Is Putin the HOPE?

Why arm cannibal rebels in Syria, Putin asks

Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Alexei Anishchuk

SMH

June 17, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the US decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh.

"One does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras," Mr Putin said.

Olympic Terror: Russia Arrests 5 Jihadis — Bomb, Grenades, Ammo Seized

Last week, Muslim supremacists bombed the heavily trafficked railway station in Stalingrad (Volgograd), followed by a homicide bus bombing in the same town. Two days ago, Olympic terror fears struck Russia again, as six bodies with gunshot wounds were found in bomb-rigged cars.READ 

"Are these the people you want to support? Are they the ones you want to supply with weapons? Then this probably has little relation to the humanitarian values preached in Europe for hundreds of years."

No problem: Russia's President Vladimir Putin has denied Russia descriminates against homosexuals.

The incident Putin referred to was most likely that of a rebel commander filmed last month cutting into the torso of a dead soldier and biting into a piece of one of his 

organs.

After months of deliberations, Washington decided last week to send weapons to the rebels, declaring that Dr Assad's forces had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas.

The move throws the superpower's weight behind the revolt and signals a potential turning point in global involvement in a two-year-old war that has already killed at least 93,000 people.

Still image of video of Khaled al-Hamad cutting heart and organs out of dead Syrian soldier.

It has also infuriated Russia, Cold War-era ally of Syria, which has sold arms to Dr Assad and used its veto at the UN Security Council to block resolutions against him.

Russia has dismissed the US evidence that Dr Assad's forces used nerve gas. The White House says President Barack Obama will try to lobby Mr Putin to drop his support for Dr Assad during this week's G8 summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

After meeting Mr Cameron in London, Mr Putin said Russia wanted to create the conditions for a resolution of the conflict.

Both sides have been accused of atrocities in the conflict. The United States and other countries that aid the rebels say one of the reasons for doing so is to support mainstream opposition groups and reduce the influence of extremists.

"Palestinean" Muslims seen above gorging themselves on the entrails and organs of butchered Israeli soldiers in order to attain the strength of their victims In traditional Bedouin Arab culture, the ultimate act of revenge in a blood feud involves the male members of the family ritually consuming the raw heart(s) and liver(s) of their enemy(s),after hacking the rest of the body to bits.

In Syria, rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Dr Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month.

Australian Based Muslim Jihadi's Amira Karroum and Yusuf Ali Killed in Syria.... NEXT!!!!

Pious Muslim Sociopath Amira Karroum "F … the police! Smash all the cop cars.''

The US plan to arm the rebels also places new doubt over plans for an international peace conference called by Washington and Moscow, their first joint attempt in a year to try to seek a settlement.

After meeting Mr Putin, Britain's Mr Cameron said the divide between Russia and the West over Syria could be bridged, although they disagreed about who was at fault.

"What I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome these differences if we recognise that we share some fundamental aims: to end the conflict, to stop Syria breaking apart, to let the Syrian people decide who governs them and to take the fight to the extremists and defeat them."

Britain has not said whether it too will arm the rebels, but the issue is contentious even within Mr Cameron's Conservative-led government. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister from his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, said: "We clearly don't think it's the right thing to do now, or else we would have done it."

Under its new posture, Washington has also said it will keep warplanes and Patriot surface-to-air missiles in Jordan, an ally whose territory it can use to help arm and train rebel fighters. Washington has 4500 troops in Jordan carrying out exercises.

Washington has not ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, perhaps near the Jordanian border, although it has taken no decision yet to do so.

Jordan's King Abdullah rallied his own armed forces on Sunday, telling military cadets: "If the world does not help as it should, and if the matter becomes a danger to our country, we are able at any moment to take the measures to protect the country and the interests of our people."

Washington hopes its backing will restore rebel momentum after Dr Assad's forces seized the initiative by gaining the open support of Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, which sent thousands of seasoned fighters to aid Dr Assad.

Just a few months ago, Western countries believed Dr Assad's days were numbered. But with Hezbollah's support he was able to achieve a major victory this month in Qusair, a strategically located rebel-held town on a main route from Lebanon.

Since then, the government has announced major plans to seize the north, including Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and commercial centre, largely rebel-held for nearly a year. The United Nations says it fears for a bloodbath in the north.

Rebels say they are fighting back against government offensives in the north. An opposition operations room in northern Aleppo said fighters had destroyed an army tank and killed 20 troops at Marat al-Arteek, a town where opposition sources say rebels are holding back an armoured column sent to reinforce loyalists from isolated Shi'ite villages.

"Assad's forces and Hezbollah are trying to control northern rural Aleppo but they are being repelled and dealt heavy losses," Colonel Abdeljabbar al-Okeidi, a Free Syrian Army commander in Aleppo, told al-Arabiya Television.

He said Hezbollah had sent up to 2000 fighters to Aleppo and the surrounding areas, but expressed confidence the opposition would prevail.

"Aleppo and Qusair are different. In Qusair we were surrounded by villages that had been occupied by Hezbollah and by loyalist areas. We did not even have a place to take our wounded. In Aleppo, we have a strategic depth and logistical support and we are better organised," he said. "Aleppo will turn into the grave of these Hezbollah devils."

Battles were also fought inside Aleppo itself, where thousands of loyalist troops and militiamen reinforced by Hezbollah have been massing and attacking opposition-held parts of the city, driving rebel fighters back.

Opposition activists said the army was also airlifting troops behind rebel lines to Ifrin, in a Kurdish area, which would give access for a bigger sweep inside the city.

"For a week, the rebel forces have been generally on the retreat in Aleppo, but the tide has started turning in the last two days," said Abu Abdallah, an activist in the area.

Hezbollah's support for Assad, a follower of the minority Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels has increased fears of sectarian violence spreading into neighbouring countries.

In Lebanon, security sources said gunmen had shot dead four Shi'ite Muslim men in an ambush in the Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian frontier. It was not clear who was behind the shooting.

Lebanon is still rebuilding from its own sectarian civil war, fought from 1975-1990. Fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites was also behind most of the violence in Iraq in the decade after the U.S. invasion of 2003.

MORE

Game finally up for Union GetUp financed Labor Green Loons "Anthropogenic Global Warming" SCAM

Game finally up for carboncrats

Tom Switzer
SMH
January 14, 2014

It was promoted as the voyage to study the melting of ice sheets in the South Pole as well as to retrace Douglas Mawson's perilous expedition a century ago.

Yet the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, led by UNSW climatologist Chris Turney, has become a comedy goldmine.

The climate-change Cassandras are increasingly marginalised here and abroad 

In case you missed the story during your Christmas break, the researchers became trapped in ice so thick that Chinese rescue attempts could not reach the frozen ship. 

"It fell to Professor Turney's ship to play the role of our generation's Titanic," Canadian satirist Mark Steyn noted. "Unlike the original, this time round the chaps in the first-class staterooms were rooting for the iceberg."

And Parish-based writer Anne Jolis quipped: "Maybe the climate-change *researchers even raised a glass, if they had any liquor left. They certainly had enough ice."

Humour aside, events such as this indicate dark days for green enthusiasts.

Tony Abbott's likely repeal of the unpopular carbon tax this year reflects a global trend: the anti-carbon agenda is being subjected to the most intense scrutiny, and is found wanting.

The Kyoto treaty effectively expired a year ago. Prospects for a replacement are virtually zero. Rich nations are rejecting climate compensation for the developing world. Europe is in a coal frenzy. Germany, a former green trend-setter, is slashing unaffordable subsidies to the renewables industry. The European Parliament is losing confidence in the EU emissions trading scheme. No Asian nation has an emission trading scheme in operation. China's and India's net emissions are growing dramatically and governments, most recently Japan's, are abandoning earlier pledges to reduce their nations' carbon footprints. Even US Democrats, notwithstanding President Obama's direct action-style energy plan, won't pass modest carbon-pricing bills in the Congress. Add to this those debunked predictions (remember the vanishing Himalayan glaciers, disappearing North Polar ice cap?), and it is clear that Tim Flannery's moment has come and gone.

Meanwhile, 2013 marked the 15th year of flat-lined global surface temperatures, despite record levels of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere since 1998. And as the US shale "fracking" revolution shows, the most efficient way to cut emissions is not via command-and-control regulation but by allowing private drillers to expand natural gas production.

Of course, the environmental doomsayers remain apocalyptic. You try going on the ABC's Q&A and raise doubts about global-warming alarmism. You will still see the inner-city studio audience treating you not merely with hostility but with open-mouthed incredulity.

The climate-change Cassandras are increasingly marginalised here and abroad.

When they abuse, intimidate and victimise anyone with the temerity to criticise the fanaticism of their movement, the inclination of ordinary Australians is either to shrug their shoulders with a profound lack of interest or to grimace at this moral grandstanding.

Historians will probably look back at the years 2006-09 as the time when the climate hysteria reached its peak in Australia, when rational debate was at its most restricted and politicians at their most gullible.

These were the days of drought, unseasonal bushfires, An Inconvenient Truth, the Garnaut Report and, of course, Kevin Rudd's "greatest moral challenge".

Crikey, even Rupert Murdoch was "giving the planet the benefit of doubt".

Contrary to media stereotypes, many so-called sceptics - such as Abbott, John Howard, Maurice Newman and this writer - recognised that the rise in carbon dioxide as a result of the burning of fossil fuels led to moderate warming.

But because we questioned the doomsday scenarios and radical, costly government-directed plans to decarbonise the economy, we were denounced as "deniers".

Those days are over.

Thanks to Abbott's forceful critique of Labor's ETS/carbon tax, and the persistent failure of the carboncrats to reach legally binding global agreements, Australians have risen up against this madness.

At last, there is recognition not just that there are at least two sides to every story, but that when sophisticates seek to shut down debate, it amounts to an attack on the public interest.

That is why the anti-carbon zealots have become so defensive. The game is up.

The idea of climate mitigation - carbon taxes, cap and trade, channelling taxpayer subsidies to wind and solar power - destroyed the leaderships not only of Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 and Rudd in 2010, but also of Julia Gillard and Rudd (again) last year.

And although the Coalition's approval ratings have declined since the election, polls also show that opposition to the carbon tax remains high.

Last year's Lowy Institute survey said that only 40 per cent (down from nearly 70 per cent in 2006) think climate change is serious and requires action.

And yet, despite this changing (political) climate, Opposition leader Bill Shorten still opposes the repeal of the carbon tax.

If Labor's divorce from the Greens is genuine, he should support the PM's legislation, lest he meet the same fate as his fellow deniers and become a laughing stock.

Tom Switzer is editor of The Spectator Australia. Peter Hartcher is on leave.

Two Little Girls victims of "Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance" Paedophile in public toilets as parents sat near by

No news of this Perp so far,publicly at least.

I hope that does not mean he has invoked the "Thighing" defence at the local Mosque and has been dealt a get out of jail card by the local Muslim "Holy Man" If he is indeed a man of "Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance"as per the eye witness descriptions. 

Young girls indecently assaulted in a Sydney park toilet

Ben McClellan
The Daily Telegraph
Jamuary 9, 2014

TWO girls aged two and six have been indecently assaulted by a man in a toilet in a western Sydney park, police say.



A major police search is under way for a man who approached the girls while they sat on a bench at Campbell Hill Reserve Pioneer Reserve on Campbell Hill Road in Guildford at 12.30pm.

The man, described as being of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance, approximately 165cm tall and with a chubby build, coaxed the girls into a toilet block and sexually assaulted them.

Rosehill police, the dog squad and a police helicopter are searching the park and the surrounding area.

The girls, believed to be sisters, have been treated by paramedics and taken to hospital.

Police have sealed off the entrance to the park and forensic officers have been examining the women's toilet block just 10 metres from the road and right next to the reserve's entrance.

A large group of shocked residents have gathered outside the popular park with a shaded playground and several covered eating areas.

Maysa said she knew the Lebanese-Australian family the girls were from.

"It's shocking, I'm speechless I dont know what to say. It's disgusting, there's no words to describe how I feel, especially how the family feels," she said.

"I was here last weekend it's a lovely area, we have never had any dramas here, it's a family area. You need to park at the end of the street Sundays it's so popular. This is the first time this has happened in the area."

The mother said she could only empathise with the girls' family.

"I have a girl who is very young and I just can't imagine this happening to her. I just say to the family 'God be with you'," Maysa said.


"They must be devastated. You don't know what to say it's shocking, disgusting, he should be burnt, dead, no little kid, no family deserves this."

Massive hunt for Sydney sex fiend who assaulted little sisters

Ben McClellan
The Daily Telegraph
January 11,2014

 POLICE fear the man who carried out a horrific assault on two little sisters in a toilet block could be a serious predator who may be a convicted sex offender.


The family of the girls, aged two and six, have been playing down the attack among the close-knit Lebanese-Australian community to protect the girls' "honour" and to not bring "shame" upon them. WTF?

But Child Abuse Squad head Peter Yeomans said one of their lines of inquiry was that the man was a convicted sex offender.
Campbell Hill Pioneer Reserve, where the family, including parents, grandparents and cousins, was having a picnic on Thursday, remained shut yesterday with the toilet block locked as forensic officers searched the area.

As detectives with Strike Force Sandyman went through hours of CCTV footage from local businesses and homes and interviewed witnesses, they were also following up with a woman who said she saw a suspicious man leave the same toilet block last October.

One of the girls' aunts said it had torn the family apart.
"They are beautiful, happy, bubbly little girls, never whingeing, always smiling," she said.

"I couldn't imagine what their parents are going through.

"When I heard about it, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I was horrified."

A cousin said the attack was a sensitive issue for the Lebanese-Australian community.

"We've got a big family here. (It's) definitely terrible. Arabs in general are very protective of our kids, especially our girls," he said.

The girls, who had walked off together to use the toilets just 100m away from their family at 1.30pm, were yesterday receiving counselling at The Children's Hospital Westmead.

"The little six-year-old is still very upset by what has occurred," Supt Yeomans said.

He said they were followed into the toilet block by the man, who then sexually assaulted the older girl and indecently assaulted the younger girl.
The girls have told detectives they were in the toilet for "a considerable amount of time".

"But, bear in mind, children's conception of time is quite different to that of an adult's," Supt Yeomans said, adding that the girls' parents, who also have a son, didn't deserve any blame.

"They're very good parents. It's the middle of the day, it's school holiday time, there are plenty of people around," he said.

"It's a harrowing experience for the family. They are very deeply stressed by what has occurred to them and to their children."

Police have described the man as having black hair, an average to thin build and wearing a black jacket with a white stripe down the side, and blue shorts.

Muslim Sociopath,Sergeant Hekmatullah proud of killing three Australian soldiers in Afghan "insider attack"

Disgraced sergeant Hekmatullah shows no remorse for killing of Australian Diggers

Jeremy Kelly in Kabul
Daily Telegraph

January 12,2014

AN AFGHAN soldier on death row for shooting dead three Australian soldiers is unrepentant, saying he should be rewarded and would do it again if released.

Disgraced sergeant Hekmatullah said he became maniacal after an Afghan colleague on the base he was stationed shared with him a mobile phone clip that showed a report about US soldiers burning Korans in Afghanistan.

"There were some real nasty thoughts that I had in my head," he told News Corp Australia in an interview inside Kabul's Pol-e Charkhi prison.

"I saw that video and went crazy."

ARMY FAILED DIGGERS IN AFGHANISTAN: REPORT

HOW SUPER-SPIES TRACKED DOWN HEKAMTULLAH

It is the first time the 19-year-old has spoken publicly and provides a rare insight into the motives of an Afghan security forces member who has turned their gun against a foreign mentor.

Asked what we would like to say to the families of the soldiers he killed, Hekmatullah shrugged nonchalantly before he said: "I want them to forgive me so then I will be released."
When told that appeared unlikely, he replied: "Then don't forgive me. I would do it again if they burned more Korans."

PRIVATE POATE BECOMES PART OF ANZAC LEGEND

SAPPER JAMES MARTIN 'A LOVING SON'

At least 140 Coalition troops, including seven Australians, have been killed in 85 so-called insider attacks, according to the Long War Journal, yet the perpetrators either are killed on the spot or trying to evade capture, or have successfully fled.

Hekmatullah is one of only two known offenders who it is publicly known has been caught and brought before the courts.

Extradited to Kabul in October, after spending about six months on the run in the Pakistan city of Quetta and a further eight months in the custody of that country's spy agency,
Hekmatullah was sentenced to death in December during a secret court hearing.

He admitted to murdering Lance Corporal Stjepan (Rick) Milosevic, 40, Sapper James Martin, 21, and Private Robert Poate, 23 and was convicted also of grievous bodily harm to two other Australians, treason and involvement with a terrorist organisation.

SOLEMN FAREWELL FOR FALLEN SOLDIERS

The Australians were shot while they were relaxing or playing cards in a makeshift recreational area at Patrol Base Wahab, in Oruzgan province on the evening of August 29, 2012.

Hekmatullah's motive had remained unclear since the incident and remains in dispute with Afghan investigators believing he had previous ties to the Taliban

"We have a document that shows he was with the Taliban before this happened," said Brigadier-General Sayed Kamal Hashimi, head of prosecutions for the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security. He refused to provide details.
Handcuffed and sporting a patchy yet thick beard, in contrast to previous photos of him, Hekmatullah denied he was a Taliban infiltrator and spoke calmly about his short time in the Afghan army and his view on the foreign military presence.

"I had no problem with the Australians. I could have attacked them many times before. They came here to build schools and finish the Taliban but instead they burned Korans."

He was referring to a calamitous incident in February 2012, six months before the shooting, in which US troops started to torch more than 1600 religious texts, including an unknown number of Korans, after they were confiscated from inmates at the then US-run Bagram prison, north of Kabul.

The texts had been marked by inmates with extremist inscriptions but were mistakenly later sent to an incinerator on the base.

The incident led to five days of rioting in Afghanistan, in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded.

When a fellow Afghan soldier gave him via Bluetooth a Taliban propaganda clip, which referenced both the Koran-burning incident and European newspapers publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, he said he started to plot what he called revenge.

"I watched this movie at 3pm. My guard duty was at 9pm and I decided to wait until after then. At first I went to a guard tower and asked the soldier there to give me his machine gun because I said I wanted to shoot the foreigners. He refused so I went down and used my M-16."

He fired two bursts of between 10-15 rounds each before fleeing the base into an area of thick vegetation.
"I ran and ran through the jungle until the helicopters came (about 30 minutes later) but thought they will see me if I keep moving.

"I decided to climb a mulberry tree and stayed there through the night."

In the morning, he said he spotted a farmer and approached him explaining he was an ANA soldier who had shot some foreign troops.

"The farmer told me to wait and soon he returned with two men who said they were Taliban. They gave the farmer 15,000 Pakistani rupees ($160) and we left."

The men ferried him by motorbike to another village where he said he was later put in a 4x4 pick-up, secreted under the cabin's rear seat and was told he was being driven to Kandahar.

"We were stopped on the way at a checkpoint and I could hear people speaking in English. I was told later the foreigners were stopping cars and using their computers to check people's fingerprints."

The trio drove several hours to Kandahar where they stopped for tea before they switched vehicles and drove over the Pakistani border.

He said he was then taken to Quetta, where he said he got a job as a house-hand, earning about $75 a month, before Pakistani spies swooped about six months later.

"I think they caught me because I was using my phone to call my relatives," he said.

Taken to court, a defiant Hekmatullah told the judge: "We are Muslim and it's our duty to protect the Koran. If you were a Muslim, you would give me a prize not a penalty."

He said he asked the judge to release him so he could re-join the Afghan National Army.

Instead, the judge sentenced him to death.

Appearing at times uninterested in his plight, Hekmatullah said he was willing to die in defence of his religion.

"If I die on the way to Allah, then so be it. If someone wants me to hang, then I will hang."

His case will now go to an appeal court before it is finalised by the Supreme Court in a process that usually takes months.

Any execution has to be personally approved by the Afghan President.

"The Australian Government as a matter of policy is opposed to the death penalty and makes its views known to foreign governments, including the Afghanistan government, on a regular basis," said a Defence spokesperson.

"However it is important to note, Hekmatullah is an Afghan citizen being tried by Afghan authorities under Afghan law."

According to the spokesperson, victim impact statements from the families of the murdered Australian soldiers were provided to the Afghan authority to support the prosecution of charges against Hekmatullah.

But Defence were unaware of any requests of forgiveness made to the families.

Additional reporting: Bakhshi Bakhshi

Australian soldier, Captain Paul McKay,missing in up state New York in freezing conditions

Come on Aussies,pray for one of our very best,Captain Paul McKay and our American friends searching for him.


Dozens join search for missing Australian soldier in New York state

By North America correspondent Lisa Millar
ABC

About 40 volunteers and forest rangers have joined the search for a missing Canberra soldier in upstate New York.

Officials are growing increasingly worried about missing Australian, Captain Paul McKay.

They have been searching for a week-and-a-half and believe he may be in woods around Saranac Lake.

Temperatures have warmed to about seven degrees Celsius and authorities say the 31-year-old's military training and fitness will help him survive.

He was carrying a large backpack and US police believe that despite the freezing conditions he was headed for Lake Placid in the state's north.

Local media are reporting that Captain McKay arrived in the country on December 29.

Two earlier credible sightings were reported but police have had no further leads.

It is understood the Afghanistan veteran suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Local police chief Bruce Nason says Captain McKay's family in Australia received an email from him on the day he disappeared.

"The email that he sent to his father, he pretty much gave all property and possessions to his father, and there was some other information I'm not going to get into detail with, but it led us to believe that he didn't plan on returning," he said.

Mr Nason says extra volunteers and forest rangers have joined the search and no-one is giving up hope.

"We're getting calls daily with new information from the public," he said.

"The ground search is being conducted by the New York State Forest Rangers receiving assistance from the New York State Police and experienced volunteers.

"The wooded area where he was last seen, some areas it's really thick and it's difficult to get through."

Police say Captain McKay travelled to Saranac Lake on December 30 and stay overnight at the Best Western Inn before leaving the next day.

It is believed he left walking along the road towards Ray Brook, New York State.

Australian Based Muslim Jihadi's Amira Karroum and Yusuf Ali Killed in Syria.... NEXT!!!!

There is something very wrong with this story.

Aussie beauty killed in Syrian hell hole had a secret jihad life

Clementine Cuneo 
The Daily Telegraph
January 14,2014

CLAD in a black burqa, Sydney woman Amira Karroum bore no resemblance to the fresh-faced student from one of the country's most prestigious Anglican schools when she died in a bullet-ridden house in Syria last week.

The 22-year-old had left her western Sydney home just days before Christmas, telling her family she was heading to Denmark to holiday with friends and then do some humanitarian work.

'MY HEART WILL NEVER HEAL': A MOTHER'S GRIEF

MOVE TO SYDNEY CREATED A RADICAL

But on Saturday morning, Department of Foreign Affairs officials broke the news to Karroum's father Mohamad and mother Honor Deane their daughter and her Muslim husband, Yusuf Ali, had died in the war-torn country, the latest victims of the conflict that has been raging since 2011.

Gold Coast-based Mr Karroum, who runs a kebab shop in Broadwater, collapsed with a heart attack after hearing the devastating news.

Amira Karroum and her husband were killed inside a house near the city of Aleppo, ground zero of the war near the border with Turkey, last Thursday, possibly by members of the Free Syrian Army, which is fighting government troops and other factions of the rebel movement trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.


When she finished school five years ago, before moving to Granville in Sydney's western suburbs, ( aka. Sydney's Occupied Territories) Karroum showed no hint of being the radical Muslim she would become.

Her half-brother Karl Karroum said yesterday it was a mystery how she came to be in Syria.

"We had no idea she was going to Syria. She left Sydney about December 20, I think, andsaid she was going to Copenhagen for a holiday with friends and to do some humanitarian work," Mr Karroum said.

"How or why she ended up in Syria, we just don't know.

"I mean, her husband lives in Syria, so that's obviously why she went there, but we thought he was going to meet up with her in Copenhagen."

Karroum grew up on Queensland's Gold Coast, where she was educated at the prestigious St Hilda's school, graduating in 2008. She then enrolled to study graphic design at Queensland's University of Technology.

Karl Karroum said his half-sister was always a Muslim, despite her Anglican education.

"She was born a Muslim, so was her sister Rose. Their mum isn't Muslim, but our dad is," he said.

"She went to that school because it was the best education, and an all-girls' school ... it suited our faith."

He said Karroum did not wear a burqua or niqab, traditional Muslim dress for women, until a few years ago.

"She started wearing it once she studied her religion more as an adult ... she definitely wasn't a recent convert to Islam, that's not right," he said.

In mid-2012, Karroum moved to Granville, in Sydney's western suburbs,( aka. Sydney's Occupied Territories) where she met Ali, who is believed to be a Muslim convert originally from North America. They married in Sydney in April last year.

Ali left Granville and headed to Syria soon after the wedding, telling friends at a Granville mosque he was going to do humanitarian work. It is understood some worshippers at the mosque suspected he was planning to fight for a jihadist faction.

But Karl Karroum said he had no knowledge of Ali's involvement in the civil war in Syria.

"They are peaceful people," he said.

On Facebook, Ms Karroum's sister Rose asked for prayers in the dead pair's honour, claiming they had been "martyred".

"Please everyone make dua for my sister Amira Ali and brother Inlaw Yusuf. They have been martyred," she wrote.

"I miss u already. May Allah grant u and Yusuf the highest of heavens and be together always. Love u my beautiful sister Amira Ali."

Last night the grieving family was waiting for Mr Karroum Sr's blood pressure to drop before he could fly to Sydney and begin making plans to bring his daughter's body home.

"Dad's planning to come to Sydney once his blood pressure comes down, and then we can make funeral plans," Mr Karroum said.

"It's such an awful time. We really don't know what's happened ... we need to get to the bottom of a lot of things.''

DFAT said in a statement yesterday that Australians were "strongly advised" not to travel to Syria because of the "extremely serious security situation" in that country.

"Australia does not have an embassy or consulate in Syria,'' the DFAT statement said.

"The Australian government's capacity to deliver consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited.''

A young married couple from Sydney are thought to have been killed by the Free Syrian Army near Aleppo last week.


Service held for husband and wife, Yusuf and Amira Ali, thought to have died in Syria

ABC

A mosque in Sydney's west has held a service for two Australians believed to have been killed in Syria.

Yusuf Ali and his wife Amira are thought to have been killed by the Free Syrian Army near Aleppo last week.

It is understood the couple had lived on the Gold Coast in Queensland and Granville in Sydney's inner-west before moving to Syria.

Yusuf is believed to have moved to Syria a year ago, while his 22-year-old wife travelled there a month ago.

Shaykh Omar El Banna from the Masjid Noor Mosque in Granville says the couple indicated they were going to Syria to help the humanitarian effort.

"Maybe a year ago we heard that he had left to help with humanitarian aid there," he said.

"Of course, since then all news has been cut off. We didn't hear any more of that.

"His wife Amira followed up later when they secured accommodation."

But he says no-one in the community knows for certain what happened to the pair.

"The rumours that are coming now and the information coming - no-one really knows what's happening," he said.

"We're just hearing conflicting reports of how he died, who attacked.

"We really don't know what the intricate details of what happened.

"All that we know is that when he left he was going for aid."

DFAT still investigating reports of pair's deaths

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is still trying to confirm the deaths.

A DFAT spokeswoman said earlier that Australia does not have an embassy or consulate in Syria and the Government's capacity to deliver assistance in the country is limited.

A number of Australians have been directly involved in the Syrian conflict, causing concern for Australian officials.

If the deaths are confirmed, it would bring the number of Australians killed in the conflict to seven.

In December, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested two Sydney men, one of whom allegedly tried to leave Australia to go fight on the frontline in Syria.

The other man was accused of acting as a ringleader to recruit fighters for the Syrian conflict.

Increasing number of Australians joining hardline groups

Earlier last year a suspected Brisbane man was thought to have become Australia's first suicide bomber in the Syrian conflict.

The Syrian militias are happy to get new recruits, but want them to bring money for weapons and supplies, and there is evidence many would-be jihadists raise money in Australia before heading to Syria.

The AFP says from 2012 to 2013 there was a substantial increase in the number of Australians joining hardline groups.

Police believe in just a year the number has risen from a few to 20 or 30, possibly more.

The news comes as a monitor group said almost 700 people were killed in Syria in just eight days

 in early January.

Western Australian Man set on fire, WA Police hunt Five "Dark Skinned Men"

Police hunt gang who set WA man on fire

The Daily Telegraph
January 12,2014

POLICE in Perth are searching for a gang of men who set another man on fire during an argument, leaving him with burns to almost half his body and fighting for life in hospital.

The police station in Cannington, south-east of Perth, had to be closed on Sunday after the 20-year-old man from East Cannington collapsed there while seeking help.

WA police said he was shirtless when he arrived at the police station as he had taken it off as he put out the fire.

Investigators say they are searching for a gang of five men they believe are responsible for the man's injuries, which are mainly to his legs and stomach, with minor burns to his face.

The victim is in Royal Perth Hospital in a critical but stable condition.

Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Jamieson told reporters authorities believed the incident happened near Mallard Road and Hamilton Street between 4am and 4.30am.

Acting Det Sen Sgt Jamieson said the victim was out walking when he was approached by five dark-skinned males.

"During an altercation some form of accelerant is believed to have been poured or sprayed onto the victim and he was set alight," he said.

At the time of the incident the victim was wearing black jeans or shorts, white sneakers and a black singlet.

One of the offenders is described as aged between 18 and 25, about 175 centimetres tall, of slim build, wearing black-and-red basketball shorts and no shirt.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.