Two Russian Helicopter Pilots Die in Crash in Syria’s Homs

April 12, 2016 By administrator

(sputniknews) A Russian Aerospace Forces Mi-28N Havoc helicopter crashed near the city of Homs in Syria, killing both pilots, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service reported Tuesday.

“According to a report from the crash site, the helicopter was not shot down, the press service’s statement said.”

The crash occurred at 22:29 GMT on Monday.

“Two crewmembers were killed. The bodies of the dead pilots were removed [from the crash site] during search and rescue operations and are currently at the Hmeymim Airbase.”

According to the ministry, the reasons behind the crash are yet to be determined. A task force has been sent to the site of the incident to investigate the crash.

President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Supreme Commander-in-Chief, has been informed about the crash, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“Obviously, the commander in chief is notified first of such emergency incidents.”

Russia has been conducting a counterterrorist operation in Syria since September 30. On March 14, President Vladimir Putin ordered to withdraw the main part of the air group from Syria.

On November 24, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria. One of the pilots was killed by Islamist rebels after ejecting. A Mi-8 helicopter, which had been sent to conduct a search and rescue mission, was damaged by the rebels’ fire, and a naval infantry officer was killed.

The Mi-28N Night Hunter is a modification of the Mi-28 gunship designed for round-the-clock combat operations. It can find and destroy the enemy’s vehicles and manpower.

At least 10 killed as French high-speed train derails & catches fire near Strasbourg

November 14, 2015 By administrator

At least 10 people have been killed and 32 injured as a train derailed and caught fire in Eckwersheim near Strasbourg in France, according to officials.

A high-speed TGV train derailed in Eckwersheim in the Bas-Rhin department of Alsace in northeastern France mid-afternoon on Saturday.

Officials said that out of the injured, 12 are in serious condition.

Several people have been airlifted from the scene on a helicopter, RTL reports. The train was carrying 49 people, all of whom were employees of SNCF national railways.

Local officials told AFP that the accident was apparently caused by “excessive speed.”

The train derailed while on a bridge and the cars fell into the Marne-Rhine canal, according to witness reports. Photos from the scene show smoke coming from the carriages.

The accident happened on a new high-speed line between Paris and Strasbourg, which hadn’t been used before.According to reports, the train line was due to be opened next year.

There have been no terror-related reports.

Moscow-Yerevan passenger bus crash death toll rises to 9

November 7, 2015 By administrator

A woman, who had suffered a severe brain damage in the Armenian bus crash in Tula Oblast (province) in Russia, died on Saturday at dawn, in the Uzlovaya town medical center.

The Embassy of Armenia in Moscow informed Armenian News-NEWS.am that she was Hripsime Sirekanyan, 68.

The Deputy Minister of Health of Armenia, Gagik Mirijanyan, informed from Tula that the woman had had cardiac arrest five times during the three days following the accident, but she could not be saved after the sixth cardiac arrest on Saturday.

As a result, the death toll in this tragic accident has reached nine.

Eight people were initially killed and several dozen others were injured as a passenger bus, which was traveling from Moscow to Yerevan, crashed on Tuesday at around 2:10am local time, in Tula Oblast in Russia.

Russia has opened a criminal case into this bus crash, and on charges of “breaking the road traffic and vehicle operation rules.” A similar case has been filed in Armenia, too.

According to preliminary data, the bus driver, Garnik Harutyunyan, had fallen asleep at the steering wheel.

Harutyunyan has been taken into custody for two months.

Saudi Determined to Crash Oil Prices Until US Shale Breathes Its Last

August 13, 2015 By administrator

AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik

Never in its wildest dreams did the Obama administration expect it would face a financial disaster after it conspired with Riyadh to drop oil prices and flood the market with cheap petroleum, rerunning the highly successful US-Saudi deal of 1986 that resulted in the collapse of the USSR, F. William Engdahl notes.

Although it was not made public, on September 11, 2014 US Secretary of State John Kerry and King Abdullah concluded a secret deal to use the Saudi “oil muscle” in order to bring Russia and the Kremlin to its knees, rerunning the highly successful Washington-Riyadh deal of 1986, American-German economic researcher and historian F. William Engdahl pointed out.Remarkably, on the very next day, the US Treasury’s aptly-named Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, headed by Treasury Under-Secretary David S. Cohen imposed new sanctions on Russia’s energy companies Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftgas and Rosneft and prohibited US oil corporations from participating in Russia’s offshore oil projects in the Arctic.

“Then, just as the ruble was rapidly falling and Russian major corporations were scrambling for dollars for their year-end settlements, a collapse of world oil prices would end Putin’s reign. That was clearly the thinking of the hollowed-out souls who pass for statesmen in Washington today. Victoria Nuland was jubilant, praising the precision new financial warfare weapon at David Cohen’s Treasury financial terrorism unit,” Engdahl narrated with a touch of irony.

Meanwhile, nothing hinted at any trouble in July, 2014: West Texas Intermediate traded at $101 a barrel, and “the shale oil bonanza was booming, making the US into a major oil player for the first time since the 1970’s,” the historian noted.However, when WTI slid to $46 per barrel in January, 2015, the US strategists have suddenly realized that they had cut their own throat. Indeed, “the over-indebted US shale oil industry” was about to breathe its last because of the plummeting oil price.

Although Washington and Wall Street have made every effort to artificially stabilize the dire situation (that resulted in a slowly rising oil price since February to May, when it hit $62 per barrel), the US political and financial elite have underestimated the importance of the Saudi factor.

“It was al-Naimi [the Saudi Oil Minister] who reportedly saw the golden opportunity in the Kerry proposal to use the chance to, at the same time, kill off the growing market challenge from the rising output of the unconventional USA shale oil industry. Al-Naimi has said repeatedly that he is determined to eliminate the US shale oil “disturbance” to Saudi domination of world oil markets,” Engdahl said.

Alas, the Saudi are very unhappy with Washington’s shale oil advance and the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration with Tehran. “In fact the Saudis are beside themselves with rage against Washington,” the historian stressed.

“This has all added up to an iron Saudi determination, aided by close Gulf Arab allies, to further crash oil prices until the expected wave of shale oil company bankruptcies,” Engdahl noted, adding that on July 29, 2015, WTI fell to $49.

“We anticipated that OPEC would not cut, but we didn’t foresee such a sharp increase,” Morgan Stanly, the Wall Street bank, reported in panic.

“This downturn would be more severe than that in 1986. As there was no sharp downturn in the 15 years before that, the current downturn could be the worst of the last 45+ years. If this were to be the case, there would be nothing in our experience that would be a guide to the next phases of this cycle…In fact, there may be nothing in analyzable history,” Morgan Stanley’s report admitted as quoted by the historian.

What makes matters even worse for Washington, Saudi Arabia, its longstanding and subservient ally, has begun to play its own geopolitical games. On June 18, 2015 Muhammad bin Salman, the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister and son of King Salman visited Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The parties discussed up to $10 billion trade deals.”Saudi Arabia today is the world’s largest oil producer and Russia a close second. A Saudi-Russian alliance on whatever level was hardly in the strategy book of the Washington State Department planners,” the historian remarked.

F. William Engdahl underscored that October, 2015 is the next key point for American shale companies: banks will decide whether to keep funding US’ fading shale production or roll-over their loans. At the same time, if the Federal Reserve will raise US interest rates in September, the highly-indebted US shale oil manufacturers will face “disaster of a new scale.” Unfortunately, such a “doomsday” scenario may be accompanied with further unintended consequences for American and global financial system.

Indeed, as a proverb says “curses, like chickens, come home to roost.”

Souce : http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150808/1025540019.html#ixzz3iiEG3fvQ

Two Turkish fighter jets crash, killing four

February 25, 2015 By administrator

Two Turkish warplanes crashed during a training exercise on Feb. 24 in the central Turkish province of Malatya, killing all four crew, the military said.
Contact was lost with the RF-4E reconnaissance aircraft after they took off from Malatya air base on Feb. 24 evening for planned night training, a statement on the Chief of Staff’s website said.
“Search operations were immediately started. At 2045 the wreckage of our two planes was discovered and unfortunately four pilots have been martyred,” the statement added. No reason for the crashes was given.
The planes came down in Akçadağ district, more than 150 km (90 miles) north of the Syrian border, a military source told Reuters.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala confirmed that four soldiers were killed in the incident but did not elaborate on the reason of the crash.

Islamists crush tribal uprising in Syria, activists say

August 11, 2014 By administrator

Islamic militants have crushed a tribal uprising against their rule in eastern Syria after three days of clashes in three eastern villages near the border with Iraq, activists said Monday, Aug 11, according to the Associated Press.

The armed revolt by the Shueitat tribe in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour was the first sign of local resistance to the Islamic State group since its fighters swept into the province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Turkey-based activist Thaer ak-Deiri said that Islamic State group fighters regained control of three villages of the Shueitat tribe on Sunday after being expelled earlier this month.

The Observatory said Islamic State fighters beheaded two tribesmen after they fled to the nearby village of Shaafa. It had no immediate word on other casualties in the area.

Clashes over the past two weeks left more than a dozen people dead and both sides.

The extremist group has taken over much of northern and eastern Syria as well as western and northern Iraq. The group has declared a self-styled caliphate in territory it controls along the Iraqi-Syrian border, imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

The clashes in eastern Syria came as Islamic State fighter tightened its siege on a major military air base in the town of Tabqa in the northern province of Raqqa. The air base is the last army position in the Raqqa province that is an Islamic State stronghold.

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said Islamic State fighters are bombarding the base with artillery as they appear to be preparing to storm it.

Last week, Islamic State fighters seized the nearby Brigade 93 base after days of heavy fighting and late last month captured another base in which they took dozens of prisoners whom some of them were later beheaded and their bodies paraded in one of Raqqa’s main squares.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 as a popular uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule, but turned into an insurgency after government forces violently cracked down on demonstrators. It has since become civil war with sectarian overtones. Over 170,000 people have been killed in Syria in more than three years of fighting, activists say.