Eye on Extremism October 14, 2016

Eye on Extremism October 14, 2016 CNN: US In Yemen: If You Threaten Us, We'll Respond “Hours after the US struck three radar installations in Yemen in response to attempted attacks on a US Navy destroyer, Pentagon officials made clear they'll hit back again if needed and Iran moved its own warships into nearby waters. ‘We want to make crystal clear if you threaten our forces, if you threaten our ships, we'll respond,’ Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday. He described the missile launches against the USS Mason as ‘a response to direct threats to our people, to our ships and we responded to that threat and we'll respond again.’ Also Thursday, the Iranian navy deployed two warships into the Gulf of Aden in order to protect commercial vessels against pirates, according to the Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian news service with close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.” Radio Free Europe: Iran Sends Warships Off Yemeni Coast Amid U.S. Missile Strikes “Iran has sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, where the United States conducted missile attacks. The announcement came after the U.S. military launched cruise-missile strikes to knock out radar sites in Yemen controlled by Iran-allied Huthi forces, after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer. ‘Iran's Alvand and Bushehr warships have been dispatched to the Gulf of Aden to protect trade vessels from piracy,’ the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported on October 13. But Tasnim said the two Iranian destroyers were dispatched on October 5 and it was not in response to U.S. actions in Yemen. Tasnim said the Iranian warships will patrol the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, which is one of the world's most important shipping routes.” Reuters: Accused New York Bomber Pleads Not Guilty From Hospital Bed “The man accused of last month's bombings in New York and New Jersey that injured dozens of people made his first court appearance on Thursday from a hospital bed, pleading not guilty to attempting to murder police officers. Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 28, whose last name had previously been reported as Rahami, appeared via live video on a television screen in a courtroom in Elizabeth, New Jersey, from the hospital where he has been recovering from gunshot wounds suffered during a shootout with police. With his court-appointed lawyer, Peter Liguori, standing bedside in hospital scrubs, Rahimi lay still with a blanket pulled up to his neck during the hearing.” Bloomberg: Islamic State Has Good Reasons To Retreat In Iraq “There’s no need to believe the Russian propaganda that says the U.S. agreed to let 9,000 Islamic State fighters flee Mosul to go fight President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. But the story ‘reported’ Wednesday by Russia Today (on the basis of a single anonymous source) does capture a strategic truth in the run-up to the attack on the Islamic State-controlled city: The fighters have good reason to flee -- and the Iraqis and the U.S. have good reason to let them. The battle to retake Mosul has been a long time coming. Islamic State occupied the city in June 2014, without encountering much in the way of Iraqi military resistance. Mosul was the biggest and most important city to fall into the hands of the self-proclaimed caliphate. Before Islamic State arrived, it had a population of roughly 2 million, making it Iraq’s third most populous city.” CNN:  ISIS-Held Mosul: Resistance Fighters Defying Occupation “In the distance, through the dusty haze that envelopes the arid plains of northern Iraq, we can just about make out ISIS on the horizon -- readying for a fight. In one of the lifeless villages along the main road to Mosul -- a city once inhabited by more than 2 million people before it became the main prize in the Iraqi portion of the militant group's self-declared caliphate -- a dozen or so tiny figures scatter around on bikes and in trucks. These villages are deserted, we're told, aware that an ugly fight is coming farther down the highway, and that Mosul represents the last ISIS bid to dig in. Pancaked buildings and a large Ferris wheel -- signs of the life there that was, has been extinguished, and may take years to come back.” International Business Times: War In Afghanistan: Taliban Massacres 100 Afghan Soldiers And Cops As Militants Advance In South “Taliban fighters ambushed and killed around 100 Afghan police and soldiers Tuesday as they attempted to retreat following heavy losses in the southern province of Helmand, Reuters reported. Government forces were on the run after months of intense fighting in Chah-e-Anjir, several miles outside the city of Lashkar Gah, where they had been surrounded by militants for days. The group of soldiers and police were viciously attacked, leaving few survivors. An entire battalion was essentially wiped out, according to surviving army soldier Faiz Mohammad. ‘We were one batallion,’ he told Reuters. ‘Except me and two others, no one came out alive.’” The Daily Beast: A French Recruit Tells ‘Why I Left ISIS’ “Our new age of sacred terror is multilingual, and yet I was still surprised to click on the video showing a young man covered with a mustard-colored scarf, only his eyes and forehead visible, delivering his confession. ‘I advise you not to come here,’ he concludes after a lengthy disquisition. ‘Never in my entire life have I experienced such humiliation, injustice, and segregation as I have had to endure here.’ Abu Omar al-Firansi, a French national, has just deserted from the so-called Islamic State. His recounting of his time as an ISIS jihadist was apparently filmed in northern Aleppo around six weeks ago in a safe house belonging to an unnamed smuggler he paid to transport him out of Syria and into Turkey.” The Jerusalem Post: ISIS-Inspired Arab-Israeli Cell Plotted Tunnel From West Bank Into Israel “The suspects were arrested on September 16, 2016, which was only revealed to the public once the indictment was submitted. Charges were filed against three ISIS-sympathizing Israeli men accused of attempting to build a tunnel from the Arab town of Taiba, located 12 km. east of Kfar Saba, across the Green Line into the West Bank, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Thursday. The suspects were named as Ibrahim a-Khalim Mahmoud Sheikh, 26; Muhammad Tami a-Khader Nashef, 32; and Amir a-Hakim Hafez Gahrah, 20. The cell members were ‘inspired by ISIS’ and acted voluntarily, the agency said. Their plot was discovered while in its infancy; the cell had only managed to dig a few meters before being caught.” The Jerusalem Post: Alleged UN-Hamas Double-Agent Charged “A senior United Nations engineer in the Gaza Strip was arraigned Thursday in Beersheba District Court on charges that he abused his post in order to aid Hamas, including using the construction of a port as a base of operations for its naval commandos. After the court confirmed that Wahid Abdullah al-Bursh, 38, from Jabalya understood the charges, Bursh’s attorney, Lea Tsemel, said she would be filing several pretrial motions against them. Tsemel, a well-known anti-Zionist Jewish attorney, also took the opportunity to allege that her client had collapsed in prison, possibly due to not being given all of his medications. Bursh was indicted in September, though the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) had arrested him several months earlier, on July 16.” U.S. News & World Report: Power Struggle Erupts In Turkey’s Security Structure “Following the July 15 coup attempt, 93,000 civil servants were suspended from their duties in many of Turkey's public institutions; investigations are ongoing for 40,000 of them. The key question now is who will fill those vacancies, especially in the military and intelligence bureaucracies. One hard reality is that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), despite its 14 years in power, has not developed a senior bureaucratic team that deals with security and intelligence affairs. Hence, a power struggle was inevitable at the senior echelons of the National Intelligence Service (MIT), the Gendarmerie Command, the Ministry of Defense and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), where two distinct schools of thought or cliques are competing to fill the vacancies.” United States Reuters: Exclusive: Obama, Aides Expected To Weigh Syria Military Options On Friday “U.S. President Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisers are expected to meet on Friday to consider their military and other options in Syria as Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to pummel Aleppo and other targets, U.S. officials said. Some top officials argue the United States must act more forcefully in Syria or risk losing what influence it still has over moderate rebels and its Arab, Kurdish and Turkish allies in the fight against Islamic State, the officials told Reuters. One set of options includes direct U.S. military action such as air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases, said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.” Reuters: U.S. Military Strikes Yemen After Missile Attacks On U.S. Navy Ship “The U.S. military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces, retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials said. The strikes, authorized by President Barack Obama, represent Washington's first direct military action against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen's conflict. Still, the Pentagon appeared to stress the limited nature of the strikes, aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the U.S. Navy ship USS Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.” Syria Reuters: Syrian Rebels Evacuate Damascus Suburb In Deal With Government “Hundreds of insurgents and their families have left two rebel-held towns on the northern outskirts of Damascus, residents and fighters said, under a deal with the government which is pushing its opponents to rebel areas further from the Syrian capital. The evacuation happened after the army gave community leaders in Qudsiya and Al-Hama - that had enjoyed relative calm under local truces - an ultimatum to get several hundred fighters out of their towns or face a widescale assault. The government says such amnesties are a ‘workable model to bring security and peace’ after five years of civil war, but its opponents say forcing Sunni Muslim fighters and their families from their home towns could create new demographic frontiers and worsen sectarian tensions.” Associated Press: More Than 65 Killed In Last 3 Days In Aleppo “Overnight shelling and more than a dozen airstrikes on rebel-held parts of Aleppo killed at least 11 people Thursday, bringing the death toll in the last three days to at least 65, according to an opposition activist group and Aleppo's volunteer civil defense forces. Rebel shelling of government-held areas in the divided city also killed two girls at a school. The airstrikes came a day after an air raid hit eastern Aleppo's biggest market, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 20 airstrikes on eastern Aleppo that killed seven while shelling killed four, adding that clashes were taking place between government forces and insurgents on the city's northern edge.” Reuters: Syria's Assad Says Taking Aleppo From Rebels Key To Pushing 'Terrorists' Back To Turkey “Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday that the Syrian army's capture of Aleppo, which has come under renewed bombardment in an effort to seize its rebel-held sector, would be ‘a very important springboard’ to pushing ‘terrorists’ back to Turkey. Rescue workers said that Syria's military backed by Russian warplanes had killed more than 150 people in eastern Aleppo this week, in support of its offensive against the city. Rising casualties in Aleppo, where many buildings have been reduced to rubble or are lacking roofs or walls, have prompted an international outcry and a renewed diplomatic push, with talks between the United States and Russia planned for Saturday.” Iraq CNN: As Iraqi City Of Mosul Braces For Battle With ISIS, Its People Recall Gentler Times “In his studio apartment in Chicago, Mahmoud Saeed is surrounded by a city gripped by gun violence. But it is the violence tied to his hometown in Iraq that saturates his soul with sadness. He remembers a time in the northern city of Mosul when Arabs, Kurds, Jews, Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen and Armenians existed harmoniously with one another. Hard to imagine now, Saeed says. ‘People just want to kill each other.’ Now 77 and frail, Saeed views the upcoming offensive as perhaps the last opportunity in his lifetime to build a path to peace in Mosul and, subsequently, Iraq. What happens in post-ISIS Mosul could act as harbinger for the rest of the fractured nation. After years of dictatorship, occupation, sectarian strife and government mismanagement in Iraq, Saeed's perspective on the future is laced with a heavy dose of skepticism. I can hardly blame him.” PBS News: If ISIS Falls, Where Will Its Fighters Flee? “Turning to Iraq, the battle for the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul is now taking shape, and with it, the hopes of the Iraqi government that the last major foothold for the terrorist group in that country can be retaken. But what is the overall status of ISIS? William Brangham looks for some answers. At its peak between November of 2014 and May of 2015, ISIS controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria, but, since then, ISIS has taken serious losses on the battlefield and has lost critical territory. They have certainly lost some territory both in Iraq and also more recently in Libya.” Reuters: Cash-Strapped U.N. Faces Huge Challenges In Mosul Offensive “The United Nations says it bracing for the world's biggest and most complex humanitarian effort in the upcoming battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which could make up to 1 million people homeless and see civilians used as human shields or even gassed. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are preparing for the long-anticipated assault on the last major Islamic State bastion in Iraq, potentially the biggest battle in the country since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. The assault of Mosul could begin by the end of this month, according to Iraqi sources including a government security advisor, a provincial official and an army field commander. Islamic State fighters are dug in, expected to fight hard and have a history of forcing civilians to stay in harm's way during previous battles to defend territory.” Turkey Reuters: Turkey Sacks Or Suspends Hundreds More Judges In Coup Probe “The Turkish Armed Forces sacked 109 military judges on Thursday, the defense ministry said, further extending a crackdown which has targeted tens of thousands of state employees as authorities investigate an attempted coup in July. Judicial authorities also suspended another 184 judges and prosecutors, adding to a stream of dismissals and arrests which Ankara says are aimed at rooting out supporters of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded the putsch. State-run Anadolu news agency said the 184 were suspended for using a messaging app called ByLock. Turkey's intelligence agency has identified some 56,000 users of ByLock which Gulen's followers began using in 2014, officials have said. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup.” Reuters: Car Bomb Near Syria-Turkey Border Crossing Kills At Least 20: Witnesses “At least 20 people, mostly Syrian rebel fighters, were killed after a car bomb exploded on Thursday near a checkpoint close to the Bab al Salama crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in northern Syria, two witnesses said. They said the blast took place near a checkpoint manned by a group of Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Jabhat al Shamiya close to a car depot nearly two km (one mile) away from the border crossing, a major conduit for traffic between opposition held northern Syria into Turkey. Rescue workers rushed dozens of injured to the nearby Azaz hospital, one witness said, adding that mosques were appealing to people to donate blood. Among at least 25 injured, eight were in critical condition and taken to Turkish hospitals across the border.” International Business News: Turkey Is At War With Itself: In Latest Coup News “Turkey sacked nearly 150 NATO military envoys last month, adding to a large list of officials being disciplined for a failed coup attempt in July, Reuters reported Wednesday. A classified military dispatch revealed that notices were posted at NATO sites in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain on Sept. 27 ordering Turkish officials to return home within three days. Upon their arrival, most were dismissed, arrested and imprisoned, according to a Turkish military official at NATO. This was further confirmed by two farewell letters sent by sacked officials to colleagues. Dismissed officials have claimed that those with Western-educated, secular backgrounds are being targeted by Turkish President Recip Tayyib Erdogan's conservative, religious government.” Reuters: Turkey Says Botched Assault On Iraq's Mosul Would Trigger Refugee Wave “Any mistake in a planned U.S.-backed operation to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul could result in hundreds of thousands of refugees, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday. Turkey is locked in an escalating row with Iraq over who should take part in the Mosul assault and Kalin voiced concern that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, viewed by Ankara and Western allies as terrorists, could be involved. ‘Reports that the PKK may take part in the Mosul operation greatly worry us,’ he told a news conference, saying Turkey had no ‘secret agenda’ in Iraq and favored solving problems with Baghdad through dialogue. The PKK has fought a 32-year insurgency in Turkey, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, and its leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq.” Yemen The New York Times: Yemen Sees U.S. Strikes As Evidence Of Hidden Hand Behind Saudi Air War “For the United States, it was simple retaliation: Rebels in Yemen had fired missiles at an American warship twice in four days, and so the United States hit back, destroying rebel radar facilities with missiles. But for the rebels and many others in Yemen, the predawn strikes on Thursday were just the first public evidence of what they have long believed: that the United States has been waging an extended campaign in the country, the hidden hand behind Saudi Arabia’s punishing air war. For the Obama administration, the missile strikes also highlighted the risks of a balancing strategy it has tried to pursue in Yemen since a bitter sectarian war engulfed the country two years ago.” Egypt Associated Press: Amid Saudi Row, Egypt Reasserts Commitment To Gulf Allies “The Egyptian president said on Thursday that his country remains committed to close relations with Gulf Arab allies, but declared that Cairo would continue to independently pursue its own policies to safeguard Arab security. The remarks by Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, delivered in a televised speech to army officers and government ministers, came against the backdrop of an escalating spat over Syria between Egypt and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia. The comments by el-Sissi, who did not mention the kingdom by name, were his first on the issue since the row erupted this week. He also confirmed that Riyadh has halted previously agreed fuel shipments to Egypt. ‘We have independent policies whose general frame is to safeguard Arab national security through an Egyptian perspective,’ el-Sisssi said.” The Wall Street Journal: Egypt Juggles Its Friendships As Russian Influence Surges “Balancing acts are precarious by definition and, as Egypt is finding out, even a small move can have cascading consequences. Until recently, Cairo managed to maintain strong relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies that provide it with tens of billions of dollars in aid, while also cultivating warm ties with Russia and staying away from Saudi-led efforts to topple the Syrian regime. Then last Saturday, Egypt had to vote on a Russian-sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution favored by the Syrian regime. Alone among Muslim nations on the Security Council, it decided to support the Russian draft, which received only four out of 15 votes and failed to pass. The same day Russia vetoed a separate resolution drafted by France and backed by 11 Council members.” Middle East The Times Of Israel: Palestinian Soccer Team Poses With Poster Of Jerusalem Terrorist “Members of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian soccer team Hilal Al Quds posed for a picture with a poster hailing the Palestinian terrorist who killed two people in a shooting spree in Jerusalem on Sunday, just two days after the attack. The team, which plays in the West Bank Premier League, posted the photo to its Facebook page on Tuesday. Members can be seen smiling on the field at the Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in al-Ram in the West Bank while holding up a banner featuring Mesbah Abu Sabih, the 39-year-old Silwan resident in East Jerusalem, and a former resident of al-Ram, with the words: ‘The Hilal al-Quds soccer club mourns the loss of the lion of al-Aqsa [Jerusalem], the martyr and hero Mesbah Abu Sabih.’” The New York Times: Israeli President Hosts Quiet Meeting Of Muslim And Jewish Leaders “The guests who arrived at the Israeli president’s home on Thursday evening were an eclectic mix. They included the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel, the president of the Sharia Court of the Palestinian Authority and two rabbis from a West Bank yeshiva. The highly unusual meeting was intended, according to organizers, to forge a joint effort against religious violence, and to promote peace and coexistence. But, underscoring the fissures that have made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so durable, the Palestinian religious leaders refused to be photographed, so there was no visual documentation of the meeting, and all but one refused to have their names appear in the official statements. They seemed to be hoping the whole event would remain below the radar, and hours afterward it appeared to have gone unreported in the Palestinian news media.” Nigeria The Wall Street Journal: Boko Haram Frees 21 Chibok Schoolgirls In Nigeria “Militant Islamist group Boko Haram released 21 of the 276 schoolgirls it snatched from their dormitories in the town of Chibok 2½ years ago, marking a breakthrough in diplomacy between the government and the seven-year-old uprising. It is the first known instance that Boko Haram has released, as a result of negotiations with the government, any of the tens of thousands of girls, boys, men and women it has held hostage. Some of those captives have been forced into marriage, some raped, some forced to become child soldiers. One escaped with a baby daughter born in captivity. The release on Thursday was the result of what officials described as more than a year of tense negotiations with one of the continent’s most brutal militant groups. Nigeria said it was the first step toward freeing all the girls, who were abducted by Boko Haram fighters from their boarding school shortly before final exams in April 2014.” United Kingdom Reuters: Britain Looking At Its Military Options In Syria: Foreign Minister “Britain is looking at its military involvement in Syria but any action would need to be part of a coalition involving the United States and is not likely to happen soon, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday. The British government lost a 2013 parliamentary vote over plans to bomb the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but has been involved in bombing raids against Islamic State in Syria since winning the support of lawmakers last December. ‘It is right now that we should be looking again at the more kinetic options, the military options,’ Johnson told a committee of lawmakers. ‘But we must be realistic about how these in fact work, and what is deliverable.’” Daily Mail: Britain Has Killed More Than 1,700 ISIS Terrorists In RAF Air Strikes In Iraq And Syria Since Bombing Began “The RAF has killed 1,700 Islamic State fighters since bombing began, for the loss of no civilian lives, the Ministry of Defence has claimed. If true the air campaign against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria would be 'unprecedented in the history of modern warfare'. RAF Typhoons, Tornadoes and Reaper drones have conducted 1,066 strikes against IS, and the MoD has said 'detailed assessments' reveal no civilian losses. An estimated 1,571 fighters recorded as having been killed in Iraq since bombing began two years ago, and 181 in Syria since the start of operations there in December of last year. The UK has been able to kill proportionately more militants in Iraq because it is operating there with the local government's support, and has been able to break many IS lines of communication in the country.” Deutsche Welle: UK Introduces Criminal Finances Bill To Tackle Money Laundering, Corruption “New legislation designed to tackle accusations that the UK is a haven for dirty money would give British law enforcement officers sweeping new powers to tackle money laundering and corruption, as well as recover criminal proceeds. The highlight of the proposed Criminal Finances Bill will allow law enforcement agencies to force suspected criminals to prove the source of their wealth, the UK government said Thursday. Under the so-called ‘unexplained wealth orders,’ those unable to explain where their wealth came from would risk having their assets seized, including lucrative property. The bill is subject to parliamentary approval before coming into force. Announcing the bill, security minister Ben Wallace, said: ‘This legislation will ensure the UK is taking a world-leading role in cracking down on corruption and send a clear message to criminals - we will take your liberty and your money.’ Assets suspected of being proceeds of crime could also be seized by officials.” Reuters: Britons Most Concerned About Immigration In Global "Worries Poll" “Britain is the country most worried about immigration and border control, according to a global survey published on Thursday as the government vowed to crack down on migration as it prepares to leave the European Union. Forty-two percent of Britons surveyed said they feared immigration, compared to 41 percent in Germany and 33 percent in Sweden, which both have taken much larger numbers of migrants in proportion to their population than the UK. Britain will trigger the formal process to leave the EU by March 2017 after 52 percent of Britons voted in June to leave the bloc amid concerns about immigration, deteriorating public services, competition for jobs and a general economic malaise.” BBC: 'IS Fighter' Guilty After Trial Held Partly In Secret “A would-be Syria fighter has been convicted of trying to smuggle himself to the war zone after a semi-secret trial with claims of MI5 harassment. Anas Abdalla had denied preparing for acts of terrorism by hiding in a lorry at Dover with another extremist. The Birmingham man claimed he was fleeing unwarranted security services intrusion in his life. At one point, two police officers were instructed by the CPS not to answer questions about MI5 in open court. Abdalla was convicted by a majority of 11 to one and will be sentenced at a later date. As he was taken down to the cells, he threw a plastic cup at a counter-terrorism officer and said: ‘One day we will be standing in a bigger court than this.’” Germany The Wall Street Journal: Germany Faces Criticism Over Suicide Of Syrian Terror Suspect “German officials Thursday rejected criticism that they could have prevented the suicide of Syrian terror suspect Jaber Albakr after a week of mishaps that have raised questions about Germany’s preparedness in the face of an unprecedented terror threat. Mr. Albakr strangled himself with his shirt tied to the bars of his cell on Wednesday evening, using a 30-minute gap in between surveillance to commit suicide, said Rolf Jacob, head of the prison where the suspected bomb plotter had been detained. The 22-year-old Syrian refugee had been in detention pending terror charges after a large quantity of explosives were found in a flat he shared with another refugee in the German city of Chemnitz on Saturday.” France Associated Press: Britain, France Seek Solutions For Calais Migrant Camp Kids “After taking a group selfie, six underage migrants left the French city of Calais for Britain on Thursday, as both countries seek solutions for hundreds of unaccompanied children in the slum-like migrant camp known as the ‘jungle’ before it is shut down in the coming weeks. Concern about the children in Calais has mounted as France prepares to close the camp, a troubling symbol of Europe's migrant crisis. One aid group estimates there are 1,300 unaccompanied minors in the camp, among between 6,000 and 10,000 migrants overall from across the Mideast and Africa and some Balkan countries. Six happy and relieved youths - one Syrian, five Afghans - gathered in the Calais local administration headquarters Thursday morning before boarding a Eurostar train, accompanied by volunteers and French officials and clutching plastic folders of documents.” Sputnik News: Former French Prime Minister Calls For Anti-Terrorism Coalition “France’s former prime minister Francois Fillon has called for the creation of a world anti-terrorism coalition that would include Russia and Iran. Fillon stressed that the threat of terrorism is a world threat and that the spread of radical Islamism must be prevented with the creation of a ‘world coalition.’ A US-led coalition of more than 60 nations has been conducting airstrikes against the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq since 2014. The strikes in Syria, however, are not authorized by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad or by the United Nations Security Council. Last month, the UK Parliament's Defence Committee said in a report that active military cooperation with Russia in fighting against Daesh should be agreed upon by the US-led international coalition.” Europe Reuters: Russia Says UK Military Welcome In Syria If Target Terrorism, Not Assad “Russia would welcome British military involvement in the Syria conflict if it targets terrorists but not the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday the country should consider military involvement in the Syrian conflict, but that any action would need to be part of a coalition led by the United States.” Sputnik: EU States Lack Intelligence-Sharing To Combat Common Threats “European Union member states lack data sharing capabilities and should boost intelligence-sharing with Russia to counter common threats like the Daesh terror group, Member of the European Parliament Ivan Stefanec told Sputnik. The EU Counterterrorism Coordinator revealed in a 2015 report that a number of member states were not connected to the Interpol crime database, failed to adequately track foreign fighters, and did not properly document border crossings within the bloc’s visa-free Schengen zone. When asked whether his home country of Slovakia should increase intelligence-sharing with Russia, Stefanec said, ‘I am not against information sharing on the common enemy like ISIS [Daesh]. So, the answer is yes. We would like to share information and would like to talk about common interests.’” The Washington Post: A Series Of Counterterrorism Police Mishaps Leaves Europeans Worried “In Germany, the series of problems has raised the question of whether the country has simply been lucky to avoid a large-scale mass-casualty incident in recent months, comparable to the Nice or Paris attacks. Authorities in the country have claimed that they were able to prevent a series of plots, but the decisive hint in Albakr's case appears to have come from a foreign intelligence agency. Moreover, other terror plots earlier this year mainly failed to cause widespread mayhem because of the inexperience of the attackers — rather than the decisive actions of authorities. Like most other E.U. countries, Germany has little experience in dealing with attackers who became followers of radical Islam only recently.” RT: Putin: West Responsible For Middle East Instability And Terrorism In Europe “Washington and its allies are using the Syrian crisis to play politics, instead of providing real solutions, Vladimir Putin told French TV. He said that Moscow has put forward an offer to send troops to safeguard aid convoys in Aleppo, while the West accuses Moscow of committing war crimes. ‘This is political rhetoric that does not have great significance and does not take into account the real situation in Syria,’ Putin told French TV channel TF1 during an interview in the central Russian city of Kovrov, when asked about the accusations that have been leveled by Francois Hollande, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and the Obama administration. Putin then accused the West of destabilizing the region – citing the Arab Spring in 2011 as a key flashpoint for tensions that still dominate the Muslim world.”