Russian airstrikes hit Turkish convoy delivering weapons to ISIS in Syria

On Thanksgiving Day, Russian airstrikes blasted trucks which were allegedly transporting weapons and equipment from NATO member Turkey to the Muslim terrorists fighting in the war-torn city of Aleppo, Syria. News media in the Middle East indicate that this is not the first time such a scenario occurred, with Turkish intelligence officer assisting ISIS and Al Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian offshoot. "The shooting down of a Russian aircraft near the Syrian border was in line with Ankara’s struggle to establish itself as a dominant” power," retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely was quoted as saying by Iran's Press TV on Thursday. Gen. Vallely warned the United States and other NATO member nations that Turkey must be removed from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because "it poses a big and important issue in many ways for other members." Besides the Turkish convoy attack, the Syrian government air force and Russian warplanes also intensified their attacks on positions held by terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) throughout Aleppo province. "The Russian and Syrian airstrikes hit the Takfiri [Sunni] militants' positions in the Southern countryside of Aleppo. However, there were no immediate reports of... casualties among the terrorists," Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, media reports suggested that the President Assad's Syrian Army and its Iranian military allies have made great strides in combating ISIS jihadists in the eastern section of Aleppo and managed to force ISIS fighters to retreat from the strategic Humaymah hilltop. The media reports also claimed that the Syrian army, the country's National Defense Forces (NDF) and Lebanese-based Hezbollah fighters -- who are funded by and allied with Shiite Iran -- continued their joint anti-terrorism operation during fierce clashes with the Takfiri terrorists. Takfiri is an Arabic term for a Sunni Muslim who accuses another Muslim from a different sect of apostasy. For example, Sunni Muslims believe Shiite Muslims are heretics.

Turkish news editor prosecuted for reporting on Turkey and ISIS dealings

A Turkish prosecutor asked a criminal court judge to jail the editor-in-chief of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper while the editor awaits his trial for treason. The newspaper had published photographs of military weapons that were allegedly transported to Syria by agents of Turkey’s intelligence service. In addition to editor-in-chief Can Dündar, the prosecutors are seeking the same pre-trial restrictions for Cumhuriyet’s correspondent in the city of Ankara. The correspondent, Erdem Gül, according to Fars News Agency, and his boss arrived at an Istanbul court on Thursday, saying that they have come "to defend journalism.” The articles published on Cumhuriyet's front page in May 2015, accused officers from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) of smuggling weapons -- hidden in convoys of trucks -- into Syria and that the smugglers were caught twice by President Bashar al-Assad's secret police. The trucks were allegedly pulled over and searched by police officers, which was photographed and videotaped by person or persons unknown and turned over to Cumhuriyet. According to the news story, the trucks were loaded with six steel containers containing 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells. The arms were reportedly delivered to extremist groups fighting against the Syrian government of President Assad, whom the Turkish government would like to see ousted from power. The Turkish government denied the allegations and labeled the entire news story as being an act of “treasonous espionage.” During President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey on November 16, he either chose to ignore the intelligence regarding the alleged activities by the Turkish government or he continues to be unaware of what is occurring on the world stage.