Flaming missile that can hit anywhere on Earth in an hour lights up the sky for hundreds of miles around

 

 

 

Pentagon's top-secret hypersonic weapon explodes in mystery Alaska fireball: Flaming missile that can hit anywhere on Earth in an hour lights up the sky for hundreds of miles around Rocket carrying an experimental Army strike weapon exploded early Monday after taking off from a launch pad in Alaska Kodiak photographer Scott Wight watched the launch from Cape Greville in Chiniak Weapon able to travel at speeds of up to 3,500mph and strike anywhere on Earth in hours A top-secret weapon being developed by the US military was destroyed four seconds after its launch from a test range in Alaska early on Monday after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said. The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is part of a program to create a missile that will destroy targets anywhere on Earth within hours - traveling at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles-an-hour or Mach 5. The mission was aborted to ensure public safety, and no one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 4 am EDT at the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, said Maureen Schumann, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department. 'We had to terminate,' Schumann said. 'The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex,' she added. The incident caused an undetermined amount of damage to the launch facility 25 miles from the city of Kodiak, Schumann said. +5 Detonation: The moment the weapon exploded is captured by Scott Wight and shows the horizon from Cape Greville in Chiniak, Alaska Officials said that the weapon system was not carrying a warhead when it was aborted.  The rocket carrying the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon was terminated near a pad of the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island shortly after liftoff, spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said. After an anomaly was detected, testers made the decision to destroy the rocket to ensure public safety, Schumann said. "It came back down on the range complex," she said. "Fortunately, no people on the ground were injured. There was damage, but I'm not sure of the extent of it at this time." The launch complex is about 25 miles from the city of Kodiak. Witnesses watched the rocket lift off at 12:25 am, quickly head nose-down and explode, KMXT radio reported. STRIKE ANYWHERE ON EARTH WITHIN HOURS: RACE TO CREATE WORLD'S MOST LETHAL WEAPON According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is being developed as a joint project between the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Army Forces Strategic Command to form the Pentagon's Prompt Global Strike initiative. The Defense Department wants a weapon that can strike targets anywhere in the world within hours using a conventionally armed missile traveling at Mach 5 or 3,500 miles an hour. The missile would be used to hit terrorist targets identified on satellites thousands of miles away or weapons of mass destruction being moved in open ground that only have a small window within which to strike. The disastrous abort of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon in Alasak follows a failed test by the Chinese military of a similar system. The Wu-14 missile is being developed by China to launch nuclear warheads or to strike ships and is being designed to travel at speeds of up to Mach 10 or 8,000 miles-an-hour. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, said that the Chinese test of the Wu-14 three weeks ago failed in similar circumstances to the American test. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Russia too is attempting to develop its own hypersonic weapon. Source: Washington Free Beacon  Kodiak photographer Scott Wight watched the launch from Cape Greville in Chiniak, about a dozen miles from the launch site. He described the explosion as quite loud and scary. A fire afterward burned brightly. The rocket was the booster for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, a glide vehicle designed to quickly reach a target. The design is one of several being tested by the Army under the umbrella of the Conventional Prompt Global Strike program, Schumann said. "It's a concept that will allow the Department of Defense to engage any target anywhere in the world in less than an hour," she said. The first flight test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon on November 17, 2011, flew the weapon from Hawaii to Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. The test Monday was designed to enhance previous ground testing, modeling and simulation, Schumann said.  Traveling at hypersonic speed, the glider also was aimed at Kwajalein and was supposed to cover the 3,500 miles in less than an hour, Schumann said. +5 Experimental: Traveling at hypersonic speed, the glider also was aimed at Kwajalein and was supposed to cover the 3,500 miles in less than an hour +5 Experimental: This US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency artists rendering shows the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2). The US military had to detonate a hypersonic weapon seconds after lift-off on August 25, 2014 due to a technical problem, cutting short a flight test for the experimental project, officials said on Monday +5 Strike capability: The Falcon HTV-2 will be launched on a rocket into space then will glide back down to Earth. The 2011 test flight lasted only nine minutes before being deliberately crashed as a safety measure due to technical difficulties It was a setback for the US program, which some analysts see as countering the growing development of ballistic missiles by Iran and North Korea but others say is part of an arms race with China, which tested a hypersonic system in January. Riki Ellison, founder of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said he did not think Monday's failure would lead to the program's termination. 'This is such an important mission and there is promise in this technology,' he said. He said officials aborted the mission after detecting a fault in the computers. Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the technology was best suited for use against smaller, less-developed countries with missiles. 'The United States has never assumed that these ... are going to be systems that you can use against a power like China by themselves,' he said. 'For a country like Iran or North Korea, they could be a very significant deterrent.' +5 The rocket carrying the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon was terminated near a pad of the Kodiak Launch Complex (pictured) on Kodiak Island shortly after liftoff  James Acton, a defense analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Pentagon had never been clear about the mission for the weapon, with some viewing it as an effective tool against terrorists and others seeing it as a counter to China or Iran and North Korea. While hypersonic weapons are unlikely to be fielded for a decade, Acton said the fact that Washington and Beijing were both testing the weapons indicated there was a real potential for an arms race. 'I believe the US program is significantly more sophisticated than the Chinese program,' he said. The weapon, known as the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, was developed by Sandia National Laboratory and the US Army. Schumann said it included a glide body mounted on a three-stage, solid-propellant booster system known as STARS, for Strategic Target System. In a previous test in November 2011, the craft had successfully flown from Hawaii to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, she said. On Monday, it was supposed to fly from Alaska to the Kwajalein Atoll. Acton said no conclusions could be drawn about the weapon based on Monday's accident because the launcher detonated before the glide vehicle could be deployed.

China is developing a'supersonic' submarine that could travel from Shanghai to San Francisco in less than two hours. Researchers say their new craft uses a radical new technique to create a 'bubble' to surround itself, cutting down drag dramatically.  In theory, the researchers say, a supercavitating vessel could reach the speed of sound underwater, or about 5,800km/h.  +2 The new sub envelops a submerged vessel inside an air bubble to avoid problems caused by water drag HOW IT WORKS The new sub is based on Soviet technology developed during the cold war. Called supercavitation, it envelopes a submerged vessel inside an air bubble to avoid problems caused by water drag. A Soviet supercavitation torpedo called Shakval was able to reach a speed of 370km/h or more - much faster than any other conventional torpedoes. In theory, a supercavitating vessel could reach the speed of sound underwater, or about 5,800km/h, which would reduce the journey time for a transatlantic underwater cruise to less than an hour, and for a transpacific journey to about 100 minutes, according to a report by California Institute of Technology in 2001.  The technology was developed by a team of scientists at Harbin Institute of Technology's Complex Flow and Heat Transfer Lab.  Li Fengchen, professor of fluid machinery and engineering, told the South China Morning Post he was 'very excited by its potential'.  The new sub is based on Soviet technology developed during the cold war. Called supercavitation, it envelopes a submerged vessel inside an air bubble to avoid problems caused by water drag. A Soviet supercavitation torpedo called Shakval was able to reach a speed of 370km/h or more - much faster than any other conventional torpedoes. In theory, a supercavitating vessel could reach the speed of sound underwater, or about 5,800km/h, which would reduce the journey time for a transatlantic underwater cruise to less than an hour, and for a transpacific journey to about 100 minutes, according to a report by California Institute of Technology in 2001. The Chinese system constantly 'showers' a special liquid membrane on its own surface.  +2 Traditional submarines suffer from drag underwater, which limits their speed.  Although this membrane would be worn off by water, in the meantime it could significantly reduce the water drag on the vessel at low speed. After its speed had reached 75km/h or more the vessel would enter the supercavitation state, Li said.   However, Li admitted problems still needed to be solved before supersonic submarine travel became feasible.  A powerful underwater rocket engine still needs to be developed. The technique could even be used to aid awimmers, he believes.  'If a swimsuit can create and hold many tiny bubbles in water, it can significantly reduce the water drag; swimming in water could be as effortless as flying in the sky,' he said.

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China building island large enough for an airfield in disputed south sea waters as satellite images show workers expanding on archipelago of military bases

 

 

 

China building island large enough for an airfield in disputed south sea waters as satellite images show workers expanding on archipelago of military bases

Satellite images have revealed that since reclaiming the Spratly Islands in August, Chinese workers have expanded one stretch of sand on Fiery Cross Reef (left) to make it long enough for aircrafts to land and take off. Dredgers are also creating a harbour to the east of the reef large enough to receive tankers and warships. The reef forms part of the archipelago which has been at the heart of territorial disputes for years, with both Vietnam and the Philippines laying claim to the area. Evidence of substantial land reclamation, harbour redevelopment, and additional construction has been seen on Woody Island (bottom right) since October 2013. Workers have also built a reinforced seawall around an island on Johnson South Reef (top right).

China building island large enough for an airfield in disputed south sea waters as satellite images show workers expanding on archipelago of military bases Chinese officials have created a 3,000m-long reef in the Spratly Islands Archipelago has been source of dispute between south Asian countries Vietnamese, Malaysian and Filipino forces all have airfields in the water The developing Fiery Cross Reef may become China's first airbase Air force colonel said the military needed facilities in South China Sea Chinese officials are building the first island large enough for its own airfield in the middle of disputed waters in the south sea. Satellite images revealed that since reclaiming the Spratly Islands in August, workers have expanded one stretch of sand to make it long enough for aircraft to land and take off. Dredgers are also creating a harbour to the east of the reef large enough to receive tankers and warships. The 3,000m patch Fiery Cross Reef forms part of the archipelago which has been at the heart of territorial disputes for years. Scroll down for video +7 Satellite images show that since reclaiming the Spratly Islands in August, workers have expanded one stretch of sand to make it long enough for aircraft to land and take off While the islands, named after the British sailor Richard Spratly who discovered them in 1843, lie between the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, they are host to a plethora of military machinery and resources owned by the Republic of China. Fears that China intended to use the archipelago as a mineral-rich installation of military bases spread when officials began reclaiming the abandoned islands in August. While the Chinese army controls many of the 750 islets and reefs, it does not yet have its own airfield in the south China sea unlike Malaysian, Vietnamese and Filipino forces. According to imagery obtained by the Hong Kong defence publication IHS, dredging has begun on Fiery Cross Reef to create a harbour large enough for military tankers. +7 China has used dredgers to construct an island about 3000 metres long and 200 to 300 metres wide on the reef, which was previously under water +7 Workers had built a reinforced seawall around an island on Johnson South Reef in the Spratly Islands by August (pictured) +7 This satellite image released in April 2014 showed substantial land reclamation, harbour redevelopment, and additional construction activity on Woody Island since October 2013 Johnson South Reef, Cuateron Reef, and Gaven Reefs have all been expanded on since Chinese officials reclaimed the waters earlier this year, though the Fiery Cross Reef is the only island large enough for an airfield. Jin Zhirui, a colonel with the Chinese air force command, declined to confirm plans to build an airfield on the reef but said China needed to build facilities in the South China Sea for strategic reasons. 'We need to go out, to make our contribution to regional and global peace. 'We need support like this, including radar and intelligence.' 'China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Island' +7 Chinese fishing vessels anchored at Fiery Cross Reef on the disputed Spratly islands where China is thought to be building a massive island +7 An aerial photograph taken in 1999 shows Chinese workers building on sparse land in the Spratly Islands THE SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE OVER ARCHIPELAGO DISCOVERED BY BRITISH SAILOR CAPTAIN RICHARD SPRATLY The dispute centres around hundreds of tiny shoals, reefs and islets in the South China Sea known as the Spratlys and the Paracels. Several south Asian countries stake claim to the territory, though China tries to control the largest portion of the archipelago. Beijing has claimed its right to the collection of land masses is 2,000 years old which, they say, includes the islands in Chinese history. Taiwan supports its claim, and has its own airfield on the island of Taiping. Vietnamese officials say their government has ruled over the land since the 17th century whilst the Philippines, the closest geographically, says the islands belong to them. In 1974, Chinese forces seized the Paracels from Vietnam, killing 70 troops. There were further clashes between the two countries in 1988, with 60 Vietnamese soldiers killed. In 2012 China and the Philippines were embroiled in a lengthy maritime standoff over a Scarborough Shoal. The Filipino military employed its largest warship for the dispute over the stretch of water which they call Panatag. Upon boarding a Chinese military vessel for inspection, officials claimed they found live sharks, clams and illegal reef. Later, Vietnamese border agencies refused to stamp passports asserting Chinese sovereignty over a handful of the islands and in January it was claimed China would be taken to a UN tribunal to challenge its stake. The United States has advised U.S. carriers to comply with China's demand that it be told of any flights passing through its new maritime air defense zone over the East China Sea, an area where Beijing said it launched two fighter planes to investigate a dozen American and Japanese reconnaissance and military flights. It was the first time since proclaiming the zone on November 23 that China said it sent planes there on the same day as foreign military flights, although it said it merely identified the foreign planes and took no further action. China announced last week that all aircraft entering the zone - a maritime area between China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan - must notify Chinese authorities beforehand and that it would take unspecified defensive measures against those that don't comply. Defiant: The US military on 26 November 2013 flew two B-52 aircraft over islands in the East China Sea under dispute between Japan and China, joining a long-brewing fray in the region as it called for a diplomatic solution Neighboring countries and the U.S. have said they will not honor the new zone - believed aimed at claiming disputed territory - and have said it unnecessarily raises tensions. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday that the U.S. remained deeply concerned about China's declared air identification zone. But she said that it is advising U.S. air carriers abroad to comply with notification requirements issued by China. On Wednesday, Psaki had said the U.S. government was working to determine if the new rules applied to civil aviation. But she said that in the meantime, U.S. air carriers were being advised to take all steps they consider necessary to operate safely in the East China Sea region. In Beijing, the Ministry of Defense said the Chinese fighter jets identified and monitored the two U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and a mix of 10 Japanese early warning, reconnaissance and fighter planes during their flights through the zone early Friday. Disputed territory: Screens display a map showing the outline of China's new air defense zone in the East China on the website of the Chinese Ministry of Defense 'China's air force has faithfully carried out its mission and tasks, with China's navy, since it was tasked with patrolling the East China Sea air defense identification zone. It monitored throughout the entire flights, made timely identification and ascertained the types,' ministry spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke said in a statement on its website. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Army Col. Steve Warren, said when asked about China's statement, 'The U.S. will continue to partner with our allies and will operate in the area as normal.' Japanese officials declined to confirm details of any flights, but said routine missions in the area were continuing. 'We are simply conducting our ordinary warning and surveillance activity like before. We have not encountered any abnormal instances so far, therefore we have not made any announcement,' Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters in Tokyo. The United States and other countries have warned that the new zone could boost chances for miscalculations, accidents and conflicts, though analysts believe Beijing's move is not intended to spark any aerial confrontations but rather is a long-term strategy to solidify claims to disputed territory by simply marking the area as its own. Strategy: The US flew planes over an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea that includes islands claimed by China as the Diaoyu islands and Taiwan as the Tiaoyutai June Teufel Dreyer, who specializes in security issues at the University of Miami, said the Chinese government - while backing down from strictly enforcing the zone to keep a lid on tensions - is walking a delicate line because it is faced with strong public opinion from nationalists at home. Sending up the fighter planes Friday was aimed at the domestic audience, and China is likely to send planes regularly when foreign aircraft enter the zone without notifying Chinese authorities, she said. 'They will be "escorting" the intruding planes, but they are not going to shoot them,' she said. The zone is seen primarily as China's latest bid to bolster its claim over a string of uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Beijing has been ratcheting up its sovereignty claims since Tokyo's nationalization of the islands last year. Flight control: A Chinese man reads a newspaper which reports that U.S., Japan and South Korea sent flights through China's newly declared maritime air defense zone, in Beijing, China Friday, November 29, 2013 However, there are questions whether China has the technical ability to fully enforce the zone due to a shortage of early warning radar aircraft and in-flight refueling capability. The United States, Japan and South Korea all have said they sent military flights into the zone over the past week without notifying China. Japanese commercial flights have continued unhindered - although China has said its zone is not intended to have any effect on commercial flights not heading to China. Dreyer said the U.S. and Japan have kept sending planes into the zone to make good on the message that they are ignoring it. 'They have to do it more than once to show they are serious,' she said. Dreyer said the Chinese government may have miscalculated the strength of the international response to the establishment of the zone, but that China will hold its line in the long run. 'The Chinese government is not going to concede the substance,' she said. 'When circumstances are more conducive, they will try to enforce it more strictly in the future. This is a pattern we have noticed for decades.'

China has sent two fighter jets to investigate US and Japanese military planes’ entry into a disputed area of the East China Sea. Tensions in the volatile region have mounted since the Chinese Air Force stated that it ‘escorted’ foreign warplanes out of its newly-declared air defence identification zone (ADIZ). The zone covers islands which are the subject of a bitter territorial dispute with Japan – sparking fears that it could lead to an unplanned military incident. Two Japanese F-15 fighter jets: China scrambled jets today in response to U.S. spy planes and Japanese aircraft - including F-15 fighters - entering its new air defence zone over the East China Sea Last week Beijing declared that all aircraft crossing through airspace must file flight plans and identify themselves or face unspecified ‘defensive emergency measures’. But the US, Japan and South Korea have all defied the ruling over the past few days. In an intensification of the spat, China yesterday launched fighter jets into the area at the same time as foreign military flights. Chinese Air Force spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke said warplanes had been scrambled to monitor two US surveillance aircraft and ten Japanese planes, including an F-15 fighter jet, crossing through the ADIZ. He was reported by state media as saying that the jets had tracked and identified the planes. Ministers in Tokyo declined to give details of the flights but said the Japanese Air Force was on routine operations and had encountered no ‘abnormal’ incidents. China announced the creation of the zone last Saturday. Overlapping claims: This map shows the respective air defence and economic zones claimed by China and Japan and with the islands in the East China Sea that the two countries have been disputing highlighted It covers a vast area of the East China Sea, including a region where gas has been discovered. The row centres on airspace over three uninhabited outcrops called the Senkaku Islands by Japan and Diaoyu by China. Taiwan also has a claim to the islands – bought by Japan from private sellers in 2012, much to the anger of China – and South Korea maintains an interest in a submerged rock in the zone known as Ieodo. The US called the establishment of the ADIZ a ‘destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region’. Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign policy envoy, expressed concern about the diplomatic flare-up. She said: ‘This development heightens the risk of escalation and contributes to raising tensions in the region. The EU calls on all sides to exercise caution and restraint.’ Worth fighting for? An October 13 file photo shows a Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force patrol plane flying past one of the unoccupied disputed islets in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan But her intervention was mocked by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. ‘Madam Ashton should know that some European countries also have air defence identification zones,’ said Qin. ‘I don’t know if this leads to tensions in the European regional situation. European countries can have air defence identification zones. Why can’t China?’ International analysts claim Beijing is engaged in a long-term strategy to boost its claims to the disputed islands, rather than displaying a military show of force. June Teufel Dreyer, a security specialist at the University of Miami, said the policy was aimed at placating the domestic audience. She said: ‘They will be seen to “escort” the intruding planes, but they are not going to shoot them.’

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SAS TACTICS IN QUAD BIKE SQUADS KILLS ISIS

 

 

 

 

 

SAS troops with sniper rifles and heavy machine guns have killed hundreds of Islamic State extremists in a series of deadly quad-bike ambushes inside Iraq, Defence sources indicated last night that soldiers from the elite fighting unit have eliminated ‘up to eight terrorists per day’ in the daring raids, carried out during the past four weeks. Until now, it had been acknowledged only that the SAS was operating in a reconnaissance role in Iraq and was not involved in combat. But The Mail on Sunday has learned that small groups of soldiers are being dropped into IS territory in RAF Chinook helicopters – to take on the enemy. Scroll down for video +5 DRONES PATROL IRAQ TO SEEK OUT TARGETS: Drone operators study footage of the terrorists’ positions which are then relayed to SAS commanders at their secret base so they can plan missions Targets are identified by drones operated either from an SAS base or by the soldiers themselves on the ground, who use smaller devices. The troops are also equipped with quad bikes – four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles that can have machine guns bolted on to a frame. They then seek out IS units and attack the terrorists using the element of surprise and under the cover of darkness. The missions have taken place on a near daily basis in the past four weeks and the SAS soldiers have expended so much ammunition that regimental quartermasters have been forced to order a full replenishment of stocks of machine-gun rounds and sniper bullets. An SAS source said: ‘Our tactics are putting the fear of God into IS as they don’t know where we’re going to strike next and there’s frankly nothing they can do to stop us. +5 SAS SNIPER UNITS SCRAMBLED IN CHINOOKS: The heavily equipped troops are flown deep into IS territory aboard RAF transport helicopters, their quad bikes stowed on board, before touching down 50 miles from their target British military aircraft strikes Islamic State target in Iraq ‘We’re degrading their morale. They can run and hide if they see planes in the sky but they can’t see or hear us. Using so many snipers takes the fear factor to another level too; the terrorists don’t know what’s happening. They just see their colleagues lying dead in the sand.’ The SAS’s guerrilla-style raids are targeting IS’s main supply routes across western Iraq and vehicle checkpoints set up by the terrorists to conduct kidnappings and extort money from local drivers. The operations start with SAS commanders studying hours of footage of potential target sites recorded by drones – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – and listening to enemy communication intercepts in a bid to identify IS leaders. Once the regiment’s senior officers have identified a target, the soldiers gather to receive their operational orders. They then leave their secret base and climb aboard a fleet of helicopters – with the quad bikes already safely secured in the cargo hold. As the SAS soldiers strap themselves into their seats, the pilots tap in the co-ordinates for the area of desert where the Chinook will land. As the helicopters’ engines are so loud, the Chinooks take the SAS soldiers to a laying-up point as far as 50 miles from the target. The troops disembark aboard the quad bikes and prepare their general- purpose machine guns (GPMGs) and Barrett sniper rifles. +5 IS PICKED OFF IN GUERILLA-STYLE RAIDS: Using precision sniper rifles, machine guns and surprise tactics, the SAS take out their IS targets before disappearing back into the desert The SAS’s raids are intended to degrade Islamic State’s fighting capability ahead of a spring offensive by 20,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops next year, with the UK providing additional training for these soldiers. In the next fortnight, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon is expected to receive a report from British military planners setting out what needs to be done. The plans could see up to 300 UK trainers leading a programme of intensive training for the Kurds and Iraqis, with an emphasis on infantry drills and techniques to defuse enemy explosive devices. When the spring offensive starts, British trainers may remain with the Iraqi and Kurdish units but are not expected to get directly involved in the fighting. Earlier this month, Mr Fallon held meetings with political leaders in the region, assuring them that the UK was committed to defeating IS and improving the training of their soldiers. The Defence Secretary also visited Kuwait, where it is expected that US and British commanders will set up a spring offensive planning centre. The mission to defeat the 200,000-strong IS forces will be led by a senior US officer, Lieutenant General James Terry. It is likely that his second in command will be a senior British officer, Lieutenant General Tom Beckett. Next month Lieut Gen Beckett will take over as Defence Senior Adviser for the Middle East (DSAME), a post vacated by Lieutenant General Simon Mayall, who is retiring after four years in the role. +5 Defence sources indicated last night that soldiers from the elite fighting unit have eliminated ‘up to eight terrorists per day’ in the daring raids, carried out during the past four weeks But Middle East experts are questioning whether the UK’s strategy to defeat IS stands any chance of success. Professor Gareth Stansfield from Exeter University told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Not only is the Islamic State stronger than previous organisations, it has also learned lessons from them. ‘For example, IS has few fixed operational centres and its chain of command remains mobile. British policy options at this stage are burdened with problems and complications and also bring with them a range of unintended consequences that could draw Western powers into further engagements in the region. ‘With regard to the spring offensive, the Kurds would not be able to push further south into Iraq without upsetting the Sunni tribesmen in these areas and the Iraqi army is regarded as a Shia militia. So we are a long way off a practical solution to the problem of IS.’ The Mail on Sunday has learned that since IS began its campaign in Syria and Iraq, more than 35 British jihadists have lost their lives. It is believed the most recent UK citizens to die fighting for the extremists – known as Abu Abdullah al-Habashi, 21, and Abu Dharda, 20 – were from London. They are understood to have been killed in US air strikes on the Syrian border town of Kobane. Our tactics are putting the fear of God into IS Al-Habashi grew up in North London in a British-Eritrean family and converted to Islam when he was 16. In August, al-Habashi told the BBC he had gone to Syria nine months earlier and had been fighting both there and in Iraq. Al-Habashi is thought to have appeared in at least two IS videos posted online. Dharda comes from a British-Somali background and grew up in West London. He travelled to Syria in December 2013, entering via Turkey. It is believed that Dharda was questioned by counter-terrorism police at a British airport as he left but was allowed on his journey because they were satisfied with the explanation he gave for the purpose of his trip. Intelligence sources have indicated that more than 500 Britons are currently fighting for IS, with the vast majority active in Syria. Yesterday, the widow of murdered British aid worker Alan Henning told a memorial service he was killed ‘for being what we should be, selfless and caring’. A video showing the beheading of the 47-year-old taxi driver was released by IS last month. A private memorial service at Eccles parish church in Greater Manchester was held yesterday, with audio relayed outside. His widow Barbara and daughter Lucy walked in with Bethany and Michael Haines, the daughter and brother of David Haines from Scone, Scotland, also murdered by IS. Mrs Henning told the memorial: ‘We must never forget the reason why he went to Syria and the reason he was taken from us – for being what we all should be, selfless and caring.’ Meanwhile, IS militants have killed at least 25 members of a Sunni Muslim tribe in a village on the eastern edge of Ramadi in Iraq, in apparent revenge for tribal opposition to the radical Islamists. Local officials said the bodies of the men from the Albu Fahd tribe were discovered by the Iraqi army when it launched a counter-offensive on Saturday against IS near Ramadi, capital of Anbar province. 'Red Cap tragedy' General set to lead offensive +5 NEW MAN: Lieut General Tom Beckett A former Parachute Regiment officer who was in charge of six Red Caps brutally killed by a mob of extremists in Iraq is in line to become the second in command of coalition operations against IS. Lieutenant General Tom Beckett has been appointed Defence Senior Adviser for the Middle East (DSAME) and will take up his position as the UK steps up its efforts to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces to defeat Islamic State. Softly spoken Lieut Gen Beckett first deployed to Iraq in 2003, when the tragedy of the Red Caps marked the beginning of an insurgency against the British presence in the country’s southern provinces. At the time, the Red Caps, or Royal Military Policemen, were attached to the Parachute Regiment’s 1st Battalion led by Beckett. Eleven years on, families of the Red Caps still blame senior officers for their deaths. Lieut Gen Beckett is taking over as DSAME following the retirement of Lieutenant General Simon Mayall – an officer who was considered the British Army’s leading expert on Arab affairs. Lieut Gen Mayall served as DSAME for four years but his retirement comes only three months after the Prime Minister also appointed him to serve as his special envoy to Kurdistan – a key role during the IS crisis. Last night, Middle East expert Professor Gareth Stansfield described Lieut Gen Mayall’s retirement as a ‘blow’ because of his understanding of regional politics and jihad philosophy.

SAS troops with sniper rifles and heavy machine guns have killed hundreds of Islamic State extremists in a series of deadly quad-bike ambushes inside Iraq, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Defence sources indicated last night that soldiers from the elite fighting unit have eliminated 'up to eight terrorists per day' in the daring raids, carried out during the past four weeks. Until now, it had been acknowledged only that the SAS was operating in a reconnaissance role in Iraq and was not involved in combat. But The Mail on Sunday has learned that small groups of soldiers are being dropped into IS territory in RAF Chinook helicopters - to take on the enemy.   Former British infantryman joins Kurdish fighters in Syria defending beleaguered town against ISIS Afghanistan veteran James Hughes reported to have travelled to Syria Former infantryman from Reading left the Army this year after five years Jamie Read, from Newmains, North Lanarkshire, has also travelled to fight He has been pictured in Kurdish militia social media accounts They join a number of fighters from the West travelling to join the Kurds A former British soldier is fighting with the Kurds against the Islamic State in Syria, according to reports. James Hughes from Reading, Berkshire, is said to have travelled to Rojava, northern Syria, to volunteer in the fight against militants laying siege to Kobani. Mr Hughes' Facebook profile suggests he left the British Army this year after five years service, including three tours of Afghanistan. His age is unclear.   Britons 'in Syria': Former British Army infantryman James Hughes, left, has reportedly travelled to join Kurdish forces fighting in Syria. He is Facebook friends with Jamie Read, right, from Lanarkshire, whose picture alongside a U.S. fighter already in the country has been widely spread on social media Pictures distributed on pro-Kurdish Twitter accounts meanwhile have shown another British volunteer ready for battle alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Jamie Read, from Newmains, North Lanarkshire, who is friends with James Hughes on Facebook, is pictured alongside Jordan Matson, 28, a U.S. veteran who travelled to Syria and volunteered with the YPG in October. His Facebook profile suggests he's trained with the French army. In the days running up to his departure from the UK, Mr Read wrote on Facebook: 'Well boys and girls.... It looks like all the hard work has payed off I got my good news, most of you know what i'm doing for those that don't you will have to wait haha can't really say on here but all I can say is this time next week i will be living the dream.' Claims Mr Hughes had travelled to Syria were made in The Observer today. Pictures on the Kurdistan Army Twitter account show Mr Read with Mr Matson, both armed with Kalashnikov rifles and dressed in unmatched army fatigues, posing together in bullet-scarred buildings. Another shows Mr Read giving a thumbs up in front of a poster of a Kurdish freedom fighter. The two Britons are the latest Westerners believed to have travelled to Syria to join Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State group, which is trying to carve out a Muslim caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of Britons are believed to have travelled to join the Sunni Islamist insurgency. It is understood anyone travelling overseas to join in an armed conflict - on whatever side - could face prosecution under both criminal and terror laws. A Home Office spokesman said: 'The UK advises against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq. 'Even people travelling for well-intentioned humanitarian reasons are exposing themselves to serious risk. The best way to help the people of these countries is to donate to registered charities that have ongoing relief operations.' The Kurds have long-established communities in the north of both countries and have resisted any attempts to extend the violence of Syria's civil war into the areas they inhabit. Despite support from a U.S.-led bombing campaign however they have suffered a number of setbacks against the well-armed and fanatical Islamic State forces and, like their Islamist adversaries, are now actively recruiting for fighters from overseas. Amateur video shows fighters defend Kobane against ISIS +7 Kurdish fighters in the battle for Kobani: More than two months into its assault on Kobani, the Islamic State group is still pouring fighters and resources into trying to capture the besieged Syrian Kurdish town +7 People's Protection Units: The Kurds have long-established communities in the north of both Iraq and Syria and have resisted any attempts to extend the violence of Syria's civil war into the areas they inhabit Mr Matson has helped to manage The Lions Of Rojava Facebook page which the YPG has used to advertise the recruitment of volunteers from the UK, the U.S., Germany and elsewhere. The 28-year-old food packaging worker from Sturtevant, Wisconsin revealed last month how he contacted the Kurdish militia - known as the People's Protection Units or YPG - through Facebook. 'I prayed about it for about a month or two,' Matson, a Christian, told CNN. 'And I really soul searched and said, "is this really what I want to do?" Eventually, I decided to do it.' Matson flew to Turkey and was taken to Rojava, a Kurdish-controlled area of northern Syria. For the past month, he has been a volunteer fighter helping to defend three small statelets in the area. During his two years in the U.S. military, he never served abroad - but on the second day fighting in Syria, he was struck by a mortar round during a firefight with ISIS. As he recovered from his injuries - which sometimes still cause him to squint - he helped out the militia by taking to social media to recruit others, CNN reported. More than two months into its assault on Kobani, the Islamic State group is still pouring fighters and resources into trying to capture the besieged Syrian Kurdish town, but the drive has been blunted. Helped by more than 270 airstrikes, the border town's Kurdish defenders are gaining momentum, the Associated Press reports - a potentially bruising reversal for the extremists who only a few weeks ago appeared to be unstoppable. Kurdish fighters speak about their battle from the frontline +7 Battleground: A fighter can be seen running through the streets of Kobani. It has been under attack since mid-September, when the Sunni Muslim extremists seized a series of villages and much of the town +7 Counterattack: A combination of concentrated airstrikes and the arrival late last month of a group of 150 Iraqi peshmerga forces with advanced weapons blunted the edge of the Islamic State offensive The setback in Kobani is 'a statement of IS group's vulnerability,' said David L. Phillips, an expert on Kurdish issues. Retired Marine Gen. John Allen, the U.S. envoy for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State militants, said the group continues to mass around Kobani, creating more targets for the U.S. and its allies. 'ISIL has, in so many ways, impaled itself on Kobani,' he said in an interview Wednesday in Ankara with the Turkish daily Milliyet, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. Kobani has been under attack since mid-September, when the Sunni Muslim extremists seized a series of villages and much of the town. Most of Kobani's 60,000 residents fled to neighboring Turkey in the first few days of the offensive, amid expectations that it would fall quickly. But the fate of Kobani soon became tied to the success of the coalition campaign against the Islamic State group. A combination of concentrated airstrikes and the arrival late last month of a group of 150 Iraqi peshmerga forces with advanced weapons blunted the edge of the IS offensive. The U.S. has also dropped weapons and other supplies to the Kurdish fighters, the first time it has done so in Syria in the course of the country's four-year conflict. Kobani-based activists say Kurdish fighters have made small but steady advances in the past two weeks following the arrival of the peshmerga forces. Last week, Kurdish YPG fighters seized a hill that overlooks part of the town. On Tuesday, they captured six IS-controlled buildings and confiscated a large amount of weapons and ammunition. 'THE LIONS OF ROJAVA': WESTERNERS NOW FIGHTING FOR THE KURDS They call themselves the Lions Of Rojava and boast, 'It is better to live one day as a Lion that a thousand days as a sheep.' They are the foreign fighters who have travelled to Syria to fight, not for jihad, but on behalf of the Kurdish communities who are defending their communities from the advance of Sunni Islamists. Just as hundreds of young Europeans have gone to fight for the radical Islamists of Islamic State, so increasing numbers are now travelling to fight for their avowed enemies, the Kurds. +7 Westerners in Kurdistan: A photo of Western fighters from the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page Jordan Matson, a former U.S. soldier now with Syrian Kurds' People's Protection Units (YPG), operates The Lions Of Rojava Facebook page openly calling for volunteers to travel to join the fight. Just as many of the Islamic State's foreign volunteers have been drawn from the ranks of Sunni Muslim youth worldwide, many of the initial YPG volunteers have come from the Kurdish diaspora. In August a hairdresser from South London was reported to be the first Briton to travel to fight alongside Kurdish forces. Ethnic Kurd Mama Kurda from Croydon, 26, travelled to Iraq to join the Kurdish peshmerga as they desperately tried to halt Islamic State's lightning advance. But since then many others have been inspired to take up arms against Islamic State, perhaps also inspired by the radical socialist experiment underway in the Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava. Inspired by the social ecologist and anarchist Murray Bookchin it has adopted a vision of 'libertarian municipalism' calling for Kurds to creat free, self-governing communities. Last month it was reported that a currently serving British marine had been questioned by police on suspicion he was travelling to fight with Kurdish militias during his leave. The 22-year-old Royal Marine Commando was quizzed after he prepared to fly from California on a one-way ticket to Turkey. He was suspected of being in contact with Kurdish militant groups. Two women, Canadian Jew Gill Rosenberg, 31, and Danish Kurd Joanna Palani, 20, have also reportedly travelled to fight with the Kurds, inspired perhaps by the images of female fighters on the front line against Islamic State terrorists. It is perhaps the only place in the world where women are fighting on the front line of armed conflict. There are also claims that a number of European biker gangs have travelled to Syria and are helping to assist the resistance. Leaders of the Cologne-based Median Empire Motorcycle Club, which has strong Kurdish links, have posted images of their German riders posing in the city - some of them carrying weapons. The news came just days after three members of a notorious motorcycle gang from the Netherlands were told they had not committed any crime by travelling to Kobane to join the fight against ISIS.

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Carlos the Jackal (UPDATE)

 

Carlos the Jackal

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez born October 12, 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan terrorist currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder of an informant for the French government and two French counter-intelligence agents.While in prison he was further convicted of attacks in France that killed 11 and injured 150 people and sentenced to an additional life term. A committed Marxist-Leninist, Ramírez Sánchez is widely regarded as one of the most famous political terrorists of his era. When he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970, recruiting officer Bassam Abu Sharif gave him the code name "Carlos" because of his South American roots. After several bungled bombings, Ramírez Sánchez achieved notoriety for the 1975 raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, which killed three people. This was followed by a string of attacks against Western targets. For many years he was among the most wanted international fugitives. Carlos was dubbed "The Jackal" by The Guardian after one of its correspondents reportedly spotted Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal near some of the fugitive's belongings. For his part, Ramírez Sánchez denied the 1975 killings, saying they were orchestrated by Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and condemning Israel as a terrorist nation. During his trial in France in 1997, he said, "When one wages war for 30 years, there is a lot of blood spilled—mine and others. But we never killed anyone for money, but for a cause—the liberation of Palestine." Ramírez Sánchez, son of Marxist lawyer José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas and Elba Maria Sánchez, was born in Michelena, in the Venezuelan state of Táchira. Despite his mother's pleas to give their firstborn child a Christian first name, José called him Ilich, after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, while two younger siblings were named "Lenin" (born 1951) and "Vladimir" (born 1958). Ilich attended a school in Caracas and joined the youth movement of the national communist party in 1959. After attending the Third Tricontinental Conference in January 1966 with his father, Ilich reportedly spent the summer at Camp Matanzas, a guerrilla warfare school run by the Cuban DGI near Havana. Later that year, his parents divorced. His mother took the children to London, where she studied at Stafford House College in Kensington and the London School of Economics. In 1968, José tried to enroll Ilich and his brother at theSorbonne in Paris, but eventually opted for the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. According to the BBC, it was "a notorious hotbed for recruiting foreign communists to the Soviet Union"  He was expelled from the university in 1970. From Moscow Ramírez Sánchez travelled to Beirut, Lebanon, where he volunteered for the PFLP in July 1970. He was sent to a training camp for foreign volunteers of the PFLP on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan. On graduating, he studied at a finishing school, code-named H4 and staffed by Iraqi military, near the Syria-Iraq border. On completing guerrilla training, Carlos (as he was now calling himself) played an active role for the PFLP in the north of Jordan during the Black September conflict of 1970, gaining a reputation as a fighter. After the organisation was pushed out of Jordan, he returned to Beirut. He was sent to be trained by Wadie Haddad. He eventually left the Middle East to attend courses at the Polytechnic of Central London (now known as the University of Westminster), and apparently continued to work for the PFLP. In 1973, Carlos conducted a failed PFLP assassination attempt on Joseph Sieff, a Jewish businessman and vice president of the British Zionist Federation. On 30 December Carlos called on Sieff's home on Queen's Grove in St John's Wood and ordered the maid to take him to Sieff.[21] Finding Sieff in the bathroom, in his bath, Carlos fired one bullet at Sieff from his Tokarev 7.62mmpistol, which bounced off Sieff just between his nose and upper lip and knocked him unconscious; the gun then jammed and Carlos fled.[21][22][23] The attack was announced as retaliation forMossad's assassination in Paris of Mohamed Boudia, a PFLP leader. Carlos admits responsibility for a failed bomb attack on the Bank Hapoalim in London and car bomb attacks on three French newspapers accused of pro-Israeli leanings. He claimed to be the grenade thrower at a Parisian restaurant in an attack that killed two and injured 30. He later participated in two failed rocket propelled grenade attacks on El Al airplanes at Orly Airport near Paris, on January 13 and 17, 1975. On June 27, 1975, Carlos's PFLP contact, Lebanon-born Michel Moukharbal, who later turned out to be an agent for the Mossad, was captured and interrogated by the French domestic intelligence agency, the DST. When two unarmed agents of the DST interrogated Carlos at a Parisian house party, Moukharbal revealed Carlos's identity. Carlos then shot and killed the two agents and Moukharbal.[24] Carlos fled the scene, and managed to escape via Brussels to Beirut. OPEC raid and expulsion from PFLP[edit] From Beirut, Carlos participated in the planning for the attack on the headquarters of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) in Vienna. On December 21, 1975, he led the six-person team (which included Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann) that attacked the meeting of OPEC leaders; they took more than 60 hostages and killed three: an Austrian policeman, an Iraqi OPEC employee and a member of the Libyan delegation. Carlos demanded that the Austrian authorities read a communiqué about the Palestinian cause on Austrian radio and television networks every two hours. To avoid the threatened execution of a hostage every 15 minutes, the Austrian government agreed and the communiqué was broadcast as demanded. On December 22, the government provided the PFLP and 42 hostages an airplane and flew them to Algiers, as demanded for the hostages' release. Ex-Royal Navy pilot Neville Atkinson, at that time the personal pilot for Libya's leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, flew Carlos and a number of others, including Hans-Joachim Klein, a supporter of the imprisoned Baader-Meinhof group and a member of the Revolutionary Cells, and Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann, from Algiers.[25] Atkinson flew the DC-9 to Tripoli, where more hostages were freed, before he returned to Algiers. The last hostages were freed there and some of the terrorists were granted asylum. In the years following the OPEC raid, Bassam Abu Sharif, another PLFP agent, and Klein claimed that Carlos had received a large sum of money for the safe release of the Arab hostages and had kept it for his personal use. Claims are that the amount was between US$20 million and US$50 million. The source of the money is also uncertain but, according to Klein, it was from "an Arab president". Carlos later told his lawyers that the money was paid by the Saudis on behalf of the Iranians and was "diverted en route and lost by the Revolution." Carlos left Algeria for Libya and then Aden, where he attended a meeting of senior PFLP officials to justify his failure to execute two senior OPEC hostages – the finance minister of Iran, Jamshid Amuzgar, and the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Zaki Yamani. His trainer and PFLP-EO leader Wadie Haddad expelled Carlos for not shooting hostages when PFLP demands were not met, thus failing his mission. In September 1976, Carlos was arrested, detained in Yugoslavia, and flown to Baghdad. He chose to settle in Aden, where he tried to found his own Organization of Armed Struggle, composed of Syrian, Lebanese, and German rebels. He also connected with the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. They provided him with an office and safe houses in East Berlin, a support staff of 75, and a serviced car, and allowed him to carry a pistol while in public. From here, Carlos is believed to have planned his attacks on several European targets, including that on the Radio Free Europe offices in Munich in February 1981. On February 16, 1982, two of the group—Swiss terrorist Bruno Breguet and Ramírez Sánchez's wife Magdalena Kopp—were arrested in Paris, in a car containing explosives. Following the arrest, a letter was sent to the French embassy in The Hague demanding their immediate liberation. Meanwhile, Carlos unsuccessfully lobbied the French government for their release. In retaliation, France was struck by a spectacular wave of terrorist attacks, including : the bombing of the Paris-Toulouse TGV train on March 29, 1982 (5 dead, 77 injured); the car-bombing of the Libyan newspaper Al-Watan al-Arabi in Paris on April 22, 1982 (1 dead, 63 injured); the bombing of the Gare Saint-Charles in Marseille on December 31, 1983 (2 dead, 33 injured), and the bombing of the Marseille-Paris TGV train (3 dead, 12 injured) on the same day.[28] In August 1983, he also attacked the Maison de France in West Berlin, killing one man and injuring twenty-two.[27] Within days of the bombings, Carlos sent letters to three separate news agencies claiming responsibility for the bombings as revenge for a French air strike against a PFLP training camp in Lebanon the previous month. Historians' examination of Stasi files, recently accessible after the German reunification, demonstrate a link between Ramírez Sánchez and the KGB, via the East German secret police. WhenLeonid Brezhnev visited West Germany in 1981, Ramírez Sánchez did not undertake any attacks, as the KGB had requested. Western intelligence had expected activity during this period. At one point, the Romanian Securitate hired Carlos to assassinate Romanian dissidents living in France.[citation needed] With conditional support from the Iraqi regime and after the death of Haddad, Ramírez Sánchez offered the services of his group to the PFLP and other groups. His group's first attack may have been a failed rocket attack on the Superphénix French nuclear power station on January 18, 1982. These attacks led to international pressure on East European states that harbored Ramírez Sánchez. For over two years, he lived in Hungary, in Budapest's second district known as the quarter of nobles. His main cut-out for some of his financial resources, such as Gaddafi or Dr. George Habash, was the friend of his sister, "Dietmar C", a known German terrorist and the leader of the Panther Brigade of the PFLP. Hungary expelled Ramírez Sánchez in late 1985, and he was refused sanctuary in Iraq, Libya and Cuba before he found limited support in Syria. He settled inDamascus with Kopp and their daughter, Elba Rosa. The Syrian government forced Ramírez Sánchez to remain inactive, and he was subsequently seen as a neutralized threat. In 1990, the Iraqi government approached him for work, and, in September 1991, he was expelled from Syria. After a short stay in Jordan, he was accorded protection in Sudan where he lived in Khartoum. Western accounts long claimed Ramírez Sánchez as a KGB agent. Some attacks may have been attributed to him for lack of anyone else to claim credit. His own boasts about probably nonexistent missions have further confused the issue.   Can the Jackal's bride spring him from jail? Now he's in the dock - defended by his besotted barrister wife By the time Carlos the Jackal walked into a packed courtroom at the Palais de Justice in Paris yesterday, the atmosphere inside had reached fever pitch. Among those jostling for space, determined to get a glimpse of the notorious terrorist, was a man caught up in one of his alleged bombings. 'It's been a long time,' he whispered, as the Jackal — wearing jeans, sweatshirt, and a blue casual jacket — finally stepped into the bullet-proof dock with a cage roof at the high-security Assizes specially set up for him. Killer and lothario: Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez, romanced a string of glamourous women. Pictured in the 1970 (left) and in 2001 It has been 14 years since the Venezuelan was sentenced to life for the 1975 killing of two unarmed policemen and one of their informers in the French capital. For many, his 1997 incarceration in La Santé prison was the end of the story. The Jackal disappeared behind bars and became the stuff of criminal legend. But yesterday, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was brought from his cell to be tried on new charges relating to four attacks in France in 1982 and 1983, which killed 11 people and wounded up to 200 others. Prosecutors allege he carried out the attacks in order to force the authorities to release two of his accomplices, including Magdalena Kopp, whom he went on to marry. Forty years after he began his killing, he has returned to the world stage in a criminal trial which will see his notoriety reintroduced to a generation who wrongly believed that Osama Bin Laden was the world's first 'super-terrorist'. Inevitably, doing time in France's toughest jail, where fellow inmates include the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, has transformed the once smooth-faced Carlos. For the defence: French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who is also married to Carlos the Jackal The 62-year-old — who appeared in court yesterday to announce 'I am a professional revolutionary' — was white-haired with a shabby beard, although the defiant brown eyes and sneering mouth remained unchanged. And if there was any question that the ageing Jackal felt any remorse for his crimes, the clenched-fist salute he delivered made his position very clear: the Marxist Islamist terrorist is still at war with the world. As ever, Carlos, whose nickname comes from Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day Of The Jackal — about an attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle — appeared determined to exploit the moment and publicise his cause. Throughout the proceedings yesterday, there were carefully choreographed pieces of theatre: Carlos blowing kisses to a French comic, renowned for his anti-Semitic jokes, who had turned up to support him; Carlos shouting abuse against the 'racist, Zionist state of Israel'. More intriguing, though, is the way the love life of the man who has spent a decade and a half as inmate number 872686/X is already overshadowing proceedings. For he is being defended by Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, a petite and highly distinguished 58-year-old barrister, who is also his wife. The couple married in La Santé ten years ago, with Carlos handing over a platinum Cartier ring in front of armed guards, before returning to his cell alone. Indeed, his thoughts at the moment appear to be less concerned with the horrific crimes of which he now stands accused — including causing an explosion on an express train which killed five people — than his 'human right' to consummate his marriage. While his wife claims that — legally — too many years have passed for him to be tried for the bomb attacks, Carlos has been telling friends of his desire to assuage the 'burning passion' he and wife both hold for each other. He regularly sends the previously married mother-of-three love poems from his cell. 'Ten years is a long time. We have every right to be together and to be free,' said Carlos, during a recent telephone conversation with a close friend from inside La Santé. He has since been placed in solitary confinement for phoning out of the prison without permission. 'My wife has been waiting long enough and we deserve a honeymoon,' said Carlos during the call, adding: 'By the grace of God and wheeler-dealing between France and Venezuela, we'll get one.' Rescuers and policemen are seen on the site where a bombed car exploded in Rue Marbeuf, near Champs Elysées in Paris on April 22, 1982. The attack was attributed to Carlos the Jackal For her part, Madame Coutant-Peyre says she is determined to remould her husband's image as an unfeeling killing machine into that of warm human being who was 'illegally captured and imprisoned' by 'politically-motivated' police. 'He is not a criminal,' she says, 'but a politician, like Nelson Mandela.' She has pledged to clear his name 'for all time' and see him return to Venezuela as a released 'political prisoner'. She has her work cut out in pleading his case: for Carlos's reign of terror stretches back to the early 1970s. The son of Left-wing millionaire Venezuelan lawyer Jose Altagracia Ramirez Navas, who named his three sons Vladimir, Ilich and Lenin after the leader of Russia's Bolshevik revolution, Carlos was a paid-up member of the Communist party by the age of ten, and spent time as an undergraduate at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba University, established by the Soviets as a training ground for revolutionaries from Africa, Asia and Latin America. By 1970, he had volunteered for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — which is thought to have first given him the codename Carlos because of his South American lineage — playing an active role for the group in the north of Jordan during the Black September conflict against King Hussein's forces. One person died and 63 were wounded in the 1982 Paris attack in front of the office of pro-Iraqi publication Al Watan al Arabi He was also allegedly a part of an attempt on the life of Joseph Sieff, the Jewish chairman of Marks & Spencer, in London. In 1975 — the year he converted from Catholicism to Islam — he killed two unarmed policemen and one of their informers in Paris after they turned up at his hide-out flat on the Left Bank. He shot them dead and fled through a window, leaving his fingerprints on both the discarded gun and a whisky bottle. In December that year, while still on the run, he became a household name after leading a six-man attack on the Vienna HQ of OPEC, the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries. Carlos, flamboyantly handsome in sunglasses and a Che Guevara beret, took some 70 people hostage, including 11 government ministers. Three hostages were killed, but dozens of others ended up being forced to fly with him to Algeria, where a ransom — thought to have been in the region of £10 million was eventually paid for their return home. Police escort a convoy of prison vans as Carlos the Jackal arrives at the Justice Palace gate in Paris on the first day of his trial for four deadly attacks in France between 1982 and 1983 Exact details of the raid are, like so many of Carlos's exploits, still shrouded in mystery, but it launched a legend which soon saw him linked with almost every terrorist 'spectacular'. In an interview on the eve of the trial with the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, Carlos boasted of being responsible for up to 2,000 deaths. At least 48 'lethal hits' are confirmed, while victims of his bomb blasts were certainly in the hundreds. His favoured killing method was a clean shot to the head with a Russian 7.62m Tokarev pistol, although he was also happy to wander into a crowded bar or restaurant brandishing a grenade, remove the pin, toss it among the occupants and then stroll out again. He spoke of 'International Revolution' during a period when all kinds of revolutionary groups — from militant Eastern Bloc communists to Islamic fundamentalists — were adopted and funded by agencies from each side of the Cold War divide. Police stand in front of the entrance of the courtroom where Carlos the Jackal appeared for the start of his trial In fact, for all his Marxist posturing, he was happy to take millions of pounds from whichever country or organisation could afford to pay him. According to his younger brother Vladimir, a 53-year-old engineer who is himself a militant member of the Venezuelan Communist party, Carlos is innocent of murder. 'I am not willing to declare him guilty of something that is considered a heroic act when committed by powerful nations,' he said from his home in Caracus this week. 'While these double moral standards continue to exist, I will not accept that my brother is guilty of anything other than opposing the hegemony [of Western powers].' He added: 'We were raised to cherish the family above all, and because Ilich was the eldest, he was always my guide, a figure to admire. He was the one who enrolled me in school or told me off, not for smoking, but for doing so without knowing how to.' Isabelle Coutant-Peyre (centre), lawyer and wife of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, speaks to the media before the start of Carlos' trial Carlos's father was determined to school his sons in the ways of Marxism. They were taught at home by Communist tutors and in the 1960s, the family moved to London. During his criminal career — he headed Interpol's 'most wanted' list for decades — Carlos was pursued by intelligence organisations including MI6, the CIA and France's DGSE. But he used numerous aliases to evade capture, and was renowned as a master of disguise. Despite the constant steam of atrocities, he found time to forge intimate and lasting relationships with a number of beautiful women, which only added to his swashbuckling, anti-hero image. According to Magdalena Kopp, who spent 13 years as Carlos's lover and then his first wife: 'He had a way of making women feel they were the other half of the coming revolution.' Recalling their first meeting in the 1970s, she added: 'Carlos simply took me. He laid his pistol next to me on the bedside table and slept with me. It was a sexual act without any emotion, practically a rape. It was always like that.' Once among the world's most feared masterminds of terror, the man known as Carlos the Jackal is now a greying convict serving out a life sentence that may get longer after his latest trial But with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, safe havens were harder to come by. Carlos took refuge in Sudan but was finally captured in the capital Khartoum in 1994 by French secret servicemen who injected him with a sedative, bound and blindfolded him and flew him back to Paris. According to his younger brother — and his legal team — the circumstances of his capture render his trial 'unconstitutional'. He has rarely expressed regret for his crimes — although yesterday he said he was 'sorry for the victims of the attacks. The killed and wounded were in the wrong place at the wrong time'. Earlier this month he told a French radio station that his main regret was not spending more time with 'my children'. 'I was an absent husband most of the time,' he said in one of the illicit telephone interviews which led to him being placed in solitary confinement. 'I couldn't bring up my children, just the youngest one until the age of five or six, and I regret that.' He was referring to Elba Rosa Ramirez Kopp, now 25. There were no more children with either his first wife, or his second, a Palestinian named Lana Jarrar. But he is believed to have fathered others secretly with a long list of lovers. There was a time when Carlos revelled in his image as a lothario. Today, he and his lawyer wife insist that he is the victim of black propaganda. Commenting on the way her husband was regularly linked to criminal organisations around the world, Madame Coutant-Peyre speaks of attempts to 'discredit' him. 'They said he was a Cuban agent, an agent of the KGB, but he never agreed to depend on a particular state, because he's an independent man. He served the states, but he was not dependent on them. He's not a criminal. He is a political man, a freedom fighter, a revolutionary, and he's been very badly treated.' Astonishingly, the couple are even pursuing litigation regarding his image rights. They argue that Carlos, a film released last year by director Olivier Assayas and starring the up-and-coming actor Edgar Ramirez in the lead role, gives a false impression of the terrorist's life and mocks his 'revolutionary comrades'. Not only do they claim the film has denied Carlos a fair trial because juries will be prejudiced by the sensationalism, but they want a share in its royalties. 'I've read the screenplay, there are deliberate falsifications of history and lies,' Carlos said in another of his calls to reporters from prison. Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal appeared in court in Paris today and claimed: 'My profession is a revolutionary.' The once notorious Marxist, now 62, is accused of four bomb attacks in the early 1980s that killed 11 people. He faces at least one life sentence if found guilty at a special anti-terrorist Assizes set up at the Palais de Justice in the French capital. A court sketch of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, in the Palais de Justice this morning on the first day of his trial. He is accused of four deadly attacks in France in 1982 and 1983 Carlos the Jackal arrives at the Paris courthouse today under heavy police guard Speaking to confirm his real name - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - Carlos looked relaxed and calm in jeans, sweatshirt, and a blue casual jacket as he smiled and raised his arm in a clenched-fist salute.  During a number of interventions, Carlos was cheered from the public gallery as he blamed 'Imperialists' for waging war on Muslims, and attacked the 'racist Zionists of Israel'. Referring to those he had killed, Carlos said he was 'sorry for the victims of the attacks. The killed and wounded were in the wrong place at the wrong time'. Infamous: 62-year-old Venezuelan Carlos the Jackal in a 1970s wanted picture, left, and today, right Supporters attending the court included a number of Venezuelans who view Carlos as a political prisoner. As their applause intensified, judges called for order, saying that a courtroom was not a place to hold a political demonstration. He had arrived in a dock made of bullet-proof glass and with a cage roof under conditions of the tightest security from Paris's La Sante prison, where he is already serving life for the 1975 murders of two French secret servicemen and an informer.  Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, lawyer and wife of Carlos the Jackal, pictured today. She will form part of his legal representation during the trial Francoise Rudetzki, former head of the SOS attentats (SOS attacks) - an association of victims of guerrilla attacks - arrives at the Paris courthouse. Carlos, who has recently gone on a hunger strike over his treatment in France's most notorious prison, had been put into isolation for using a phone to speak to journalists about the upcoming trial. After being convicted of the murders in 1997, he claimed he had been 'stitched up' by Israeli secret service, Mossad. The new charges relate to four deadly attacks in France in 1982 and 1983, which killed 11 people and wounded another 100. Prosecutors allege he carried out the attacks in order to force the authorities to release two of his accomplices, including Magdalena Kopp, whom he went on to marry. Today, Carlos's legal team included his third wife, barrister Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, 58, whom the notorious womaniser married in prison a decade ago. The trial is taking place under tight security - with a dock made of bulletproof glass and a roof cage The scene of a car bomb explosion near Champs Elysées in Paris on April 22, 1982, which left one dead and 63 wounded. Carlos has been accused of four terrorist attacks in France during the 1980s Supporting her husband before the trial, Ms Coutant-Peyre said: 'He is not a criminal but a politician, like Nelson Mandela. He is a freedom fighter - a revolutionary.' When it was pointed out that Carlos had admitted killing hundreds during his career as a 'super terrorist', Ms Coutant-Peyre said: 'It's very unfortunate for the victims, but there's always a reason in international politics.' In another interview on the eve of the trial, Carlos admitted being responsible for up to 2,000 deaths. Jailed: Carlos raised his fist as he appeared in court in Paris on November 28, 2000 Enlarge High security: La Sante prison in Paris, where Carlos the Jackal has gone on hunger strike He told El Nacional, a newspaper in his home country of Venezuela, that 'of the 1,500 to 2,000, there were no more than 200 civilian casualties'. Carlos said he co-ordinated 'over 100' attacks during his terrorist career, claiming that 'minor errors' had seen innocent people hurt. He also singled out America and Israel as his 'main imperialist enemies'. Ms Coutant-Peyre is convinced she can get Carlos out of his 'filthy dungeon' and see him returned home to Venezuela as a pardoned political prisoner. Carlos, who got his nickname from the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day Of The Jackal, first made international headlines in 1975 when he led a commando raid on an Opec oil cartel meeting in Vienna. The raid led to three deaths, with Carlos then flying to Algeria with the dozens of hostages and ending up extracting a ransom of around £10million. Despite his confidence, Carlos is now a pale shadow of the swashbuckling young 'revolutionary Marxist' who regularly used to appear in a Che Guevara beret and sunglasses. Six terrorists with sub-machine guns, who took over the Opec HQ in 1975 and held 32 people hostage, board a DC9 aircraft after ordering the crew to fly them to Algeria. Carlos is pictured far left Carlos, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1975, denies all the current charges which he is facing. If convicted, he would have to serve a maximum penalty of life, with a minimum of 22 years jail. In a letter to the Ministry of Justice, Carlos's lawyer Francis Vuillemin said his hunger strike was in response to 'the deliberate violation of my client's rights by the prison administration'. Mr Vuillemin said a computer which Carlos had been able to use to prepare his defence case had been 'dismantled and thrown in pieces into a cardboard box, with no possibility of it being set up in his isolation cell'. The trial, which is expected to last for a month, continues. CARLOS THE JACKAL: A LIFE OF CRIME 1949: Born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela. 1959: Joins the youth movement of the national communist party. 1966: Reportedly spends the summer at a guerrilla warfare school run by the Cuban General Intelligence Directorate.   1970: Expelled from University in Moscow, Carlos first volunteers for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and is sent to a training camp staffed by Iraqi military. 1971: Plays an active role for the PFLP in the north of Jordan during the Black September conflict. 1973: Failed assassination attempt on vice president of the British Zionist Federation, Joseph Sieff. Admits responsibility for a failed bomb attack in London, and 3 car bomb attacks in France. Claims to be the grenade thrower in a Parisian restaurant that kills 2 and injures 30. 1975: Raid on Opec HQ in Vienna, killing three. Two failed rocket-propelled grenade attacks on planes at Orly airport, Paris. Escapes apprehension in Paris after shooting two detectives, and escapes to Beirut. 1976: Forms the Organisation of Arab Armed Struggle. Forms a contact with  East Germany’s Stasi. 1982: Failed rocket attack on a French nuclear power station. 1983: Attacks the Maison de France in West Berlin, killing one and injuring 22. Claims responsibility for bombs on two TGV trains, killing four and injuring dozens. 1994: Charged with the murders of two policemen and a PFLP-guerrilla-turned-French informant. Sent to prison in Paris. 1997: Found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. 2003: Publishes a book, Revolutionary Islam, from his jail cell.  Voices support for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.   Now a series of fascinating new photographs reveal what life was like behind the razor wire topped walls of Paris' infamous La Santé jail over its colourful 147 year history. Opened in 1867, the fortress prison in Paris' 14th district has held some of France's most notorious criminals, including the international terrorist known as 'Carlos the Jackal,' Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon and rogue trader Jerome Kerviel. +9 Empty: Paris' infamous La Santé jail has been closed for four years while it undergoes a major revamp +9 The last 60 inmates left the crumbling prison in the summer and it is not due to re-open its doors until 2019 The last 60 inmates left the crumbling prison in the summer to make way for the massive four year regeneration project. The jail is due to reopen in 2019 and will have 800 beds. In 2000 La Santé sparked a parliamentary inquiry after its chief medical officer, Véronique Vasseur, published a diary chronicling overcrowding and brutal conditions faced by inmates. At the time the jail, that was built to hold 1,400 inmates, housed 2,300 people.  Following the report a number of the most derelict blocks were closed and the four year revamp was ordered by justice minister Christiane Taubira. An official report published in 2012 highlighted the building's 'decrepit and humid walls,' and 'faulty window locks', among other defects. +9 An official report published in 2012 made note of the building's 'decrepit and humid walls,' floor coverings that were 'damaged or missing' and 'faulty window locks', among other defects +9 The prison was originally built to house 1,400 inmates in cells like the one pictured +9 Inmates pictures have been left behind on the walls of La Santé La Santé, named after a neighbouring hospital, first became infamous in the 20th century as the site of most of France's public executions. More recently it has become know for its A-list inmates. Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan terrorist, did time at La Santé after he was jailed for life in 1975 for the murder of an informant for the French government and two French counter-intelligence agents. Poet Guillaume Apollinaire spent a week in jail there in 1911 after he was briefly accused of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. +9 Gangster Jacques Mesrine and François Besse were the first to escape from La Santé after holding two prison guards hostage and stealing their uniforms +9 Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan terrorist, did time at La Santé after he was jailed for life in 1975 for the murder of an informant for the French government and two French counter-intelligence agents +9 The most spectacular jailbreak was staged by the wife of bank robber, Michel Vaujour , who landed a helicopter on the prison roof Gangster Jacques Mesrine and François Besse were the first to escape from La Sante in the 1970s, after holding two prison guards hostage and stealing their uniforms. The most spectacular jailbreak was staged by the wife of bank robber, Michel Vaujour, who landed a helicopter on the prison roof in 1986. Other notorious inmates include, businessman Bernard Tapie, found guilty of a match-fix scandal in 1995, and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon. +9 Only a handful of prison guards remain at the closed jail while the four year revamp is taking place at the notorious prison

Shredded Stasi files have been pieced together to reveal how global terrorist Carlos the Jackal was supplied with weapons and given sanctuary by the East German secret police. While the West was hunting the man responsible for atrocities all over the world, the Communist regime in Berlin was busy handing him the means to carry out more. But not only did the Stasi offer him sanctuary and supplies, it ensured the killer was feted and indulged like a dignitary from the Soviet Kremlin.   Then and now: Carlos the Jackal, real name Illich Ramirez Sanchez as he was in 1970 (left) and in 2006 (right). Recent evidence has shown widespread support for the man dubbed the most wanted terrorist until 9/11 While it has long been known that he used the former Communist East German state as a refuge, paperwork obtained by the German news magazine Focus reveals just how extensive the support for him was. Carlos – born Illich Ramirez Sanchez and responsible for at least 80 deaths in global terror outrages – was given a staff of 75 to plot further deaths and provided with guns, explosives and an archive of forged papers. He was also provided with a network of safe houses and accomplices who included nursing sisters, lecturers, actors, union officials, apprentices and at least one physician Enlarge Six terrorists with sub-machine guns who took over the OPEC headquarters in 1975 and held 32 people hostage board a DC9 aircraft they had commanded to fly them to Algeria. Carlos is pictured far left The Stasi even repaired his cars for him and sent staff to ensure that his telephones were secure at all times. Carlos, his partner and sidekick, the West German terrorist Johannes Weinrich, were treated like visiting Politburo members from Moscow. The paperwork, which has been reassembled by a computer programme, shows at least ten of his East German entourage were privy to the terror plans he formulated while in the country. Carlos, a Venezuelan, loved his image as a renegade and an outlaw so much that it was recorded in the files how he liked to strut around the Alexanderplatz – one of the main squares in the east of the divided city – with an automatic weapon in a holster strapped to his leg. The relationship with the Stasi was so close that his handlers knew the times and places of planned attacks and this was information shared with the KGB in Moscow, the files reveal.East German officials embraced Carlos because they viewed him as an enemy of capitalism who would do much of their dirty work for them. Enlarge Carlos the Jackal's handwritten will (left) of 1998 asking Islamic fighters to avenge him by executing Americans and Zionists should he die. Although a terrorist responsible for many deaths he is seen as a cultural icon by some (right) as on the cover of the Black Grape album 'It's Great When You're Straight' It was the same kind of patronage the regime showed towards the terrorists of the Bader-Meinhoff gang and the Red Army Faction, members of both groups being given succour and shelter in the GDR. A few days before the end of November 1981, Soviet leader Leonid Breznhev planned a visit to the then West German capital Bonn. ‘Please ensure no actions from Carlos during this visit,’ requested the KGB. Carlos was warned off even though he was in fact planning an attack in the West. He was born to a Leninist father, who gave him Lenin’s second name Illich. He became a supporter of the Palestinian cause in the early 1970s. He was blamed for a failed attempt to assassinate Joseph Sieff, the Jewish head of Marks & Spencer, in London in 1973 and also took part in two failed rocket-propelled grenade attacks on El Al aircraft at Orly Airport in Paris in 1975. Later that year, he fled to Beirut, where he helped plan the attack on the headquarters of OPEC in Vienna. Three hostages died in the outrage. It was in the late 70s that he developed links with the Stasi. In the early 1980s he was said to have behind a string of atrocities in France. Tracked down to Sudan in 1994, he was convicted of murder in France in 1997 and is now serving a life sentence.   Long live the revolution!: Carlos the Jackal, 62, has been sentenced to a second life term Carlos the Jackal will spend the rest of his life in prison after being handed a second life sentence. The once notorious international terrorist is already serving time in a high security jail in Paris for numerous crimes carried out some 30 years ago. Now the 62-year-old’s trial for a series of bombings in France which killed 11 people and maimed dozens of others during the 1980s has come to an end. Judges sitting on a special anti-terrorist Assizes bench set up at the Palais de Justice in the French capital ruled he should serve a second life sentence 'with no possibility of parole for 18 years'. It followed Carlos, whose real name is Carlos Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, ending a five hour self-justificatory monologue with the words: 'Long live the revolution!'. Reading from a notebook, he added: 'I am a living archive. Most of the people like me are dead.' He also praised his old sponsor, the late Colonel Gaddafi of Libya, saying: 'This man did more than all the revolutionaries.' Carlos had argued that all of the atrocities were on behalf of 'decent' political causes, including 'Marxist revolution' and 'Palestinian liberation'. But prosecutor Olivier Bray said Carlos was in fact a profit-motivated criminal who always aimed to 'kill the maximum number of people with the minimum of risk.'He had called for the maximum available sentence to be handed down to the Venezuelan, who became infamous in 1975 when his commando group took numerous hostages from a meeting of the OPEC oil organisation in Vienna. Mr Bray said the 1982 and 1983 bomb attacks in major cities including Paris were not 'targeted political atrocities' but 'blind' mass-murders. All were carried as part of a campaign by Carlos to force the authorities to release two of his accomplices, including Magdalena Kopp, whom he went on to marry. The court heard how a letter carrying Carlos's fingerprints had been received by the then French government threatening 'war' if the pair were not released within 30 days. The Jackal howls: Carlos did not go quietly, with a five-hour rant about his revolutionary pedigree Literary figure: An artist's impression of Carlos - who earned his nickname from the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day Of The Jackal - sitting in court during the sentencing, notepad in hand Referring to Carlos, Mr Bray said: 'It is the duty of democracies to never give up on arresting criminals behind attacks like this, and bringing them to justice.' Among Carlos’s legal team was his third wife, barrister Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, 58, whom the notorious womaniser married in prison a decade ago. In an interview on the eve of the trial, Carlos admitted being responsible for up to 2,000 deaths. He told El Nacional, a newspaper in his home country of Venezuela, that 'of the 1,500 to 2,000, there were no more than 200 civilian casualties'. Carlos said he co-ordinated 'over 100' attacks during his terrorist career, claiming that 'minor errors' had seen innocent people hurt. He also singled out America and Israel as his 'main imperialist enemies'. Ms Coutant-Peyre was convinced she could get Carlos out of his 'filthy dungeon' and see him returned home to Venezuela as a pardoned political prisoner. Enlarge The art of justice: The court artist in France created a character sketch of the major players in the case; barrister, defendant, judge and Jackal. Carlos, who got his nickname from the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day Of The Jackal, is now a pale shadow of the swashbuckling young 'revolutionary Marxist' who regularly used to appear in a Che Guevara beret and sunglasses. Carlos, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1975, denied all the latest charges. But his life sentence means he will almost certainly spend the rest of his days in jail.