Northern Storm Brigade
The Northern Storm Brigade ( ar, لواء عاصفة الشمال, ''Liwā’ ’Āṣifat ash-Shamāl''), also known as the Northern Hurricane Brigade is a Syrian rebel group formed in 2011 and based in Azaz in northwestern Syria, near the border with Turkey. Its leader and other members of the group were smugglers from the city and its surrounding before the Syrian Civil War. The group retained exclusive control of the Bab al-Salam border crossing. History Founded in 2011, the Northern Storm Brigade took part in the rebel conquest of Azaz and the Siege of Menagh Air Base. It accepted the Supreme Military Council's authority in late 2012. The group's former leader Ammar Ibrahim Dadikhi was severely wounded in the middle of January 2013, during the siege of Menagh Air Base, which resulted in him losing one of his legs and eventually his life. He was succeeded by the group's former political leader, Samir Amouri. Two senior commanders (Hadi Salo and Samir Akkash) were also kil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Azaz (2012)
The Battle of Azaz was a battle between the Syrian Arab Army and the Free Syrian Army for control of the city of Azaz, north of Aleppo, during the early insurgency phase of the Syrian Civil War. The first Azaz offensive By 6 March, the rebel Free Syrian Army had taken control of towns north of Aleppo and were attacking Azaz. Subsequent, defections from the Syrian Army, following a crackdown in the wider Aleppo region against anti-government activists, led to the town becoming a battleground between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army, made up of defectors and armed civilians in late March 2012. Three soldiers were killed by the FSA in fighting in March. On May 23, the government launched an assault on Azaz. As their armored columns approached the city from the west supported by helicopters and artillery, they encountered stiff rebel resistance from the combined forces of the Free North Brigade and the Muthanna ibn Haritha Battalion. Over the next three days, government ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Academi
Blackwater was an American private military company founded on December 26, 1996 by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009 and known as Academi since 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy, a subsidiary of Constellis Group. Later Academi was fully integrated into parent company and therefore now operates under the name Constellis. Constellis and its predecessors provide contract security services to the United States federal government. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2013, its subsidiary, International Development Solutions, received an approximately $92 million contract for U.S. State Department security guards. In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20, for which four guards were convicted in the United Stat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Menagh Military Airbase
Menagh Military Air Base (or Minnigh airport, Minakh Air Base) ( ar, قَاعِدَة مَطَار مِنِّغ, Qāʿidat Maṭār Minniḡ) is a Syrian Air Force installation located south of Azaz, Aleppo Governorate, Syria near the village of Manaq. Menagh Air Base was home to the 4th Flying Training Squadron, equipped with MBB 223 Flamingo trainer aircraft and Mil Mi-8 helicopters. Syrian Civil War The air base became a major target of the armed opposition in the Syrian Civil War's Battle of Aleppo. The air base was under siege by opposition forces from August 2012 until it fell to the rebels and Islamists (including ISIL, the Northern Storm Brigade and Tawhid Brigades) on 6 August 2013. It subsequently fell under control of the Al Nusra Front. On 10 February 2016, the Syrian Democratic Forces from nearby Afrin captured the airbase, aided by Russian airstrikes. See also * List of Syrian Air Force bases This article lists air bases currently operated or used by the Syri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tawhid Brigade
The al-Tawhid Brigade ( ar-at, لواء التوحيد, Liwa al-Tawhid, lit=Brigade of monothiesim), named after Tawhid, the "oneness of God," but often mistranslated as Unity Brigade, was an armed Islamist insurgent group involved in the Syrian Civil War. The al-Tawhid Brigade was formed in 2012. Reportedly backed by Qatar, al-Tawhid was considered one of the biggest groups in northern Syria, dominating much of the insurgency around Aleppo. Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, in late 2013 it co-signed a joint statement calling for Sharia law and rejecting the authority of the Syrian National Coalition. Originally, al-Tawhid was composed of four subunits, the ''Mountain Knights Brigade'', the ''Darat Izza Brigade'', the ''Free North Brigade'', and the ''Aleppo Shahba Battalions''. Its leader Abdul Qader Saleh was killed in November 2013 in a devastating Syrian Air Force airstrike. Its northern branch, the ''Free North Brigade'', was in 2014 reportedly "superseded" by the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and received a commission in the United States Navy. He became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, McCain almost died in the 1967 USS ''Forrestal'' fire. While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Hanoi in October 1967, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. McCain was a prisoner of war until 1973. He experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early release. During the war, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Supreme Military Council (Syria)
The Supreme Military Council (SMC) ( ar, المجلس العسكري الأعلى, also called the Supreme Military Command) was the highest military leadership of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) from late 2012 to at least mid-2014. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 7 December 2012 with the backing of western and Arab powers as a means of financing and arming Syrian rebel forces. The Supreme Military Council of the FSA supported the Syrian National Council (SNC). It also recognized the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the "civil authority" of the Syrian opposition. History On 7 December 2012, 260 rebel commanders from all over Syria agreed to a unified command structure of the Free Syrian Army. The participants elected a 30-member Supreme Military Council, which then selected Brigadier General Salim Idris as Chief of Staff. The 30 members of the council were divided in groups of six, with each group representing one of five fr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brigade De La Tempête Du Nord 1-2-2018
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Brigades formed into divisions are usually infantry or armored (sometimes referred to as combined arms brigades). In addition to combat units, they may include combat support units or sub-units, such as artillery and engineers, and logistic units. Historically, such brigades have sometimes been called brigade-groups. On operations, a brigade may comprise both organic elements and attached elements, including some temporarily attached for a specific task. Brigades may also be specialized and comprise battalions of a single branch, for example cavalry, mechanized, armored, artillery, air defence, aviation, engineers, signals or logistic. Some brigades are classified as independent or separate and operate independently from the traditional divi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a East Thrace, small portion on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Turkish people, Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its list of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city and financial centre. One of the world's earliest permanently Settler, settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2018 Syrian-Turkish Border Clashes
The 2018 Syrian-Turkish border clashes began on 31 October 2018 when the Turkish Armed Forces began to shell People's Protection Units (YPG) positions near the cities of Kobani and Tell Abyad as well as surrounding villages. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in Turkey for over 40 years. Background Journalist Ahmet S. Yayla stated that the operation by Turkey may have been carried out to relocate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda elements from Idlib in light of the demilitarization agreement between Russia and Turkey. Salih Muslim, the former co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party, stated that Russia and Turkey were plotting to send jihadists to fight against the YPG as part of the agreement. On 30 October 2018, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said to a public gathering prior to the operation, "The plan is to remove the YPG, collect their heavy weaponry and finally allow the real Manbi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Operation Olive Branch
Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The air war and use of major artillery ended as the Arab and Turkmen militias of the SNA entered the city of Afrin on 18 March 2018, and the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo began. Between 395 and 510 civilians were reported killed in the operation. Other reported war crimes include the mutilation of a female corpse by SNA fighters, the killing of civilians due to indiscriminate shelling by Turkish forces, the alleged use of chemical gas by the Turkish Army, and the indiscriminate shooting of refugees fleeing from the conflict area into Turkey by the Gendarmerie General Command. In Turkey, the government issued restrictions on press coverage, with Reporters Without Borders no ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |