13 dead as Russia strike hits Syria field hospital: monitor

Russia's Defence Ministry released images showing an airstrike carried out by its warplanes on an Islamic State.

At least 13 people including medical staff were killed when Russian warplanes struck a field hospital in northwestern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.

"Thirteen people were killed in Russian air strikes on Tuesday on a field clinic in the town of Sarmin, including a physiotherapist, a guard, and civil defence member," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Sarmin lies in the northwestern province of Idlib, which has been regularly targeted by Russia's military since the beginning of its air war in Syria on September 30. 

The clinic was run by the Syrian-American Medical Society, whose staff confirmed that strikes had "severely damaged" the facility.

"Yesterday at around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) a SAMS facility near Sarmin, Idlib was hit," a SAMS staff member told AFP. 

"Our initial reports from the ground show that we have lost two hospital staff, a physiotherapist and a nurse," the staffer said in an emailed statement.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, she did not specify whether the strikes were conducted by Russian warplanes.

Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that its armed forces had targeted Sarmin, but did not mention the hospital.

Russia has conducted more than 500 strikes against what it says are Islamic State group fighters.

But Moscow has come under fire for targeting non-extremist groups and inflicting civilian casualties.

On Tuesday, the Observatory said at least 127 of the 370 killed so far in Russia's aerial war are civilians.

It documented Russian bombardment of field hospitals in coastal Latakia and central Hama on October 2.

In an online statement, SAMS said Russian air strikes the same day hit a field hospital it operated in Hama, "causing severe damage to the facility" and wounding staff.

Journalist and activist Maamun al-Khatib told AFP that Russian raids had struck two hospitals in the northern province of Aleppo in the past week.

More than 250,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, and more than 11 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-air-strike-field-hospital-kills-13-155302808.html 

Pirates kidnap Lithuanian, Ukrainian sailors off Nigeria

Gunmen have kidnapped two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors off southern Nigeria, in the latest incident in a region described as a piracy hotspot, Lithuania s government said Tuesday.

"We have received information that it was an armed abduction," government official Rimantas Vaitkus told AFP in the Baltic state s capital, Vilnius.

He said 19 sailors were on board the ship, comprising three Ukrainians and 16 Lithuanians, but refused to disclose the name of the vessel.

"We have not received any contact from the abductors so far," he added.

The government said the ship, flagged in the Comoro Islands, was attacked on Monday evening near Nigeria s oil hub, Port Harcourt.

Scores of kidnappings for ransom have occurred in the Niger Delta, and most of the hostages have been freed after payment of a ransom.

The Lithuanian government said it had set up a task force to deal with the latest incident.




http://dunyanews.tv/en/Crime/304849-Pirates-kidnap-Lithuanian-Ukrainian-sailors-off-N#.ViawxBSsIMY.linkedin
 

US warship visits ex-Soviet Georgia

A United States warship on Tuesday made a port call in Georgia for joint training with the coastguard of the Caucasus nation, which is keen to join NATO.

The USS Porter, a guided-missile destroyer from the US Navy's 6th Fleet, arrived in Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi for a three-day visit, the US embassy said in a statement.

"The Porter's visit reaffirms the United States' commitment to strengthening ties with NATO allies and partners like Georgia, while working toward mutual goals of promoting security and stability in the Black Sea region," it said.

The US Navy delivered humanitarian aid to ex-Soviet Georgia in the wake of Russia's brief war with the country in 2008, and has since then regularly operated warships in Georgian waters.

Moscow criticised then-US president George W. Bush's decision to dispatch the sophisticated warships to deliver the aid, saying they were unsuitable for humanitarian missions.

Georgia's bid to join NATO and the European Union infuriated its former imperial master Russia, which bitterly opposes the alliance's expansion into former Soviet republics.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-warship-visits-ex-soviet-georgia-164157161.html 

Britain says up to 13,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq

LONDON: Britain believes there are between 10,000 and 13,000 Islamic State fighters active in Iraq, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Tuesday.

Hammond added that excluding Islamic State and Al Nusra fighters, he believed there were also some 80,000 opposition fighters in neighbouring Syria.

"It is estimated ... that there are 10,000 to 13,000 active ISIL fighters in Iraq," he told members of parliament, using a different title for Islamic State.

Asked about Syria, he said: "The non ISIL, non al-Nusra part of the opposition probably amounts to around 80,000 fighting strength deployed across the country – that is the latest estimate that I have," he told MPs.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/britain-says-up-to-13-000/2205820.html

Teen who ‘hacked’ CIA director says Pentagon big is next

Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work 

The teen who claims to have hacked into CIA Director John Brennan’s personal email account said Monday he has already picked his next target: Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official.

The hacker told The Post, which broke the story, that he and a pal who call themselves “CWA” — for “Crackas With Attitude” — had identified Work’s online Verizon account and were preparing to launch an attack.

When asked what the plan was, he said: “Jack his account, leak his call logs, and, if there’s an email connected to it, we’ll just jack that, too.”

The US teen also described pulling a “Ferris Bueller”-style move so he could play hooky from high school on Monday.

He said he told his parents that he “wasn’t feeling very well” and began fielding interview requests from various news outlets via Twitter.

He told Sky News of his admiration for fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, saying he himself was “prolly gonna go [to] Russia . . . and chill with snowden.”

During the afternoon, he tweeted an image of a spreadsheet containing the purported Social Security numbers, phone numbers and email addresses of Brennan and more than a dozen current and former national security officials.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/20/teen-who-hacked-cia-director-says-pentagon-big-is-next/

Syria's al-Nusra calls on jihadists in Caucasus to attack Russia

“If the Russian army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people. And if they kill our soldiers, then kill their soldiers. An eye for an eye,” Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, the head of al-Nusra Front, said in an audio recording released late Monday.

He pledged that Moscow’s air war in Syria, which began on September 30, would have dire consequences for Russia.

“The war in Syria will make the Russians forget the horrors that they found in Afghanistan,” Jolani said, adding: “They will be shattered, with God’s permission, on Syria’s doorstep.”

Russia has said its aerial raids are targeting the Islamic State group, a jihadist rival of al-Nusra, as well as other extremist groups.

Moscow’s strikes have concentrated on areas in northwestern Syria where al-Nusra has a powerful presence, mostly in the province of Idlib.

A US-led air coalition fighting IS in Syria has also targeted al-Nusra on several occasions.

Jolani called on armed opposition groups to set aside their differences until both air wars had been defeated.
“Delay the disputes until the demise and smashing of the Western Crusader and Russian campaign on Syrian land,” he said.

The jihadist chief also called for attacks on Syria’s Alawite minority, the sect from which President Bashar al-Assad hails.

“I call on all armed factions to gather the highest number of shells and rockets and to hurl hundreds of rockets every day at the Nusayri villages, just like the scoundrels do to the Sunni villages and towns, to make you taste what our people are suffering,” Jolani said.

Nusayri is a derogatory term for Alawites, considered by al-Nusra’s extreme interpretation of Islam to be apostates.

“When they will stop attacking our village and cities, we will stop attacking theirs,” he added. – AFP

http://mg.co.za/article/2015-10-13-syrias-al-nusra-calls-on-jihadists-in-caucasus-to-attack-russia#.ViH7o01ZzGY.linkedin 

DHS rethinks the terror alert system it never used

The Homeland Security Department is having second thoughts about its system to alert the public about terrorism threats.

It has good reasons for the double take. The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) has never issued a warning in its four years. The system’s Twitter handle, @NTASAlerts, has gathered 23,500 followers without a single tweet. Its Facebook page is liked by 33,864 people, but its timeline has no posts.

“I will tell you that we are considering revising our NTAS system, the National Threat Advisory System, which we’ve never used,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a speech to an audience of military personnel, defense contractors and media gathered for the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington. “I’ve asked our folks to consider whether we should revise that system to accommodate how the terrorist threat has evolved. That review is underway now,”

Whereas people recruited, trained and equipped by known overseas terrorist organizations were once the most likely to attempt attacks, that’s no longer the case. Those inspired, but not formally part of terrorist organizations, represent a newer threat that is harder for the government to detect. Recent attacks on military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo are examples of this evolution in terrorism, Johnson said.

He did not say when the review would be completed. A spokesperson for the department said it had no additional information to share at this time.

DHS, under then-Secretary Janet Napolitano, launched the National  Terrorism Advisory System in April 2011. It replaced the rainbow-hued Homeland Security Advisory System, which critics called confusing and vague.

Homeland Security’s rainbow-hued Homeland Security Advisory System, which critics called confusing and vague before it was replaced in April 2011.

“The old color-coded system taught Americans to be scared, not prepared. Each and every time the threat level was raised, very rarely did the public know the reason, how to proceed, or for how long to be on alert,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the time.

DHS promised the new system would provide more detailed, region-specific information about just two types of threats — those that were “imminent” or just “elevated.” DHS would coordinate with other federal agencies before issuing alerts only to those who might be affected by them.

The department advertised the system as part of its “If you see something, say something” campaign to encourage people to report suspicious activity. DHS relaunched the campaign in January to coincide with the Super Bowl.

“‘If you see something, say something’ has to mean more than a slogan. We’re asking the public for help, public awareness and public vigilance,” Johnson said.

DHS opens Office of Community Partnerships

 

DHS also is trying to renewing ties with Muslim communities in the face of the Islamic State’s aggressive campaign to recruit young Americans. DHS’ new Office of Community Partnerships will take the government’s efforts to counter violent extremism “to a new level,” Johnson said.

The office will encourage the tech industry to aid communities in spreading their messages, he said. It also will engage philanthropies and grant-making programs that can provide additional resources for communities’ anti-extremism activities.

Johnson appointed George Selim in late September to lead the office. Selim, a DHS veteran, has held a similar position at the National Security Council. His deputy is David Gersten, who has coordinated DHS’ activities in this area. Both Selim and Gersten are well known to Muslim communities, Johnson said at the time.

http://federalnewsradio.com/management/2015/10/dhs-rethinks-terror-alert-system-never-used/