The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has released a new report on the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. The report has found that as many as 9,000 Americans were left behind in Afghanistan during the disastrous withdrawal.

Report: As many as 9,000 Americans left behind during US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

In what can be called reaching a grim milestone, the death toll in the United States due to Covid has surpassed 9,00,000, as per the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). &nbsp;

Since January 2020, over 76 million cases have been confirmed in the country. &nbsp;

The number of deaths due to coronavirus in the US reached 9,00,334 people, JHU tally showed on Friday afternoon.&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/destabilising-conflict-in-europe-will-impact-china-us-on-ukraine-row-450590" hreflang="en">Destabilising conflict in Europe will impact China: US on Ukraine row</a>

In mid-December 2021, the United States had crossed the 8,00,000 mark in the deaths related to this disease. The highly transmissible Omicron variant was spreading throughout the country at that time. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden's administration said that it will be distributing 400 million high quality Covid N95 masks for free to Americans. The step was taken in order to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/omicron-variant-originated-from-mice-say-chinese-scientists-is-the-narrative-changing-continuously-450343" hreflang="en">Omicron variant originated from mice, say Chinese scientists. Is the narrative changing continuously? &nbsp;</a>

Tens of thousands of distribution points will be set up nationwide in order to give away masks. Pharmacies and community centres are expected to be main distribution centres. The White House said that the distribution drive will kick into full gear in February. &nbsp;

"This is the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history," an unnamed White House official said in a statement. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

In what can be called reaching a grim milestone, the death toll in the United States due to Covid has surpassed 9,00,000, as per the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

In what can be called reaching a grim milestone, the death toll in the United States due to Covid has surpassed 9,00,000, as per the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Since January 2020, over 76 million cases have been confirmed in the country. The number of deaths due to coronavirus in the US reached 9,00,334 people, JHU tally showed on Friday afternoon. Also Read: Destabilising conflict in Europe will impact China: US on Ukraine row In mid-December 2021, the United States had crossed the 8,00,000 mark in the deaths related to this disease. The highly transmissible Omicron variant was spreading throughout the country at that time. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden's administration said that it will be distributing 400 million high quality Covid N95 masks for free to Americans. The step was taken in order to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. Also Read: Omicron variant originated from mice, say Chinese scientists. Is the narrative changing continuously? Tens of thousands of distribution points will be set up nationwide in order to give away masks. Pharmacies and community centres are expected to be main distribution centres. The White House said that the distribution drive will kick into full gear in February. "This is the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history," an unnamed White House official said in a statement. (With inputs from agencies)

COVID-19: Death toll crosses 9,00,000 mark in US

India has refused to pick sides in the ongoing stand-off in Ukraine. Russia is a long-time strategic partner and the US is leading the anti-China coalition. Palki Sharma decodes India's non-alignment.

Gravitas: India's stakes in the Ukraine crisis

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. US has warned Ukraine of a false flag attack. Turkey has proposed to host a Russia, Ukraine summit. Palki Sharma brings you the latest on Ukraine crisis direct from Kyiv.

Gravitas: Ukraine, Russia crisis: Putin, Xi send joint message to NATO

As a money management professional, Eric Diton helps his clients manage complex personal finance issues. But he’s finding that more of them are frustrated by a surprisingly mundane budget item: homeowners’ insurance.

“I can definitely say that for my Florida clients, it’s a topic of conversation and it’s on their radar,” said Diton, president of the Wealth Alliance, an investment advisory firm. “They’re seeing that their cost of insurance is rising.”

Diton, who splits his time between Boca Raton, Florida, and Long Island, said he found himself in the same boat. “Personally, my insurance company increased my premiums quite a bit,” he said of his home in Florida. “It was pretty challenging to find a lot of choice, and that has resonated with a lot of people in this state.”

While Florida residents are not the only ones wrestling with this issue, the state’s popularity with retirees means that it is a problem a growing number will confront, experts say. When drawing up a budget for living on a fixed income, most would-be retirees think about services and goods, such as doctor visits or prescription drugs, that are likely to cost more in the future. Almost no one thinks of home insurance — an omission insurance professionals warn will be an increasingly costly mistake.

Many Americans’ plans to retire in a coastal Sun Belt state or a scenic mountain hamlet are on a collision course with extreme weather — and the property damage that follows.

“In some regions, we already see changing weather patterns, most likely driven by climate change, already having an impact,” said Ernst Rauch, chief climate and geoscientist at the reinsurance company Munich Re.

After absorbing punishing losses from floods, hurricanes and wildfires in recent years, many insurers are reevaluating their risk modeling practices. The upshot for many homeowners is higher property insurance bills. Others can find themselves struggling to get a policy at any price.

“In certain parts of the country, the insurance situation has really been difficult — in particular, Florida and that area, including Louisiana and the Gulf states,” said Nancy Albanese, vice president of personal insurance at BMT Insurance Advisors. “The other market which is very difficult is California, and some of the Western states that are exposed to wildfire.”

She added: “When we encounter a client who needs coverage in Florida, we know that’s going to be a huge challenge.”

Karen Collins, assistant vice president of personal lines for the trade group American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said she and her colleagues were seeing “a very significant increase in losses recently.”

“Natural disasters in particular have been very, very elevated the past couple of years,” she said.

This trend is driving up premiums. According to AM Best, an insurance industry ratings and analytics firm, the total amount of homeowners’ insurance premiums Americans paid rose by 8.4% between the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of last year. (An AM Best spokesperson noted that this aggregate snapshot did not reflect what any individual policyholder paid.)

Albanese said that recently an insurer dropped one of her clients, who was already paying $22,000 a year to insure a coastal Florida property. After some scrambling, Albanese was able to find the client coverage through a “surplus lines” provider — an insurer of last resort for the highest-risk policies — but at double the cost.

“It’s been back-to-back years of these rate increases, and I can think of at least one client who says they’re planning to sell their Florida property just because it’s just getting to be outrageous to insure,” Albanese said. “I’ve also had clients purchase properties in Florida recently, unaware of what the insurance market was like down there and really having them be just shocked — they just did not realize how high their premiums would be.”

Diton said that rising property insurance costs — particularly when combined with higher property taxes in areas where home values have risen significantly — were especially relevant for clients considering buying investment real estate for passive income generation. This strategy is popular among retirees and even some younger investors.

When a client is interested in a property, Diton said that he will lay out a spreadsheet and analyze the expenses. In some cases, prospective buyers decide against the purchase. “The homeowners’ insurance increase is definitely contributing to the issue for those people,” he said.

Insurance experts who work farther up the East Coast report similar market conditions. “What we are seeing is the companies that specialized in writing homeowners’ insurance along the coasts are shutting down, so we don’t have as many options,” said Robin Jaekel, vice president of personal lines at Glenn Insurance, a New Jersey insurance agency that does significant business along the Jersey Shore. “The homeowner costs along the coasts are definitely impacted.”

Hurricanes and nor’easters are the primary reasons insurers are fleeing the market, Jaekel said. The recent overhaul of the federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program compounds the headache — and expenses — for property owners who are required by their mortgage holder to carry flood as well as homeowners’ insurance.

In many cases, the only policy a homeowner can get is one that limits the amount of compensation someone can expect after the most severe storms. “We now have the ‘named hurricane deductible’ on all policies around here,” Jaekel said. “If it’s a named hurricane, they have a separate deductible just for that.”

Experts in extreme weather say that stories like these are likely to become much more common in a rapidly warming future. “Hurricanes along the East Coast of the U.S. are also moving north,” Rauch said. “The probability has increased in northern U.S. regions as the water has warmed up.”

“This is a huge, long-term issue for every developed area of the United States,” said Jim Blackburn, professor of environmental law and co-director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation From Disasters Center at Rice University, via email.

He added that while coastal regions would probably face some of the greatest challenges because of more intense storms, increasing rainfall means that even homes situated near — rather than within — floodplains could become more vulnerable, too. “We have not begun to understand the impacts of climate change on settlement patterns,” he said.

The rising cost of damage from extreme weather comes on top of a confluence of other factors that are driving the cost of homeowners’ insurance higher. Supply-chain bottlenecks and a labor shortage make it more expensive to repair or rebuild homes after a disaster, while home construction and design trends are to blame as well, insurance professionals say. In neighborhoods with older housing stock, rebuilding after a natural disaster might be more expensive because of measures to bring the property up to current building code standards.

“Building materials themselves are lending them to more catastrophic losses,” said Jared Carillo, director of foundation accounts at SmithBrothers, an insurance brokerage in Connecticut. Materials used in construction today include more synthetics that burn faster and hotter, such as particleboard, spray foam and wire insulation, he said.

Open floor plans are another culprit, Carillo said: “A fire that starts in the kitchen is going to generate more loss across the first floor.”

Some of the weather changes being monitored by the insurance industry, such as the northerly drift of “Hurricane Alley,” are gradual shifts. Others — like the droughts that have exacerbated enormous wildfires in the Western United States — have hit an inflection point much more rapidly. Rauch said that in the 1980s, the average annual insured losses in the United States from wildfires ranged from $1 billion to $3 billion.

“This was the expectation going forward,” he said.

That changed in a heartbeat. “In 2017, for the first time, insured losses were somewhere in the $16 billion region,” Rauch said. “It was a massive jump, and 2018 was basically the same.” After a moderate Western fire season in 2019, 2020 brought another round of eye-watering losses, roughly in the neighborhood of $11 billion.

It is evidence that even the nimblest of companies can be caught by surprise at how fast conditions can change. In just the last four to five years, Rauch said, wildfires have brought significant changes. “The loss situation was totally different from the decades before,” he said.

Insurance and real estate professionals say this is especially problematic for people who put roots down decades ago with the expectation of growing old in those homes and neighborhoods, only to find that the ground beneath their feet has shifted.

“I do have people that retired here,” said Patrick Brownfield, personal risk adviser for the insurance broker Hub International in Jackson, Wyoming. “They’ve had astronomical increases in their insurance in the last two years,” he said, adding that this leaves those homeowners with few options. “It’s going to cost them $20,000 a year on their fixed income, and now they can’t pay the insurance because all their equity is in their home,” Brownfield said.

Deciding to sell, though, can present even more difficult decisions.

“Real estate contracts are now contingent on the ability to get that insurance,” said Ed Liebzeit, a real estate broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Jackson.

“People at retirement age are facing two things,” he said. “If they’re on a fixed income, their insurance is going up, but so are their property taxes.” This is a drawback of the area’s rapidly appreciating housing market, he said. The result for retirees, increasingly, is displacement.

“The problem is, they have to leave town because there’s not another opportunity to buy low and stay here unless they go to a very small condo,” Liebzeit said. “So most of them are leaving.”

As a money management professional, Eric Diton helps his clients manage complex personal finance issues. But he’s finding that more of them are frustrated by a surprisingly mundane budget item: homeowners’ insurance.

As a money management professional, Eric Diton helps his clients manage complex personal finance issues. But he’s finding that more of them are frustrated by a surprisingly mundane budget item: homeowners’ insurance. “I can definitely say that for my Florida clients, it’s a topic of conversation and it’s on their radar,” said Diton, president of the Wealth Alliance, an investment advisory firm. “They’re seeing that their cost of insurance is rising.” Diton, who splits his time between Boca Raton, Florida, and Long Island, said he found himself in the same boat. “Personally, my insurance company increased my premiums quite a bit,” he said of his home in Florida. “It was pretty challenging to find a lot of choice, and that has resonated with a lot of people in this state.” While Florida residents are not the only ones wrestling with this issue, the state’s popularity with retirees means that it is a problem a growing number will confront, experts say. When drawing up a budget for living on a fixed income, most would-be retirees think about services and goods, such as doctor visits or prescription drugs, that are likely to cost more in the future. Almost no one thinks of home insurance — an omission insurance professionals warn will be an increasingly costly mistake. Many Americans’ plans to retire in a coastal Sun Belt state or a scenic mountain hamlet are on a collision course with extreme weather — and the property damage that follows. “In some regions, we already see changing weather patterns, most likely driven by climate change, already having an impact,” said Ernst Rauch, chief climate and geoscientist at the reinsurance company Munich Re. After absorbing punishing losses from floods, hurricanes and wildfires in recent years, many insurers are reevaluating their risk modeling practices. The upshot for many homeowners is higher property insurance bills. Others can find themselves struggling to get a policy at any price. “In certain parts of the country, the insurance situation has really been difficult — in particular, Florida and that area, including Louisiana and the Gulf states,” said Nancy Albanese, vice president of personal insurance at BMT Insurance Advisors. “The other market which is very difficult is California, and some of the Western states that are exposed to wildfire.” She added: “When we encounter a client who needs coverage in Florida, we know that’s going to be a huge challenge.” Karen Collins, assistant vice president of personal lines for the trade group American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said she and her colleagues were seeing “a very significant increase in losses recently.” “Natural disasters in particular have been very, very elevated the past couple of years,” she said. This trend is driving up premiums. According to AM Best, an insurance industry ratings and analytics firm, the total amount of homeowners’ insurance premiums Americans paid rose by 8.4% between the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of last year. (An AM Best spokesperson noted that this aggregate snapshot did not reflect what any individual policyholder paid.) Albanese said that recently an insurer dropped one of her clients, who was already paying $22,000 a year to insure a coastal Florida property. After some scrambling, Albanese was able to find the client coverage through a “surplus lines” provider — an insurer of last resort for the highest-risk policies — but at double the cost. “It’s been back-to-back years of these rate increases, and I can think of at least one client who says they’re planning to sell their Florida property just because it’s just getting to be outrageous to insure,” Albanese said. “I’ve also had clients purchase properties in Florida recently, unaware of what the insurance market was like down there and really having them be just shocked — they just did not realize how high their premiums would be.” Diton said that rising property insurance costs — particularly when combined with higher property taxes in areas where home values have risen significantly — were especially relevant for clients considering buying investment real estate for passive income generation. This strategy is popular among retirees and even some younger investors. When a client is interested in a property, Diton said that he will lay out a spreadsheet and analyze the expenses. In some cases, prospective buyers decide against the purchase. “The homeowners’ insurance increase is definitely contributing to the issue for those people,” he said. Insurance experts who work farther up the East Coast report similar market conditions. “What we are seeing is the companies that specialized in writing homeowners’ insurance along the coasts are shutting down, so we don’t have as many options,” said Robin Jaekel, vice president of personal lines at Glenn Insurance, a New Jersey insurance agency that does significant business along the Jersey Shore. “The homeowner costs along the coasts are definitely impacted.” Hurricanes and nor’easters are the primary reasons insurers are fleeing the market, Jaekel said. The recent overhaul of the federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program compounds the headache — and expenses — for property owners who are required by their mortgage holder to carry flood as well as homeowners’ insurance. In many cases, the only policy a homeowner can get is one that limits the amount of compensation someone can expect after the most severe storms. “We now have the ‘named hurricane deductible’ on all policies around here,” Jaekel said. “If it’s a named hurricane, they have a separate deductible just for that.” Experts in extreme weather say that stories like these are likely to become much more common in a rapidly warming future. “Hurricanes along the East Coast of the U.S. are also moving north,” Rauch said. “The probability has increased in northern U.S. regions as the water has warmed up.” “This is a huge, long-term issue for every developed area of the United States,” said Jim Blackburn, professor of environmental law and co-director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation From Disasters Center at Rice University, via email. He added that while coastal regions would probably face some of the greatest challenges because of more intense storms, increasing rainfall means that even homes situated near — rather than within — floodplains could become more vulnerable, too. “We have not begun to understand the impacts of climate change on settlement patterns,” he said. The rising cost of damage from extreme weather comes on top of a confluence of other factors that are driving the cost of homeowners’ insurance higher. Supply-chain bottlenecks and a labor shortage make it more expensive to repair or rebuild homes after a disaster, while home construction and design trends are to blame as well, insurance professionals say. In neighborhoods with older housing stock, rebuilding after a natural disaster might be more expensive because of measures to bring the property up to current building code standards. “Building materials themselves are lending them to more catastrophic losses,” said Jared Carillo, director of foundation accounts at SmithBrothers, an insurance brokerage in Connecticut. Materials used in construction today include more synthetics that burn faster and hotter, such as particleboard, spray foam and wire insulation, he said. Open floor plans are another culprit, Carillo said: “A fire that starts in the kitchen is going to generate more loss across the first floor.” Some of the weather changes being monitored by the insurance industry, such as the northerly drift of “Hurricane Alley,” are gradual shifts. Others — like the droughts that have exacerbated enormous wildfires in the Western United States — have hit an inflection point much more rapidly. Rauch said that in the 1980s, the average annual insured losses in the United States from wildfires ranged from $1 billion to $3 billion. “This was the expectation going forward,” he said. That changed in a heartbeat. “In 2017, for the first time, insured losses were somewhere in the $16 billion region,” Rauch said. “It was a massive jump, and 2018 was basically the same.” After a moderate Western fire season in 2019, 2020 brought another round of eye-watering losses, roughly in the neighborhood of $11 billion. It is evidence that even the nimblest of companies can be caught by surprise at how fast conditions can change. In just the last four to five years, Rauch said, wildfires have brought significant changes. “The loss situation was totally different from the decades before,” he said. Insurance and real estate professionals say this is especially problematic for people who put roots down decades ago with the expectation of growing old in those homes and neighborhoods, only to find that the ground beneath their feet has shifted. “I do have people that retired here,” said Patrick Brownfield, personal risk adviser for the insurance broker Hub International in Jackson, Wyoming. “They’ve had astronomical increases in their insurance in the last two years,” he said, adding that this leaves those homeowners with few options. “It’s going to cost them $20,000 a year on their fixed income, and now they can’t pay the insurance because all their equity is in their home,” Brownfield said. Deciding to sell, though, can present even more difficult decisions. “Real estate contracts are now contingent on the ability to get that insurance,” said Ed Liebzeit, a real estate broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Jackson. “People at retirement age are facing two things,” he said. “If they’re on a fixed income, their insurance is going up, but so are their property taxes.” This is a drawback of the area’s rapidly appreciating housing market, he said. The result for retirees, increasingly, is displacement. “The problem is, they have to leave town because there’s not another opportunity to buy low and stay here unless they go to a very small condo,” Liebzeit said. “So most of them are leaving.”

Extreme weather and rising insurance rates squeeze retirees

The Covid 19 pandemic has reached yet another grim milestone in the United States. According to the John Hopkins University, the nation's cumulative death toll from the Covid 19 infections has surpassed the 900 000 mark. The latest number has been fueled by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

United States reaches a grim milestone in fight against Covid 19

US to send additional troops to Eastern Europe as Russia steps up military deployment near the Ukrainian border - sending its soldiers to neighbouring Belarus for 'military exercises'.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict: US to send additional troops to Eastern Europe

The United States has acquired intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine using a faked video that would build on recent disinformation campaigns, according to senior administration officials and others briefed on the material.

The plan — which the United States hopes to spoil by making public — involved staging and filming a fabricated attack by the Ukrainian military either on Russian territory or against Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine.

Russia, the officials said, intended to use the video to accuse Ukraine of “genocide” against Russian-speaking people. It would then use the report to justify an attack or have separatist leaders in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine invite a Russian intervention.

Officials would not release any direct evidence of the Russian plan or how they learned of it, saying to do so would compromise their sources and methods. But both a recent Russian disinformation campaign focused on false accusations of genocide and the recent political actions being taken in the Russian parliament to recognize breakaway governments in Ukraine lent credence to the intelligence.

If carried out, the Russian operation would be an expansion of a propaganda theme that U.S. intelligence officials and outside experts have said Moscow has been pushing on social media, conspiracy sites and with state-controlled media since November.

The planned video was elaborate, officials said, with graphic images of the staged, corpse-strewn aftermath of an explosion, film of destroyed locations, faked Ukrainian military equipment, Turkish-made drones and actors playing Russian-speaking mourners.

American officials would not say who in Russia precisely was planning the operation, but a senior administration official said that “Russian intelligence is intimately involved in this effort.”

A British government official said that they had done their own analysis on the intelligence and had high confidence that Russia was planning to engineer a pretext to blame Ukraine for an attack. The specific reporting details, the official said, are “credible and extremely concerning.”

While it is not clear that senior Russian officials approved the operation, it was far along in the planning, and the United States had high confidence that it was under serious consideration, officials said. Russian officials had found corpses to use in the video, discussed actors to play mourners and plotted how to make military equipment in the video appear Ukrainian or NATO-supplied.

While the plan sounded far-fetched, American officials said they believed it could have worked to provide a spark for a Russian military operation — an outcome they said they hoped would be made less likely by exposing the effort publicly.

The highlights of the intelligence have been declassified in hopes of both derailing the plan and convincing allies and officials of the seriousness of the Russian planning. The officials interviewed for this article requested anonymity to discuss declassified but sensitive intelligence before it was released publicly.

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, and other top administration officials briefed members of Congress on the material Thursday. Details of the information have also been shared with allies as the United States and Britain push a kind of intelligence diplomacy.

In recent weeks both Washington and London have outlined elements of Moscow’s war planning, highlighting planned troop buildups, exposing false-flag sabotage plots and revealing Russian plans to install a friendly government in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The strategy aims to persuade allies and partners over that Russia is not posturing and has real war plans that it could put into effect. The releases also aim to force Russia to drop and redraft plans, further delaying any invasion plan.

The longer the international community can delay a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin about whether to approve a military operation against Ukraine, the more of a chance there is that he will reconsider his plans, according to diplomats.

Some officials in the U.S. and Britain think Putin has underestimated how many casualties his military would suffer in any direct invasion of Ukraine.

The intelligence diplomacy push is modelled in part on Britain’s efforts to rally a strong response to the Russian nerve agent attack in England in 2018. The British government released information on Russian involvement publicly and shared other intelligence privately as it pushed allies to expel Russian diplomats in response.

The move to publicize the plan comes as the Duma, the Russian parliament, begins to consider legislation to recognize eastern Ukraine as an independent territory, much as they have recognized Russian-occupied areas of Georgia.

If the Russian parliament were to recognize the Donbas region of Ukraine as an independent state, a Moscow-appointed leader of that breakaway state could then request help from Putin. Putin has argued many times that in such a case, an intervention would be in keeping with international law and precedents set by the United States.

American officials believe the plans for the video included Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that have been used by the Ukrainian army.

In November, the Ukrainian army used one of the drones to launch a counterattack on a howitzer used by Russian-led separatist forces to kill a Ukrainian soldier. Russia scrambled jets, and the situation escalated.

Russian disinformation in recent weeks has accused NATO of planning an invasion or intervention into Ukraine, a false claim. Highlighting the presence of weapons made by Turkey, a NATO ally, would allow the Russians to accuse the alliance of helping raise tensions in the conflict and being culpable in the death of Russian speakers.

The draft law under consideration in Russia would recognize what Moscow calls the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Russia considered recognizing governments in the separatists-controlled region in 2014 but ultimately backed down.

The proposal was revived by members of the Communist Party, the second-largest faction in the Russian Duma, in recent days. The Russian parliamentarians pushing the law have argued that Ukraine is planning an offensive to reassert control of the area. If that happens, the Russian lawmakers argue, Russian-speaking residents will be denied basic rights.

Ukrainian oppression of Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine is a common theme of Russian state media and websites controlled by Russian intelligence services. But the reality is that language is not the hard dividing line in Ukraine that Moscow suggests.

The United States has acquired intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine using a faked video that would build on recent disinformation campaigns, according to senior administration officials and others briefed on the material.

The United States has acquired intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine using a faked video that would build on recent disinformation campaigns, according to senior administration officials and others briefed on the material. The plan — which the United States hopes to spoil by making public — involved staging and filming a fabricated attack by the Ukrainian military either on Russian territory or against Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine. Russia, the officials said, intended to use the video to accuse Ukraine of “genocide” against Russian-speaking people. It would then use the report to justify an attack or have separatist leaders in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine invite a Russian intervention. Officials would not release any direct evidence of the Russian plan or how they learned of it, saying to do so would compromise their sources and methods. But both a recent Russian disinformation campaign focused on false accusations of genocide and the recent political actions being taken in the Russian parliament to recognize breakaway governments in Ukraine lent credence to the intelligence. If carried out, the Russian operation would be an expansion of a propaganda theme that U.S. intelligence officials and outside experts have said Moscow has been pushing on social media, conspiracy sites and with state-controlled media since November. The planned video was elaborate, officials said, with graphic images of the staged, corpse-strewn aftermath of an explosion, film of destroyed locations, faked Ukrainian military equipment, Turkish-made drones and actors playing Russian-speaking mourners. American officials would not say who in Russia precisely was planning the operation, but a senior administration official said that “Russian intelligence is intimately involved in this effort.” A British government official said that they had done their own analysis on the intelligence and had high confidence that Russia was planning to engineer a pretext to blame Ukraine for an attack. The specific reporting details, the official said, are “credible and extremely concerning.” While it is not clear that senior Russian officials approved the operation, it was far along in the planning, and the United States had high confidence that it was under serious consideration, officials said. Russian officials had found corpses to use in the video, discussed actors to play mourners and plotted how to make military equipment in the video appear Ukrainian or NATO-supplied. While the plan sounded far-fetched, American officials said they believed it could have worked to provide a spark for a Russian military operation — an outcome they said they hoped would be made less likely by exposing the effort publicly. The highlights of the intelligence have been declassified in hopes of both derailing the plan and convincing allies and officials of the seriousness of the Russian planning. The officials interviewed for this article requested anonymity to discuss declassified but sensitive intelligence before it was released publicly. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, and other top administration officials briefed members of Congress on the material Thursday. Details of the information have also been shared with allies as the United States and Britain push a kind of intelligence diplomacy. In recent weeks both Washington and London have outlined elements of Moscow’s war planning, highlighting planned troop buildups, exposing false-flag sabotage plots and revealing Russian plans to install a friendly government in Kyiv, Ukraine. The strategy aims to persuade allies and partners over that Russia is not posturing and has real war plans that it could put into effect. The releases also aim to force Russia to drop and redraft plans, further delaying any invasion plan. The longer the international community can delay a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin about whether to approve a military operation against Ukraine, the more of a chance there is that he will reconsider his plans, according to diplomats. Some officials in the U.S. and Britain think Putin has underestimated how many casualties his military would suffer in any direct invasion of Ukraine. The intelligence diplomacy push is modelled in part on Britain’s efforts to rally a strong response to the Russian nerve agent attack in England in 2018. The British government released information on Russian involvement publicly and shared other intelligence privately as it pushed allies to expel Russian diplomats in response. The move to publicize the plan comes as the Duma, the Russian parliament, begins to consider legislation to recognize eastern Ukraine as an independent territory, much as they have recognized Russian-occupied areas of Georgia. If the Russian parliament were to recognize the Donbas region of Ukraine as an independent state, a Moscow-appointed leader of that breakaway state could then request help from Putin. Putin has argued many times that in such a case, an intervention would be in keeping with international law and precedents set by the United States. American officials believe the plans for the video included Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that have been used by the Ukrainian army. In November, the Ukrainian army used one of the drones to launch a counterattack on a howitzer used by Russian-led separatist forces to kill a Ukrainian soldier. Russia scrambled jets, and the situation escalated. Russian disinformation in recent weeks has accused NATO of planning an invasion or intervention into Ukraine, a false claim. Highlighting the presence of weapons made by Turkey, a NATO ally, would allow the Russians to accuse the alliance of helping raise tensions in the conflict and being culpable in the death of Russian speakers. The draft law under consideration in Russia would recognize what Moscow calls the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Russia considered recognizing governments in the separatists-controlled region in 2014 but ultimately backed down. The proposal was revived by members of the Communist Party, the second-largest faction in the Russian Duma, in recent days. The Russian parliamentarians pushing the law have argued that Ukraine is planning an offensive to reassert control of the area. If that happens, the Russian lawmakers argue, Russian-speaking residents will be denied basic rights. Ukrainian oppression of Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine is a common theme of Russian state media and websites controlled by Russian intelligence services. But the reality is that language is not the hard dividing line in Ukraine that Moscow suggests.

US exposes what it says is Russian effort to fabricate pretext for invasion

A security breach has been reported near Pentagon in the US. Well, there is nothing to worry about as it was a hen. &nbsp;

It was actually caught ‘snooping’ around a security area at the Pentagon this week. &nbsp;

The chicken, which has brown feathers and a red comb and wattles, was found running loose near the US Department of Defense headquarters on the outskirts of Washington DC early on Monday morning, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, Virginia told on social media. &nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-will-produce-graphic-propaganda-video-as-pretext-for-an-invasion-against-ukraine-us-450298" hreflang="en">Russia will produce graphic propaganda video as pretext for an invasion: US</a>

“Apparently, the answer to ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ is to get to the Pentagon,” the local animal welfare organisation said. &nbsp;

It was taken into custody by one of the organisation’s employees. &nbsp;

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Apparently, the answer to "why did the chicken cross the road" is to get to the Pentagon?! This chicken was caught sneaking around the security area at the Pentagon (we're not kidding) and our officers picked her up. Now we need a name for her - suggestions welcomed! <a href="https://t.co/6RmMSjNKnU">pic.twitter.com/6RmMSjNKnU</a>
— AWLArlington, VA (@AWLAArlington) <a href="https://twitter.com/AWLAArlington/status/1488262827886395392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
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In an email, Chelsea Jones, spokesperson for the organisation, said that she can’t reveal the location where the bird was spotted. &nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/top-pics-how-us-raided-isis-leaders-compound-in-northern-syria-450323">Top pics: How US raided ISIS leader's compound in northern Syria</a>

“We are not allowed to disclose exactly where she was found. We can only say it was at a security checkpoint,” Jones said. &nbsp;

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Our officers have chosen the name Henny Penny for our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pentagonchicken?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#pentagonchicken</a>, and she will be going to live at a local animal sanctuary very soon! <a href="https://t.co/qQ7kfYkocM">https://t.co/qQ7kfYkocM</a> <a href="https://t.co/31gugYE4tR">pic.twitter.com/31gugYE4tR</a>
— AWLArlington, VA (@AWLAArlington) <a href="https://twitter.com/AWLAArlington/status/1488567242077970441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
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It’s still unclear where the Rhode Island red chicken came from or how it got to the Pentagon. &nbsp;

The bird was “sweet” and “nervous”, Jones described. &nbsp;&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

A security breach has been reported near Pentagon in the US. Well, there is nothing to worry about as it was a hen. It was actually caught ‘snooping’ around a security area at the Pentagon this week.

A security breach has been reported near Pentagon in the US. Well, there is nothing to worry about as it was a hen. It was actually caught ‘snooping’ around a security area at the Pentagon this week. The chicken, which has brown feathers and a red comb and wattles, was found running loose near the US Department of Defense headquarters on the outskirts of Washington DC early on Monday morning, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, Virginia told on social media. Also Read | Russia will produce graphic propaganda video as pretext for an invasion: US “Apparently, the answer to ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ is to get to the Pentagon,” the local animal welfare organisation said. It was taken into custody by one of the organisation’s employees. Apparently, the answer to "why did the chicken cross the road" is to get to the Pentagon?! This chicken was caught sneaking around the security area at the Pentagon (we're not kidding) and our officers picked her up. Now we need a name for her - suggestions welcomed! pic.twitter.com/6RmMSjNKnU — AWLArlington, VA (@AWLAArlington) January 31, 2022 × In an email, Chelsea Jones, spokesperson for the organisation, said that she can’t reveal the location where the bird was spotted. Also Read | Top pics: How US raided ISIS leader's compound in northern Syria “We are not allowed to disclose exactly where she was found. We can only say it was at a security checkpoint,” Jones said. Our officers have chosen the name Henny Penny for our #pentagonchicken, and she will be going to live at a local animal sanctuary very soon! https://t.co/qQ7kfYkocM pic.twitter.com/31gugYE4tR — AWLArlington, VA (@AWLAArlington) February 1, 2022 × It’s still unclear where the Rhode Island red chicken came from or how it got to the Pentagon. The bird was “sweet” and “nervous”, Jones described. (With inputs from agencies)

Security breach reported near Pentagon in US. But no need to worry  

The leader of the Islamic state has been killed in a counter-terror operation carried out by the United States in north-western Syria. The US president Joe Biden gave the green light to the operations on Wednesday.

US conducts counter-terrorism mission, ISIS leader blew himself up during raids

ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was taken out by the Americans during a raid in Northwestern Syria. Will the operation contain the Islamic State's resurgence in Syria? Molly Gambhir tells you.

Gravitas: ISIS leader killed in US operation in Syria

Joe Biden is deploying 3,000 soldiers to Europe as Russia prepares for a massive military drill with Belarus. Will Putin use the drills to mount an invasion? Is the window for diplomacy shrinking? Molly Gambhir tells you.

Gravitas: US deploys 3,000 soldiers to Europe

The Winter storm has wreaked havoc in central & northeastern United States as one person has been killed in Alabama. Over 100 million people are living under a warning.

Winter storm wreaks havoc in central & northeastern US as one killed in Alabama

US President Joe Biden visited the NYPD to address his administration’s strategy to confront the surge in crime and gun violence.

US President Joe Biden visits NYPD to address surge in gun crimes

The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi blew himself and his family members up during a US military raid in Syria.

US: Blast killed ISIS leader, members of his family

By the numbers, 2021 was a boom year for the U.S. economy. Back in 2020, many forecasters expected a sluggish recovery, with unemployment staying high for years. Instead, unemployment has already come down almost to pre-pandemic levels, and a record percentage of Americans say that this is a good time to find a quality job.

It’s true that inflation has eroded the purchasing power of wages, but new estimates indicate that despite this, real income has gone up for most adults.

Oh, and while the spread of omicron may cause a bad month or two for jobs, rapidly falling cases in New York and elsewhere suggest that the good economic news will resume soon.

Yet consumer sentiment has plunged: Americans’ assessments of the economy are worse now, on average, than they were in the early months of the pandemic recession. Why?

Regular readers know that I’ve been speculating about this issue for some time, wondering in particular why people say that the economy is bad even when they’re fairly upbeat about their personal finances. At this point, however, I think I’m closing in on an answer.

Poor assessments of the economy, I’d now argue, mainly reflect two things. First is a long-standing issue: People react more negatively to inflation than textbook economics would have predicted. Second is extreme partisanship, fed by right-wing media.

About inflation: Consider two imaginary economies. In one, the typical family’s income rises 2% a year, but consumer prices are rising at the same rate. In the other, inflation is running at 6%, but family incomes are rising 7% a year. Which economy is better?

Economists would, I’m pretty sure, overwhelmingly vote for Economy No. 2, in which real incomes are going up. But the public might disagree: People are bothered by inflation, even when their own incomes are more than keeping up. Maybe that’s because inflation conveys a sense that things are out of control.

Whatever the psychology involved, inflation aversion is simply a fact of life. It was a Democratic economist, Arthur Okun, who first suggested evaluating the economic situation using the “misery index,” the sum of unemployment and inflation. As an economic concept, this index doesn’t make much sense: The costs of unemployment are huge and real, while the costs of inflation are subtle and surprisingly elusive. But the misery index works pretty well as a predictor of economic sentiment.

And since U.S. inflation has risen a lot over the past year, it’s not surprising that economic sentiment has declined despite falling unemployment.

But my analysis of the data says that economic sentiment is considerably worse than you’d expect even given inflation; the Times’ Nate Cohn, using a more elaborate model, finds the same thing. What’s that about?

The dispiriting persistence of COVID is one possible answer. But let’s not ignore the elephant — and I do mean elephant — in the room: extreme right-wing partisanship.

These days, partisanship shapes almost everything in America. For example, you can’t talk sensibly about lagging rates of COVID vaccination without acknowledging that Republicans are four times as likely as Democrats to be unvaccinated. And the partisan gap in perceptions of the economy has exploded in recent years.

Let’s not bothsides this. Yes, Democrats may have been reluctant to acknowledge good economic news under Donald Trump. But right-wing negativity right now is absurd, with Republicans assessing the current economy as worse than the economy in June 1980, when unemployment was almost twice as high and the inflation rate was 14%. My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that this craziness might explain a large part of the shortfall in consumer sentiment.

But where’s the craziness coming from? Even mainstream media have accentuated the negative; one liberal think tank analysis found that CNN and MSNBC devoted 50% more screen time in November to inflation than to all other economic developments combined.

But Fox News has devoted almost three times as much screen time to inflation as CNN over the past two years, while, among other things, illustrating its reports with photos of empty shelves taken in other countries and other years. No wonder the GOP base says that the economy is in terrible shape.

What does this say about the future, in particular the political future? If and when inflation comes down, as forecasters, the bond market and even consumers expect it to do eventually, overall consumer sentiment should start to reflect the economy’s real strength. But as we’ve seen, a substantial part of the electorate has economic perceptions quite far from reality; even if things improve, they probably won’t hear about the good news or will be regaled with other negative stories.

So Democrats will need more than an improving economy to survive the midterms. They’ll need to get receptive voters to perceive that improvement and then get enough of those voters to the polls to match the sizable minority determined to believe that Joe Biden’s America is a Mad Max-type wasteland.

By the numbers, 2021 was a boom year for the U.S. economy. Back in 2020, many forecasters expected a sluggish recovery, with unemployment staying high for years.

By the numbers, 2021 was a boom year for the U.S. economy. Back in 2020, many forecasters expected a sluggish recovery, with unemployment staying high for years. Instead, unemployment has already come down almost to pre-pandemic levels, and a record percentage of Americans say that this is a good time to find a quality job. It’s true that inflation has eroded the purchasing power of wages, but new estimates indicate that despite this, real income has gone up for most adults. Oh, and while the spread of omicron may cause a bad month or two for jobs, rapidly falling cases in New York and elsewhere suggest that the good economic news will resume soon. Yet consumer sentiment has plunged: Americans’ assessments of the economy are worse now, on average, than they were in the early months of the pandemic recession. Why? Regular readers know that I’ve been speculating about this issue for some time, wondering in particular why people say that the economy is bad even when they’re fairly upbeat about their personal finances. At this point, however, I think I’m closing in on an answer. Poor assessments of the economy, I’d now argue, mainly reflect two things. First is a long-standing issue: People react more negatively to inflation than textbook economics would have predicted. Second is extreme partisanship, fed by right-wing media. About inflation: Consider two imaginary economies. In one, the typical family’s income rises 2% a year, but consumer prices are rising at the same rate. In the other, inflation is running at 6%, but family incomes are rising 7% a year. Which economy is better? Economists would, I’m pretty sure, overwhelmingly vote for Economy No. 2, in which real incomes are going up. But the public might disagree: People are bothered by inflation, even when their own incomes are more than keeping up. Maybe that’s because inflation conveys a sense that things are out of control. Whatever the psychology involved, inflation aversion is simply a fact of life. It was a Democratic economist, Arthur Okun, who first suggested evaluating the economic situation using the “misery index,” the sum of unemployment and inflation. As an economic concept, this index doesn’t make much sense: The costs of unemployment are huge and real, while the costs of inflation are subtle and surprisingly elusive. But the misery index works pretty well as a predictor of economic sentiment. And since U.S. inflation has risen a lot over the past year, it’s not surprising that economic sentiment has declined despite falling unemployment. But my analysis of the data says that economic sentiment is considerably worse than you’d expect even given inflation; the Times’ Nate Cohn, using a more elaborate model, finds the same thing. What’s that about? The dispiriting persistence of COVID is one possible answer. But let’s not ignore the elephant — and I do mean elephant — in the room: extreme right-wing partisanship. These days, partisanship shapes almost everything in America. For example, you can’t talk sensibly about lagging rates of COVID vaccination without acknowledging that Republicans are four times as likely as Democrats to be unvaccinated. And the partisan gap in perceptions of the economy has exploded in recent years. Let’s not bothsides this. Yes, Democrats may have been reluctant to acknowledge good economic news under Donald Trump. But right-wing negativity right now is absurd, with Republicans assessing the current economy as worse than the economy in June 1980, when unemployment was almost twice as high and the inflation rate was 14%. My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that this craziness might explain a large part of the shortfall in consumer sentiment. But where’s the craziness coming from? Even mainstream media have accentuated the negative; one liberal think tank analysis found that CNN and MSNBC devoted 50% more screen time in November to inflation than to all other economic developments combined. But Fox News has devoted almost three times as much screen time to inflation as CNN over the past two years, while, among other things, illustrating its reports with photos of empty shelves taken in other countries and other years. No wonder the GOP base says that the economy is in terrible shape. What does this say about the future, in particular the political future? If and when inflation comes down, as forecasters, the bond market and even consumers expect it to do eventually, overall consumer sentiment should start to reflect the economy’s real strength. But as we’ve seen, a substantial part of the electorate has economic perceptions quite far from reality; even if things improve, they probably won’t hear about the good news or will be regaled with other negative stories. So Democrats will need more than an improving economy to survive the midterms. They’ll need to get receptive voters to perceive that improvement and then get enough of those voters to the polls to match the sizable minority determined to believe that Joe Biden’s America is a Mad Max-type wasteland.

Opinion: More thoughts on America’s feel-bad boom

The United States has announced having evidence of a Russian plan to fake Ukrainian attack and claimed that the plan will help Moscow justify the invasion to its neighbours.

US claims Russia could use a propaganda video as pretext to invade Ukraine

Indian officials have held a heated exchange with the US tech giants Google, Twitter and Facebook for not proactively removing fake news from their platforms.

India grills US tech giants for inaction on Fake News, seeks tougher crackdown

The United States has decided to dispatch guided-missile destroyer and state-of-the-art fighter jets to help the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fight against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

In a phone call on Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Abu bin Zayed Al Nahyan that the Pentagon would send “guided-missile destroyer USS Cole to partner with the UAE Navy before making a port call in Abu Dhabi”, the US embassy in the UAE said.

Austin also told the crown prince that Washington would deploy fifth-generation fighter aircraft – a classification that includes US-made F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lighting II combat jets – to the UAE to “assist against the current threat”, according to a readout of the conversation released by the Pentagon.

Among other aid includes “continuing to provide early warning intelligence”, it added.

The military support to the UAE is expected to ward off threats by the Houthis, who launched a third missile attack in consecutive weeks on Monday.

The UAE, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition, has been fighting Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. In January, the gulf&nbsp;country had to face a series of missile attacks by the rebels.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uae-intercepts-ballistic-missile-fired-by-yemens-houthi-rebels-449086">UAE intercepts ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels</a>

On January 17, three foreign workers were killed in a drone-and-missile assault targeting Abu Dhabi's oil facilities and airport.

A week later on January 24, the US forces stationed at Abu Dhabi's Al Dhafra air base fired Patriot interceptors and scrambled to bunkers as two ballistic missiles were shot down over the city.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/israel-president-expresses-support-for-uaes-security-needs-during-his-visit-449057" hreflang="en">Israel president expresses support for UAE's security needs during his visit</a>

And on Monday, a third missile attack was thwarted during the visit to the UAE of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The fight between Saudis and Houthis began following a civil war in Yemen in 2014.

The Houthis seized capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

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(With inputs from agencies)

The United States has decided to dispatch guided-missile destroyer and state-of-the-art fighter jets to help the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fight against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The United States has decided to dispatch guided-missile destroyer and state-of-the-art fighter jets to help the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fight against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. In a phone call on Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Abu bin Zayed Al Nahyan that the Pentagon would send “guided-missile destroyer USS Cole to partner with the UAE Navy before making a port call in Abu Dhabi”, the US embassy in the UAE said. Austin also told the crown prince that Washington would deploy fifth-generation fighter aircraft – a classification that includes US-made F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lighting II combat jets – to the UAE to “assist against the current threat”, according to a readout of the conversation released by the Pentagon. Among other aid includes “continuing to provide early warning intelligence”, it added. The military support to the UAE is expected to ward off threats by the Houthis, who launched a third missile attack in consecutive weeks on Monday. The UAE, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition, has been fighting Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. In January, the gulf country had to face a series of missile attacks by the rebels. Also read | UAE intercepts ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels On January 17, three foreign workers were killed in a drone-and-missile assault targeting Abu Dhabi's oil facilities and airport. A week later on January 24, the US forces stationed at Abu Dhabi's Al Dhafra air base fired Patriot interceptors and scrambled to bunkers as two ballistic missiles were shot down over the city. Also read | Israel president expresses support for UAE's security needs during his visit And on Monday, a third missile attack was thwarted during the visit to the UAE of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The fight between Saudis and Houthis began following a civil war in Yemen in 2014. The Houthis seized capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year. × (With inputs from agencies)

US sends missile destroyers, fighter jets to UAE to ward off Houthi attacks

ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi killed as US forces conduct raid in Syria in a counter-terrorism mission. Reports say the ISIS leader blew himself during the raid.

Top Islamic State leader killed in US special forces raid in Syria

US President Joe Biden says an elite US military force killed the leader of the Islamic State group, during an overnight raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

Current leader of ISIS killed in US raid in Syria, says Joe Biden

The Joe Biden administration is sending a warship to the UAE to help the sheikhdom fight the Houthis. A year back, U.S. had withdrawn itself from the conflict & delisted the Houthi movement as a terror group. Palki Sharma tells you how President Biden is breaking his own promises.

Gravitas: UAE vs HOUTHIS: US to deploy warship

U.S. has deployed troops to Eastern Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on the Ukraine crisis. Neither Russia, nor the West is ready to blink yet. Where is this stalemate headed? Listen in to Palki Sharma.

Gravitas: US deploys troops to Eastern Europe, Putin breaks his silence

US special forces carried out a counter-terrorism mission in Syria on Thursday. The Pentagon said that the raid, carried out in northwest Syria was successful. Syrian sources were quoted by Reuters to say that the raid was aimed at an Al Queada-linked jihadist.

At least 13 people, including six children and four women were killed in the clashes, said Syrian rescue workers. The raid targetted a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border

"US&nbsp;Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

"There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available."

He did not identify the target.

A number of jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major bastion of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the decade-long Syrian war. Leaders of the Islamic State group have also hidden out in the area.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/more-than-3000-personnel-face-getting-discharged-as-us-army-tightens-vaccine-mandate-rules-449993">More than 3000 personnel face getting discharged as US Army tightens vaccine mandate rules</a>

Several rebel sources said they were almost certain the target was a leading jihadist, but could not be sure who.

Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. U.S. forces used loud speakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said.

A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies of two apparently lifeless children and a man in the rubble of a building at the location.

A witness who lives nearby said he saw several bodies at the scene. "There was blood everywhere," he told Reuters. He added that one of the U.S. helicopters appeared to suffer a mechanical failure and was blown up by the U.S. forces.

A rebel official who declined to be named said the jihadist who was the apparent target of the raid was with his family at the time.

Witnesses said the raid ended with aircraft, believed to be helicopters, leaving the site but unidentified reconnaissance planes were still hovering in the area.

(With inputs from agencies)

US special forces carried out a counter-terrorism mission in Syria on Thursday. The Pentagon said that the raid, carried out in northwest Syria was successful. Syrian sources were quoted by Reuters to say that the raid was aimed at an Al Queada-linked jihadist.

US special forces carried out a counter-terrorism mission in Syria on Thursday. The Pentagon said that the raid, carried out in northwest Syria was successful. Syrian sources were quoted by Reuters to say that the raid was aimed at an Al Queada-linked jihadist. At least 13 people, including six children and four women were killed in the clashes, said Syrian rescue workers. The raid targetted a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border "US Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counter-terrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement. "There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available." He did not identify the target. A number of jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda operate in northwestern Syria, the last major bastion of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the decade-long Syrian war. Leaders of the Islamic State group have also hidden out in the area. Also Read | More than 3000 personnel face getting discharged as US Army tightens vaccine mandate rules Several rebel sources said they were almost certain the target was a leading jihadist, but could not be sure who. Residents said helicopters landed and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the raid that began around midnight. U.S. forces used loud speakers to warn women and children to leave the area, they said. A video taken by a resident and seen by Reuters showed the bodies of two apparently lifeless children and a man in the rubble of a building at the location. A witness who lives nearby said he saw several bodies at the scene. "There was blood everywhere," he told Reuters. He added that one of the U.S. helicopters appeared to suffer a mechanical failure and was blown up by the U.S. forces. A rebel official who declined to be named said the jihadist who was the apparent target of the raid was with his family at the time. Witnesses said the raid ended with aircraft, believed to be helicopters, leaving the site but unidentified reconnaissance planes were still hovering in the area. (With inputs from agencies)

US forces target Al-Qaeda jihadist in Syria raid, civillians killed in clashes

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