al-Nusra Front

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Abducted Journalist Home After 3-Year 'Hell'

Jumpei Yasuda returns to Japan

(Newser) - A Japanese journalist abducted and held for more than three years in Syria arrived back home in Japan and was reunited with friends and family Thursday night, al-Jazeera reports. Jumpei Yasuda, who was taken in 2015 by the al-Queda-linked Nusra Front , was released and made it safely to Turkey Wednesday....

Journo Held Captive for 3 Years in Syria: 'Now I Am in Turkey'

Jumpei Yasuda, abducted in 2015 by Nusra Front, is now safe

(Newser) - A Japanese freelance journalist who was freed after more than three years of captivity in Syria said Wednesday he's safe in neighboring Turkey. "My name is Jumpei Yasuda, Japanese journalist. I have been held in Syria for 40 months," Yasuda said, somewhat haltingly in English, in videotaped...

New Syria Deal Creates US-Russia Partnership

They'll work together against ISIS, Nusra Front

(Newser) - The United States and Russia working in lockstep against ISIS and al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. A rejuvenated truce that will compel President Bashar Assad's air and ground forces to pull back. New flows of badly needed humanitarian aid. Those details emerged Saturday as US Secretary of State John...

20K Military Uniforms Meant for ISIS Are Intercepted

There were enough uniforms 'to equip an entire army': Spain

(Newser) - Spanish authorities seized containers holding about 20,000 military uniforms and other supplies last month from two port towns, all destined for ISIS and Nusra Front jihadi fighters, the country's Interior Ministry said Thursday in a statement. It was contraband said to be able to "equip an entire...

After 5 Brutal Years, Glimmer of Hope for Syria

But it doesn't include ISIS, Nusra Front

(Newser) - After five brutal and unrelenting years of civil war, there may finally be a glimmer of hope for Syria—or what's left of it. After extensive talks in Munich, world powers have agreed upon what they refer to as a "cessation of hostilities" between the regime and rebels...

Source: Extremist Groups Rebuffed Calif. Shooters

Farook, Malik discussed jihad online before meeting

(Newser) - San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik tried to join Islamic extremist groups in the months before the massacre only to get the cold shoulder, according to law enforcement sources. Those sources tell Reuters that the groups appear to have ignored Malik because she was completely unknown to them and they feared...

Russia Sending 'Volunteers' to Syria

NATO slams Moscow's violation of member's airspace

(Newser) - Russian "volunteers"—like those who helped Moscow seize control of Crimea—could soon be arriving in Syria in numbers large enough to make a big difference to the conflict. Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, chief of the Russian parliament's defense committee, told reporters on Monday that volunteers who had...

US Rethinks Rebel Training After Disastrous Launch

US-trained fighters killed, kidnapped within weeks

(Newser) - The Pentagon plans a total revamp of its plan to train an army of moderate Syrian rebels after a disastrous start to the program. Officials had aimed to train thousands of fighters in the first year, but only a few dozen made it through the vetting process , and many of...

Feds: Ohio Man Planned Prison Terror Strike

He went to Syria weeks after getting US passport

(Newser) - An Ohio man who allegedly planned a terror strike on a US prison now faces spending decades in one. Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges of supporting a terrorist organization and lying to the FBI, reports the Columbus Dispatch . According to the indictment,...

UN: Syrian Camp Overrun by ISIS 'Beyond Inhumane'

ISIS reportedly controls 90% of Yarmouk

(Newser) - The head of a UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the situation at Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus is "more desperate than ever." Pierre Krahenbuhl says it has been impossible for the UNRWA to send food or convoys into Yarmouk—home to 18,000, including 3,500 children—...

Syria Helicopter Crashes; Rebels Capture Crew

Regime often uses choppers to drop barrel bombs on rebels

(Newser) - Syrian insurgents captured several government airmen after their helicopter crashed in a rebel-held area of northwestern Syria on Sunday, activists said. The Idlib Media Center and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the helicopter went down near Jabal al-Zawiya, some 6 miles north of the town of Maarat...

Syria: Nusra Front Commander Killed
Syria: Nusra Front Commander Killed
Mar 6, 2015 12:02 AM CST

Syria: Nusra Front Commander Killed

Blast hits meeting of al-Qaeda affiliate's leaders

(Newser) - The military commander of al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate was killed yesterday in an explosion targeting a meeting of senior militants that also killed and wounded a number of other fighters, according to a state-run Syrian news agency. SANA says Abu Hommam al-Shami was killed in a military operation carried out...

Italian Aid Workers Freed in Syria
 Italian Aid Workers 
 Freed in Syria 
UPDATED
Jan 16, 2015 4:27 AM CST

Italian Aid Workers Freed in Syria

Sources say huge ransom was paid to Nusra Front

(Newser) - Two young Italian aid workers kidnapped in Syria last year and seen pleading for their lives in a video recently released by their captors are free and arrived back in their homeland today, Italian authorities say. The country's foreign ministry says Vanessa Marzullo, 21, and Greta Ramelli, 20, who...

Italian Women Plead for Lives in Syria Video

Aid workers were kidnapped in July

(Newser) - Two young Italian aid workers kidnapped in Syria last summer plead for their lives in a chilling new video released by their captors. Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo, 20 and 21 years old, are seen wearing Islamic garb in the video, and one holds up a piece of paper with...

Journo Offers Stunning Account of Kidnapping, Torture

American Peter Theo Curtis, aka Theo Padnos, tells of 22 months with al-Nusra Front

(Newser) - The world was shocked and elated when American journalist Peter Theo Curtis was released this summer after 22 months of being held in captivity in Syria by the militant al-Nusra Front group. Now Curtis, who writes under the name Theo Padnos, has penned an extraordinary account for the New York ...

ISIS Oil Sites Pounded for 2nd Day

FBI: Only 12 Americans fighting in Syria

(Newser) - The US-led anti-ISIS coalition has hit the militant group in the wallet for a second day, carrying out more airstrikes on the oil production facilities in eastern Syria believed to make millions of dollars a day for the group. Activists say that ISIS has started to cut back on the...

US Airstrikes Hit ISIS in the Wallet: Oil Fields

Reports: Compounds, checkpoints hit; terror arrests made; terror leader killed

(Newser) - American-led airstrikes hit the Islamic State in the wallet overnight and early today, targeting Syrian oil installations held by the terror group and killing nearly 20 people as the militants released dozens of detainees in their de facto capital of Raqqa, fearing further raids, activists tell the AP . The latest...

Khorasan Threat Was Kept Secret for Months

Al-Qaeda cell was cause of recent air security warnings

(Newser) - Not many people had heard of the Khorasan terror group until it emerged that many of the US-led airstrikes in Syria targeted the group—but some lawmakers say they've known about the threat for months, BuzzFeed reports. Rep. Peter King says he is surprised the name of the "...

45 Peacekeepers Held Captive in Syria Are Freed

Qatar says it helped broker release

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda-linked militants have released 45 Fijian peacekeepers captured two weeks ago in Syria , ending the UN's fourth crisis over abducted soldiers in the Golan Heights since March 2013. The Fijians were captured on the Syrian-controlled side of the contested buffer zone between Syria and Israel by fighters from the...

Expert: 12K Foreigners Fighting in Syria

Conflict has drawn fighters from 74 countries

(Newser) - More than 12,000 foreigners from 74 countries have gone to fight with rebels in Syria, 60% to 70% from other Middle Eastern countries and about 20% to 25% from Western nations, a leading expert on terrorism warned yesterday. Prof. Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study...

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