Light at the End of the Tunnel: Putin 'Puts Things in Order' in Syria

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has been on fire lately – he not only managed to push through a Russian strategy in the Middle East, but also made both the United States and Saudi Arabia finally accept his point of view on finding a peaceful solution in Syria, French journalist Eric Verhaeghe wrote for Atlantico.

ATP  -  Recent events regarding peace negotiations in Syria speak for themselves: Moscow significantly decreased the military might of Daesh (Islamic State) with its airstrikes and has also played a leading role in finding a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis with the successful passing of a UN resolution on Syria, the author said.

The fact that US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Russia and Washington's agreement to talk about the Syrian issue with Moscow show the decline of Western influence in the Middle East.

Reports: 1 killed in blast at Istanbul airport

ATP - ISTANBUL, Turkey -- An explosion at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport has killed one cleaner on a plane and wounded another, the BBC reports. The cause of the blast was not clear, and authorities were investigating whether it was the result of a bomb.

The airport is the second largest in the city.

Pegasus airline said the blast occurred at 2:05 a.m. local time on Wednesday (7.05 p.m. EST Tuesday), when no passengers were in the area, and that operations were continuing normally.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said police armed with rifles and protective vests imposed tight security at entrances to the airport after the blast, searching vehicles in the area.

The agency said one cleaner had suffered a wound to the head, while the other suffered a wounded hand.

Anonymous declares cyber war on Turkey over ‘supporting ISIS’

ATP - The Anonymous hacktivist group has taken responsibility for a powerful cyber-attack on the Turkish sector of the internet last week. It promised to continue waging cyber warfare on .tr domains until Ankara stops the “insanity” of supporting Islamic State.

The massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Turkish websites last week, initially attributed to spooky “Russian hackers,” has been clarified with Anonymous issuing a video claiming responsibility and declaring cyber war on Turkey for supporting terrorists of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The DDoS attack (measured in gigabits per second, or plainly how much traffic is being sent to a site) on Turkish DNS servers reached 40 Gbps, quite enough to shut down altogether any domain.

Amnesty: Russian bombing of Syria may be a war crime

ATP - MOSCOW, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Russia's bombing of Syria may amount to a war crime because of the number of civilians its strikes have killed, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, presenting what it said was evidence that the air raids had violated humanitarian law.

"Russian air strikes in Syria have killed hundreds of civilians and caused massive destruction in residential areas, striking homes, a mosque and a busy market, as well as medical facilities, in...attacks that show evidence of violations of international humanitarian law," Amnesty said in a new report.

ISIL Leader’s Mobile Phone Shows Turkey’s Support

ATP - The mobile phone was found with one of the killed ISIL leaders in the Northern parts of Salahuddin province two days ago," Jabbar al-Ma'mouri told Soumeriya news on Monday.

He said that the mobile set and history files contain messages from the Turkish intelligence agency which show that Ankara supports the ISIL terrorist group through providing security at the points of entry used by ISIL militants from Turkey to Iraq.

"The mobile phone also contains other important information which cannot be disclosed now, and it has been delivered to the specialized security groups for further scrutiny," Ma'mouri said.

Top U.S. General Ignored Obama, Led Secret Plot to Protect Assad and Bring Russia Into Syrian War

ATP - President Obama’s top military commander secretly orchestrated intelligence sharing with military leaders in Germany, Israel and Russia to thwart the president’s policy to remove Bashar Assad from power in Syria and lay the groundwork for Russia’s military entrance into the Syrian civil war, because he believed Obama’s anti-ISIS strategies were hopelessly misguided.

That is just one of the astounding takeaways from a 6,800-word expose by venerated investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh, that was just published in the London Review of Books. Hersh, whose sources include top senior aides to the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which commands all U.S. military forces, also described in great detail how Turkey’s president Recep Erdoğan has deceived the White House by siding and arming ISIS and other extremist Islamic militias in Syria, in a gambit for Turkey to emerge as a regional power akin to the Ottoman Empire.

Over 30 Iraqi Soldiers Killed in US Air Force Strike, 20 Others Injured

ATP - At least 30 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 20 others injured in US air strike, Hakim al-Zamili, the head of Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee said.

"Thirty soldiers from the Iraqi Army's 55 brigade were killed and 20 were injured in a US airstrike on the town of al-Naimiya in the al-Fallujah province," al-Zamili's statement obtained by Sputnik reads.

The politician stated that he demanded "the [Iraqi] prime minister to conduct an investigation into the airstrike against the 55 brigade, which had previously had huge success in the fight against Daesh terrorists."

Syria Crisis Could Be over Soon If Foreign Extremism Support Ends: Assad

ATP - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in Syria could be finished in “less than a year” if foreign support for terrorism ends.

“If the responsible countries take actions against the flood and the flowing of terrorists (into Syria) and the logistic support, I can guarantee that it will take less than one year,” he said.

The Syrian president made the comments in an interview with Dutch television station NPO2 on Thursday, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.

Assad said the problem is that the backing for terrorists operating in Syria continues on a daily basis in a bid to make the situation more chaotic and to put obstacles in way of any solution to the crisis.

UN Security Council to meet Today on Turkish troops in Iraq

ATP - The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Dec. 18 to discuss a complaint by Iraq over Turkish troops deployed to a camp near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. 

Turkey deployed around 150 troops in the Bashiqa area this month with the stated aim of training an Iraqi militia to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Iraqi government says they are not welcome and must withdraw.

Turkey withdrew some troops this week, moving them to another base inside Iraq's Kurdistan region, but Baghdad said they should pull out completely.

In a Dec. 11 letter to the 15-member Security Council, Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari complained that Turkey had violated his country's sovereignty and territorial unity and integrity. 

KERRY IN MOSCOW FOR TALKS ON SYRIA, UKRAINE

ATP - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Russia to try and narrow gaps with Russian leaders over a political transition to end Syria's civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine.

After spending last week at climate talks outside the French capital, Kerry arrived early Tuesday in Moscow, where he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Before departing Paris, Kerry attended a French-hosted foreign ministers meeting to compare notes on the results of a conference of Syrian opposition figures held last week in Saudi Arabia that are key to the peace effort. He also met separately with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.

The trip is Kerry's second to Russia this year - he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May - but his first since frosty relations over Ukraine were exacerbated by Moscow's intervention in Syria in late September. President Barack Obama has seen Putin briefly twice since then at international summits in Turkey and France.

A U.S. diplomat in Paris, who demanded anonymity to discuss the talks, said a meeting in Geneva on Friday between Russian and American diplomats on Syria was aimed mainly at clearing up Russian "grievances" ahead of Tuesday's Moscow meeting.

Assad Tour: Russian company wants to start selling trips to Syrian warzone in 2016

A Russian company says it plans to begin sending tourists to Syria, including visits to the frontline of the battle against terrorism, next year. It has already applied for registration of the ‘Assad Tour’ trademark.

The application to register Assad Tour – apparently, named after Syrian President, Bashar Assad – has already been submitted to Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent), Moscow City News Agency reported on Monday.

The applicant, Megapolis Ltd., expects to launch tours from Moscow to Syria next year, with the possibility of a trip to the front line,” Anatoly Aronov – president of the First Patent Company, which assisted in filing the application – told the news agency.

The tours will be intended for individuals or small groups of tourists, lasting between four or five days, he said.

ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Escaped to Sirte in Libya, Home of Gaddafi

ATP - The leader of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL_ISIS ) Takfiri terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has moved from aTurkey to Libya to escape the hunt operation of the Baghdad Intelligence Sharing Center after he was traced down and allegedly targeted a number of times in Iraq and the Syria, sources said on Tuesday.

Sources in Libya said al-Baghdadi has arrived in Sirte, the hometown of the slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which is under the control of the ISIS Takfiri group.

The ISIL Leader is running a secret life as his life is at stake more than anyone in the world now. Al-Baghdad's terrorist group is under massive airstrike by the Syrian, Russian and Iraqi Air Forces all throughout the Western Iraq and Eastern Syria.

Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Isis but hopes they ‘will never be needed’

Vladimir Putin has said he hopes nuclear warheads will not be needed after Russia launched cruise missiles from its submarine at Isis targets in Syria.

During a meeting in the Kremlin, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the President that Kalibr cruise missiles had been fired by the Rostov-on-Don submarine from the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.

In addition to conventional warheads, President Putin said the new cruise missiles could also be equipped with nuclear warheads, before adding he hoped they would “never be needed”.

NASA: Antarctica Gaining More Ice than Losing

ATP - The continuous melting of ice at the poles of the Earth has been a powerful indication of the effects of global warming on our planet for quite some time now – and it's important to note these new results don't contradict the fact that glaciers are melting at an increased rate. But it does mean that, for the next few years at least, new ice gain is outweighing that loss.

"We’re essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica," said glaciologist Jay Zwally, lead author of the study. "Our main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica – there, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas."

Russia goes ballistic in Syria; Turkey issues a warning

Russia does not appear to be forgiving of the downing of its plane after Turkey cited airspace. The country has been aiming at Turkey at its economic and military ends drawing warning from the country to avoid further conflicts. 

Russia warned previously it will retailiate against Turkey following the downing of its warplane. Consequently, it has been doing so for the past days that it has prompted concerns across the globe including possibly risking NATO's military intervention. According to McClatchy, a United Nations official said that the Russian seemingly have "gone ballistic" in their efforts to end Turkey's influence across Northern Syria.

Turkey angered by rocket-brandishing on Russian naval ship passing Istanbul

Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" on Sunday after a serviceman on the deck of a Russian naval ship allegedly held a rocket launcher on his shoulder while the vessel passed through Istanbul.

Relations have deteriorated sharply since Turkey last week became the first NATO member in more than half a century to down a Russian plane, which it said had violated its airspace while flying sorties over Syria. The pilot was killed.

The NTV news channel broadcast photographs that it said showed a serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher on the deck of the landing ship Caesar Kunikov as it passed on Saturday through the Bosphorus Strait, which bisects the city of Istanbul. It said the ship was believed to be en route to Syria.

Russia Presents Evidence Of Turkey-ISIS Oil Trade

ATP - The charges and counter-charges have been fast and furious since last week, when the Turkish air force shot down a Russian fighter jet near Turkey’s border with Syria. But now it’s getting personal.

The Russian Defense Ministry is accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his family and his country’s leadership of being tied up in illegal trade in oil with the so-called Islamic State (IS), and that Turkey is the group’s chief customer.

“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told a Moscow news conference Wednesday. He said thousands of trucks ship “large quantities” of the oil into Turkey.

Iran’s air force to enter Syria conflict: report

BEIRUT – Iran is preparing to deploy two fighter jet squadrons to Syria to conduct strikes on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime, according to a Kuwaiti daily with close access to Moscow’s military intervention in the war-torn country.

“The Iranian participation [in the Syrian conflict] is headed for more advancement with preparation for the arrival of two fleets of Iranian planes,” sources in the Damascus joint operations room of the “4+1” military coalition of Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah told Al-Rai's newspaper’s chief international correspondent, Elijah J. Magnier.

Erdogan Blackmails NATO Allies

ATP - You know the country has really gone to the dogs when Washington’s main allies in its war on Syria are the two biggest terrorist incubators on the planet. I’m talking about Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which are run by fanatical Islamic zealots devoted to spreading violent jihad to the four corners of the earth. Not that the US doesn’t have blood on its hands too. It does, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that if you’re trying to sell your fake war on terror to the public, then you might want to think twice about lining up with Grand Sultan Erdogan and King Chop-Chop of Riyadh. The optics alone should have sent the White House PR team running for cover. I mean, couldn’t they have hired squeaky-clean Iceland to join the fray just to persuade the public that the ongoing proxy war wasn’t a complete sham. Which it is.

Erdogan denies buying oil from IS

ATP - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied Thursday that Turkey bought any oil from the Islamic State group, insisting his country's fight against the jihadists was "undisputed".

"Shame on you. Those who claim we buy oil from Daesh (IS) are obliged to prove it. If not, you are a slanderer," Erdogan said, lashing out at Russian charges after the downing of a warplane on the Syrian border.

Tuesday's incident prompted a tough response from Moscow, a major trade partner and Turkey's largest energy supplier.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara did not need to apologise "on an occasion that we are right," adding that he had already said "sorry" in a phone call with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.