said he had spoken with the chief of military staff and the foreign minister about developments on the border, but did not mention the downed jet.

He instructed them to consult with NATO and the UN on the latest developments on the Syrian border.

The two pilots were spotted parachuting down into the mountains

 

Russian helocopters searching for the missing pilots

 

Turkey has continually warned Russia and Syria not to edge into their airspace, and has said them it would shoot any planes violating that.

In October, when Russian planes flew into Turkish airspace two days in a row, NATO - of which Turkey is a leading member - released a statement which said: "Allies strongly protest these violations of Turkish sovereign airspace, and condemn these incursions into and violations of NATO airspace. Allies also note the extreme danger of such irresponsible behaviour.

"They call on the Russian Federation to cease and desist, and immediately explain these violations.
"Allies call on the Russian side to take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not take place in the future."

The Sukhoi SU-24 is a supersonic, all weather attack aircraft developed in Russia. The aircraft features avariable-sweep wing, twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for its two crew.

It was the first of Russia's aircraft to carry an integrated digital navigation and attack system.

A Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet takes off from the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, Syria

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/621613/Turkey-shoots-jet-airspace 

 

 

Putin removes ban on nuclear cooperation with Iran

Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday eased restrictions on Russian companies working on Iranian enrichment sites as he travelled to Tehran for his first visit since 2007. 

A decree Putin signed on Monday enables Russian firms to help modify centrifuges at the Fordo enrichment site and help Tehran redesign its Arak heavy water reactor.

Russian companies can now also carry out activities linked to Iranian exports of enriched uranium of more than 300 kilograms in exchange for the supplies of natural uranium to Iran, the Kremlin decree said.

Under a historic July deal with world powers, Iran agreed to dramatically scale back its nuclear programme, making it much more difficult for it to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran agreed to slash by two-thirds the number of centrifuges, machines that can "enrich" or purify uranium to make it suitable for peaceful uses but also for a nuclear weapon.

Russian companies are eyeing business opportunities after sanctions on Iran are lifted, expected in the next two months, as the nuclear deal reaches its "implementation" stage.

Putin arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, with the Syrian conflict expected to be high on the agenda. 

The one-day visit will also see Putin take part in a summit of gas exporting countries.

http://news.yahoo.com/putin-removes-ban-nuclear-cooperation-iran-115918826.html

Two Bangladesh opposition leaders executed

Bangladesh executed two opposition leaders on Sunday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, a senior police official said, a move likely to draw angry reaction from supporters.

Opposition leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former legislator from former premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were hanged shortly after President Abdul Hamid rejected their appeals for clemency.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected the final appeals of both men.     

"They submitted two petitions to the Ministry of Home Affairs through the jail authority, and the ministry ultimately sent them to the President," Law Minster Anisul Huq said.

The jail authority said previously that it had asked the family members of both convicts to visit them for the last time and the relatives had arrived at the jail gate.

Security has been tightened around the jail, and restrictions have been placed on the use of several roads close to the jail.

Paramilitary forces have been deployed in the capital and in other major cities.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/21/bangladesh-opposition-leaders-scheduled-to-be-executed.html

One Israeli, three Palestinians killed in violence Sunday

An Israeli woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian who was among three assailants to be shot dead in separate incidents Sunday, Israeli security forces said. The latest flare-up of violence comes ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The Israeli woman was seriously wounded when a Palestinian attacked her with a knife in the West Bank on Sunday afternoon before being shot and killed by soldiers nearby, the military said. A spokeswoman at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said the 21-year-old Israeli woman arrived in serious condition and later died of her wounds.

The attack occurred at the Gush Etzion junction near Jerusalem.

In an earlier incident, the military said a Palestinian woman pulled out a knife at the entrance to a military base and began approaching civilians. A local West Bank settler leader, Gershon Mesika, said he veered his vehicle off the road and struck the woman. A soldier then fired at her and killed her. The army did not say how close the woman had been to carrying out an attack or release a video of the incident.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, a Palestinian driving a taxi cab tried to run over Israelis east of Jerusalem, police said. After crashing his car, he emerged with a knife and tried to stab people, but was shot dead by a bystander before he could harm anyone.

Israeli politicians have encouraged licensed gun owners to carry their weapons during the latest wave of unrest.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended citizens for being on "maximum alert."

"I must say that we are showing such awareness, with considerable resourcefulness and courage, and this is deserving of all praise. We are still fighting and will continue to do so," he said at his weekly Cabinet meeting.

Sunday's attacks came two days before Kerry is scheduled to arrive in an attempt to calm tensions amid a two-month wave of violence that shows no signs of slowing. It will mark his first visit to the area to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in more than a year.

On Saturday night, a Palestinian stabbed four people in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat. Following an hourslong manhunt, police found the 18-year-old hiding in the yard of a nearby home.

Since that start of October, 91 Palestinians and 15 Israelis have been killed in violence that was spurred by tensions surrounding a sensitive Jerusalem holy site and has since spread across Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border.

Israel says the current spate of violence is due to a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement surrounding the holy site, which is revered by Muslims and Jews. The Palestinians say the violence is rooted in frustration over nearly a half-century of occupation and they accuse Israel of using excessive force to suppress the unrest.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/22/one-israeli-three-palestinians-killed-in-violence-sunday.html

Belgium police arrest 21 as Brussels remains on lockdown

Belgian police launched more raids in Brussels and beyond early Monday, detaining five more people as they continued their hunt for a fugitive suspect in the Paris attacks.

In Paris, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he will ask for parliamentary approval for the U.K. to join airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, while French President Francois Hollande vowed to "intesify" strikes against the group. 

The raids began late Sunday, capping a tense weekend that saw hundreds of troops patrolling and authorities hunting for one or more suspected extremists including Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive since being named a suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks. Between Sunday night and midday Monday, 21 people were detained.

The Belgian government chose to keep the capital on the highest state of alert into the start of the week after what it described as a "serious and imminent" threat, preventing a return to normal in the city that is also home to the European Union's main institutions.

Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out Sunday in Molenbeek, home to many of the Paris attackers, and other boroughs of Brussels, and three raids were carried out in Charleroi. Abdeslam was not among those arrested. Van Der Sypt said no firearms or explosives were found.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the RTL network that Abdeslam "must have a lot of support on our territory. That's why all these searches being conducted at the moment are important."

Police fired two shots at a car that approached them as they searched a snack bar in Molenbeek, Van Der Sypt said. The vehicle escaped but was stopped later in Brussels, and a wounded person inside was arrested. It was not immediately known if the person was linked to the investigation into the Paris attacks.

Several of the Paris attackers had lived in Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot's orchestrator who was killed Wednesday in a standoff with French police. Police issued a new appeal to identify the third attacker who was killed in the assault at the national stadium. They posted a photo of the man on Twitter, asking the public for information that would help identify him.

France has meanwhile intensified its aerial bombing in Syria and defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which has been sent to the Mediterranean to help combat ISIL fighters in Syria, will be "operational" from Monday and "ready to act."

"We are convinced that we must continue to strike ISIL in Syria. We will intensify our strikes. We will choose the sites that will cause the most damage to this terrorist army," Hollande said Monday. 

France has extended a state of emergency, which allows police raids, searches and house arrest without permission from a judge, for three months. On Saturday, it also extended a ban on demonstrations and other gatherings through Nov. 30, when a U.N. climate conference with more than 100 heads of state is scheduled to start.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more; the suicide bombings in Beirut that killed 43 people and injured more than 200; and the downing of the Russian jetliner carrying 224 people in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. All three happened attacks within the past month.

Cameron and Hollande, meeting in Paris, paid a quiet visit to the Bataclan concert venue, which saw the worst of the carnage in Paris.

Britain has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq, but Cameron has long wished for an expanded mandate to include targets in Syria. But having lost a vote once two years ago, his government had been reluctant to even suggest a vote until it could be certain it would win.

"I firmly support the action that President Hollande has taken to strike ISIL in Syria and it is my firm conviction that Britain should do so too," Cameron said, adding that that was a decision for parliament to take.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/23/police-arrest-16-as-brussels-remains-on-lockdown.html

Group patrols AZ border for terrorists

SASABE, AZ - A group of veterans and concerned citizens, who've been patrolling the border for five years, are now turning their focus on what they believe are new threats to America.

"There's Palestinians, Afghans, Syrians trying to get in. We are trying to stop everything and anything from coming across," said Tim Foley, the field operations director of Arizona Border Recon. 

Many of the members used to serve in the United States military. All, however, are worried about the possibility of a terrorist coming to the United States through the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We have the war on drugs and the war on terror and it seems that they are combining right here on the border," said Foley. "We're not a militia, we're not a three percent group, we do not advocate overthrowing the government . . . we are an extra set of eyes and ears for Border Patrol."

Every few months, the group meets to patrol the Arizona, Mexico border for seven days and seven nights. They set up a six to nine mile perimeter, in order to push those attempting to come across illegally, into territory with a higher Border Patrol presence. 

"When your friends come to your home, they come to your front door, not your back window," said Foley.

These veterans believe patrolling the border is another way they can continue to fight for their country. 

"You don't lock your doors because you hate what's outside, but because you love what's inside," said Mark McConnell, a volunteer for Arizona Border Recon. 

The Public Affairs Office of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol released this statement, in regards to the matter:

"Border security work is potentially dangerous and complex; usually taking place in remote locations in very inhospitable terrain. Border Patrol agents receive extensive training, and are taught to coordinate and communicate with a multitude of law enforcement officers to prevent unanticipated encounters with one another. Agents are also supported by ground-based and sophisticated aerial detection technology.  We strongly encourage private citizens and all non-governmental organizations to contact the Border Patrol and/or local law enforcement authorities to report suspected unlawful activity."

http://www.kvoa.com/story/30582211/group-patrols-az-border-for-terrorists

Targeting children: ISIS uses dolls as booby-trap bombs to attack mass Shia pilgrimage

 Iraqi forces prevented a major Islamic State (previously ISIS/ISIL) attack as they found and disabled 18 booby-trapped dolls with explosives inside just north of the capital Baghdad. The plot targeted Shia Muslims going on an upcoming religious pilgrimage.

The diabolical plan was to scatter all the dolls alongside the road between Baghdad and Karbala during the Arbaeen pilgrimage, which is a Shia Muslim annual religious observance.

Millions of Shia Muslims walk the path every year. In 2014, there was a new record number of pilgrims, totaling 17.5 million people.

Arbaeen is the end of the 40-day mourning period following the anniversary of the death of the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, Imam Hussein.

All the dolls were discovered in Husseiniya, a suburb northeast of Baghdad, according to the Kuwait News agency (KUNA).

Authorities asked residents to report any suspicious objects.

https://www.rt.com/news/322963-isis-dolls-attack-foiled/

The hunt for Red Mercury: Isis tricked into chasing after mythical nuclear bomb substance

Islamic State (Isis) has set its sights on obtaining a rare and incredibly expensive lethal substance called Red Mercury that can make nuclear bombs as small as a sandwich bag, but there's only one problem – it doesn't exist.

Although the terrorist group is apparently sophisticated enough to have its own 24/7 IT helpdesk and funds its activities by selling Iraqi and Syrian oil, as well as smuggling ancient relics out of the region to unscrupulous private collectors, it seems that IS is not beyond believing in an urban legend that has been floating around since the Cold War.

What is Red Mercury?

The legend revolves around the existence of a mythical compound known as Red Mercury, which is meant to be the main ingredient for a dirty bomb that would have devastating effects, causing radiation contamination and nuclear explosions of never-before-seen proportions.

Red Mercury is allegedly made from mercury iodide – a scarlet-coloured powder that is odourless, tasteless, insoluble in water and poisonous, but it will turn yellow when heated above 126 degrees Celsius.

It is an elaborate hoax that first appeared in major Soviet media in 1979 as a dream substance sold on the black market by arms dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars per kilogram.

Seemingly, Red Mercury could do whatever an army, dictator, Bond villain, rogue government, freedom fighter or terrorist wanted it to do, from making a super-powerful weapon to acting as an anti-radar paint or single-handedly guiding missiles.

Although no one ever explained exactly how Red Mercury worked, an American physicist named Samuel T Cohen added his voice to the growing speculation about Red Mercury in the Western media in the early 1990s, claiming the substance would enable nuclear weapons to become much smaller than they are today, and he continued to talk about how unprepared the US was for such an attack until his death in 2010.

His assertions were enough to spur ample articles in the Western media, and UK's Channel 4 made two TV documentaries on Red Mercury in 1993 and 1994 entitled Trail of Red Mercury and Pocket Neutron, which both claimed that there was "startling evidence that Russian scientists have designed a miniature neutron bomb using a mysterious compound called Red Mercury".

Mythical bomb substance debunked

 

Russian arms dealers and merchants on the black market had a field day, however, as they continued to sell packets of the red powder to clients in the Middle East and Europe who would do almost anything to get it throughout the 1980s and 1990s, even though they had absolutely no idea what it actually was.

Eventually, in 1997, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists finally declared that Red Mercury was fake, stating:

"The asking price for red mercury ranged from $100,000 to $300,000 per kilogram. Sometimes the material would be irradiated or shipped in containers with radioactive symbols, perhaps to convince potential buyers of its strategic value. But samples seized by police contained only mercury(II) oxide, mercury(II) iodide, or mercury mixed with red dye — hardly materials of interest to weapons-makers."

A year later, 15 researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which helps to maintain US nuclear weapons, published an article in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, declaring that Red Mercury was undoubtedly "a relatively notorious nuclear hoax".

However, no one wanted to listen, as purchases of Red Mercury continued on the black market, and a 1999 issue of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review reported that Western intelligence agencies were using Red Mercury to lure al-Qaida operatives into the open, persuading them to travel to the US, where special agents disguised as arms dealers were waiting to arrest them.

Even funnier, in 2004 three men were tried for trying to obtain Red Mercury in the UK, and prosecutors told the jury that even though the substance didn't actually exist, this fact was irrelevant as the men had clearly meant to do harm by building a dirty bomb with it. In the end, they were cleared.

The urban legend lives on

You would think, what with the advent of the internet and the plethora of information available, that any would-be terrorists would today know better, but no. An in-depth report by the New York Times says IS is still keen to purchase the mythical substance, and they reportedly were willing to pay up to $4m (£2.6m) for it, because they thought that other Jihadists had found it first.

Apparently, IS told NYT source Abu Omar that they were willing to buy Red Mercury, as long as it matched specific photos they had obtained. In the Middle East, the urban legend has widened and people in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria all believe in the existence of both "hot" and "cold" Red Mercury.

Smugglers on the black market claim that if Red Mercury is real, it will be attracted to gold but repelled by garlic, and that different colours of the same substance can even increase sexual potency. It is even claimed that old Soviet sewing machines contain tiny caches of the substance and you can harvest it from old workshops.

So does the substance exist? Omar fervently claims it does, but that he was unable to give it to IS, and one of his associates obtained the substance but was caught by Turkish police. However, the NYT was unable to verify any of these claims, and the terrorists clearly haven't got it, or they would have used it by now.

But it's still pretty funny to think that, somewhere, somehow, there are arms dealers peddling fake powders to terrorists for millions of dollars.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hunt-red-mercury-isis-tricked-120000841.html#BwBZoI5

Paris Siege: Third Body Found In Rubble

The body of a second woman has been found in the rubble of an apartment where the Paris attacks ringleader was killed during a seven-hour siege.

Prosecutors confirmed Abdelhamid Abaaoud died in a fierce shootout with police who stormed the flat in northern Paris early on Wednesday.

It has also been confirmed that his cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, died during the raid.

She is believed to be the woman who blew herself up with an explosives vest while holed up in the apartment.

She was formally identified from her fingerprints. A handbag containing a passport in her name was found in the debris, prosecutors said.

  Paris Plotter Drank After Attacks

Authorities originally thought two people had been killed in the raid, but the third body was found in the rubble overnight.

Prosecutors have only confirmed it is a female body, but are still working to identify her.
They described the bodies as badly mangled.

:: Paris Killers 'Used Refugee Crisis To Slip In'

 

Hundreds of heavily armed officers hunting Paris attacks suspects raided the apartment complex in Saint Denis at dawn on Wednesday, triggering the massive firefight and explosions.

Abaaoud's body was found "riddled with bullets" after the raid, the prosecutor's office said. He was identified using skin samples.

The 28-year-old was accused of orchestrating last Friday's bombings and shootings in the French capital, which killed 129 people.

His father, Omar Abaaoud, has told French media through his lawyer that he is "sorry" his son "wasn't captured alive".

It has also emerged that Abaaoud was seen on CCTV at a Paris metro station while Friday's atrocities were still under way.

Abaaoud was filmed at 10.14pm at the Croix de Chavaux in Montreuil, not far from where one of the cars used in the attacks was found.

A witness has also told Sky News that he was seen drinking beer and smoking cannabis after the massacres.

French media is also reporting his cousin Aitboulahcen transformed from a party girl who liked wearing cowboy hats to a radical Islamist who wore the full-faced veil just six months ago.

  Paris Siege

"She was unstable, she created her own bubble. She wasn't looking to study religion, I have never even seen her open a Koran," her brother told AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, Belgian media is reporting that several witnesses have spotted one of the suspected attacks gunmen, Salah Abdeslam, in Brussels.

One witness said he saw Abdeslam in Molenbeek on Tuesday evening. He said the 26-year-old wanted to meet him to get a message to his brother.

The witness told La Capitale that Abdeslam seemed to regret his actions.

  French Let Key Suspect Go

"He told me it had gone too far. He was overwhelmed by what was happening. He couldn’t give himself up. It would have had consequences for his family," the witness said, believing it meant reprisals from IS.

Other witnesses reportedly saw Abdeslam in the Anderlecht area, around two miles from Molenbeek.There has been no official confirmation of these sightings.

The Frenchman, who was born in Brussels, escaped across the Belgian border hours after the Paris attacks and is still on the run.

French authorities missed an opportunity to detain him when he was questioned and released on Saturday morning.

http://news.sky.com/story/1591146/paris-siege-third-body-found-in-rubble