[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Ahmad Alkhalaf has had a busy year.
He attended Democratic President Barack Obama Because I won... 's final State of the Union address as a special guest of a congressman. He learned to bike and rollerblade, took martial arts and gymnastics classes and spent his summer playing soccer and swimming in a lake at a day camp in the Boston suburbs.
Continued on Page 49
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[IsraelTimes] Cairo continues to crack down on network used to transport weapons and goods to the Strip ruled by Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror group.
Egypt discovered and destroyed 12 smuggling tunnels linking the Gazoo Strip to the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian army said Monday.
Egyptian army front man Tamer al-Rifae said that the tunnels, in the north of the Sinai, had been destroyed, though he did not specify when the demolitions were carried out.
Earlier Monday, Hamas published a report in which it said that it had lost 21 members of its armed forces while digging tunnels under the Gazoo Strip in 2016, some of them to Egypt and some into Israel.
Last month, four men, aged 22 to 45, were killed when the Egyptian army flooded a tunnel with seawater. The men were found dead 9 days after the tunnel they had been working in was flooded by the Egyptian army, according to a statement by local authorities in the Gazook city of Rafah near Egypt’s border.
[AA.TR] Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has called on murderous Moslems in the country's oil-rich delta region to embrace peace and shun pipeline bombings that seriously harmed the local economy in 2016.
"We will continue to pursue peace initiatives in the Niger Delta as I again, call on our brothers in that region who have taken to violent disruptions of economic infrastructure to come to the negotiating table," Buhari said in a new year message to his country.
The president also, for the first time, sought rapprochement with the country's Shia Moslems whose mass killings by security forces in December 2015 - following disagreements with the army - and attempts to proscribe them dominated much of last year.
Apparently responding to Shia’s insistence on the release of their detained chief and nonstop condemnation of his administration, Buhari called on the Shia Moslems to embrace peace, respect the law and not be ’islands by themselves’.
"At the same time, the law enforcement agencies must treat them humanely and according to the rule of law," Buhari added.
But the Shia have fired back at the president, saying they have never been violent but have been victims of state repression.
"Buhari's statement (with regards to security agencies) proves correct what all human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organizations have been saying about the monumental savagery and gross inhumanity of Nigerian security forces against (our) members," Harun El-Binawi, a top Shia Moslem, said in a statement on Sunday.
The delta murderous Moslems have not responded to the president’s statement.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! two men over their suspected involvement in the October 30 attack on the Hindus in Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar.
The arrestees are Uttam Kumar Das, 25, personal assistant to Haripur Union Parishad Chairman Dewan Atikur Rahman Akhi, and Manaranjan Devnath, 40, a secretary at the UP.
Abu Jafar, officer-in-charge of Nasirnagar Police Station, claimed that during their interrogation, the arrestees admitted the UP chairman's involvement in the incident.
Though locals say Akhi was the "criminal mastermind" behind the attack, he is still absconding.
"We'll interrogate them [the arrestees] further to trace Akhi," said the OC.
A day before the attack, police arrested Rasraj Das, a local fisherman, for "hurting the religious sentiments of the Moslems" through a Facebook post.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Sherlocks later cleared him of the charge. But he is still languishing in jail.
Today, the court is scheduled to hear his bail prayer.
Mobs, including religious zealots and local goons, vandalised and looted over 100 houses of Hindus and temples in Nasirnagar upazila during the three-hour mayhem on October 30 following the Facebook post.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout Montefiore's foot was still stuck and the hound had completely soaked his uniform with slobber... sources say Sherlocks have already submitted to the court the forensic reports on the computer and cell phone collected as evidence in the case filed against Rasraj.
Another report, submitted to the court, says the post was not uploaded from Rasraj's cell phone, added the sources.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The authorities in Tajikistan are saying that an investigation is underway to ascertain claims made by the former Afghan officials suggesting the Taliban weapons are being repaired by the Russian experts inside the Tajik soil.
A front man for Tajikistan’s border guard agency, Muhammadjon Ulughkhojaev, has said the allegations by the former Afghan officials are baseless.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... he did not rule out the possibility as he vowed to probe the allegations.
Ulughkhojaev quoted in a report by RFE/RL said the border guard agency "has been looking into the claim."
He said the authorities will study the Afghan media reports, and will report on the results of their investigation.
The former provincial governor of Kunduz Mohammad Omar Safi claimed late last year that the vehicles and weapons had been repaired by Russian military engineers based in Tajikistan before being returned to the Taliban.
Safi also added that such cooperation between the Afghan Taliban and the Russian military has been going on for nearly two years.
This comes as reports have emerged recently suggesting the growing nexus between the Taliban group and the Russian as well as the Iranian authorities.
The reports have emerged amid concerns by the authorities of the two countries that the loyalists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group are attempting to expand foothold in Afghanistan, a threat which is seriously taken by the Iranian and Russian authorities who are believing that the terror group eyes expansion beyond the Afghan borders into the Central Asian States.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The Center of Modern Art (Çağdaş Sanatlar Merkezi) in the capital Ankara, where Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was assassinated during a photo exhibition on Dec. 19, will reopen on Jan. 5 with a recital of the Catholic hymn “Stabat Mater.”
The gallery has been closed since the assassination of Karlov, but will begin its new season with the free-to-attend evening recital.
Funda Yazıksız as soprano, Ayşe Dağıstan as mezzo soprano, and Dengin Ceyhan on the piano will perform in the concert starting at 8:00 p.m. on Jan. 5.
The Stabat Mater Oratorio, composed by G. B. Pergolesi in 1736, is hymn that portrays Mary’s suffering as Jesus Christ’s mother during his crucifixion. The title comes from its first line, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, which means “the sorrowful mother was standing”.
Meanwhile, the Center of Modern Art will host on Jan. 6 an event marking the 68th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, organized by the Jose Marti Cuba Friendship Association.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] On the afternoon of Jan. 1 a group of young men and women staged a brief public demonstration in a teahouse in Okmeydani, a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, declaring that they would struggle to keep The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s secular system alive and not let the propagandists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) or similar jihadist organizations recruit people in their area.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] A women calling for secularism was detained after participating in a speech protesting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub that killed 39 people and maimed 65 others.
The video of a speech delivered by a member of the Halkevleri (People’s Houses), Ergin Cevik, at a teahouse in the Istanbul neighborhood of Okmeydani calling for secularism emerged on social media on Jan. 1, prompting a user to report it to the Interior Ministry asking for the "traitors to be stopped."
"We say ’enough.’ From now on, we won’t allow ISIS or any reactionary jihadist gang into our neighborhoods," Cevik says in the video, as other Halkevleri members - including Aysegul Basar, who was later detained - listen in the background.
"There is a flag that needs to be raised against reactionaryism. The name of that flag is the flag of secularism. Secularism means freedom, brotherhood and struggling for a humane life. We are calling on everyone to be soldiers of this struggle. We are calling on you to bring fascists and lovers of the presidential system to account. Thank you for listening to us," Cevik added.
After the video went viral on social media, a Twitter user denounced it in a tweet posted to the Interior Ministry’s official Twitter account.
"Terrorists are inviting people to civil war in Okmeydani. Stop these traitors," wrote the user, addressing the Interior Ministry.
The tweet received a reply from the ministry, which stated that the person speaking in the video should be identified and the location of the speech found.
"The video has been transmitted to anti-terror units. Please identify the person wherever you see him," the reply sent by the Interior Ministry’s official account read.
The ministry’s tweet drew a condemnation on social media and was deleted nearly two hours after it was posted. Lawmakers from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) slammed the exchange and a hashtag reading "Secularism is not a crime" was launched.
Despite the Interior Ministry deleting its tweet, Halkevleri member Aysegul Basar, who can be seen in the background of the video listening to Cevik’s speech, was detained by police at her house in the early hours of Jan. 2.
CHP Istanbul deputy Baris Yarkadas released a statement after Basar’s detention, saying she would be held by police for five days.
"Why is the Interior Ministry bothered by youths making anti-ISIS propaganda?" Yarkadas asked.
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[DAWN] Pakistain lashed out at India on Sunday, saying that New Delhi had "deployed" terrorism as an instrument of state policy in the garb of denouncing terrorism. India, it added, was involved in perpetrating, sponsoring, supporting and financing terrorism.
The remarks came in a statement that Foreign Office front man Nafees Zakarya issued in response to queries regarding reports about the failure of an Indian move in the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... sanctions committee.
"Pakistain has been a direct victim of this state-sponsored terrorism by India. The arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... agent and serving officer of the Indian Navy, and his confession ... [of] involvement in terrorist activities aimed at destabilising Pakistain and killing or maiming ... Pak citizens, is yet another proof of Indian-sponsored terrorism in Pakistain," he said.
With such "duplicitous behaviour and blood on its hands", India has little credibility on counterterrorism, the front man said. In coming days, Pakistain will share with the United Nations and members of the international community additional evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistain, he added.
The official said that the Indian proposal at the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee was politically motivated and replete with frivolous information.
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#1
China has in fact blocked the Indian request to sanction terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad's chief Masood Azhar.
Posted by: John Frum ||
01/03/2017 16:50 Comments ||
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#2
"Projection"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/03/2017 18:33 Comments ||
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[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Possession of Pak passport was made mandatory on Sunday for cross-border movement by Pak nationals at Torkham border after expiry of the deadline on December 31.
Authorities had made announcements through loudspeakers and displayed banners at prominent places at the border to apprise Pak nationals about the new restrictions prior to expiry of the deadline.
Authorities said that the new restrictions were imposed after arrest of a number of suspected Afghans with fake Pak Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).
Earlier, authorities had permitted Pak nationals to use their CNICs for cross-border movement but ended the relaxation after receiving information about preparation of fake CNICs in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
Officials told Dawn that Shinwari tribal people, living on both sides of the Durand Line, would be exempted from possessing passport as they were already issued temporary ’Rahdari’ cards by Khyber Agency ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though... political administration after necessary verification.
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Just an excerpt from the middle. Real good backgrounder on the "Golden Division." [POLITICO] Iraq’s Golden Division has a storied, and controversial, history. As one of three special brigades of Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service, it acts under the direct command of Iraq’s prime minister. Established as a nonsectarian formation, the unit was first organized, equipped and trained by U.S. special forces units soon after Baghdad fell, with the express purpose of fighting the then-growing Iraqi insurgency. A select group of its best officers were brought to the U.S. for intensive training at the U.S. Army Ranger School, then redeployed to the division as combat commanders. From its earliest days its independent chain of command was resented, however, with Iraqis viewing the division as a political tool in the hands of the Iraqi prime minister. Among Iraqis, it became known as "the dirty division."
But the Golden Division’s tenacious fight against ISIS over the past two years has burnished its reputation, giving it a gloss of respectability unequaled by any other Iraqi unit. The division’s newfound stature has also been a source of pride at Centcom, whose intelligence officers cite it as an example of the Army’s training expertise and as a counterpoint to America’s anti-ISIS fight in Syria.
#4
#3 'Losing control' would appear to indicate someone actually had control. Posted by: Besoeker Concur, we never established control over that city. ISIS is the only force to maintain control for any amount of time...
Great article - and timely since the Iraqi SOF, CT units and Federal Police attacked into the Industrial zone on Mosul's East Bank this morning.
One senior Pentagon officer with access to daily battle reports on the Mosul fight says the battle for the city has been so intense that the Golden Division’s veteran battalions “are suffering upwards of 50 percent casualties. If that rate stays constant,” he told me, “the division could become combat ineffective in a little over a month, and perhaps even sooner.”
If that is true, the Golden Division could be ineffective before the battle is over. Implications of that for the govt of Iraq are bad, very bad
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01/03/2017 11:13 Comments ||
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[AA.TR] Iraq's Vice President Nouri al-Maliki said Monday the Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia could enter Syria to fight for "Syrian brothers" if needed.
His statement came amid increased concerns over the armed Shia group to fuel sectarian festivities in northern Iraq, especially the Turkmen-populated city of Tal Afar and the Sunni-populated djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... "If we can be successful against ISIS and liberate our soil, we can go into Syria if our brothers there need help against ISIS," Malik told a press meeting in Iran’s capital Tehran.
An umbrella group of pro-government Shia militias, the Hashd al-Shaabi was established in 2014 with the express purpose of fighting the ISIS terrorist group.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Myanmar said yesterday it has detained several coppers over a video shot by a fellow policeman that shows them beating Rohingya civilians, a rare admission of abuse against the Moslem minority.
Tens of thousands of people from the persecuted ethnic group -- loathed by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority -- have fled a military operation in Rakhine state, launched after attacks on police posts in October.
Dozens of videos have emerged apparently showing abuses against Rohingya, but this is the first time the government has said it will take action over them.
The refugees' stories have raised global alarm and galvanised protests against Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused of not doing enough to help the Rohingya.
Her government has said troops are hunting hard boyz behind the deadly raids on police border posts, denying claims of atrocities with a flurry of public statements.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... authorities yesterday pledged to take action "against police who allegedly beat villagers during area clearance operations on November 5 in Kotankauk village".
Suu Kyi's office named four officers involved in the operation including constable Zaw Myo Htike, who looks nonchalantly into the camera smoking as he records the video.
"Those who [were] initially identified were detained," it said in a statement. "Further investigations are being carried out to expose other coppers who beat villagers in the operation."
'SADISTIC CINEMA VERITE'
The footage shows police hitting a young boy around the head as he walks to where dozens of villagers are lined up in rows seated on the ground, hands behind their heads.
Three officers in uniform then start attacking one of the sitting men, beating him with a stick and kicking him repeatedly in the face.
A Rohingya activist contacted by AFP said the footage had been verified by a refugee from the nearby camp, Shilkhali.
Analyst David Mathieson said the video "brings into sharp question the government's denials of security forces abuses in Rakhine since October, when here is sadistic cinema verite of how they are treating the local Moslem population".
Around 600 people have been detained since the start of the military operation, according to state media, including six who died in police custody in largely unexplained circumstances.
Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights, said the video adds to a growing body of evidence of widespread abuse by security forces.
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The case emerged in February 2016 when Huthaifa Derkel was stopped and questioned. He admitted to the charges brought against him from theft to communicating with a regime agent, and handing over three people to the security forces for them to be conscripted into the army. Derkel’s testimony was strengthened by that of his partner in the thefts Khalouk Hallak. Hallak testified that Derkel told him that he handed three people from the al-Qasas family to the regime security forces.
Based on the admission, referred to as "Master of Evidence", the Shariah Commission in Aleppo issued a decision to execute Derkel after proving the charges of "Manifesting the infidels" by handing over three people to the security forces on 11 March 2013. Two judges signed the death sentence, Abu Ihsan and Abu Abdullah al-Sharii. Then on 23 March 2016, Derkel’s sentence was amended to only two-years imprisonment and 30 lashes on the head at the beginning of every month. I'm trying to picture that. So far I've failed.
Three other judges signed off on the reduced sentence: Abu Adham, Abu Adnan, Abu Ahmad al-Sharii (Mounir Zammar).
Two judges signed the death sentence, Abu Ihsan and Abu Abdullah al-Sharii. Then on 23 March 2016, Derkel’s sentence was amended to only two-years imprisonment and 30 lashes on the head at the beginning of every month. Three other judges signed off on the reduced sentence: Abu Adham, Abu Adnan, Abu Ahmad al-Sharii (Mounir Zammar).
Mounir Zammar was the person who suggested the ruling be changed and the person who convinced the court to adjust the sentence. The new sentencing document says that the Aleppo Sharia Commission took a decision to modify the death sentencing in Derkel’s right giving a series of justifications among them the "extreme naivety" of the convicted, and that capital punishment exceeds the crime committed.
Regardless of the correctness of either decision, the investigations raise questions about the ways the Commission managed the rights’ violation cases and civilian injustices experienced in one of the most important areas that was outside regime control. The questions emerge as the rights’ violations cases were a major cause that pushed so many people to revolt against the al-Assad regime.
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The year of 2016 was the hardest on the coastal cities of Syria compared to previous years since the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
Difficulties varied from lack of security and wide spread of Shabiha mercenary groups who had done whatever they like with any security force to stop them, added to lack of public services like electricity, water and fuel, besides soaring prices.
State of lawlessness
Armed individuals and gangs had breached all regulations and law in their practices such as killing, abduction, looting, bullying and humiliating against residents, even those loyalists to regime.
Weakness of security forces had facilitated huge kabooms in Tartus city, resulted in killing dozens. While other minor kabooms took place in neighbourhoods of Ramil Shamali and Tishrin suburb in Latakia and Karnak neighbourhood and national highway in Tartus.
Other results of lawlessness was the increase in murdering crimes, some aimed for looting and others for Dire Revenge. Besides abducting rich people and young women for ransom.
Activist Mohammed al-Sahili mentioned the state of corruption in justice system in Latakia with widespread of bribery and unfair verdicts.
Unprecedented fires
Forest in the coastal areas suffered of wide unprecedented fires lasted for days, they even forced residents in some village to evacuate their houses near Qardaha, al-Assad hometown.
Regime journalist and social media sites, especially of regime loyalist mentioned the fire brigade had deliberately delayed putting out the fire. Some mentioned that fire was an intentional act committed by Shabiha and others who wanted to clear the area from trees to sell it to wealthy traders from Aleppo.
Public Services
Residents in the coastal area suffered in providing fuel, oil for vehicles and gas for cooking, as regime had reduced their share from 14,000 cylinders into 8000 only.
Rationing electricity difficult to tolerate, as current cut-off lasted for 6 hours for only one hour on. The government justified that by lack of fuel or targeting electricity stations by terrorists.
Prices had hugely soared due to drop of the Syrian pound exchange rate against the US. Dollar, which hardened lives of people with fixed income and salaried employees who suffered in covering their living needs.
Rotten and expired food had spread widely in the coastal area, especially Latakia city, moreover, people find no option but to use them due to their low prices.
In regard to medicine, uncontrolled and expired drugs or unknown source had spread in pharmacy, most of them smuggled by Shabiha and members of different regime forces.
Thousands of soldiers killed
It is estimated that between 7000 and 10000 soldiers and members of National Defence Forces and other regime-loyalist forces were killed in the year of 2016.
Most of them were killed in battles of Aleppo, Hama and the countryside of Latakia.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Possession of Pak passport was made mandatory on Sunday for cross-border movement by Pak nationals at Torkham border after expiry of the deadline on December 31.
[POLITICO] Iraq’s Golden Division has a storied, and controversial, history. As one of three special brigades of Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service, it acts under the direct command of Iraq’s prime minister. Established as a nonsectarian formation, the unit was first organized, equipped and trained by U.S. special forces units soon after Baghdad fell, with the express purpose of fighting the then-growing Iraqi insurgency. A select group of its best officers were brought to the U.S. for intensive training at the U.S. Army Ranger School, then redeployed to the division as combat commanders. From its earliest days its independent chain of command was resented, however, with Iraqis viewing the division as a political tool in the hands of the Iraqi prime minister. Among Iraqis, it became known as "the dirty division."
[AA.TR] Iraq's Vice President Nouri al-Maliki said Monday the Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia could enter Syria to fight for "Syrian brothers" if needed.
[Bangla Daily Star] Myanmar said yesterday it has detained several 
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The case emerged in February 2016 when Huthaifa Derkel was stopped and questioned. He admitted to the charges brought against him from theft to communicating with a regime agent, and handing over three people to the security forces for them to be conscripted into the army. Derkel’s testimony was strengthened by that of his partner in the thefts Khalouk Hallak. Hallak testified that Derkel told him that he handed three people from the al-Qasas family to the regime security forces.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The year of 2016 was the hardest on the coastal cities of Syria compared to previous years since the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
