Finland has said that it will boost its involvement in a training mission in Iraq and a UN-led mission in Lebanon to help relieve French forces in the aftermath of the Paris attacks last month by the IS group.
From our news desk:
Putin Vows 'Very Tough' Action On Syria Threats
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to "act in a very tough way" against any threat to its forces in Syria.
Putin told defense officials in Moscow December 11 that Russian forces in Syria should "immediately destroy" such targets.
Last month, the Turkish military downed a Russian bomber on the Syrian border, triggering a bitter row between Moscow and Ankara.
Turkey says the bomber entered its airspace, which Russia denies.
Without naming Turkey, Putin warned against "further provocations."
The Russian president also said the military was now supporting Free Syrian Army forces, which are fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Moscow has been accused of targeting the moderate Syrian opposition, rather than the Islamic State group.
Putin said it was important to develop cooperation "with all states that have a real interest in destroying the terrorists."
A new propaganda video by the IS group features footage of Rome, Il Foglio reporter Daniele Raineri says.
Western Calls For Assad To Go As Part Of Fight Against IS 'Unconstructive' - Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that it is "unconstructive" for Western countries to link the fight against the IS group with a desire that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down.
"Right now we are seeing a reluctance to fight a common evil until Assad goes, we don't see any pragmatic approach here, here there's a great deal of ideology," Lavrov told a press conference.
Lavrov said there had been many situations in which people had become "fixated" on the idea that removing one man could fix matters.
"Saddam Hussein, Muamar Gaddafi, and by the way, [former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych. Look at what happened in all these countries, where the international community said, remove this man because of corruption, dictorship, and these countries will flourish afterward. We hope that we will learn from this experience and, like I already said, we have to make a choice -- like we did when the coalition against IS was formed," Lavrov said.
This just in from Daily Sabah.
A Libyan source near the town of Sabratha, whose center IS overran for a time yesterday without any resistance, has this to say about the situation:
Overseeing IS's network in Mosul, Iraq are Saddam-era army and intelligence officers, many of whom helped keep Saddam Hussein and his Baath party in power for years, Reuters reports:
The Baathists have strengthened the group’s spy networks and battlefield tactics and are instrumental in the survival of its self-proclaimed Caliphate, according to interviews with dozens of people, including Baath leaders, former intelligence and military officers, Western diplomats and 35 Iraqis who recently fled Islamic State territory for Kurdistan.
Among the most prominent Baathists to join IS, according to Reuters, are:
Ayman Sabawi, the son of Saddam Hussein’s half brother, and Raad Hassan, Saddam’s cousin, said the senior Salahuddin security official and several tribal leaders. Both were children during Saddam’s time, but the family connection is powerfully symbolic.
More senior officers now in Islamic State include Walid Jasim (aka Abu Ahmed al-Alwani) who was a captain of intelligence in Saddam’s time, and Fadhil al-Hiyala (aka Abu Muslim al-Turkmani) whom some believe was a deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi until he was killed in an airstrike earlier this year.
A Russian man from the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has been arrested in the capital Nalchik on suspicion of having undergone training at a militant camp in Syria, Interfax reports.
The 26-year-old man was born in Nalchik but converted to Islam in Belgium. The man allegedly underwent mines and explosives training in Syria, an FSB spokesman told Interfax.
Interfax did not say which militant group in Syria the suspect had allegedly belonged to.
Normality has returned to the Libyan city of Sabratha, the center of which IS militants overran yesterday, Libya Alaan reports.
A 19-year-old student from Blackburn in northern England has been sentenced to four years in prison after trying to travel to fight for the IS group.
Ednane Mahmood, from Blackburn, fled his home after stating his desire to "fight abroad for Allah," the BBC reports.
Mahmood said he was "brainwashed."