Russia says one of its servicemen has been killed in an attack by Takfiri Daesh terrorists in central Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday that Private Artyom Gorbunov had been killed near the ancient city of Palmyra, situated 215 kilometers northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on March 2.
The statement said that the 24-year-old soldier “was guarding a group of Russian military advisers in the Syrian Arab Republic” at the time.
Gorbunov was later granted a posthumous state decoration. His death brought the total number of Russian casualties in Syria so far to 28.
Russia has been offering military help to the Syrian government since September 2015. The Russian military assistance, in the form of an aerial campaign and advisory support, came on a request from the government in Damascus, which has been fighting a foreign-backed militancy in the country since 2011.
Daesh first overran Palmyra in 2015. In March 2016, Syrian government forces liberated the city. However, they lost control over most of Palmyra again in mid-December 2016. Early this month, Syrian government forces, receiving Russian aerial support, once again established control over Palmyra, driving the terrorists out.
Syrian engineers are now examining the historic part of Palmyra, looking for mines and other hidden ordnance.
Also on Monday, Russian local media reported that another soldier, identified as Ivan Slyshkin, had been killed in a combat mission in Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry later announced that Slyshkin had not been on active duty.
Russia’s RBC news portal reported that Slyshkin was in Syria with a private Russian security company called Wagner’s Group.
North Korea has barred Malaysian citizens from leaving the country, prompting Kuala Lumpur to quickly respond with a similar ban amid rising diplomatic tensions between the two sides over the assassination of the North Korean leader’s half-brother in Malaysia.
All Malaysian nationals in North Korea “will be temporarily prohibited from leaving the country until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced in a Tuesday report, citing the Foreign Ministry.
The latest row between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur – which have maintained strong relations for years – came following the killing of Kim Jong-nam last month by two women using a VX nerve agent at an airport in the Malaysian capital.
Malaysia has already charged the two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – with murder. They face hanging if convicted.
Malaysia has not directly put the blame on North Korea for the assassination, but there is suspicion that Pyongyang had been behind the killing, an accusation strongly rejected by the North.
The Malaysian investigation into Kim’s death has also angered Pyongyang, which says the process is aimed at tarnishing its image. The diplomatic row has seen both sides declaring each other’s ambassadors as “persona non grata,” ordering them to leave.
北朝鮮の最高指導者、金正恩労働党委員長の兄、正男氏が6人の女性グループによって殺害されたが、こ術ではの事件は多くの疑問を抱えている。まず、拘束された実行犯の女の供述では、「(この殺害を)いたずらでやった」と言っているが、殺害できる毒物を口に塗りこむという行為が、そもそもいたずらをは言えないばかりか、実行の直後に洗面所でその毒物を塗った手袋を処理し、自らの手を洗ったのであるが、この行為は手袋に塗った粘性の高い物質が毒物であることを認識していた、ということになる。つまり、この行為は明らかに正男氏を殺害する目的の行為であることの証明となっている。
ここで問題となるんは、勿論、殺害の目的であるのだが、この実行犯がどこの国籍であるのかであり、その毒物の入手先はどこなのか、この事件か北朝鮮の指導部とどのように関係しているのか、であろう。まずは今後の情報を待つしかなかろう。
NSA agent charged with data theft larger than Snowden’s
A former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor has been indicted on charges of what some US officials refer to as the largest theft of government secrets in history.
A federal grand jury found Harold Thomas Martin guilty of willfully retaining highly sensitive government material, which he stole from the US intelligence community over the past 20 years.
The 52-year-old contractor, who was arrested by the FBI in October, has been reportedly hoarding a trove of US military secrets at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland since August 1996.
Martin faces 20 charges, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The government has yet to confirm if he had exposed the data to any third parties.
“For as long as two decades, Harold Martin flagrantly abused the trust placed in him by the government,” said US Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
In 2014, Martin stole NSA reports that laid out in detail intelligence information “regarding foreign cyber issues.” The documents also included targeting information and “foreign cyber intrusion techniques.”
NSA’s instructions for an advanced intelligence-gathering tool as well as a 2007 file with details about specific daily operations were some of the other highly sensitive documents pilfered by Martin.
His indictment also accuses him of stealing secrets from US Cyber Command, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Reconnaissance Office.
Originally an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, Martin has been hired as a private contractor by at least seven different companies working for various government agencies.
Before beginning his new career in 1993, Martin had spent for years serving in the US Navy, his indictment added.
Throughout the years, he was given various security clearances that were required for the highly classified projects he worked on.
Booz Allen, which earns billions of dollars every year from working with US intelligence agencies, is the same consulting firm that employed renowned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
一昨日、イスラエル空軍はゴラン高原の北部地域を空爆している。シリアとイスラエルの軍事衝突は、ここのところ、繰り返し起こっているが、最近の武力衝突の背景には、イスラエル軍がアラブ諸国一帯で活動する過激派組織タクフィリ(Takfiri)に対してイスラエル製の武器や高度な装備品を供給、支援していることがあるようだ。
ゴラン高原は、1967年にイスラエルがシリアから奪取したことになってえいるが、シリアはそれを認めていない。「政治的な立場」は、なおもシリアにある、としている。
この両国の対立には、単に思想的なものだけではなく、宗教的、民族的な相違を廃棄とした長い対立の構造があるのだ。それに加え、国益につながる領土問題、国境線の問題が根強く存在するのである。
ここで私が懸念するのが、この武力衝突が発展して、これが発火点となる大戦争が勃発しないか、ということだ。
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/08/509725/israel-syria-golan-heights-tank