New

tools

REUTERS – Since last month, US warplanes have struck IS’s oil infrastructure in Syria in a stepped-up campaign of economic warfare that the US estimates has cut the group’s black-market earnings from oil by about a third. In finding their targets, US military planners have relied in part on an unconventional source of intelligence.

Chopper

down

REUTERS – Syrian fighters destroyed a Russian helicopter with a missile, shortly after they forced it to make an emergency landing in a nearby government-held area in Syria’s Latakia province. A Syrian insurgent group, recipient of US Tow missiles, said its fighters hit the helicopter with an anti-tank missile.

Putin

warns

REUTERS – Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday, saying the jet had violated its air space, in one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of “serious consequences”.

Ringleader

returns

RNZI – The suspected ringleader of the deadly Paris attacks was near the Bataclan theatre when terrorists opened fire on concert-goers, French prosecutors say. Prosecutor Francois Molins said mobile phone data also showed Abdelhamid Abaaoud returned to cafes and restaurants targeted by gunmen in the attacks.

IS

attacks

AFP – IS group suicide bombers have killed four people, including a judge, in an assault on a North Sinai hotel hosting judges overseeing Egypt’s parliamentary polls. The Interior Ministry said a judge, two policemen and a civilian were killed in the blasts at the Swiss Inn hotel in the town of El-Arish.

Plan to

divide

REUTERS – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the US of trying to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines and urged Iraqis to withstand any such plans. Shi’ite Muslim power Iran wields great influence in Iraq, which has a majority Shi’ite population.

Reporter

jailed

REUTERS – Baharain this week jailed a freelance photographer for 10 years and stripped him of his nationality after convicting him of terrorism, the media rights group Reporters sans Frontiers said. Sayed Ahmed Al Mousawi was accused of giving mobile phone SIM cards to demonstrators and taking photographs of anti-government protests, RSF reported.