Germany's spy agency is working again with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's secret service to swap information on Islamist militants, the Bild daily said, despite Berlin's opposition to Assad staying in power under any peace deal in Syria, Reuters reports.
The aim of renewed BND contacts with Damascus is to exchange information about militants, especially those in Islamic State, and to set up a fixed communication channel in case a German Tornado pilot is downed over Syria, Bild said.
The U.S. Department of Defense has just tweeted this photo of U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter shortly after his arrival in Afghanistan this morning.
RFE/RL's Afghan service is reporting that U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials.
The Russian Defense Ministry tweeted this comment from Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Deputy Commander Sergei Dronov, who told reporters this morning that Russia has evidence that the downed Su-24 jet had not violated Turkish air space.
The flight recorder from the downed Russian Su-24 jet may have been damaged by the air-to-air missile that hit the plane, according to Andrei Semenov, head of the Russian aviation flight safety service's information-analytical department.
Semenov said the missile from a Turkish F-16 had apparently hit the Russian jet on the tail where the flight recorder is located.
The flight recorder would have been subjected to impact from the missile as well as from impact with the ground when it fell, Semenov said.
The flight recorder from the downed Russian Su-24 jet did not hit a fire in the crash site, which will make the process of deciphering it easier, RIA Novosti quotes the chairman of the commission in charge of deciphering the "black box," Nikolai Primak, as saying,
But Lieut. Gen. Sergei Baynetov, head of the air safety service of the Russian Defense Ministry, said that interim results suggest that the flight recorder's memory card had suffered mechanical damage. The investigating commission would examine this situation alongside international observers, Baynetov said.
Experts from China and the UK will take part in the investigation into the death of the pilot of the downed Russian Su-24 jet, a spokesman for Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces said this morning.
"In order to ensure maximal transparency and openness, we addressed foreign experts from 14 countries with an invitation to take part in the work [investigation] as observers. However, many specialists refused to participate in the investigation citing various reasons, excluding only Mr Liu Chang Wei from China and Mr Jonathan Gillespie from the United Kingdom," Deputy Commander of Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces Sergei Dronov said, according to TASS.
The "black box" flight recorder from the downed Russian Su-24 jet is damaged and special equipment will be used to decipher it, Deputy Commander of Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Sergey Dronov told reporters at a Defense Ministry briefing this morning.
The Su-24 jet was shot down by Turkish F-16s on November 24 near the Syrian border. Turkey says that the jet had violated its air space, a claim that Russia has denied.
Russia has all the evidence needed to show that the downed Su-24 jet did not violate Turkish air space, Deputy Commander of Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Sergey Dronov said at a press briefing at the Defense Ministry this morning.
Canadian Special Forces Trade Fire With IS Near Mosul
Canadian special forces traded fire with IS militants and helped Kurdish Peshmerga fighters repel an IS assault near the IS-held town of Mosul overnight on December 16, the Canadian Department of National Defense said at a press conference Thursday night.
"The attackers employed indirect artillery fire, suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, and ground troops in an attempt to break through the KSF [Kurdish Security Forces] defensive line," Major-General Chuck Lamarre told media, VICE reports.