This just in from AFP.
Last month in the wake of the November 13 Paris attacks European Union interior ministers discussed tightening the external borders of the passport-free Schengen area after it emerged that the man thought to be the ringleader of the attacks traveled undetected from Syria to France.
The United States has said that a Saudi-based alliance which Riyadh says will target terrorist groups was in line with its calls for greater involvement by Sunni Muslim countries to combat the IS group, AFP reports.
"We look forward to learning more about what Saudi Arabia has in mind in terms of this coalition," U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told journalists at Incirlik in Turkey.
Russia's Life News -- which has links to the country's security services -- finally has an update on the talks today between U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
But it's not about the discussions on Syria.
Instead, Life News says that Lavrov told its correspondent that he had gifted Kerry a toy Grandfather Frost -- the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus.
"He came to the talks, and there was a Christmas tree. He immediately rushed over to the Grandfather Frost that was hanging there and began to twirl it. I said, that according to the laws of hospitality, whatever a guest liked he could have. He said, "no, no, I'm going to the Arbat, I'm going to buy New Year gifts there. But all the same we gave him the Grandfather Frost," Life News claims Lavrov said.
Powerful Syrian militant Zahran Alloush, who leads the Army of Islam in Damascus has spoken to the Daily Beast including about accusations that he is "just another dictator in Islamic garb."
This is what he had to say about the United States:
America is a powerful country and it can play a major role to end the Syrian conflict if it wants. But the current administration refuses to play this role and acts with cold blood when it comes to Syria. It has failed to respond effectively to Assad’s massacres and we saw that obviously when Assad crossed the “red-line” on the use of chemical weapons. America was able to stop the chemical attacks, but it didn’t care.
When America demanded Assad to pull his army out of Lebanon, Assad had to do that in few days, though being in Lebanon was very essential and important for his regime. Even if the administration didn’t want to intervene directly, it is still able to support the real revolutionary groups which are capable of toppling Assad and at the same time defeating ISIS. Instead, it is promoting weak groups and supporting them just to say, ‘We are doing something for Syria.’
Nearly a month after a terrorist assault that killed 20 people, the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital of Bamako has reopened.
The militant group Al-Mourabitoun claimed that it carried out the attack in cooperation with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
An Al-Qaeda member confirmed last month that the attack had been carried out by a group loyal to Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian operative for Al-Qaeda.
A Danish prosecutor has charged a 23-year-old man with violating Danish terrorism laws by joining the IS group in 2013, AP reports.
The unidentified man is also charged with supporting IS financially because he intended to bring $3,000 when he planned to return to Syria in 2014, but was stopped by Danish police.
AFP has this update on the new Saudi-led anti-terror coalition.
The United States and its allies targeted IS militants with a fresh round of 14 air strikes in Syria and Iraq on Monday, the U.S. military has said in a statement.
Jordan's government spokesman Mohammad Momani has said that Jordan is always ready to join any endeavor aimed at countering terrorism, Jordan's Petra News Agency reports.
He told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) that the Kingdom deems the war on terrorism as "our war and the Muslims war" against terrorists who carry out "ugly and brutal" acts in the name of religion, however, Islam, the religion of peace and tolerance, abhors them.
Terrorism is the real and direct threat to stability in the region and the world, he added.