MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The incident, said to be the first of its kind, was spotted on the Syrian side of the Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi river by an NNA news service reporter. The outlet said a probe has been opened to establish the causes of the firing. It added that two of the helicopter’s pilots returned to the Qlaiaat air base their condition unknown.

by Ahmed Rasheed and Stephen Kalin

BAGHDAD — US-led forces have killed 10 Islamic State leaders in airstrikes, including individuals linked to the Paris attacks, a US spokesman said, dealing a double blow to the militant group after Iraqi forces ousted it from the city of Ramadi.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi planted the national flag in Ramadi after the army retook the city center from Islamic State, a victory that could help vindicate his strategy for rebuilding the military after stunning defeats.

by India Stoughton  Arts & Culture, Middle East, Lebanon

by Nabila Rahhal

BEIRUT Dec 29 (Reuters) – Lebanese customs seized five tonnes of Captagon amphetamine pills and hashish at Beirut airport on Tuesday, concealed in primary school desks that were to be shipped to Egypt, a security source said.

Meanwhile, security forces in northern Lebanon found two workshops producing Captagon and other drugs during a series of raids, the source said.

Both events came after a number of drug seizures at Beirut airport in recent months, including one that led to the arrest on charges of smuggling of a Saudi prince.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said Tuesday’s operation at the airport was one of the biggest of its kind, and that the drugs could have been smuggled onto other countries after Egypt, without elaborating.

Pamela Engel

More than a decade after the US invaded Afghanistan as part of its war on terror, the group that prompted that invasion is reemerging as a threat.

And it’s far from alone.

Al Qaeda training camps are reportedly reappearing in Afghanistan, where the US has been focused on fighting ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh) and the Taliban, according to The New York Times.

And since ISIS and the Taliban have been making territorial gains across Afghanistan, Al Qaeda has reportedly fallen on the list of US anti-terror priorities.

If the training camps had popped up several years ago, "they would have rocketed to the top of potential threats presented to President Obama in his daily intelligence briefing," The Times reports. "Now, they are just one of many — and perhaps, American officials say, not even the most urgent on the Pentagon’s list in Afghanistan."

By: catholicherald.com

A statue stored under the direction of the Museums and Antiquities Dpt. in Damascus

AFP

A Lebanese expert has been called to Cyprus to examine whether confiscated artefacts seized from a vessel were illegally taken from a shipwreck, officials said on Monday.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said it was not sure if the artefacts had been taken inside the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus or that of Lebanon, so an expert had been called in.

"It is not clear… but this does not stop the obligation of a state, for such a cargo, to explore everything before allowing (the ship’s) departure," he said.

The fate of the ship and its cargo depended on the outcome of investigations, including those undertaken by experts, as well as the attorney general.

"The Lebanese expert will come and give his opinion," said Kasoulides.

Armin Rosen

ISIS might have proven its ability to wage complex attacks around the world in 2015.

But in the heart of its "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria, the group suffered at least one important setback: losing a substantial portion of its oil-exports income, according to the Iraq Oil Report.

Without the major source of revenue and foreign currency, the group might have a reduced ability to maintain the appearance of state-like services and functions inside the caliphate, potentially harming its ability to hold on to territory as global efforts against the group intensify.

The Iraq Oil Report’s December 28 story is one of the most detailed accounts of the jihadist group’s oil infrastructure that’s publicly available. It’s based on interviews with over a dozen people living in ISIS-controlled areas, including anonymous oil-sector workers. The story also includes descriptions of documents from the nearly 7 terabytes of data seized from the compound of Abu Sayyaf, the ISIS oil chief for Syria killed in a US Special Forces raid in May.

Masnaa (Lebanon) (AFP) – A convoy of more than 120 rebels and wounded from the flashpoint Syrian border town of Zabadani crossed into Lebanon on Monday as part of a UN-backed truce, an AFP journalist said.

The convoy included seven buses and 22 ambulances and was accompanied by Lebanese security forces from the Masnaa border crossing, the journalist at the scene said.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, the evacuees will travel from the Beirut airport to Turkey, and will then cross into rebel-held territory in Syria.

The operation was to be matched by a similar evacuation from Fuaa and Kafraya, the last two regime-held villages in Syria’s northwest Idlib province.