Washington says it was a Russian strike that killed Syrian troops, our news desk reports:
U.S. officials are asserting that Russian bombs, not U.S. air strikes, killed Syrian regime troops in eastern Syria.
Syria on December 7 accused the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group of targeting an army camp in Deir Al-Zor province, killing three soldiers and wounding 13.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also attributed the strikes to the coalition, but U.S. officials said the Russians were responsible.
"Russia conducted long-range bomber strikes" in the Deir al-Zor area on December 6, one official said. "We are not at war with the Assad regime and have no reason to target the Syrian Army."
The United States regularly accuses Russia of using less precise bombs than those used by the coalition.
The strikes were carried out by 12 TU-22M3 Backfire bombers from Russia's Mozdok military base in North Ossetia, officials said.
Spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the only strikes the coalition carried out in the area on December 6 were on an oil wellhead some 50 kilometers southeast of the army base. AP, Reuters, AFP)
Russia wants the UN Security Council to discuss Turkish military actions, our news desk reports:
Russia has asked the United Nations Security Council to hold closed-door discussions on Turkish military actions in Syria and Iraq, diplomats say.
The United States, president of the Security Council this month, will chair the discussions on December 8.
Diplomats expect a November 24 incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian border to come up. Relations between Russia and Turkey have plummeted since that incident.
Ankara has said the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace. Moscow says the aircraft was over Syria, where Russia is carrying out an air campaign to support government forces in a five-year-old civil war.
Separately, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty by deploying troops and tanks to a camp in northern Iraq last week.
It threatened to refer the case to the Security Council unless Turkey withdraws its forces.
It was not clear if Russia intended to raise the Iraqi complaints.
Turkey said on December 7 it would not withdraw the troops, which it says are part of a mission to train Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants. (Reuters, AP)
U.S. presidential candidate wants a total ban on Muslims entering United States, our news desk reports:
Donald Trump, the front-runner to become the Republican Party's 2016 candidate for U.S. president, has proposed a "total and complete shutdown" of all Muslims entering the United States -- drawing scorn and criticism from across the political spectrum and across the world.
Trump's provocative and divisive remarks came as other presidential candidates were contemplating ways to improve national security following last week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California by a Muslim couple believed to have been radicalized by extremists.
Trump said during a campaign speech in South Carolina on December 7 that a total ban on entry for Muslims should remain in place "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
He said the ban was necessary because of what he described as hatred among "large segments of the Muslim population" toward Americans.
The billionaire real estate mogul and reality television celebrity said in a statement: "Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine."
He said, "Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life."
Neither Trump nor his aides specified if the proposal would affect both tourists and immigrants, nor whether it would target Muslim U.S. citizens who are abroad.
The White House immediately denounced Trump's remarks as "totally contrary" to U.S. values.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump was tapping into a darker side to "play on people's fears in order to build on support for his campaign."
Earnest said that instead of condemning the Muslim community, U.S. officials should work with Muslim leaders to root out extremist voices and "insulate those who are vulnerable to being radicalized."
Ben Rhodes, one of President Barack Obama's top foreign-policy aides, rejected Trump's proposal as unconstitutional, saying, "We have, in our Bill of Rights, respect for the freedom of religion."
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, a Republican, condemned Trump's remarks while Republican candidate Jeb Bush, the brother of former U.S. President George W. Bush, said that Trump was "unhinged."
Rival Republican candidates Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Lindsey Graham also were among those who rejected Trump's proposal.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton described Trump's comments as "reprehensible, prejudiced, and divisive."
In a message she tweeted to Trump, Clinton said: "You don't get it. This makes us less safe."
Democratic contender Martin O'Malley said that "Donald Trump is a fascist demagogue."
Nihad Awad, executive director of the U.S.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was "extremely shocked" and that Trump's remarks were "reckless and simply un-American."
Awad said, "Trump sounds more like a leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours."
In Pakistan, where one the San Bernardino shooters, Tashfeen Malik, was born, rights activists and religious leaders also denounced Trump as a bigot who promotes violence.
Asma Jahangir, one of Pakistan's most prominent human rights lawyers, said Trump had made "so absurd a statement that I don't even wish to react to it."
Jahangir said Trump's proposal was "the worst kind of bigotry mixed with ignorance," and compared Trump with "an ignorant criminal-minded mullah of Pakistan who denounces people of other religions."
Tahir Ashrafi, the head of Pakistan's Ulema Council of Muslim clerics, said Trump was promoting violence and should be condemned -- just as radical Muslim clerics are condemned for promoting violence against non-Muslims.
Muslims in other countries also criticized Trumps remarks.
Azra Khan, president of the Canberra Islamic Center in Australia, said, "Clearly Donald Trump is trying to inflame the situation."
Somchai Jewangma, an official with Thailand's Sheikhul Islam Office, said Trump was trying to please American voters "who don't like Muslims and to gain more support." (Reuters, AP, AFP, BBC)
Amnesty International: Most IS weapons seized from Iraqi Army, our news desk reports:
Amnesty International says decades of reckless arms trading and the poorly regulated flow of weapons into Iraq have contributed to the accumulation of a "vast and varied" arsenal of weaponry by Islamic State (IS) militants.
In a report issued on December 8, Amnesty International says IS militants are using the weaponry to commit war crimes on a massive scale in Iraq and Syria.
The report says most of the extremist group's weapons, ammunition, and equipment were looted from the Iraqi Army.
It says the weapons were manufactured and designed in more than two dozen countries -- including Russia, China, the United States, and member states of the European Union.
It says IS militants have also seized weapons from Syrian government forces after capturing military bases there.
Amnesty International called on all states to adopt "a complete embargo" on Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups "implicated in committing war crimes." (AP, AFP)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refused to comment this morning on reports that Russia plans to raise the issue of Turkey's military actions in Iraq at a UN Security Council meeting today.
Peskov told journalists that they should ask the Foreign Ministry.
"You should ask them, we do not comment on the sources," Peskov said, according to TASS.
Diplomatic sources said earlier today that Russia could raise the matter of Turkish troops in northern Iraq at closed door discussions at the UN Security Council today.
A Mandarin-language song that the IS group claims to have released shows the need for closer global cooperation against terrorism, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said.
"Terrorism is the common enemy of mankind," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, according to Reuters.
IS's propaganda wing Al Hayat claims to have published the recording at the weekend.
The Mandarin nasheed -- an Islamic a capella song -- is four minutes long and is titled "I am a Mujahid."
Its lyrics, chanted by a man, say " To die fighting on the battlefield is my dream."
Defected Tajik Police Chief Disabled After Air Strike, No Longer Useful To IS
A senior Tajik police chief who defected to the IS group has "become an invalid and is no longer useful to IS," a Tajik law enforcement source has told RFE/RL.
Gulmurod Halimov made headlines in May when he appeared in an IS video after defecting to the extremist group.
The law enforcement source said that the information about Halimov's current condition was reported by 26-year-old eyewitness who recently escaped from IS in Iraq and surrendered to the Tajik authorities.
The eyewitness told the Tajik police that he had lived in the same apartment as Halimov, who was wounded in a U.S.-led air strike in June. Halimov was wounded in the leg and in the head, and his health has been seriously affected, the eye witness said.
Images of Halimov with bandages covering his head and one leg circulated on the Internet in June.
Erdogan's Son Denies Russia's IS Oil Trade Allegations
The son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied Russian allegations that he and his family were profiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from IS-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
"We build offices in Istanbul ... We do not do business in the Mediterranean, in Syria or Iraq," Bilal Erdogan was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera newspaper, talking about his own corporate concerns. Bilal controls several ol tankers via his company and partnerships in other companies, Reuters says.
"[IS] is an enemy of my country. [IS] is a disgrace. It puts my religion in a bad light. They don't represent Islam and I do not consider them to be Muslims."
Russia's Defense Ministry said last week that it had proof the Erdogan family was benefitting from illegal smuggling of IS oil.
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that he wants to visit Baghdad as soon as possible amid a row over Turkish troops deployed in northern Iraq to train Iraqi soldiers in the fight against IS.
Davutoglu said the troops were in Iraq to protect against attacks from IS and accused those who said otherwise of "deliberate provocation," Reuters reports.
The Iraqi government says that it never invited the latest deploment of Turkish troops to northern Iraq and that it will complain to the United Nations if Ankara does not pull them out.