IS leaders killed in air strikes, says Russia

IS leaders killed in air strikes, says Russia

Russia's defense ministry says it has killed several leaders of the Islamic State group outside their stronghold of Raqqa in Syria.

The ministry said Wednesday that it received a tip-off from the Syrian opposition last week about an upcoming meeting of IS leaders outside Raqqa, and kept the area under surveillance for two days before an Su-34 bomber attacked the meeting place. The date of the strike was not disclosed.

Russia is a staunch ally of President Bashar Assad, and it has been accused of using its air force operation in Syria which began in September in order to prop up Assad.

The defense ministry said it is cooperating with unidentified ``representatives of patriotic opposition forces'' who have been providing Moscow with potential targets in Syria.  

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IS two held over Ankara New Year's Eve suicide attack plan

Turkish police on Wednesday detained two suspected Islamic State militants who were believed to be planning suicide attacks during New Year celebrations in central Ankara, officials said.

The two men were detained in a raid on a cell house in the low-income Mamak neighborhood of Ankara, where police also seized a suicide vest armed with a bomb, an explosive device that was fortified with ball bearings and metal sticks and placed inside a back-pack as well as bomb-making equipment, according to the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's office.

The two Turkish nationals, identified by their initials M.C. and A.Y., were being questioned by anti-terrorism police.

The prosecutor's office said the men had staked out possible locations in Ankara, where they could carry out the attacks. The state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed police and judiciary officials, said the would-be-attackers were planning to detonate the bombs at two locations near bars and a shopping mall near Turkey's central Kizilay district during the celebrations.

``They were caught before they had the opportunity to take action,'' the prosecutor's office said.

The private NTV news channel, quoting security sources, said the two had ``frequently'' moved in and out of Syria and that security officials had been monitoring their movements for the past month.

In October, two suicide bombers detonated bombs outside Ankara's main train station as people gathered for a peace rally. The attack killed more than 100 people and was Turkey's deadliest. The prosecutor's office said the attack was carried out by a local cell of the Islamic State group.

More than 30 people were also killed in a IS suicide attack in the town of Suruc, near Turkey's border with Syria, in July.

Earlier this year, Turkey agreed to take a more active role in the U.S.-led battle against the IS group. Turkey opened its bases to U.S. aircraft to launch air raids on the extremist group in Syria and has carried out a limited number of strikes on the group itself.

It has also moved to tighten security along its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria in a bid to stem the flow of militants.

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Europe refugee influx passes million mark

The U.N. refugee agency says that the number of migrants who've arrived in Europe by sea this year now tops one million.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' announcement Wednesday came only a week after the International Organization for Migration said the total number of people arriving in Europe this year had topped a million _ including 34,215 who arrived across land borders.

UNHCR said 1,000,573 people have now arrived by boat during the year _ 844,176 of them landing in Greece and 152,700 in Italy. Spain reported 3,592 arrivals and Malta 105.

The count is based on police and coast guard data and estimates stemming from refugee registration in Greece; data and estimates from government, police and UNHCR in Italy; and police and government data from Spain and Malta.  

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Terror fears in deadly attack on Russian tourist site

Police in the Russian region of Dagestan say one person has been killed and 10 more injured in shooting at an ancient fortress.

Dagestani police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaydatova said on Wednesday that two men opened fire at visitors at the Naryn-kala fortress in the city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea. The gunmen escaped.

Derbent, which dates back to the 6th century B.C., is believed to be the oldest city in Russia and is a listed UNESCO heritage site.

Dagestan in the North Caucasus has been the epicenter of Islamic insurgency in Russia following two separatist wars in the neighboring Chechnya.

Nearly a third of the estimated 3,000 Russians who are believed to have gone to fight alongside Islamic State militants in Syria are from Dagestan.  

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Cops ease Times Square terror fears

Officials sought to assure revelers that the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square will be the safest place in the world _ heavily secured by thousands of New York Police Department officers, including a new specialized counterterrorism unit.

``Leave the worrying to the NYPD,'' said James O'Neill, chief of the department. ``People should feel safest this New Year's Eve because we're there.''

Police Commissioner William Bratton said there were no credible threats to the city ahead of the holiday. Yet officials also acknowledged that there were limits to what they could do to ensure security, especially outside the tightly controlled blocks at the heart of the celebration. In much of the city, the focus will be on fast responses to any emergency rather than preventive measures like security checkpoints.

``The ability to protect everything all the time everywhere is not possible in any venue anywhere in the world,'' Bratton said.

About 1 million people are expected to pack the blocks around Times Square to watch the 11,875-pound (5,400-kilogram) Waterford crystal ball drop. Partygoers trying to get close enough to see and hear the musical acts that perform throughout the evening will be screened with hand-held metal detectors twice _ once when they enter one of the 14 access points to the secure zone and once when they enter pens where they must stay lest they lose their spots.

Outside that zone, revelers and vehicles can come and go as they please.

At least 6,000 patrol officers will be assigned to the festivities. Visitors will see heavily armed counterterrorism teams and bomb-sniffing dogs.

The bomb squad and a unit specializing in chemical and biological threats will sweep hotels, theaters, construction sites and parking garages. They also will patrol the Times Square subway station, and certain exits will be blocked off. The NYPD will rely on a network of thousands of closed-circuit security cameras blanketing lower Manhattan, parts of midtown Manhattan and the subway system. About 20,000 smartphones were handed out to officers this year that will allow police to quickly transmit information on potential threats.

And this year, a specialized counterterrorism unit of 500 highly trained officers will be deployed to respond to any emergency.

The unit was first formed after attacks in January at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Bratton said the department is constantly evolving based on new information as well as the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth and Demi Lovato are among the musical guests schedule to perform this year. When the clock strikes midnight and the ball drops, so will 1 ton of confetti _ scraps of paper with well wishes for the upcoming year.

After the show, sanitation crews will get to work cleaning up from the celebration, working through the night to dispose of an estimated 50 tons of garbage, including confetti, party hats and other leftovers from the revelry.

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Trump to use financial clout amid vote crunch

Billionaire Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he plans to spend at least US$2 million a week on television advertising in the first three voting states, a move that would mark a massive departure for a candidate who has so far relied on free media to fuel his insurgent campaign.

Despite Trump's typically ironclad confidence, he told reporters invited aboard his private jet Tuesday that he didn't want take anything for granted.

``I don't think I need to spend anything. And I'm very proud of the fact that I've spent the least and achieved the best result,'' Trump told reporters before a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. ``I feel I should spend. And honestly I don't want to take any chances.''

Trump, who leads in national Republican preference polls, has seen his lead dissolve in leadoff Iowa, where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is surging on the backing of the state's robust evangelical conservative voting bloc.

The front-runner has spent nothing on television advertising to date, and just over $300,000 on radio ad time, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG _ far less than his rivals. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for example, has spent more than $40 million, but trails Trump and several other candidates.

Trump has teased plans to advertise on television in the past, but ad buys have failed to materialize. While Trump has said he's willing to spend whatever it takes to win the Republican nomination, he has proven a frugal campaigner, putting very little of his own money on the line.

While Trump likes to claim he's self-funding his campaign, the vast majority of what he's spent so far has come from donors across the country sending checks or purchasing merchandise from his website.

``I'll be spending a minimum of $2 million a week and perhaps substantially more than that,'' he told reporters, adding, ``If somebody attacks me, I will attack them very much and very hard in terms of ads.''

Trump said he had screened the first two ads and says they touch on immigration, trade and national security policy.

When the real estate mogul announced his candidacy in June, he said he planned to spend $35 million by Jan. 1, 2016. Instead, his reliable tendency for combative language has resulted in a steady stream of media coverage, often stemming from comments made during the five Republican debates or during his meandering speeches at packed rallies.

Trump also said he believes the thousands who attend his rallies, like the more than 3,000 in Council Bluffs, will ultimately turn out to vote for him. Iowa's caucuses begin the 2016 voting on Feb. 1, a little more than a month away.

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Iranian rocket tests rile Americans

Iranian naval vessels conducted rocket tests last week near U.S. warships and commercial traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the American military said Wednesday, causing new tension between the two nations after a landmark nuclear deal.

The vital strait, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is the route for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea, is crucial for ships taking part in the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. In the past, Iran has threatened to block the strait, which lies at the entrance of the Persian Gulf.

While the United States has complained previously about other Iranian war games and maneuvers there, Saturday's incident comes after a series of weapons tests and other moves by the Islamic Republic following the nuclear deal.

Iranian media and officials did not immediately discuss the tests Wednesday.

Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement that Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels fired ``several unguided rockets'' about 1,370 meters (1,500 yards) from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and a French frigate, the FS Provence. Raines said commercial sea traffic also was nearby, though the missiles weren't fired in the direction of any ships.

Raines said the Iranian vessels announced over maritime radio that they'd carry out a live fire exercise only 23 minutes beforehand.

Iran's ``actions were highly provocative,'' Raines said. ``Firing weapons so close to passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with international maritime law.''

NBC News first reported news of the Iranian rocket fire.

The Strait of Hormuz is only about 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) wide, with a 2-mile (3.22-kilometer) buffer zone between them.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Gulf. It conducts anti-piracy patrols in the greater Gulf and serves as a regional counterbalance to Iran.

While the U.S. didn't retaliate to Saturday's rocket test, the Strait of Hormuz has been the scene of a battle between the two countries' navies. On April 18, 1988, the U.S. attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sunk or damaged six of its vessels, including two naval frigates, in Operation Praying Mantis. That came after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine.

A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 passengers and crew onboard. The shoot-down of the jet came shortly after the U.S. vessel reported coming under fire from Iranian speedboats.

Saturday's rocket fire comes after Iran and world powers led by the U.S. agreed to a landmark nuclear deal to limit the Islamic Republic's enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. While heralded by moderates in Iran, hard-liners have criticized the deal.

In the time since, Iran has conducted missile tests criticized by the U.S., as well as aired footage on state television of an underground missile base. Iran also sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier in February near the strait. It seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship and later released it in May after earlier surrounding U.S.-flagged cargo ship transiting the strait.

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Celebrations as Iraqi forces break IS in Ramadi

Iraqi forces swept the devastated streets of Ramadi for bombs Monday, after recapturing the city they lost in May and clinching a major victory against the Islamic State group.

Pockets of jihadists may remain in parts of the city but the army said it had faced no resistance since IS fighters abandoned the flashpoint government complex on Sunday.

Iraqis celebrated in the streets of several cities late Sunday and officials congratulated the federal forces on their biggest victory since IS overran large parts of the country last year.

``The security forces now control all the streets. There is no resistance from Daesh (IS),'' said Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, a security official from Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital.

The former government headquarters in Ramadi was the epicentre of the fighting but Iraqi forces did not rush in when IS pulled out because the entire area was rigged.

Explosives and ordinance disposal teams face the mammoth task of clearing a city where IS laid thousands of bombs.

``Daesh has planted more than 300 explosive devices on the roads and in the buildings of the government complex,'' said Brigadier General Majid al-Fatlawi of the army's 8th division.

``They used everything from oxygen bottles to jerrycans, that contain C-4 (plastic explosive) and chlorine,'' he said.

Several local officials said IS used civilians as human shields to escape the battle when it became clear their last stand in Ramadi was doomed.

IS had an estimated force of around 400 fighters to defend central Ramadi a week ago. It is not clear how many were killed and how many were able to pull back to positions outside the city.

The Iraqi authorities did not divulge any casualty figures for the federal forces but medics told AFP that close to 100 wounded government fighters were brought to Baghdad hospitals on Sunday alone.

``The dead bodies are taken directly to the main military hospital'' near the airport, said one hospital source, explaining why he could not provide a death toll.

The US-led coalition praised the performance of the Iraqi forces in retaking Ramadi, an operation in which it played a significant role, training local forces, arming them and carrying out what it said were 600 air strikes since July.

The speaker of Iraq's parliament was one of the first top officials to congratulate the security forces on their victory late Sunday.

``This great victory has broken the back of Daesh and represents a launchpad for the liberation of Nineveh,'' Salim al-Juburi said in a statement.

Nineveh is home to Iraq's second city of Mosul, from which IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his ``caliphate'' straddling Iraq and Syria more than a year and a half ago.

State television showed footage late Sunday of Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad, Karbala and other cities celebrating the Ramadi victory.

Anbar residents account for more than a third of the 3.2 million people who have been displaced by conflict since the start of 2014.

Many have been living in the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan and some could be seen celebrating there on Sunday but Ramadi is devastated and a return to normalcy is some way away.

Iraq's defence minister, Khaled al-Obeidi, said a week ago that Iraqi forces had reconquered more than half of the territory lost to IS in June and August 2014.

The victory in Ramadi comes on the heels of operations that saw Iraqi forces retake Baiji, north of Baghdad, and Sinjar, the hub of the Yazidi minority in the northeast of the country.

The city of Ramadi was recaptured by federal forces, with the Popular Mobilisation -- a paramilitary force dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militia groups -- remaining on the fringes.

Many of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's political rivals had questioned his strategy of excluding those groups and relying on the US-led coalition's air power.

``The prestige goes to the Iraqi military,'' said political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari.

``As an institution, it's the first time since the Daesh invasion (in June 2014) it has achieved a victory without the support of the Popular Mobilisation force,'' he said.

The Iraq army collapsed when IS attacked Mosul in June 2014 and swept across Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland virtually unopposed.  

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Abe apology brings comfort to war scars for Seoul

An apology from Japan's prime minister and a pledge of more than US$8 million sealed a breakthrough deal Monday on a decades-long impasse with South Korea over Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during World War II.

The accord, which aims to resolve the emotional core of South Korea's grievances with its former colonial overlord, could begin to reverse decades of animosity and mistrust between the two thriving democracies, trade partners and staunch U.S. allies. It represents a shift for Tokyo's conservative government and a new willingness to compromise from previously wary Seoul.

A joint statement from both countries' foreign ministers said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ``expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women,'' their euphemistic name.

It wasn't immediately clear if Abe would be issuing a separate written statement or if it would be directly delivered to the 46 surviving former Korean sex slaves, now in their 80s and 90s.

The language mirrored past expressions of remorse by other prime ministers, although it was seen by some in Seoul as an improvement on previous comments by the hawkish Abe government, which has been accused of whitewashing past wartime atrocities.

Another deciding factor was that the 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) came from the government, not private sources, something Tokyo has been reluctant to provide in the past.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Seoul considers the agreement ``final and irreversible,'' as long as Japan faithfully follows through with its promises.

Later Monday, Abe called Park and reiterated his apology. He said Tokyo would implement the deal and called the issue settled irreversibly. Park said she hopes the two countries will build up mutual trust and open a new era in bilateral ties based on Monday's agreement, it said.

After phoning Park, Abe told reporters that the agreement was based on his commitment to stop younger generations from being obliged to apologize.

``Japan and South Korea are now entering into a new era,'' said Abe, adding that he did not want to ``pass on the burden on our children, grandchildren and their offspring to keep apologizing.... We should not drag this problem into the next generation.''

Despite the soaring official rhetoric, the initial reaction of former sex slaves was mixed. One woman said she would follow the government's lead, while another vowed to ignore the accord because Tokyo didn't consider the money a formal compensation.

``Isn't it natural to make a legal compensation if they commit a crime?'' said Lee Yong-su, 88, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Some in Seoul saw the deal, while not perfect, as an important step forward.

``If we brushed aside this deal, the comfort women issue would remain unresolved forever,'' said Lee Won Deog, director of Institute of Japanese Studies at Seoul's Kookmin University. ``Elderly women would die one by one; South Korea and Japan would engage in history wars and find it harder to improve ties.''

Many South Koreans feel lingering bitterness over Japan's brutal colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945. But South Korean officials have also faced calls to improve ties with Japan, the world's No. 3 economy and a regional powerhouse, not least from U.S. officials eager for a strong united front against a rising China and North Korea's pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles that could target the American mainland.

Japan appeared emboldened to make the overture to Seoul after the first formal leaders' meeting between the neighbors in 3 { years, in November, and after South Korean courts recently acquitted a Japanese reporter charged with defaming South Korea's president and refused to review a complaint by a South Korean seeking individual compensation for Japan's forceful mobilization of workers during colonial days.

Seoul, meanwhile, will refrain from criticizing Japan over the issue, and will talk with ``relevant organizations'' _ a reference to civic groups representing the former sex slaves _ to try to resolve Japan's grievance with a statue of a girl representing victims of Japanese sexual slavery that sits in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul. Yun said South Korea recognizes Japan's worries about security over the statue, where anti-Tokyo protests take place weekly.

There has long been resistance in South Korea to past Japanese apologies because many here wanted Japan to acknowledge that it has a legal responsibility for the women.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida later emphasized in a closed-door briefing with Japanese reporters that Tokyo doesn't consider the 1 billion yen as compensation, but ``a project to relieve emotional scars and provide healing for the victims.'' It will include medical services, health checks and other support for the women, he said. All compensation was settled by a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and was accompanied by more than $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul, he said.

But Kishida said the comfort women system ``deeply hurt the honor and dignity of many women under the involvement of the Japanese military at the time, and Japan strongly feels responsibility.''

Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to front-line military brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.

Better relations between South Korea and Japan are a priority for Washington. The two countries together host about 80,000 U.S. troops and are members of now-stalled regional talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions in return for aid.

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Cameron to tour flood-ravaged region

British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to see firsthand the devastation caused by weeks of heavy rains and swollen rivers in northern England.

He plans to tour the region Monday as flood waters in some areas seem to have peaked, although more rain is forecast for the middle of the week.

Major cities including York, Leeds and Manchester have been affected in a wide area roughly 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of London.

British troops have been helping emergency workers and local residents in a widespread evacuation of towns and cities. Thousands of people have lost power in recent days as the situation worsened.

The Environment Agency has issued 24 ``severe'' flood warnings _ meaning lives are at risk _ and several hundred less dire alerts.

  

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Refugee and migrant arrivals approaching a million

The International Organization for Migration says refugee and migrant arrivals by sea and land into Europe this year are expected to top the 1 million mark next week.

The Geneva-based agency says 990,761 people have arrived from Africa or the Middle East, with more than 800,000 people crossing from Turkey to Greece alone. More than half of those _ or some 455,000 _ are Syrians.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said roughly 4,300 people arrived from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands on Wednesday. The agency now estimates the one-million mark will be reached by Tuesday. That would be over four times the total of about 240,000 crossings by land and sea into Europe last year.

The agency said daily arrivals continue in the thousands despite “ever colder temperatures and dangerous sea conditions.'' –AP