Britain is to send tanks, drones, and 800 troops to Estonia to bolster Nato forces amid increasing tensions with Russia.
The
UK troops will be deployed in the spring and will be joined by forces
from France and Denmark, said Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
The force, he told the Financial Times, would likely include tactical
drones, Challenger 2 main battle tanks and Warrior armoured infantry
fighting vehicles.
"This is about two things: reassurance, and
that needs to be done with some formidable presence, and deterrence,"
Fallon said. "This is not simply a trip-wire….This is a serious military
presence."
In a statement on Wednesday Fallon said that RAF
Typhoon jets would also be deployed to an airbase in Romania to assist
with the Nato Southern Air Policing mission.
Fallon said: "this
deployment of air, land and sea forces shows that we will continue to
play a leading role in Nata, supporting the defence and security of our
allies from the north to the south of the alliance."
Russia
recently held four days of drills in response to a hypothetical nuclear
attack, with Soviet-era defence plans and bomb shelters in major cities
upgraded.
In July, Nato agreed to deploy troops from four nations
in Poland, as well as the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and
Latvia.
At least 26 civilians, including children, were killed when
air raids hit a school and the surrounding area in Syria's northwestern
Idlib province, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on
Wednesday that the bombing was believed to be carried out by Russian
planes and targeted the village of Hass, including the school complex.
"The dead children are students and the planes are believed
to be Russian," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based SOHR,
which relies on a network of informants in Syria to track the war.
Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly
Churkin said: "It's horrible, I hope we were not involved. It's the
easiest thing for me to say no, but I'm a responsible person, so I need
to see what my Ministry of Defence is going to say."
A report on Syrian state TV quoted a military
source as saying several rebel fighters had been killed when their
positions were targeted in Hass, but made no mention of a school.
The raids hit the village around 11:30am (08:30 GMT), an
opposition activist with the Idlib Media Centre, told the AFP news
agency.
"One rocket hit the entrance of the school as students were
leaving to go home, after the school administration decided to end
classes for the day because of the raids," the activist said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
The SOHR initially reported two schools had been hit but
later clarified that it was a school complex made up of multiple
buildings.
'Death toll likely to rise'
There were fears the death toll could rise as some of the
wounded were reported to be in critical condition, opposition activists
said.
Idlib province is controlled by the Army of Conquest, an
alliance of rebel groups including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which changed
its name from al-Nusra Front earlier this year after cutting ties with
al-Qaeda.
The province has come under increasing bombardment in recent weeks, according to SOHR.
Syrian government forces and their Russian allies have been
criticised by rights groups for what they say are indiscriminate attacks
on civilian infrastructure.
The Syrians and Russians say they are targetting rebels.
On Monday, more than 80 human rights and aid organisations,
including Human Rights Watch, CARE International and Refugees
International, urged UN member states to drop Russia from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council over its military campaign in Syria.
More than 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed
since the war started in March 2011, and millions have been forced to
flee the country.
Kremlin nuclear hysteria is pervasive in Russia, touching
nearly all aspects of Russian life. Nuclear war propaganda is everyday
fare on Russian TV, with a multitude of programs
on the topic of missile defense and nuclear technology. But the
intensity of the most recent militaristic rhetoric has reached such a
fever pitch that it’s invaded the educational sphere, and not just into
colleges or high schools, but into elementary schools.
Alexander Sotnik
Well-known Russian journalist Alexander Sotnikpublished on his social media page a
post from a woman confirming that teachers in at least one elementary
school in Moscow were terrifying children with talk of nuclear war with
the United States and impending death if Hillary Clinton wins the
US presidential election.
“I want to tell you a story that happened to my grandson.
He is 9 years old, he’s in the 4th grade at school No. 1232 in the the
city of Moscow. The other day this boy came home very sad. When I
asked him about what happened, he burst into tears! Then he told us
about how their teacher told the children in the classroom that if
Hillary Clinton comes to power in the US, she will begin a nuclear war,
and they are all going to die! This was followed by a story that
Americans have invented a mosquito that can infect children with cancer!
Mind you, this was told to small children, who are very vulnerable
psychologically. They could easily develop a serious neurosis!” said the
outraged Muscovite.
We interviewed a number of experts about what might be behind such outlandish propaganda warfare. There is consensus among
most of the analysts we spoke to that we are dealing with a spectacular
bluff, strategically designed to force the West to make concessions to
Russia. The same idea is shared by Russian opposition politician and
leader of the party Democratic Choice, who is also President of the Institute of Energy Policy, Vladimir Milov.
The entire campaign is designed for
specific powerful individuals in the United States, those who are
particularly sensitive about the issue of cooperation with Russia on
nuclear nonproliferation. – Vladimir Milov
“The entire campaign is designed for specific powerful individuals in
the United States, those who are particularly sensitive about the issue
of cooperation with Russia on nuclear nonproliferation. In America,
this theme holds a special place in national security policymaking. Note
that the Americans even removed sanctions against Iran in exchange for
giving up nuclear weapons,” Milov explained.
Vladimir Milov
According to Vladimir Milov, there is a large stratum within the
American establishment who are willing to forgive any of Moscow’s
excesses so long as there is continuing cooperation in the nuclear
arena.
“Putin wants to scare these people, and thus create additional
pressure in the highest echelons of US power such that “Making peace
with Russia is necessary, otherwise we will lose out on nuclear
cooperation,” said the Russian opposition leader.
Vladimir Milov, maintaining close ties with his American
counterparts, explains that US security issues are always solved
collectively, and there is a fairly large group of policy-makers in this
area. These include various intelligence agencies from the Pentagon,
government officials and even specialized think tanks.
“It is in this community that nuclear issues have always been
prioritized above all others. It is precisely these specialists
that Putin wants to frighten. But, apparently, he no longer scares
them,”- he concludes.
At the same time, despite the warlike character of the Kremlin’s
statements, the Russian politician does not believe that beneath the
facade of nuclear threats, Putin is actually preparing a full-scale
invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
It seems that Putin’s only tenable
recourse is in air strikes and air defense, as in the security operation
in Crimea. – Vladimir Milov
“It seems that Putin’s only tenable recourse is in air strikes and
air defense, as in the security operation in Crimea. An invasion of
Ukraine would entail battles for large cities, street fighting, which
will mean having to fight for every house. Putin wouldn’t dare anything
of the kind. You can see in the example of Aleppo that he does not dare
to take such a battle on and he’s had the opportunity for over a year,”
says Vladimir Milov.
The president of the Institute of the Eastern Partnership (Israel), Rabbi Avraham Shmulevich
adheres to a diametrically opposite point of view. According to
Shmulevich, in the eyes of senior Russian government officials, nuclear
war appears to be something quite acceptable, and enhanced preparation
for such a conflict fits right into this terrible logic.
Putin
is clearly preparing for a total confrontation with the West and NATO,
including a nuclear confrontation. – Avraham Shmulevich
“Putin is clearly preparing for a total confrontation with the West
and NATO, including a nuclear confrontation. Throughout Central Russia,
people are intensively building bunkers and stockpiling food and
supplies, as the Kremlin propaganda apparatus has convinced the public
that a nuclear war is nothing to worry about. We’ve never seen this even
in Soviet times.
Avraham Shmulevich
The army is being modernized into a war footing, and infrastructure
and the economy is following in the same direction. In short, to
paraphrase a famous saying about the quacking duck: if Putin says he is
preparing for a nuclear war, and if the army is preparing for war,
perhaps it is actually the case. It is important to understand that
propaganda works not only on Russia’s population, but also on Russia’s
leadership. They are beginning to believe their own lies,” Shmulevich
said convincingly.
According to the Israeli expert, one of his friends, a major Russian
businessman who in the course of his regular business dealings about a
year ago, met with representatives of the Russian ruling elite at the
level of Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov and deputy heads of the Presidential Administration.
“They calmly discussed in front of him the possibility of dropping a
nuke on Raqqah when the battle with ISIL [ISIS] flares up the next time.
He was shocked that for them this possibility was very real,” said the
rabbi.
Putin sees himself as the successor
to the continuing history of the Cold War, and his main goal is to take
revenge for the collapse of the Soviet Union. – Avraham Shmulevich
Shmulevich believes Putin sees himself as the successor to the
continuing history of the Cold War, and his main goal is to take revenge
for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Hitler was not a stupid man either. He knew what war meant, and yet
he could assume that starting World War II would greatly affect his own
country. Nevertheless, he wanted war, and so took up war, in spite of
all the precautions against it. The same thing could happen here. This
is the logic of dictators. They unfortunately never know when to stop.
Now we see that Putin really ups the ante from one local war to
another,” he warned.
Despite initial denials, it appears that
at least three of the five French citizens who were killed in an
airplane crash in Malta earlier this week were employees of the
country’s external intelligence agency. The crash happened in the early
hours of Monday near the village of Luqa in southern Malta. Early
reports identified that the plane as a light aircraft and was carrying
five French citizens when it crashed, shortly after taking off from the
nearby Malta International Airport. Initial statements from Maltese and
French government officials said the plane was on a local flight route
and had not been scheduled to land outside of the Mediterranean island.
The five passengers were identified in press statements as “customs
officers” who were conducting a joint project with their Maltese
counterparts.
Subsequent reports in the French media,
however, said that at least three of the five French passengers who
perished in the crash were officers of the General Directorate for
External Security, France’s external intelligence agency, which goes by
the initials DGSE. It is also believed that the airplane was registered
in the United States and was operated by a Luxembourg-based company.
Reports
from Libya state that the plane’s mission is “shrouded in mystery”.
Some articles suggest that it was heading to the city of Misrata in
northern Libya, or that it may have been conducting a reconnaissance
operation over the Mediterranean, aimed at gathering intelligence on
smuggling activities originating from Libya.
The French intelligence services are
known to be active on the ground in Libya, where several Sunni Islamist
groups, including the Islamic State, control territory. In July of this
year, Paris acknowledged
for the first time that it had Special Forces and intelligence
operatives in Libya, after three DGSE officers were killed in a
helicopter crash in the North African country. The latest air crash was
not preceded by an explosion, according to French media. The French
government has launched an investigation into the incident.
Stung at the hostile tone of Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton’s efforts to cast Russia as America’s greatest
enemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he won’t let Clinton become
a global bully.
“Jeopardizing Russian-American relations in order to gain brownie
points internally – I consider this to be harmful and
counterproductive,” Putin recently told reporters in Russia in a video.
“It’s not funny anymore. If somebody out there wants confrontation.
This is not our choice but this means that there will be problems,”
Putin warned.
” … we consider it wrong, that we always have to be in conflict with
one another, creating existential threats for each other and for the
whole world,” he said.
Putin questioned whether Clinton’s talk was genuine or for show.
“Would Mrs. Clinton delivers on her threats and harsh rhetoric
against Russia if she became President? Or will she correct her position
against us?” he said.
Putin accused Clinton of trying “to distract voters from the
country’s problems” by blaming Russia and Iran for the nation’s ills.
Putin made it clear who he would prefer to see win the election.
“Mrs. Clinton has chosen to take up a very aggressive stance against
our country, against Russia. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, calls for
cooperation – at least when it comes to the international fight against
terrorism,” Putin said.
“Naturally we welcome those who would like to cooperate with us,” Putin noted.
Clinton’s tough line against Russia in the campaign is far different
than her tone in speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs in 2013, according
to transcripts shared by WikiLeaks. In those speeches, she said Russia posed no threat to the U.S.
Consultant Mandy Grunwald noted that Clinton’s campaign could be
damaged by “a ton of foreign policy stuff” in the speeches, “including
some naive sounding comments about Putin — that could cause a whole
separate set of issues — but Jake should review all that.”
“Certainly he’s asserted himself in a way now that is going to take some management
on our side, but obviously we would very much like to have a positive
relationship with Russia and we would like to see Putin be less
defensive toward a relationship with the United States so that we could
work together on some issues,” Clinton is quoted in the transcripts as
saying, later adding, “That’s what diplomacy is all about.”
A
Royal Navy lookout onboard HMS Richmond, observing Russian
aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, rear second right, and
Russian Battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy on the right, which are part
of a Russian task group during its transit through the North
Sea.
The British Royal Navy has sent warships to "man-mark," or
closely watch, Russia's northern fleet, including the Admiral
Kuznetsov, Russia's only aircraft carrier, as it prepares to pass
though the English Channel.
"When these ships near our waters we will man-mark them every
step of the way. We will be watching as part of our
steadfast commitment to keep Britain safe," a Ministry of Defence
spokesman told the Telegraph.
The Admiral Kuznetsov task group, which includes the carrier,
battlecruisers, and smaller destroyers, set out for Syria's coast
in the Mediterranean to continue the brutal siege of Aleppo, a strategically
important city in northeastern Syria that government forces
have tried to retake control of for years.
Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, called Russia's actions in
support of Syria's Assad "sickening atrocities."
The Royal Navy is no stranger to run-ins with Russia's fleet,
as tensions between Russia and the West mount and as Russian
submarine activity spikes to its highest level since the Cold
War.
Norwegian navy ships photographed the aircraft aboard the
Kuznetsov taking off, in apparent practice for their upcoming
carrier-based strikes against Aleppo.
Planes
practice taking off from Russia's only aircraft carrier on it's
way to support Assad in Aleppo.Norwegian Navy
The pictures do not indicate conclusively whether or not the
customary tugboat sails alongside the Kuznetsov, which has been
plagued by mechanical troubles in the past.
The Royal Navy's The Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan will
monitor the group, the Associated Press reports.
The ground operation to liberate the city of Mosul from ISIS
control kicked off on Sunday, with Iraqi army forces, Peshmerga
fighters, and Shiite militias converging on the city and its
surroundings.
In support of that operation, a US-led coalition of more than 60
countries has been carrying out airstrikes on ISIS personnel, fighters,
infrastructure, and weapons for months.
In an October 17 strike by a British air force
Typhoon fighter, a Paveway guided bomb destroys an ISIS
vehicle-borne improvised explosive device about 12 miles south of
the city.
ISIS has relied heavily on improvised explosive devices,
both static and vehicle borne, during fighting in Iraq.
Accordingly, the terrorist group's IEDs and IED factories have been a focus for
strikes by the US-led coalition.
Prior to the RAF strike on the vehicle-borne improvised explosive
device (VBIED) south of the city, a coalition strike eliminated an IED factory near Mosul, which
is Iraq's second-largest city and the largest Iraqi city still
under ISIS control.
Fighting on the ground around Mosul has continued since the
operation was launched on October 16, with Iraqi forces and
their allies at times encountering heavy resistance. Iraqi and
Peshmerga troops faced numerous VBIEDs, IEDs, and mortars near
Bartella, a town east of Mosul.
An Iraqi soldier told American journalist Danny Gold there
were 10 VBIED attacks in that area.
In September, the US deployed 615 more personnel to assist
Iraqi efforts to retake the city, bringing the total number of US
troops to more than 5,000.
Police cordon off the Imam Sadiq mosque in the Al Sawaber area of Kuwait
City after a bomb exploded there following Friday prayers
Kuwait- Authorities in Kuwait are tracking down details extracted
from an arrested group of residents suspected of plotting and leading
terror attacks against U.S. soldiers assigned to the country.
A collision between a truck driven by an Egyptian and a vehicle
carrying three U.S. soldiers in Kuwait was a “terrorist attack,” not an
accident as first thought, the U.S. embassy said.
“U.S. Embassy in Kuwait confirms that what at first appeared to be a
routine traffic accident involving three deployed U.S. military
personnel… was in fact an attempted terrorist attack,” the mission said
in a statement posted on its website.
The statement said the attack took place on Thursday and that the U.S. soldiers escaped unhurt.
The soldiers also rescued the Egyptian driver when his truck caught fire, it said.
The Kuwaiti interior ministry said on Saturday that authorities
arrested the Egyptian driver and found with him a hand-written note in
which he had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
It also said that the driver, identified as Ibrahim Sulaiman, 28,
also carried a belt and material suspected of being explosives.
Sulaiman told investigators that he supported the group and believed
that its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi should be the head of all Muslims.
He said that he had been using the Internet to follow the killing
operations and the explosions carried out by the group, Kuwaiti daily Al
Rai reported on Monday.
Sulaiman said that his attempts to learn how to make an explosive
belt from the internet had failed as he did not have the required items.
Kuwaiti authorities announced in July they had dismantled three ISIS
cells plotting attacks, including a suicide bombing against a Shi’ite
mosque and against an interior ministry target.
An ISIS-linked suicide bomber had killed 26 worshippers in June last year when he blew himself up in a mosque.
The U.S. embassy said it was not aware of specific, credible threats against private U.S. citizens in Kuwait at this time.
But it warned that the attack serves as a reminder to maintain a high
level of attentiveness, advising U.S. citizens to review their personal
security plans and remain alert.
Syrian
refugee arrested in Germany on Monday after being tied up by three
compatriots was plotting to bomb a Berlin airport in the name of the
Islamic State group, the head of domestic intelligence said.
“We
have received information from the secret services that he initially
wanted to target trains in Germany before finally deciding on one of
Berlin’s airports,” Hans-Georg Maassen told German public TV channel
ARD.
While
some German media outlets over the weekend suggested the suspect, Jaber
Albakr, 22, had such a target in mind, this was the first official
confirmation.
The decision to arrest the suspect was taken Friday after he bought hot-melt glue.
“We thought this was the last chemical product he needed to make a bomb,” said Maassen.
Albakr
had narrowly slipped through the police net Saturday when commandos
raided his apartment and found 1.5 kilos (over 3 pounds) of TATP, the
homemade explosive used by jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks.
The
explosives were “almost ready, or even ready for use”, said Joerg
Michaelis, chief investigator in the eastern state of Saxony, adding
that the suspect was apparently preparing a “bomb, possibly in the form
of a suicide vest”.
– ‘He tried to bribe us’ –
After
a two-day manhunt, police finally got their man with the help of three
of Albakr’s fellow Syrians in the eastern city of Leipzig. (AFP)
Russia's deployment of nuclear-capable missiles its enclave of
Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea is a "wake-up call" for the West of the
current dangers, according to analysts. Germany warns the tensions
between Moscow and the West are more dangerous than during the Cold War.
Russia's
Iskander missiles have a range of around 500 kilometers, and their
deployment in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between
Poland and Lithuania, has rattled the West.
“The dramatic reaction
of the West about Iskander [missiles] now is that it is just a wake-up
call, it is just a very clear message. It is that ice-cold bucket of
water that says, 'Wake up, you are not living in a safe world,” said
Igor Sutyagin is a Russian military analyst at London's Royal United
Services Institute.
Moscow says the deployment is part of a regular military exercise.
During
the Cold War larger missiles were deployed in what was then East
Germany and Czechoslovakia. This time round, the strategy is
psychological, says Sutyagin.
“The idea is to intimidate the West.
Because Russia does not have any other tools to fight for its
competitiveness in the international arena but psychology. Even the
Russian military are comparatively weaker than NATO's forces,” he said.
Russia
caused further alarm with its deployment of an S-300 missile defense
system to its naval base in Syria. Moscow's Defense Ministry spokesman
Major-General Igor Konashenkov denied Russia is saber rattling.
FILE – Russian cadets pass an S-300 surface-to-air missile system during a military exhibition in St. Petersburg, Feb. 20, 2015.
He
told reporters last week the missile battery is intended to ensure the
safety of Russia's Tartus naval base and its naval task force. He said
it was unclear why the deployment of the S-300 caused such alarm among
Moscow's Western partners.
But writing in the German Bild
newspaper this week, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
called the tension between the West and Russia more dangerous than
during the Cold War. Analyst Igor Sutyagin agrees.
“It is
calculated unpredictability on the Russian side because that is part of
psychology," he said. "You need to be mad, or present yourself as mad,
as crazy, so everybody thinks that 'this guy is really crazy so it is
better to step away from his path.”
That unpredictability is
played out in the skies of Europe. In April, Russian jets buzzed a U.S.
warship in the Baltic Sea, one of scores of such incidents in recent
months.
Last week, Finland scrambled its fighters to intercept
Russian SU-27 jets that is says breached its airspace, a charge Moscow
denied.
Picture of Russian SU-27 fighter said to have violated Finland's airspace near Porvoo, Finland, early Oct. 7, 2016.
Non-aligned
Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, and has fostered
closer ties with NATO to counter Russian aggression. U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Defense Robert Work visited Helsinki last week to sign a
deal on closer military training and information sharing.
In a development that is expected to
contribute to the downward spiral in Turkish-American relations, the
United States government has reportedly filed espionage charges against
three Department of Defense contractors with Turkish background. The
three are believed to have been charged with transferring US military
secrets abroad and are currently in prison.
A statement published by the US Pentagon
said that the group consists of two men and a woman, all of whom are of
Turkish background. Two of them are naturalized American citizens. They
are listed as owners of a company that conducts research in military
technology and has contracted for many years with the US Pentagon. All
contracts were allegedly won following competitive bids and can only be
awarded to bidders who are in possession of US citizenship and top
security clearances. According to Turkey’s pro-government English-language newspaper, Daily Sabah,
the three contractors have helped develop and manufacture parts for
missile-launching systems used on American warplanes. They have also
worked on several generations of grenade launchers used by the US
military.
But on Sunday, the three contractors were
arrested in simultaneous raids and charged with “funneling military
secrets out of the country”, according to Sabah. The paper said
the US government decided to arrest the three once it became known that
some hardware parts related to the Pentagon bids handled by their
company were being illegally manufactured in Turkey. There is no
information in the Pentagon’s press release on whether the top-secret
military components were also shared with the Turkish government.
Relations between Washington and Ankara, two North Atlantic Treaty
Organization member-states, have suffered since the failed July 15
military coup in Turkey. Many in the administration of Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blame Washington for the coup and for allegedly
shielding the man behind it, the Islamic cleric Muhammed Fethullah
Gülen, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania.
INTERPOL has informed
Morocco to stay on guard to spot 6,000 fake passports currently in use
by agents of the Islamic State to travel internationally, according to a
new report by Le360.
Morocco will be strengthening security
at airports to identify the passports and prevent ISIS fighters from
boarding a flight to their intended destination or entering the kingdom.
The international police organization
has provided national authorities with the personal information through
which the passports have been registered and has asked for the data to
be distributed to all Moroccan airports.
Other countries that could come in
contact with the passports have also been notified of the fake documents
and have been encouraged to share any new information regarding those
who held the illegitimate documentation.
In November 2015, INTERPOL’s Foreign Terrorist Fighter’s Working Group claimed roughly 10 percent of the 25,000 jihadists that have joined ISIS are Moroccans.
The group conducted a census of the fighters and found them to be from over 50 countries.
Moroccan security forces have
successfully dismantled dozens of ISIS-related terrorist cells over the
past few years. The kingdom’s intelligence has assisted in the capture
of several perpetrators of the November 2015 attacks in France and the
March 2016 attacks in Belgium.
Some 300 defectors and captured combatants, including many Europeans,
are being held at the camp operated by the rebel group Jaysh al-Tahrir.
Its commander, Mohammad al-Ghabi, told the BBC: "We tried to rehabilitate them and alter their state of minds."
"Those who wished to return home were allowed to call their embassies and co-ordinate with them through us."
Among the group are French, Dutch and Polish nationals, as well as
foreign fighters from North Africa and across the Middle East and
Central Asia.
The men, women and children are being held in a village in the northern countryside of Idlib province.
Mr Ghabi said the numbers were growing as IS
collapsed, thanks to a Turkish-supported rebel offensive against the
group in northern Syria called "Operation Euphrates Shield".
"IS
has been falling apart for the past seven or eight months, according to
the defectors we spoke to. However, Operation Euphrates Shield further
degraded IS and led to its dismemberment following the rapid advances of
our forces," he added.
A BBC team was unable to visit the camp,
but obtained material from inside. It has basic facilities and the
prisoners there say they are being well cared for, but many want to
leave.
One former IS fighter there goes by the name of Abu Sumail.
He
travelled from his native Netherlands two years ago, going first to
Belgium, then to Gaziantep in Turkey. He said he disguised himself as
"party guy" on holiday, to avoid detection by the intelligence services.
But getting into Syria was much easier than leaving.
Speaking
of his disappointment with life inside IS-held territory, he said:
"They treat us very bad, especially people from another country.
"It's
very hard for us to live there - it's not our lifestyle because we are
used to a lot of things and then we come there and they directly start
to treat you hard.
"You give your life to them so they are going to start to take control of your life. They use you for bad stuff."
The BBC has also learned that an underground
railroad is being created in Syria, with other rebel groups and British
and European intelligence services, to find, capture and return IS
supporters.
Inside the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto IS
capital, fighters have begun to send videos and personal statements to
rebel groups, in the hope of escaping with their families.
At
least half a dozen foreign fighters have made it out already, and are
facing imprisonment back in Europe, according to rebel groups.
Mr Ghabi said that not everyone would be allowed to leave.
"Those
who didn't want to go back or had committed crimes are being referred
to a Sharia court, which rules by [Islamic] law and punishes according
to the gravity of crime committed."
Some could be executed, he
warned, and added that the window of opportunity for defectors to cross
to the rebels was closing fast, as IS continues to lose territory and
its proto-state crumbles.
A United States federal contractor, who
remains in detention following his arrest last summer for stealing
classified documents, may have worked for an elite cyber espionage unit
of the National Security Agency. The man was identified by The New York Times
last week as Harold Thomas Martin III, a 51-year-old employee of Booz
Allen Hamilton, one of the largest federal contractors in the US. The
paper said that, prior to joining Booz Allen Hamilton, Martin served as a
US Navy officer for over a decade, where he specialized in cyber
security and acquired a top secret clearance. But last August, agents of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Martin’s house in Maryland
and arrested him on charges of stealing government property and
illegally removing classified material.
Media reports suggest that the FBI
discovered significant quantities of classified information, some of it
dating back to 2006, on a variety of electronic devices that Martin had
stored —though apparently not hidden— in his house and car. Another
interesting aspect of the case is that there is no proof at this point
that Martin actually shared the classified information with a third
party. There is some speculation that he may be behind a disclosure
of a collection of NSA hacking tools, which were leaked in August of
this year by a previously unknown group calling itself “the Shadow
Brokers”. But some speculate that Martin may have taken the classified
material home so he could write his dissertation for the PhD he is
currently undertaking at the University of Maryland’s Information
Systems program.
A few days ago, The Daily Beast quoted
an unnamed former colleague of Martin who said that the NSA contractor
was a member of one of the agency’s elite cyber spy units. The existence
of the secretive unit, which is known as the NSA’s Office of Tailored
Access Operations, was revealed in June 2013 by veteran NSA watcher Matthew M. Aid. Writing in Foreign Policy,
Aid cited “a number of highly confidential sources” in alleging that
the NSA maintained a substantial “hacker army” tasked with conducting
offensive cyber espionage against foreign targets. More information on
NSA’s TAO was provided in January 2014 by German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. If The Daily Beast’s allegations about Martin are accurate, they would explain why anonymous government sources toldThe Washington Post
last week that some of the documents Martin took home “could be
expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of
the United States”. The case also highlights the constant tension
between security and the privatization of intelligence, which was also a
major parameter in the case of Edward Snowden, another Booz Allen
Hamilton contractor who defected to Russia in 2013.
Meanwhile, Martin remains in detention. If he is convicted, he will face up to 11 years behind bars.
The main gate for Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Six Fort Campbell soldiers were among eight people indicted by a
federal grand jury on accusations they engaged in a conspiracy to steal
and sell military sniper telescopes, machine gun parts, grenade launcher
sights and other sensitive equipment to the highest bidder online –
including several buyers in hostile foreign countries.
The soldiers are charged with stealing more than $1
million worth of equipment, such as flight helmets, communications
headsets, body armor and medical supplies, according to a Justice Dept.
news release issued Thursday. Two of the men are charged with selling
some of the equipment to customers in Russia, China, Hong Kong,
Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Mexico, among other nations.
“The actions of the soldiers charged today should in
no way stain the honor of the brave men and women who proudly serve in
our country’s armed forces and selflessly give everything to protect
America’s freedom,” U.S. Attorney David Rivera said. “To the contrary,
we never want to allow the illegal and self-serving actions of a few to
cast a shadow on the thousands of military heroes who every day place
themselves in harm’s way to protect this great nation.”
Those indicted on Wednesday were John Roberts, 26;
Cory Wilson, 42; U.S. Army Sargent Michael Barlow, 29; Sargent Jonathan
Wolford, 28; Specialist Kyle Heade, 29; Specialist Alexander Hollibaugh,
25; Specialist Dustin Nelson 22; and Specialist Aaron Warner, 24.
Each man is charged with conspiring to steal or
receive U.S. Army property and to sell or convey U.S. Army property
without authority. Roberts was also charged with 10 counts of wire fraud
and one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Wilson was
charged with seven counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering
and one count of violating the Arms Exports Control Act. Barlow was
charged with three counts of selling or conveying U.S. Army property
without authority.
If convicted, on the conspiracy counts, each man
could face up to five years in prison. Roberts and Wilson face up to 20
years in prison for each wire fraud count. Barlow could get up to 10
years if convicted on the conveying charge.
A U.S. Navy
guided missile destroyer was targeted on Sunday in a failed missile
attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels,
a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters, saying neither of the two
missiles hit the ship.
The
attempted strike on the USS Mason, which was first reported by Reuters,
came just a week after a United Arab Emirates vessel came under attack
from Houthis and suggests growing risks to the U.S. military from
Yemen's conflict.
The U.S.
government, which has become increasingly vocal about civilian
casualties in the war, this weekend announced a review of its support to
a Saudi Arabia-led coalition battling the Houthis after a strike on
mourners in the capital Sanaa that killed up to 140 people.
The
failed missile attack on the USS Mason began around 7 p.m. local time,
when the ship detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period in
the Red Sea off Yemen's coast, the U.S. military said.
"Both
missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship," Pentagon
spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. "There were no injuries to our
sailors and no damage to the ship."
Saudi
Arabia and the United States blame Shi'ite Iran for supplying weapons
to the Houthis. Tehran views the Houthis, who are from a Shi'ite sect,
as the legitimate authority in Yemen but denies it supplies them with
weapons.
A U.S. defense
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first missile
triggered counter-measures from the USS Mason. It was not immediately
clear whether those defenses may have helped prevent a direct hit on the
ship.
The USS Mason did
not return fire, the official said, adding that the incident took place
just north of the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen's southern coast.
Last
week's attack on the UAE vessel also took place around the Bab
al-Mandab strait, in what the UAE branded an "act of terrorism."
In
2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil passed through the 20 km (12
mile)-wide Bab al-Mandab each day, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration says.
It
was unclear what actions the U.S. military might take, but Davis
stressed a commitment to defend freedom of navigation and protect U.S.
forces.
"We will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of our ships and our servicemembers," he said.
The
attack also came the same day that Yemen's powerful former president,
Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key Houthi ally, called for an escalation of
attacks against Saudi Arabia, demanding "battle readiness at the fronts
on the (Saudi) border".
An
estimated 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen's war. The United
Nations blames Saudi-led coalition strikes for 60 percent of some 3,800
civilian deaths since they began in March 2015.
Abrams tanks train in the desert for the possibility of “decisive action.”
FORT HOOD, Texas ― The United
States Army, citing threats from North Korea, Iran, Russia and the
Islamic State, has put its most powerful combat units on a war footing,
ready to slug it out, if necessary, in high-intensity battle.
Even as GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump
claims the military is “in a really bad state” and “totally
unprepared,” the Army’s data show it is more ready for major combat than
it has been at any time since 2003.
Here at the home of the 1st Cavalry Division, one of the Army’s
premier heavy combat units, preparations for the possibility of war are
forcing a relentless pace, as busy as at the peak of fighting in Iraq
and Afghanistan a decade ago. Troops are constantly in the field
training.
But they’re not practicing the counterinsurgency skills that were
needed in Iraq and Afghanistan ― foot patrols, small-arms firefights,
tribal leader engagement and humanitarian projects.
Instead, battalions of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles are
practicing maneuvers and firing their weapons in the dusty plains of
central Texas. Commanders are honing their ability to coordinate those
fast-moving tanks with long-range shelling by heavy artillery, strikes
by helicopter gunships and Air Force jets, and the movements of
infantry. Combat engineers are plowing up walls of earth and digging
deep ditches to thwart enemy tank attacks and blowing through enemy
defenses of coiled razor wire and (simulated) landmines.
This is what the Army calls “decisive action” ― massive and sustained
heavy combat that requires the complex synchronization of multiple
military forces on a fluid and unpredictable battlefield.
Think epic
World War II clashes or “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.” Among the U.S. military’s range of missions, decisive action is the most difficult and the most demanding.
Capt. John Farmer/U.S. Army
An Army Abrams tank hurls a 48-pound armor-piercing projectile in training for high-intensity warfare.
Trump and some other senior
Republicans like to argue that the military has been “badly depleted” by
President Barack Obama’s policies. They warn that U.S. forces lack
modern equipment and require “major rebuilding.”
But 1st Cavalry officers look blank when asked about shortages.
“Money is not one of my constraints,” said Col. John K. Woodward, who
commands the division’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team. “The finite
resource is time.”
Capt. Jeff Feser, who leads a tank company of the 3rd Brigade, stood
recently on a broiling hot afternoon watching tanks hurl 120 mm rounds
at distant targets as they prowled along five miles of Fort Hood’s Jack
Mountain range. Combat commanders, he observed, never think they have
enough.
“But we get what we need,” he said. “We’re gonna make it work, no matter what. That’s what we’re paid to do.”
A New Sense Of Urgency
Training for heavy combat is a major shift for the Army, which along
with the other military services came to an uncertain pause five years
ago as U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq and forces were drawn down in
Afghanistan. It wasn’t clear if the military’s future lay in more
counterinsurgency or peacekeeping operations ― or something different.
It was something different. The Islamic State and its rampaging
forces emerged as a major threat to Mideast stability. Iran accelerated
its drive to become the regional superpower. Russia’s armed seizure of
Crimea and its bullying threats against Ukraine and the Baltic states
served as “a real wake-up call,” Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster told a
congressional panel in April. For the first time since the Cold War, the
top brass saw that the Army needed to be no-kidding ready to deter or
even fight a major conventional war against a strong opponent.
Then, U.S. hopes that diplomacy and sanctions could force an end to
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program were dashed in early September
when Pyongyang tested a nuclear device that was thought to be small
enough to fit on a ballistic missile. That seemed to move North Korea,
too, into the ranks of major threat while narrowing U.S. options for
responding.
So there’s a new sense of urgency at Fort Hood and other bustling Army bases.
“For 15 years, the enemy has not been an existential threat,”
Woodward said, referring to the potential destruction of the United
States. “Now, Russia, China, North Korea and ISIS are a threat to the
homeland, so we face a decisive-action fight to defeat one of those
threats if necessary.”
Amid the geopolitical unease, commanders are pushing to raise the full combat readiness of their troops.
Combat and support units are being ordered on no-notice “emergency
deployment” drills, practicing the skills ― largely neglected since 2003
― needed to pack up and ship troops and heavy equipment overseas
quickly. The Army is also stocking the supply bunkers, pouring money
into ammunition and spare parts, with funds in large part that had been
earmarked for developing future weapons systems.
Master Sgt. Christopher A. Campbell/U.S. Air Force
An Air Force C-17 unloads an Abrams tank at an undisclosed location.
The demand for Army forces ―
from the regional combatant commanders who must assess threats in Asia,
the Middle East and Europe ― has jumped by 38 percent in the past two
years. With 65,000 fewer soldiers than in 2012, the Army is telling new
troops in the armored brigades to anticipate deploying on a regular
basis.
“We’re expected to deploy this division on very short notice,” said
Col. Robert Whittle, deputy division commander at 1st Cavalry,
explaining the brisk training schedule. “The Army is doing everything it
can to resource us to do that. We have what we need, but we need every
dollar, every training event, every person.”
This fall, the 4,000 soldiers of the division’s 3rd Brigade are training in the California desert
― maneuvering under live fire with long-range artillery, airstrikes,
cyber attacks and drones ― before they deploy overseas in December for
nine months. The 1st Brigade is currently deployed on a nine-month
rotation to South Korea. The 2nd Brigade just returned from Korea and is
training to deploy again. The division’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment and the
division headquarters staff, meanwhile, are in the fight in Afghanistan.
The Army’s six other active-duty armored brigades are similarly busy,
rotating to bases in Kuwait and now in Europe, where the Obama
administration decided earlier this year to permanently assign a heavy
combat brigade against the Russian threat.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley declared the Army “more capable,
better trained ... and more lethal than any other ground force in the
world.”
“What we want is to deter ―
nobody wants a war with a near-peer competitor, a great power,” Gen.
Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff, said at a Senate Armed Services
Committee hearing on Sept. 15.
He pushed back hard against those accusations that the Army is
unready and issued what sounded like a warning to any foreign leader
tempted to test U.S. capabilities.
“Lest there be any doubt about Army readiness today,” Milley
declared, “we are more capable, better trained, equipped, better led and
more lethal than any other ground force in the world today. … Our
enemies know full well we can destroy them. We can destroy any enemy, we
can destroy them anywhere, and we can destroy them any time.”
What ‘Combat-Ready’ Looks Like
Out on the campaign trail, the issue of combat readiness seems to be misunderstood or misconstrued. Trump asserts
that “only one-third of combat teams are considered combat-ready.” He
and other critics imply that the remaining two-thirds of the Army’s
armored, infantry and airborne brigade combat teams are in total
disarray, that anything short of having all 482,000 active-duty soldiers
certified “combat-ready” for “decisive action” operations is a
dangerous abdication of responsibility.
In reality, there are tiers of combat readiness.
The military prepares for multiple missions ― from training and
advising allied troops, to more complex counterinsurgency operations, to
decisive action ― based on high-level decisions about what warfighting
challenges are most likely and which potential adversaries are most
dangerous. No soldier, and therefore no army, can be at peak readiness
for every conceivable mission at every moment.
Thousands of soldiers are not even assigned to combat units. Many
serve as drill sergeants, personnel managers, intelligence analysts or
in other jobs. Some have been sent to advanced military courses.
Turnover is an issue. About 75,000 seasoned troops will leave the
Army this year, and it will begin training 62,000 new troops. In some
1st Cavalry battalions, one-third of the soldiers are privates.
We have what we need, but we need every dollar, every training event, every person.Col. Robert Whittle, 1st Cavalry Division
Money is a factor. Training
is expensive; training for heavy combat is more expensive. Deciding how
much to spend on current readiness and how much on future weapons
systems requires a judicious weighing of present and future risks.
Training for major combat takes a human toll as well. Unless there’s a
good chance those skills will actually be used, it makes little sense
to require all troops to maintain the exhausting performance standards
for decisive action.
Today, 21 of the Army’s 59 brigade combat teams on active duty and in
the National Guard ― nearly 36 percent ― meet the highest standards of
readiness: They’re prepared to immediately deploy into and win a
high-intensity war against a great power like China or Russia. That
means the Army has tested and certified their ability to excel at all
levels of decisive-action warfare. It means they are also able to
execute lesser missions such as counterinsurgency and the
train-and-advise efforts the Army is conducting in Afghanistan.
The other 38 Army brigades are at varying stages of training, some
certified for counterterrorism and others for counterinsurgency or
limited high-intensity warfare ― missions that are less demanding than
decisive action, but more likely to be used in the current environment.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, almost no Army units were
trained to the standards of high-intensity decisive action. They were
trained in counterinsurgency because that was the mission.
And no one complained that the troops engaged in combat were not “combat ready.”
‘We Are Lying To Ourselves’
In the years following the end of the Cold War, when no existential
threat loomed, the Army kept about half its brigades ready for heavy
combat. Now, the plan is to bring two-thirds of Army forces up to
decisive-action standards within four years ― if Congress can come up
with the money.
Between the future budget reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget
Control Act and the automatic cuts known as sequestration launched by
that law, billions of dollars could actually be sliced from the Pentagon
budget in the coming years. That would jeopardize the ability of the
Army and other military services to meet the strategic goals set by this
president ― or the next.
When Congress will pass a new defense budget or fix the chaos caused
by sequestration is anybody’s guess. Lawmakers recently passed a
continuing resolution that will allow the military (and the rest of the
federal government) to limp along under current spending levels until
after the election.
“We are lying to ourselves and the American people about the true
cost of defending the nation,” thundered Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.),
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the Sept. 15 hearing.
“Who is to blame for the increased risk to the lives of the men and
women who volunteer to serve? The answer is clear: We are!”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. John McCain warns that Americans are not facing “the true cost of defending the nation.”
Beyond the budgetary logjam ―
and despite Gen. Milley’s assurances ― there are questions about
whether the Army, at its current size, can meet the demands of potential
crises in Europe, North Korea and the Mideast.
The Army has nine heavy armored brigades in its active-duty force.
Each one is already committed, either deployed abroad, just returning
from a nine-month deployment or training to go. Five more armored
brigades reside in the National Guard as a reserve force. “That’s it ―
that’s all we got,” said Woodward, the 3rd Brigade commander.
Without mobilizing thousands of National Guard soldiers, the Army can
keep only one heavy armored brigade in each of the three trouble spots
at any one time. Is that enough? Couldn’t the Russians overrun that kind of force in Eastern Europe?
“Good question,” said Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost, who has served as
deputy commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division and deputy
director for operations at the Pentagon’s operations nerve center. He is
currently chief spokesman for the Army.
Given the growing global threats, Frost said, the Army staff is
studying whether it has the right mix of heavy armored brigades,
infantry brigades and lighter units of Stryker combat vehicles. That
analysis is ongoing.
At Fort Hood recently, Lt. Col. Andrew Kiser was running his tank
battalion at an exacting pace. Only 10 percent of the troops he’s
training have ever seen combat before.
There are few days off. With a spare hour, Kiser said, “you walk out into the parking lot and do battle drills.”
All his officers and sergeants participate in a mandatory reading program ― the current book is Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win,
by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin ― and then write essays summarizing the
main points. “We do PT [physical training], go to breakfast, then
discuss,” said Kiser. Afterward, there’s a full day of tank gunnery.
And they keep an eye on the news. “You don’t know what [mission]
you’re going to get ― Korea, Kuwait or Europe ― and counterinsurgency or
decisive action or humanitarian operations. So you’ve got to train for
all three,” he said.
“That’s why time is the resource that constrains us the most. Everybody feels the crunch.”
Turkey's army
said it clashed with Islamic State over the border in Syria, leaving one
soldier and 23 militants dead, as Ankara stepped up an operation to
clear insurgents from the frontier region.
Three
other Turkish soldiers were wounded in the battle near the Syrian
village of Ziyara over the past 24 hours, part of Ankara's "Euphrates
Shield" offensive, the military added on Wednesday.
A
Syrian rebel commander taking part in the "Euphrates Shield" operation
told Reuters that Islamic State had fought furiously during a battle for
the village of Turkman Bareh, which was captured by rebels this week.
The commander said Islamic State had
drafted in reinforcements to the area, not far from Dabiq, a village
with symbolic importance to the militants since it is cited in the Koran
as the scene of an apocalyptic battle.
"We expect resistance in the remaining villages," the commander said.
Turkey's entry into Syria has raised concerns of a further escalation in an increasingly fraught regional conflict.
Ankara
says its efforts to cleanse its border region of Islamic State
militants are legitimate under international law as self-defense after
months of rocket attacks and bombings in cities along the boundary.
President
Tayyip Erdogan has also made it clear that Turkish forces are in Syria
to prevent the Syrian Kurdish militia, which is backed by the United
States to fight Islamic State, from expanding areas under its control.
Two
Syrian rebel fighters backed by Turkey died in other clashes with
Islamic State along the boundary, the Turkish military statement said.
The Ankara-backed rebels had seized control of around 980 square km (378
square miles) of territory since Euphrates Shield began on Aug. 24, it
added.
Separately, U.S.-led coalition warplanes carried
out nine air strikes on Islamic State targets in northern Syria,
killing five further militants, the military said in its daily summary
of the Syrian operation.
The Russian Navy says one of its corvettes is heading to the
Mediterranean Sea to join the country’s group of warships in the region.
A spokesman for the Black Sea Fleet said the Mirazh, armed with
Malakhit cruise missiles, left its Crimean base at Sevastopol on October
6.
The Mirazh follows another two Black Sea Fleet corvettes, equipped
with Kalibr long-range cruise missiles, which had been due to reach the
Mediterranean late on October 5.
The navy said the deployments are part of a "planned rotation" of Moscow's naval forces in the region.
The moves come after Moscow confirmed it had sent an S-300
antiaircraft missile system to its naval base in Syria's port of Tartus.
They also follow Washington’s announcement that it is suspending talks with Russia on trying to end the violence in Syria.
A Sydney woman has been sentenced to eight months’ prison for refusing to answer questions about a suspected terror plot.
Alo-Bridget Namoa, 19, appeared before the New South Wales
Crime Commission in February after police allegedly found extremist
material on her and her husband’s phones, including instructions for
carrying out a terror attack.
Namoa pleaded guilty in February to 31 charges of failing to answer a
question at a crime commission hearing, and was sentenced at Sydney’s
central local court on Thursday.
Belgian prosecutors charged a suspect with attempted murder Thursday
over the stabbing of two police officers in a "terrorist attack" in
Brussels, the latest such incident in a city still reeling from deadly
bombings in March.
The suspect in Wednesday's attack, named as
43-year-old Hicham D. has been "charged with attempted murder in a
terrorist context and participation at the activities of a terrorist
group," a statement from the prosecutor's office said.
His
brother, Aboubaker D, had also been taken into custody "in the framework
of the terrorist attack against two police officers" in Brussels, it
said. The brother was born in 1970 and both men have Belgian
nationality.
"The investigating judge, specialising in terrorism,
will decide tomorrow on the possible extension of his detention," the
statement added.
Police shot the attacker in the leg after he used
a knife to attack the two officers, one female and one male, in the
Schaerbeek area of the Belgian capital before breaking the nose of a
third officer.
Reports said the attacker was a former soldier with ties to jihadists who had gone to fight in Syria.
Wednesday's
incident came shortly after one of the main train stations in Brussels
and the city's prosecutor's office were shut by a bomb scare which later
turned out to be a false alarm.
The stabbing comes two months
after two policewomen were wounded in the southern Belgian city of
Charleroi by a machete-wielding man who shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is
greatest).
Belgium remains on its second highest terror alert
level following the March 22 Islamic State suicide bombings targeting
the Brussels metro and airport in which 32 people were killed.
The Emergencies Ministry of Russia is
going to organize all-Russian civil defence drill since 4 October until 7
October 2016. More than 40 million people, more than 200.000
specialists of rescue and recovery units, as well as more than 50.000
units of equipment are going to be involved into the drill.
Also, federal executive authorities,
heads of regions, local governing bodies and organizations are going to
participate in the drill. Personnel and equipment of the Emergencies
Ministry are going to be fully engaged, as well as rescue and recovery
units, paramilitary mine rescue divisions, units of the State Small
Vessel Inspectorate, as well as State Fire Service of the Emergencies
Ministry and aircraft.
Non-staff rescue and recovery units will
also participate in the civil defence drill. The drill is purposed to
check relevance of current plans for different periods and preparedness
of all personnel and equipment for action.
Information and gathering of the senior
personnel of ministries and agencies, executive authorities of the
regions of the Russian Federation and local governments will be carried
out.
Evacuation, issuing of personal
protection equipment, deployment of sanitation station will be trained.
Additionally, all protective equipment will be brought to readiness.
Systems for emergency information of the population are going to be
checked upon agreement with regional and municipal authorities.
Quality of medical services will be
checked in medical institutions under jurisdiction of the Emergencies
Ministry. Rescuers in cooperation with other service will train action
to mitigate different emergency situations, as natural, as man-caused in
order to improve efficiency of approaches used to protect the
population and territories. Fulfillment of these tasks allows increasing
level of preparedness of the population, senior management and civil
defence forces for action during large scale emergency situations
occurring in peace time.
ABUJA, Nigeria — The disputed leader of Boko Haram knows how to cheat death — and do it in style.
After the Nigerian army declared him “fatally wounded” on Aug. 19,
Abubakar Shekau appeared in a new video last week to mock the government
that has claimed to have killed him at least four times already.
“To the despot Nigerian government: Die with envy. I’m not dead,” a man purporting to be Shekau says in the video.
But if Shekau looks untouchable in the fight against the Nigerian
army, he has proved much more vulnerable to threats from within his
organization. Less than 18 months after he led Boko Haram into a
high-profile partnership with the Islamic State, the Iraq- and
Syria-based caliphate shunted him aside in favor of a new representative
in Nigeria. In an interview published in the Islamic State’s propaganda
magazine in August, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the son of the late Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, was named the new leader of Boko Haram.
Shekau rejected Barnawi’s appointment and insisted he was still in
charge, setting off a propaganda war between supporters of the two
jihadi leaders that raged until Shekau was supposedly killed in an air
raid last month. That propaganda war — and the broader struggle for
control of the world’s most deadly terrorist outfit — has been
revitalized with the release of Shekau’s latest video, in which he
appears in front of an Islamic State flag.
At the heart of Boko Haram’s most serious leadership rift in years
are fundamental disagreements over ideology, tactics, and the group’s
relationship with the Islamic State. Boko Haram has never been a one-man
show. It has always had competing factions led by powerful local
commanders who disagree on how to achieve the group’s goal of an Islamic
caliphate. But these disagreements have hardened since Shekau assumed
leadership of Boko Haram in 2009. His ruthlessness and zeal for violence
alienated many of his followers, and may even have proved too much for
the Islamic State to stomach, prompting the group to replace him with a
more conservative leader.
Under Shekau, Boko Haram embarked upon an indiscriminate
scorched-earth campaign against anyone — Muslim or non-Muslim — who
didn’t subscribe to the group’s harsh doctrine. Often, the group’s
handiwork was featured in grisly propaganda videos in which Shekau
gleefully took responsibility for kidnapping schoolgirls or slaughtering
women and children. The approach invited condemnation from mainstream
Muslims, including the Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of
Nigeria’s Muslims, who has repeatedly stressed that “more Muslims have died from Boko Haram activity than Christians.”
Shekau’s tactics also provoked dissent from within Boko Haram’s
ranks, including from Barnawi, who opposes targeting fellow Muslims.
Since being tapped by the Islamic State to lead Boko Haram, he has said, “Attacks
on mosques, markets, and other venues belonging to Muslims do not
represent IS, they only represent themselves. … We don’t authorize or
approve such attacks.”
In an audio recording released the same week as Barnawi’s
appointment, Mamman Nur, another senior Boko Haram commander, rejected
Shekau’s leadership, claiming he was “ignorant and needs to be taught
the rudiments of Islam.” Nur said
he and other fighters defected from Boko Haram because they did not
want to be “part of a caliphate of injustices and shedding of blood.”
So aggrieved were commanders like Barnawi and Nur that they reportedly complained directly
to the Islamic State’s leadership about Shekau’s brutality, erratic
behavior, and impulsive use of executions to silence internal dissent.
It seems likely that these complaints, which raised the possibility of a
major split within the Nigerian terror group that would dilute the
Islamic State’s influence, persuaded the Iraq- and Syria-based group to
appoint a new leader.
Fear that Shekau’s brutality might threaten the unity of Boko Haram was well founded.
Four years ago, a splinter group calling itself Ansaru defected from Boko Haram and openly complained
about the group’s targeting of Muslims. Although Ansaru eventually
mended fences with Shekau, Boko Haram continued its indiscriminate
campaign of terror.
It’s no accident that the Islamic State selected Barnawi, whose
disciplined and understated demeanor contrasts sharply with that of
Shekau, as its new leader in Nigeria. As the son of Yusuf, he has a
hereditary claim to leadership. He has also appeared in Boko Haram
videos, but none that rival Shekau’s trademark brutality — and always
with his face obscured.
Given that Shekau hasn’t gone quietly into the night, however, the
Islamic State may have set the stage for a protracted intra-jihadi
fight. The Boko Haram faction led by Nur has made oblique threats
against Shekau. In September, there were unconfirmed reports of clashes between rival Boko Haram factions.
Although its internal rifts suggest weakness, the power
struggle within Boko Haram is not necessarily good news for Nigeria.
Even the most moderate factions remain committed to overthrowing the
government. And more factions mean less chance of a negotiated deal to
end the bloody insurgency, which has left over 20,000 dead during the
last seven years. No Boko Haram commander wields sufficient control over
the entire group to make all of its factions adhere to a cease-fire or
armistice deal. And even if one leader could achieve sufficient
consensus, any discussions between Boko Haram and the Nigerian
government would require at least tacit approval from the Islamic State.
It seems that there are now different brands of Boko Haram. Some are
answerable to the Islamic State’s leadership, and others are not.
Shekau’s uncanny ability to survive means he will likely continue to
enjoy the backing of at least some of the group’s fighters — regardless
of what the Islamic State says.
![Activists say the strikes are believed to be carried out by Russian planes [Al Jazeera]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdmegaxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/10/26/eb57ab006553454795e3cd4d26326950_9.jpg "Air strikes kill school children in Syria's Idlib")
