Two men from the Swedish town of Gothenburg have been sentenced to life in prison after a court ruled that graphic video evidence showed them taking part in the beheading of two other people in Syria.
The chief prosecutor told the court that the beheading videos proved that the two men, aged 30 and 32, were present when the murders were committed and that they belonged to a terror group.
Neither of the men held the knife in the videos but the court found that they had intended to kill and intimidate others.
The older man had held the legs of one of the victims ana had given the go ahead to kill the men on the outskirts of Aleppo, the prosecution argued.
Neither of the men have been named.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that he sees a "postiive dynamic" in resolving the Syrian crisis, Russian media is reporting this morning.
"You all know about the initiative of President Vladimir Putin, which he has put forward at the General Assembly of the UN about the creation of a single counterterrorism front. We are committed to this line and are not only stating this, but we are persistently promoting meetings with our partners," RIA Novosti quoted Lavrov as saying.
"An example of this, in my view, is the positive dynamic around resolving the Syrian conflict, when it managed to gather all players around one table. This is really a great success."
While Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke this morning about a "positive dynamic" around the resolution of the Syrian conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that it was "not yet possible to talk about a positive dynamic" regarding efforts to bring Russia's and the United States' positions on Syria closer.
"Work on rapprochment is ongoing, you know, contacts are being made, but to date, to talk about some sort of convergence of positions isn't possible," Peskov said.
Will Putin Give Kerry The Cold Shoulder In Moscow Tomorrow?
The Kremlin has "not ruled out" a meeting between Russian President Putin and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this morning.
Kerry was expected to meet both Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow tomorrow, December 15, for talks on Syria.
But now it is not clear whether Putin will meet Kerry or whether he will give the U.S. Secretary of State the cold shoulder in Moscow, in which case Kerry will meet only with Lavrov.
Barzan Sadiq of the Kurdistan24 news site has posted these pictures that claim to show Turkish troops withdrawing from north of the IS-controlled city of Mosul in Iraq.
Two unpublished investigations show that the United States has consistently overlooked killings and torture by Iraqi government-sponsored Shi'ite militias, Reuters is reporting.
The investigations -- one by the Iraqi government and one by the U.S. military -- probed a secret prison in a Baghdad police building. The prison was raided in late 2005 by U.S. soldiers and run by militia commanders from the Badr Organization, a pro-Iran movement that now plays a major role in Iraq's fight against the IS group.
But neither of the two reports were ever released.
SDF Rebels Deny Receiving Direct Support From Russia
Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in western Syria have denied receiving any support from the Russian air force, saying that Russia continued to bomb them, Reuters reports.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- a recently-formed group some of whose members identify as FSA -- said its fighters had benefited indirectly from Russian air strikes during a recent battle with insurgents including Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliated the Al-Nusra Front.
The SDF denied that they had received direct support from Russia, according to Reuters.
An SDF spokesman told Reuters that the SDF was recently involved in a battle against Islamist rebels Ahrar al-Sham and the Turkish-based Levant (Sham) Front when Russian strikes hit Ahrar al-Sham and Al-Nusra front fighters.
"People are trying to direct the matter towards the [SDF] because they think that they offered logistical support to us. They did not offer logistical support," the spokesman told Reuters.
"There has been no contact, no agreement, or cooperation between us and the Russian army."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is joining foreign ministers from European and Arab nations today in Paris for the latest talks on the battle against the IS group and efforts to foster a political resolution to the situation in Syria, Voice of America reports.
U.S. President Obama is to chair a National Security Meeting on the campaign against the IS group at the Pentagon today, according to a White House statement,
According to the statement, "the President will receive an update from his national security team and discuss ways to further enhance our campaign to degrade and destroy the terrorist group."
Although Egypt said earlier today that it has so far found no evidence of terrorism or other illegal action linked to the crash of the Russian passenger plane in Sinai, Cairo says that it will hire a foreign company to help improve its airport security, "seen as a weak link in the air safety chain," Reuters reports.
Russia and several Western states have said the Russian Airbus A321 was likely brought down by a bomb, and the IS group said its local affiliate in Egypt had smuggled an explosive on board.