Terrorists mortars, rockets, and Hell Cannon-fired gas canister bombs continue to rain down on Aleppo for the past few days (a dramatic increase from the sporadic but frequent terrorism Aleppo residents have been ravaged by over the years).

Since April 23, over 1000 terrorists' rockets/missiles/gas canisters have ravaged Aleppo (see: Syria: Aleppo is Burning and Western Media is Silent), killing at least 40 residents and injuring over 300, according to al-Alam journalist, Rabea Kalawandy's April 27 report.

In a more recent update, Kalawandy wrote:

٨" شهداء لحد اللحظة في ‫#‏حلب‬ نتيجة قذائف المعارضة المعتدلة بينهم أطفال ونساء

8 martyrs so far. In ‪#‎Aleppo‬ as a result of the moderate opposition shells including children and women."

The actual number of those murdered will likely be far higher, particularly with many of the injured being critically-injured.

Al Masdar news reported on April 26:

"6 civilians were killed, 25 others wounded when Islamist rebels fired a barrage of mortars and homegrown missiles into the government held districts of Ashrafiyah, Nile Street, Mokambo and Al-Khalidiyah, in the northern city of Aleppo."

In a video published by Anna News, Aleppo residents spoke out about their daily suffering from the rebel's constant shelling that took away many lives and did massive damage in Government-held Aleppo."

The Pentagon has adopted an Israel Defense Forces tactic for bombing the Islamic State. "Knock on the roof," the IDF method of firing a missile at a civilian home to alert occupants that a larger attack is pending, is often used in Palestinian territories.

During a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Air Force Major General Peter Gersten, who is responsible for all combat operations across Iraq and Syria, publicly described its "knock operation" as having been influenced by the Israelis. "We've certainly watched and observed their procedure. As we formulated the way to get the civilians out of the house, this was brought forward from one of our experts," Gersten told reporters.

The example given was an operation against an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) financial storage center in southern Mosul, Iraq. Gersten said the US had been watching the house of an IS finance operative for some time before the bombing on April 5.

"He was the major distributor of funds to Daesh [ISIS] fighters," said Gersten, who is deputy commander for operations and intelligence for the anti-IS Operation Inherent Resolve, in a news transcript. "We watched him come and go from his house, we watched his supplies, we watched the security that was involved in it. And we also watched occasionally a female and her children in and out of the quarters."

Gersten said they formulated a plan to ensure that women, children and non-combatants were clear of the bombing site. He said that IS operates in highly congested urban areas, which is of great concern to the military who are keen to minimize civilian casualties.

"We went as far as actually to put a Hellfire on top of the building and air-burst it so it wouldn't destroy the building, simply knock on the roof to ensure that she and the children were out of the building," he recounted to reporters. "And then we proceeded with our operations."

Initially the US thought the operation had spared the women inside, but it had not.

"[We] absolutely did see the women and child leave...the men that were in that building, multiple men, literally trampled over her to get out of the building," Gersten recounted. "And we watched her and observed her leaving the building. And she cleared the building, and we began to process the strike...it ended up in a civilian casualty...she ran back into the building."

It was "very difficult for us to watch, and it was within the final seconds of the actual impact,"Gersten recalled.

Iran is receiving its first deliveries of Russian-made S-300 air defense systems well ahead of schedule, and Tehran is in talks with Moscow about the purchase of other weaponry, Russia's top arms export official said.

Russian deliveries of S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran are going as planned, the head of Russia's federal arms exports service, FSVTS, told journalists on Tuesday.

"I would even say that we're well ahead of schedule," Fomin was quoted by TASS as saying. "Hopefully, everything will be fine."

He added that Russia and Iran have additionally discussed the procurement of other military equipment, but did not elaborate on the issue: "The talk is about only authorized items which are not on the UN list [of prohibited offensive weapons systems]."

Iran has had a long-standing interest in purchasing the S-300s, believed to be one of the most reliable and efficient systems of its kind, to boost its air defenses in an uneasy security environment.

French MPs have voted in favor of a resolution to lift the EU-imposed sanctions initially slapped on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine and the reunification with Crimea. The document is non-binding.

Fifty-five members of the French National Assembly have supported the resolution calling on the government not to extend the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU. Forty-four voted against and two abstained. Of the 577 deputies in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, 101 took part in the vote.

The resolution, calling on the French government to protest extension of EU sanctions against Russia, was submitted by 85 French MPs.

Thierry Mariani, member of the center-right Republicans party who initiated the parliamentary debate, says the document "calls on the French government not to extend the restrictive measures and economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union."

As Saudi war crimes and crimes against humanity continue apace in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is now apparently attempting to gain public support and better reception from the viewing audience by painting itself as an enemy of al-Qaeda and ISIS, despite the fact that the feudal monarchy's reputation for supporting these very same terror organizations has been documented time and again. From Syria and Libya to Yemen, Saudi Arabia has proven itself repeatedly as a funder, organizer, and supporter of ISIS and al-Qaeda while, at home, it has demonstrated that its own government and ISIS are more alike than they are different.

Still, Saudi Arabia is attempting to show that it is, in fact, the enemy of al-Qaeda by issuing claims that the Saudi "coalition" in Yemen has recently fought a large-scale battle against the terror organization and that it was able to capture the city of Mukalla after killing around 800 terrorists.

As AFP reports,

Yemeni troops backed by Arab coalition air strikes killed more than 800 members of al-Qaida in an attack on a southeastern provincial capital held by the group for the past year, the coalition said Monday. Pro-government forces recaptured an oil terminal as well as the city of Mukalla, which was considered a jihadist stronghold, military sources said. "The operation resulted... in the death of more than 800 al-Qaida members and some of their leaders,while some others fled," Arab coalition commanders said in a statement published by SPA, the official Saudi news agency.

AFP notes, however, that the death toll cannot be independently verified and pointed out that no civilian deaths were reported. This latter detail is most questionable to say the least.

What is interesting is that the alleged operation is part of another alleged operation "aimed at securing parts of the country captured by jihadist militants who have exploited a 13-month war between Gulf-backed loyalists and rebels supported by Iran." The operation itself takes place alongside the UN-brokered ceasefire was enacted on April 11 where jihadist groups are excluded.

What is even more interesting, however, is the description provided by "military officer" sources quoted by the AFP as to the nature of the battle for Mukalla.

Belgian officials have grown so worried about the country's nuclear power plants that the government has been advised to let everyone living within a 100-kilometer radius of the plants be issued with iodine pills. This is basically the entire population.

The recommendation was made by Health Minister Maggie De Block, who said the current legislation, which gives iodine pills to Belgians within a 20-kilometer radius, is inadequate and should be extended to 100 kilometers, according to La Libre daily.

De Block mentioned that the whole of Belgium is located within 100 kilometers of a nuclear power plant and therefore the tablets should be made available to everyone.

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants." (Albert Camus 1913-1960.)

On 1st May 2003, George W. Bush stood in a dinky little flying suit on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and in a super stage managed appearance told the lie of the century: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country." (1)

The illegal occupation and decimation of Iraq continued until December 2011. In June 2014 they returned to bomb again in the guise of combating ISIS. As the thirteenth anniversary of Bush's ridiculous appearance with a vast "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him, Iraq is largely in ruins, Iraqis have fled the murderous "liberation" and it's aftermath in millions and there are over three million internally displaced.

The nation is pinned between a tyrannical, corrupt US puppet government, a homicidal, head chopping, raping, organ eating, history erasing, US-spawned ISIS - and a renewed, relentless US bombardment. So much for the 2008 US-Iraq State of Forces agreement, which stated that by 31st December 2011: "all United States forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory."

Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Wednesday after a judge referred to him as a "serial child molester," making him one of the highest-ranking politicians in US history to go to prison.

Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty last year to paying $3.5 million in hush-money to a man to keep the molestation secret. Law enforcement found that Hastert had sexually abused at least four boys while coaching sports at Yorkville High School in Illinois.

"Nothing is worse than using serial child molester and Speaker of the House in the same sentence," said the judge, who sentenced the Republican politician to nine months longer than the six-month sentence recommended by the prosecution.

"I hope I never see a case like this again," said the judge.

If there were ever a signal that large investment banks may be preparing for financial crisis and that they'll be using your money to bail themselves out when it hits, this could be it.

According to a new report from the Financial Times via The Daily Star, mega-banking giant Goldman Sachs is now getting into the retail banking business and looking for more depositors to help fund their operations. The bank has reportedly "been under pressure to develop new streams of funding" after posting lower than usual equity returns in the first quarter of 2016. In response, Goldman recently acquired a portfolio of 145,000 retail depositors from GE Capital totaling some $16 billion in deposits.

Goldman now intends to aggressively pursue retail depositors whose accounts they will then tap to help fund their investing and trading operations:

French intelligence reportedly rejected an offer to purchase terrorist-scanning and tracking software from an Israeli company that could have helped to prevent the November 2015 attacks in Paris, a security expert has said.

Certain "data-mining technology" which would have helped the Paris authorities to "connect all the dots" in the terrorist community was offered to the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), according to an Israeli counter-terror specialist familiar with the technology and the company, in comments to Fox News.

The DGSI is a French intelligence agency that specializes in counter-espionage, counter-terrorism and countering cybercrime. It also tracks potentially threatening groups.

"French authorities liked it, but the official came back and said there was a higher-level instruction not to buy Israeli technology... The discussion just stopped," said the security specialist, who gave the interview on condition of anonymity.