Rumors Of War Around The World: ISIS Gathering Near Israel's Border, N Korea: 'U.S. Will Pay With Hail Of Fire', Hezbollah 'Determined' To Attack U.S. Homeland

TV report: Islamic State chiefs gather near Israel border, set up training camp

Several senior commanders from Islamic State who recently fled from Iraq and northern Syria are now based in southern Syria, just across the Golan Heights border with Israel, and are training hundreds of new recruits there, an Israeli television report said.

Israel’s Channel 2 said the commanders have made their way to an Islamic State-controlled enclave “close to the border” with Israel. They have set up a training camp to which they have recruited 300 local youths, said the report, which showed footage apparently of the camp and training sessions.

Among the commanders is one of Islamic State’s most notorious recruiters, Abu Hamam Jazrawi, the TV report said.

The commanders are also now running Islamic State internet propaganda campaigns from their new base, in place of the former campaign headquarters in Raqqa, the extremists’ former de facto capital in northwest Syria where the fight to oust them has entered what appear to be its final stages.

The Israeli government has vowed to prevent IS from setting up operations close to the Israeli border. Israel “won’t allow Islamic State figures or other enemy actors, under the cover of the war in Syria, to set up next to our borders,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last November, soon after what was believed to be the first notable clash between IS gunmen and Israeli troops.

The incident involved a short exchange of gunfire between an Islamic State-affiliated terrorist group and Israeli soldiers, and ended with an IDF airstrike that killed four militants.

IDF has warned of a potential — some say inevitable — conflict with them and has been preparing to respond to cross-border attacks.

North Korea: "U.S. Will Pay With Hail Of Fire" After Trump Lit "Wick Of War"

It had been several weeks since we had the familiar verbal jawboning back and forth between North Korea and Donald Trump, and so to break the monotony, North Korea's foreign minister decided to lob several provocations at Donald Trump, whom Pyongyang is clearly trolling at this point, claiming that it was Trump's speech at the UN last month that "lit the wick of war", and that North Korea will make the US pay "with a hail of fire." The diplomatic also said that North Korea has "almost achieved a balance of power" with the US.

Separately, North Korea crushed any hopes for de-escalation and de-nuclearization, something which even China has recently been asking for, and claimed that North Korea's "nuclear program guarantees peace and safety in the region" and more apropos, that the country's nuclear program will "never be a matter of discussion while the US is intent on crushing North Korea."

As usual, should Kim proceed with another test launch, he leaves the ball in Trump's court, and while until recently it was largely a given that Trump would do nothing, following his recent comments about a "calm before the storm", another provocation greenlighting a US intervention in North Korea, may be just what the president is hoping for, potential deadly retaliation which according to some estimates could kill over 2 million South Koreans, be damned.

Counterterror Chief: Hezbollah “Determined” to Attack U.S. Homeland

The United States announced multi-million dollar rewards for information on two Hezbollah operatives, and the top U.S. counterterror official said that intelligence agencies have assessed that Hezbollah is “determined” to attack the U.S. homeland, at a State Department briefing Tuesday.

Nathan Sales, Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, announced that the State Department was offering rewards for two top Hezbollah officials.

A reward of up to $7 million is being offered for information leading to the capture of Talal Hamiyah and one of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Fuad Shukr.

According to Sales, Hamiyah, who heads Hezbollah’s “External Security Organization” which executes terror attacks outside of Lebanon, has been implicated on a number of attacks, hijackings and kidnappings that have targeted American citizens. Shukr, a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, the terror group’s highest military body. Shukr is also implicated in planning the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Marines.

Noting that the arrest of two Hezbollah operatives in June in the United States served as “a stark reminder” of the terror organization’s global reach, Rasmussen said, “It’s our assessment that Hizballah is determined to give itself a potential homeland option as a critical component of its terrorism playbook, and that is something that those of us in the counterterrorism community take very, very seriously.”

US-led coalition ‘annihilates Syrian people, protects ISIS’ – Syrian FM to RT

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has reiterated Damascus' calls to "dissolve" the international coalition led by Washington in Syria, accusing the alliance of not fighting terrorists, but rather destroying the country and its people.

"This coalition was created to annihilate ISIS [Islamic State/IS], but it annihilates the Syrian people and not ISIS," Muallem told RT in Sochi, where the minister held talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

The Syrian diplomat said that, contrary to its stated mission, the US-led alliance "protects ISIS," and that he saw no sense in so many countries being members of the coalition. Muallem also branded the 62-state alliance "froth," insisting that "it should cease to exist."

"This international coalition has been committing crimes against the Syrian people. In the last two months, thousands of Syrian civilians, women and children mainly, have become the victims of these crimes," he said.

The minister also lashed out at Ankara, claiming "there is a close connection" between Turkey and terrorist groups in Syria.

"Turkey trains terrorists, arms them and facilitates their infiltration into the territory of Syria. This is why I can state that Turkey's presence in Syria is illegal," Muallem told RT.

Meanwhile, the US-led campaign in the region has long been dubbed "illegitimate" by Damascus. Demanding that the alliance's strikes in Syria stop, the government has sent official letters to the United Nations. The US and its allies must pay for the destruction of Syrian infrastructure and bear legal responsibility for "illegitimately" bombing civilian targets, Damascus says.

If ISIS Was Behind Las Vegas Shooting, There’s a Terrifying Reason It Won’t Prove It Yet

Despite digging deep into Stephen Paddock’s background, investigators have struggled to understand what drove the 64-year-old man, who described himself as a “professional gambler,” to slaughter 58 people and injure hundreds more when he opened fire from his 32nd-floor hotel room on crowds attending a country music concert in Las Vegas. Nothing so far has reportedly led them to believe ISIS’s claim that Paddock converted to Islam and acted as “a soldier” of the group’s self-styled caliphate, leaving observers wondering why the global militant group would risk making such an outlandish, intentionally false allegation.

The answer could lie in a larger plot to exploit the U.S.’s already eroding trust in its leadership.

“If Islamic State did indeed cultivate Paddock, as it has claimed was the case, the group surely has some evidence of its engagements with him. If it does, it may be the case the group is waiting on FBI and other agencies to dismiss its claim of responsibility for the Las Vegas attack before posting contradictory evidence online for the world to see,” terrorism analyst Michael S. Smith II tells Newsweek.

“Islamic State has been very focused on undermining confidence among civilians in the West that their technologically superior governments are competent managers of our collective security,” he adds.

Smith, who co-founded Kronos Advisory and regularly counsels federal lawmakers on security issues, said not only would this be a blow to the intelligence community’s efforts to prevent the jihadis from launching deadly attacks in the West, but it would also bolster the embattled group’s appeal at a time when it’s quickly losing ground in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS, which went so far as to dub Paddock “Abu Abdul Barr al-Amriki,” doubled down on its claims on Thursday by dedicating an infographic in its weekly digital magazine al-Naba to the killings. The image mostly repeated details of the attack already published by the media, but specified that Paddock had “converted to Islam six months ago.”

Japanese Navy Setting Up in Russia

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces will now operate from a base in Vladivostok, less than 100 miles from the border with North Korea.

According to the international cooperation plan of the Russian Armed Forces, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship detachment including destroyer Harusame and training ship Kashima, is to arrive in Vladivostok in mid-October.

The Japanese seamen are to see the sights of the city, and visit military historical museum of the Pacific Fleet and the Patriot Park. They will also lay wreaths to the Pacific Fleet Combat Glory Memorial, and visit a warship of the Fleet.

This is a significant development for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Vladivostok’s proximity to Sonbong, North Korea. The northern port city is a vital transportation hub between North Korea and both China and Russia, and is also home to a major electrical power plant.

It also sends a mixed message to Kim Jong-un over which side Russia might take if war does break out against the U.S. and its allies in the region.

Madrid Gives Catalonia 5 Day Ultimatum To Clarify If It Declared Independence

With Spain’s prime minister having opened earlier in the day the path for Madrid to use a constitutional “nuclear option” to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy, demanding that the regional government makes clear whether it considers itself independent, moments ago Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gave Catalan President Carles Puigdemont a five day ultimatum to clarify whether he actually declared the region's independence in his speech devoted to the highly controversial referendum, and another 3 to "rectify it."

Spain’s leader said that it’s important for Catalonia’s leader to get his answer right on whether he declared independence or not. Rajoy, addressing Spain’s parliament, says that that Catalan president Carles Puigdemont “just needs to say he didn’t declare independence.”

The latest development comes after Rajoy said earlier on Wednesday that the cabinet of ministers asked for clarification on the issue of autonomous region's independence.  As reported earlier, Rajoy decided to take the first step towards triggering Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would give Madrid previously unused powers to take control of Catalonia’s regional government, after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Rajoy said his formal request for clarity was “necessary when activating Article 155” and would dictate the next steps in the crisis to “offer certainty to the citizens”. 

Using Article 155 to suspend Catalan autonomy would deepen the constitutional crisis in Spain since Catalonia held a contested referendum on independence on October 1. Spain’s government says Catalonia’s independence drive is unconstitutional.

Also on Wednesday, Puidgemont told CNN his regional government is prepared to have talks on independence without preconditions with Spain. To date, Carles Puigdemont has repeatedly said that the right to self-determination must be on the table in any talks. Spain, in turn, says it can’t discuss an independence referendum as it goes against the constitution.

Puigdemont said Wednesday that Spain and Catalonia should “have no prior conditions to sit down and talk.”