Puppet Masters
According to a statement by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, a number of military targets in a Hamas naval facility in the northern Strip were hit following rocket fire toward the community of Nahal Oz.
Shortly after the strike, a second projectile was fired toward Israel, landing in open territory and causing no damage or injuries. Shortly afterward, local Palestinian reports said that additional strikes targeted military posts near Gaza City and Khan Younis.
There were no injuries.
The Syrian military has taken control over the town of Khan Sheikhoun, and is now engaged in operations to clear the area of terrorist remnants, a field source has confirmed.
"At the moment, mopping up and demining operations are underway," the source said.
A Sputnik correspondent became the first foreign reporter to enter Khan Sheikhoun on Thursday, confirming that the strategic town is now under the control of the Syrian military.
Syrian forces entered Khan Sheikhoun itself on Sunday following heavy fighting with al-Nusra militants, and began bolstering its positions while advancing into the surrounding villages in the following days.
Comment: In addition to taking Khan Sheikhun, the military completed the encirclement of Latmenah, Kafr Zita, Latmeen and Morek, just south of Khan Sheikhun, and to which the humanitarian corridor will apply. The Turkish Foreign Ministry says they will maintain their presence in Morek:
"The ninth observation post in the town of Morek remains in its initial point despite the city's fall. The Syrian army regained control of the city of Khan Sheikhoun," Aksoy said.Footage of the operation:
He refused to comment when asked how the observation post was supposed to continue functioning after the city moved under Damascus' control.

In this Monday, Aug. 12, 2019 file photo, plumes of smoke rise after an explosion at a military base southwest of Baghdad, Iraq. A fact-finding committee has concluded that the blast was the result of a drone strike.
"Israel's intervention into the sphere of our national interests is a declaration of war against Iraq, its people, sovereignty. The silence on the aggression is not a rational position ... We must take measures at the regional and international levels to resist the destruction of our airspace and military capabilities," Asadi said in a statement.

A protester holds up a placard as thousands flood the streets of Hong Kong on July 1.
Protestors in Hong Kong have not disappointed their financers. Numerous protestors have been seen carrying US flags; playing the US national anthem and asking the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
Comment: The U.S. is following the well-worn pattern of Color Revolution™, which is becoming less effective as more of the world becomes wise to the CIA's and NED's tactics. Russia wisely kicked out all western NGOs a while ago, with particular emphasis on the National Endowment for Democracy. Their advice to the Chinese on dealing with Hong Kong will be invaluable.
- Is Hong Kong the new epicenter of the Empire's smear campaign against China?
- China blames US meddling for Hong Kong protests, warns criminals not to "play with fire"
- Just who is behind Hong Kong 'protests'?
- Cookies for everyone! Hong Kong 'revolution' leader photographed meeting US consulate official in Marriott Hotel
- US 'color revolution' and its struggles in Hong Kong
- National Endowment for Democracy, the legal window of the CIA

Forces from Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security escort alleged Taliban and Islamic State fighters in Jalalabad on May 23.
He also warned Europeans to take back nationals captured fighting for the Islamic State, or he will release them back to their countries.
Asked by journalists if he is concerned about the reemergence of the Islamic State group in Iraq, Trump said forces under his lead had wiped out the extremists' caliphate.
"At a certain point Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, they are going to have to fight their battles too."
"We wiped out the caliphate 100 percent. I did it in record time. But at a certain point, all of these other countries, where ISIS is around ... are going to have to fight them. Because do we want to stay there another 19 years? I don't think so."
He singled out India and Pakistan as frontline countries that are doing little to fight jihadist groups.
"Look, India's right there, they are not fighting it, we're fighting it. Pakistan is next door. They're fighting it, very little.... it's not fair. The United States is seven thousand miles away," he told reporters.
Comment: Trump's right, but what he doesn't mention is that there was no good reason for the U.S. to travel 7,000 miles away to fight jihadists in the first place. It was the American war on terror that created ISIS and expanded the number of jihadists exponentially. But what's done is done, and now it will be up to those other countries to clean up the mess made by Trump's predecessors. Maybe they'll do a better job at it.
If one were to Google "Hong Kong" only a year ago, the search engine would return a plethora of results suggesting a vibrant tourist economy, advertisements for first-class flights and luxury getaways on the picturesque Victoria Harbour embankment. Repeating the same search today, however, will return an endless torrent of media coverage predicting imminent economic disaster, confidently linked to the city's heated protests and an insoluble political dispute with its government.

An Airbus A330neo flying past a Boeing sign at the 2019 International Paris Air Show.
The announced reason for canceling the Boeing contract, effective Thursday, was that the project's design problems were so significant as to be either insurmountable or too costly to correct.
Comment: And yet the Pentagon went through with Lockheed's F-35. This Boeing project must have been a monumental failure. Maybe it's fair to blame Russia in this instance: their hypersonic missiles make many American defense systems obsolete, so it's back to the drawing board for American weapons manufacturers attempting to establish full spectrum dominance. But we should thank the Russians. When American military leaders are convinced they have "first strike capability", they tend to lose their minds.
Beyond those immediate concerns, the Pentagon is considering whether it needs to start over with designing a defense against intercontinental-range ballistic missiles, such as those North Korea aspires to build, as well as newly emerging types of missiles.
One indication of that broader concern is the Pentagon's statement that it will now invite industry competition to develop a "new, next-generation interceptor" — potentially a weapon that could take on hypersonic missiles being developed by China and Russia.
The Pentagon currently has 44 missile interceptors based mostly in Alaska. Each is designed to be launched from an underground silo, soar beyond the Earth's atmosphere and release a "kill vehicle" — a device that steers into its target and destroys it by force of collision.
Comment: At least they decided to stop the project, instead of just pouring multiple more billions of dollars into it, like they routinely do with other bad military system contracts... That's progress!
Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron certainly seemed all smiles at their meeting in Bregancon on Monday, leading respected international commentator John Laughland to declare that "On every level, the West has now abandoned its earlier hostility to Putin and Russia."
The meeting took place just a few days ahead of the G7 summit in France, to which Putin was not invited; Russia has been suspended from the group of industrialized nations since 2014, after the US and UK blamed it for the crisis in Ukraine.
None other than US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that it would be "much more appropriate to have Russia" back in the G8 again, no doubt triggering every Russia "expert" on three continents.
The appearance of a tiny agricultural aircraft over the clear blue skies of the Golan provoked an immediate response by the trigger-happy IDF paratroopers, who opened fire at the supposed intruder thinking it was a Syrian plane that had invaded Israel.
Stopping in the middle of the road, three soldiers began offloading their magazines at the approaching plane that was seen flying over the fields, video of the encounter shows.

Kim You-geun, deputy director of South Korea's presidential national security office, announces that Seoul will not renew intel-sharing pact with Japan.
Seoul plans to inform Tokyo of the measure before the Aug. 24 deadline via a diplomatic channel, according to Kim You-geun, deputy director of South Korea's presidential national security office.
The government concluded that it does not meet the national interest to maintain the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which was signed for the purpose of sharing "sensitive military information," he said in a statement.
He pointed out that Japan had dropped South Korea from its whitelist of trusted trade partners "without providing clear ground" for the move, which has led to a "grave change in security cooperation circumstances between the two nations."
Japan only talked about a "problem" in terms of national security, he pointed out.
Comment: Japan is NOT happy about the two Koreas becoming reunited.
South Korea proposes reunification with North Korea by 2045
Comment: Tokyo has summoned the South Korean ambassador to lodge a formal protest over the decision. Foreign Minister Tara Kono called the decision "a completely mistaken response" and warned that Seoul is "misreading the existing security environment."
But we think South Korea is reading it just fine: Japan does NOT want Korean reunification, a development that will create an economically powerful rival with a population of 80 million people.










Comment: Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip and the daily misery inflicted on the West Bank is bringing Palestinians to the breaking point. Is the Israeli government so confident they can subdue the Palestinians righteous anger? They may be in for a surprise.