Live
- BJP is a ‘pucca local party’: Kishan
- Voters find Candidates persona non-grata in chevella
- Tirupati: Sanskrit is language of divinity says Jagdeep Dhankhar
- Visakhapatnam: INS Sahyadri participated in the maritime partnership exercise
- Scorching heat fails to deter netas from revving up poll drive in Hyd
- Guntur: Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad resigns from YSRCP, joins TDP
- What they want: Women voters pitch for jobs, gender equality in Hyd’bad
- Vijayawada: Lanka Dinakar alleges norms’ violation in Axis Energy projects
- Nominations of 158 candidates found valid in Prakasam dist
- Anantapur: These will be last democratic polls if Modi returns, warns CPI
US approves Syria air surveillance
US approves Syria air surveillance, The U.S. has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the OK, U.S. officials said, a move that could pave the way for airstrikes against Islamic State militant targets there.
- America has already begun the surveillance, says a US official
- ‘US wants more clarity on the militants in Syria’
Kabul: The U.S. has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the OK, U.S. officials said, a move that could pave the way for airstrikes against Islamic State militant targets there.
While the White House says Obama has not approved military action inside Syria, additional intelligence on the militants would likely be necessary before he could take that step. Pentagon officials have been drafting potential options for the president, including airstrikes.
One official said the administration has a need for reliable intelligence from Syria and called the surveillance flights an important avenue for obtaining data.
Two U.S. officials said on Monday that Obama had approved the flights, while another U.S. official said early on Tuesday that they had begun. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter by name, and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday that the U.S. wants more clarity on the militants in Syria, but declined to comment on the surveillance flights.
"Clearly the picture we have of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture," said Dempsey, using one of the acronyms for the Islamic State group. "The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side, we have ... some insights into that but we certainly want to have more insights into that as we craft a way forward."
In Baghdad, A car bomb ripped through a crowded Baghdad intersection during morning rush hour today, killing 15 people and wounding at least 37, security and medical officials said.
Third American hostage held by ISIS is woman aid worker
Washington: Family members and U.S. officials say the Islamic State militant group has been holding a young American woman hostage in Syria since last year.
The woman had been working for several humanitarian aid groups when she was kidnapped. The U.S. government and the woman's family requested Tuesday that she not be named for fears of her safety. The administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. The woman is one of at least three known hostages of Islamic State militants in Syria.
