title: Groningen

text: The running event called 4 Miles of Groningen takes place in the city on the second Sunday of October every year with over 23,000 participants. The 2002 Giro d'Italia began in Groningen, including the prologue and the start of the first stage. The city hosted the start and finish of the fifth stage of the 2013 Energiewacht Tour.


title: Groningen

text: As of 2020, around 25% of the 230,000 inhabitants in Groningen are students. The city has the highest density of students and the lowest mean age in the Netherlands.


title: Groningen

text: The University of Groningen (in Dutch: "Rijksuniversiteit Groningen"), established in 1614 is the second oldest university in the Netherlands (after the University of Leiden). The university educated the country's first female student, Aletta Jacobs, the first Dutch national astronaut, Wubbo Ockels, the first president of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, and two Nobel laureates; Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (in Physics) and Ben Feringa (in Chemistry). The university has about 31,000 students—22% of which are international.


title: Groningen

text: The Hanze University of Applied Sciences (in Dutch: "Hanzehogeschool Groningen") was founded in 1986 and is more focused on the practical application of knowledge, offering bachelor and master courses in fields like Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Communication and Multimedia Design, and Renewable Energy. With around 8.1% international students, Hanze hosts more than 28,000 students and is one of the largest universities of applied sciences by enrollment in the Netherlands.


title: Groningen

text: As of January 2019, the Groningen municipality council has 45 members. GroenLinks is the largest party on the council with 11 seats. The PvdA holds 6 seats. Both D66 and the Socialist Party have 5 seats. The VVD has 4 seats, while ChristenUnie and the Party for the Animals each have 3 seats. Christian Democratic Appeal, and Stadspartij have 2 seats each; the 2 remaining seats are divided between Student en Stad and the right party Party for Freedom.


title: Groningen

text: Groningen also has a trilateral partnership with the nearby northern German cities of Bremen and Oldenburg.


title: Groningen

text: Groningen is known as the "World Cycling City"; around 57% of its residents use a bicycle for regular commute within the city. In 2000, Groningen was chosen as the "Fietsstad 2002", the top cycle-city in the Netherlands for 2002. Similar to most Dutch cities, Groningen is developed to accommodate a large number of cyclists. An extensive network of bike paths were planned to make it more convenient to cycle to various destinations instead of taking a car.


title: Groningen

text: The city has segregated cycle-paths, public transport, and a large pedestrianised zone in the city centre. Groningen's city centre was remodeled into a "pedestrian priority zone" to promote walking and biking. This was achieved by applying the principle of filtered permeability—the network configuration favours active transportation and selectively "filters out" traveling in a car by reducing the number of streets that run through the centre. The streets that are discontinuous for cars connect to a network of pedestrian and bike paths which permeate the entire centre. In addition, these paths go through public squares and open spaces, increasing the aesthetic appeal of the trip and encouraging more participation. The logic of filtering a mode of transport is fully expressed in a comprehensive model for laying out neighbourhoods and districts—the fused grid.


title: Groningen

text: Groningen railway station (in Dutch: "Hoofdstation") is the main railway station and has regular services to most of the major cities in the country. The city's remaining two railway stations are Europapark and Noord.


title: Groningen

text: The A28 motorway connects Groningen to Utrecht (via Assen, Zwolle and Amersfoort). The A7 motorway connects it to Friesland and Zaandam (West), and Winschoten and Leer (East).


title: Groningen

text: Groningen Airport Eelde is an international airport located near Eelde, in Drenthe, with scheduled services to Guernsey, Gran Canaria, Antalya, Crete, Mallorca & Bodrum.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Fernando Ruiz Hierro (; born 23 March 1968) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, sweeper or defensive midfielder. He is the current sporting director of Liga MX club C.D. Guadalajara.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: He won five La Liga and three Champions League trophies with Real Madrid in 14 years after signing from Valladolid, during which he appeared in 601 official matches. He also competed professionally in Qatar and England.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro represented Spain on 89 occasions, appearing in four World Cups and two European Championships. He started working as a manager in 2016 with Oviedo, being appointed at the helm of the national team two years later.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro was born in Vélez-Málaga, Province of Málaga. After beginning his football career at local club Vélez CF he had a very brief youth spell with neighbouring CD Málaga, where he was told he was not good enough for the sport, which prompted a return home. He eventually made his La Liga debut with Real Valladolid, being bought by Real Madrid in the summer of 1989 after two solid seasons.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: At Real, Hierro scored seven goals in 37 games in his first season, and eventually had his position on the field advanced by coach Radomir Antić, continuing his good performances with the addition of goals – in three seasons combined he netted an astonishing 44 league goals, 21 alone in 1991–92, a career-best. During years, he often partnered club great Manolo Sanchís in the centre of the defense, being instrumental in the conquest of five leagues and three UEFA Champions League trophies and being named captain after the latter's retirement.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: On 24 March 2002, Hierro scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 home win against Real Zaragoza, although the ultimate leaders would be Valencia CF. He was released at the end of the 2002–03 season alongside club manager Vicente del Bosque, under rather unceremonious circumstances; having appeared in 497 top-division matches over the course of 16 seasons (105 goals), he then chose a lucrative move to the wealthy but developing Middle East football industry, joining Qatar's Al-Rayyan SC.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: After just one year, Hierro returned to Europe to sign with Premier League side Bolton Wanderers on the advice of his English teammate at Real Madrid Steve McManaman, and teaming up with another former player of that club, Iván Campo. He scored once during his tenure, which came in a 3–2 loss at Norwich City in December 2004 and, even though hard-pressed by fans and manager Sam Allardyce to stay for a further campaign, he announced his retirement from professional football on 10 May 2005.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro was capped 89 times for Spain and scored 29 goals, being only surpassed by Raúl (who also took over his captain armband in June 2002, when he retired), David Silva, Fernando Torres and David Villa. He made his debut on 20 September 1989 – freshly signed by Madrid – in a 1–0 friendly victory over Poland in A Coruña, and appeared for the nation in the 1990 (although only as a squad member), 1994, 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups, as well as UEFA Euro 1996 (where he missed a penalty as Spain crashed out to hosts England in a shootout) and 2000.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: One of Hierro's most important goals came during the 1994 World Cup qualification, as he headed the winner against Denmark that allowed ten-men Spain to qualify for the final tournament in the United States. In the finals, he scored after an individual effort against Switzerland in the round of 16, before his team was eliminated by Italy in the quarter-finals following a 2–1 loss.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Although he had already been in charge for a few weeks, Hierro was officially presented as sporting director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation in late September 2007. He remained four years in the position.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro returned to his native region in July 2011, being appointed Málaga CF's director of football. On 28 May 2012, even though the club finished fourth and qualified for the Champions League for the first time ever, he left his position.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: On 10 July 2014, Hierro was named assistant coach of Real Madrid, replacing Zinedine Zidane – who left to take the reins of Real Madrid Castilla – in Carlo Ancelotti's staff. He was given his first full managerial role two years later, being appointed at Segunda División side Real Oviedo for the upcoming season with the option of a further year; on 14 June 2017, after missing out on the promotion playoffs on the final matchday, he left the Estadio Carlos Tartiere by mutual consent.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro returned to the Royal Spanish Football Federation as sporting director on 27 November 2017. He was appointed as the manager of Spain on 13 June 2018 after the sacking of Julen Lopetegui two days before their first match at the World Cup, following the latter's decision to join Real Madrid after the tournament. Two days later, he led the team to a 3–3 group stage draw against Portugal; on 8 July, following a penalty shootout loss to hosts Russia in the round of 16, he stepped down from his post and also announced that he would not return to his role as sporting director.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: In 21 October 2022, Hierro was announced as sporting director of C.D. Guadalajara in the Mexican Liga MX.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Equally at ease as a central defender, sweeper or defensive midfielder, Hierro had the ability, at his peak, to combine solid defensive play with a near-unlimited passing range and surprising goalscoring talent, which made him one of the world's most sought-after players. A large, physically imposing and intimidating defensive presence, he was also known for his positional sense, strength in the air, tenacity and the ability to time his challenges well.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Regarded as a highly competitive and hard-tackling defender, "The Times" placed Hierro at number 43 in their list of the 50 hardest footballers in history in 2007.


title: Fernando Hierro

text: Hierro's older brothers, Antonio and Manuel, were also professional footballers and defenders. The latter paired up with Fernando at Valladolid, as the club finished eighth in 1987–88.


title: Josh Lawson

text: Joshua Lawson (born 22 July 1981) is an Australian actor and filmmaker best known for his role as Doug Gugghenheim in "House of Lies", Tate in "Superstore" and as Kano in the 2021 film "Mortal Kombat".


title: Josh Lawson

text: Lawson was born and raised in Brisbane, and attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2001. He also spent one year studying improvisation techniques in Los Angeles at The Second City, The Groundlings, ACME Comedy Theatre and I.O. West. His older brother is actor Ben Lawson.


title: Josh Lawson

text: Lawson has had guest-starring roles in such popular Australian television programs as "Blue Heelers" and "Home & Away", and is known for his appearances on the improv comedy program "Thank God You're Here" and on the Australian drama "Sea Patrol" and comedy "The Librarians". He also had a guest role in the comedy "Wilfred" and starred in several television commercials, including advertisements for Coca-Cola Cherry and Gold Class cinemas.


title: Josh Lawson

text: He portrayed Tate Staskiewicz, the pharmacist in the series' titular setting, on the sitcom "Superstore" for three seasons.


title: Josh Lawson

text: Lawson played Ben in the American pilot "Spaced" and Shawn on "Romantically Challenged" for ABC. Since its inception in 2012, he has played management consultant Doug Guggenheim on Showtime's "House of Lies".


title: Josh Lawson

text: In 2006, Lawson made his feature film debut in "BoyTown". He had the starring role in the 2012 Australian comedy film "Any Questions for Ben?", created by Working Dog Productions. He also appeared alongside Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis in the 2010 comedy film "The Campaign", as well as "" and "Crave".


title: Josh Lawson

text: His feature directing debut "The Little Death" which he also wrote and starred in, was released in 2014.


title: Josh Lawson

text: Lawson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2018 for "The Eleven O'Clock", a short film he wrote and starred in.


title: Josh Lawson

text: In 2018, Lawson portrayed "Dave Johnson" in the comedy pilot for the CBS series "Here Comes the Neighborhood" (later "The Neighborhood"), but was replaced by actor Max Greenfield before the series was picked up by the network.


title: Josh Lawson

text: During 2006 and 2007, Lawson was a regular guest co-host on the Australian radio comedy show "Get This" which aired on Triple M. In 2013, he voiced the role of Bob in the Cartoon Hangover short film "Rocket Dog".


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) is an eight-wheel drive, diesel-powered, tactical truck. The M977 HEMTT first entered service in 1982 with the United States Army as a replacement for the M520 Goer, and since that date has remained in production for the U.S. Army and other nations. By Q2 2021, around 35,800 HEMTTs in various configurations had been produced by Oshkosh Defense through new-build contracts and around 14,000 of these had been re-manufactured. Current variants have the A4 suffix.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The 10×10 Logistic Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR) is the United States Marines Corps' (USMC) equivalent to the U.S. Army's 8×8 HEMTT and 10×10 Palletized Load System (PLS). The USMC do not use the HEMTT or PLS, and the Army does not use the LVSR, but both services use a common trailer (M1076) with all three truck types.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Following the evaluation of proposals submitted by AM General, MAN, Pacific Car & Foundry (PACCAR) and Oshkosh Truck Corporation (with PACCAR–GMC team being the apparent leader of the competition, with pre-production assembly line already established) in May 1981, the then U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command awarded an initial five-year contract valued at US$251.13 million to Oshkosh Truck Corporation for production of the 8×8 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT).


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The first prototype HEMTT was completed in December 1981, pre-production examples followed during March 1982, with the first production vehicles produced in September 1982. Over five contract years, 2,140 vehicles were to be delivered. Contract options allowed for up to an additional 5,351 HEMTTs to be ordered, bringing production totals to 7,490 vehicles. The bulk of these options were exercised.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The second HEMTT contract was awarded to Oshkosh Truck Corporation in April 1987. This contract called for a base quantity of 1,403 vehicles, with options for an additional 1,684 vehicles; all contract options were exercised. A supplemental agreement added a further 1,449 vehicles (plus an option for 363 vehicles) to the second HEMTT contract in April 1989; the contract option was exercised. The third HEMTT production contract was awarded mid-1994 and when deliveries under this concluded over 14,000 HEMTTS had been produced. The fourth HEMTT production contract was awarded in August 1995, this extending production through September 2001.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) contract was awarded to Oshkosh by the U.S. Army in March 2001. In addition to the HEMTT (both new and re-manufacture), the contract covered the M1070 HET, M1074, and M1075 Palletized Load System (PLS) trucks, and M1076 PLS trailers and called for up to 5,398 trucks and 1,100 trailers (including options). FHTV covered the production period from March 2001 until mid-fiscal year 2006 (FY06). The FHTV contract was extended and renegotiated, and in February 2007, Oshkosh announced it had been awarded a contract to continue production of FHTVs. The follow-on FHTV contract (FHTV 2) covered new production of HEMTTs (including current A4 variants from mid-2008) and PLS vehicles plus PLS trailers. In total, 2,173 new-build HEMTT A4 and 104 Recap HEMTT A4 were ordered under FHTV 2.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Production of product-improved HEMTT A2s continued until production of the HEMTT A4 began in July 2008. The exception was the M1977, which initially remained at A2 configuration for fleet commonality reasons; there is now an M1977A4.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Oshkosh Defense announced in October 2008 that it had been awarded the FHTV 3 contract by the U.S. Army's TACOM. More than 6,000 vehicles and trailers could be delivered under this three-year contract. FHTV 3 covered the HEMTT A4 and A1 models of the PLS and HET, and both new and recapitalized (Recap) vehicles. HEMTT A4 models were required to be Long Term Armor Strategy (LTAS) compliant and came off the assembly line fitted with upgraded suspensions and integral composite (A-kit) armor, and ready to receive an add-on (B-kit) armor appliqué.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The first FHTV 3 order was valued at US$1.2 billion and delivery commenced in November 2008. By late-2009, about 11,500 HEMTT A4s (new-build and Recap) had been ordered under the FHTV 2 and 3 contracts.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Oshkosh Defense announced in 2012 that it had been awarded a bridge contract to continue production and support of the FHTV. In October 2013, the U.S. Army released a revised pre-solicitation notice associated with FHTV 4 (presented FHTV IV). The original synopsis had been released in July 2013. According to the October release, the government intends to award a five-year requirements contract with an estimated value of US$822 million on a sole source basis to Oshkosh Corporation. It is understood the aim of the U.S. Army, was to ensure negotiations with Oshkosh Defense for FHTV IV were concluded in time to ensure there was no break in production between FHTV 3 and FHTV IV production and deliveries.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: On 19 June 2015, Oshkosh Defense announced the U.S. Army had awarded the company a five-year requirements contract worth a potential $780 million to Recapitalize (Recap) its Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV). The FHTV 4 contract covers an estimated 1,800 FHTVs and in addition to HEMTTs covers PLS trucks and also includes the production of approximately 1,000 new production PLS trailers. HEMTT models account for around 75 per cent of the Recap potential, and all work performed under the contract will be completed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Deliveries will run from 2015 to 2019. In March 2016, Oshkosh received FHTV 4 awards valued at $430 million and covering the Recap of 1212 HEMTTs and PLS, plus the production of 345 new-build PLS trailers. Deliveries are slated for 2016–2017. In April 2017, Oshkosh announced further FHTV 4 awards valued at more than $258 million for the Recap of 670 FHTVs plus the production of 356 PLS trailers. Deliveries commence in December 2017. On 23 May 2018 Oshkosh announced a further FHTV-4 award, this valued at $235.2 million for the Recap of 410 FHTVs and the manufacture of 680 new PLS trailers. Deliveries commence in FY19. On 8 February 2019 Oshkosh announced an FHTV-4 award valued at $225.7 million for the Recap of 407 FHTVs and the manufacture of 601 new PLS trailers. Deliveries commence in FY19.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The final FHTV 4 award was announced by Oshkosh in March 2020. The award was valued at US$346.4 million and called for an undisclosed quantity of U.S. Army and U..S Army Reserve FHTVs to be Recap’d. Quantities/breakdown were not revealed, and deliveries were scheduled to conclude in December 2021.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: On 3 May 2021 the U.S. Army announced that it had awarded Oshkosh Defense a three-year extension to the FHTV 4 contract. Under the extension, Oshkosh will provide new and Recap'd HEMTT, PLS trucks and trailers, and HETs. The initial delivery orders call for a total of 353 new and recapitalized vehicles, with HEMTTs accounting for US$130.5 million (inc. 33.8 million for M1977A4 CBTs) of the US$146.8 million total.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Used vehicles can be returned to Oshkosh as part of a recapitalization program where they are stripped to their frame rails and then fully rebuilt to a zero-hour, zero-mile, like-new condition. Recapitalized vehicles are assembled on the same production line as new vehicles, and put through the same performance tests and inspection procedures as new vehicles. Recapitalized vehicles are returned to the Army with a new bumper-to-bumper warranty and include air-conditioned and armor-ready cabs; electrical upgrades, and an anti-lock braking system.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Parallel to the FHTV 4 extension effort, the U.S. Army's Heavy Tactical Vehicles (HTV) PEO CS&CSS issued on 20 July 2020 Notice ID W56HZV-20-R-0237, a Request for Information (RfI) for the Next Generation Future Truck (NGFT). Responses were due by 24 August 2020 for what was quickly renamed the Common Tactical Truck (CTT). It is the intent that CTT will replace the HEMTT, plus the PLSA1 and M915 Truck Tractor, Line Haul. The Army desires five variants of the NGFT/CTT, and all with the option to perform semi-autonomous or autonomous operations. The five variants currently mooted are: a wrecker to recover Stryker, MRAPs, and other tactical wheeled vehicles up to 40 US tons; an LHS Heavy variant with crane to transport flatrack with up to 16 tons of cargo payload; a Tractor variant operable with the M870, M871, M172, M872, M967 tanker, M1062 tanker, future tanker (8,200 gallons), and commercial standard trailers; a Tanker variant with a 2,500 gallon threshold or objective fuel payload greater than 2,500 gallons; and a Cargo variant with crane capable of carrying a payload of up to 22 tons or greater.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The HEMTT's objective is to provide heavy transport capabilities for supply and re-supply of combat vehicles and weapons systems. Compared to earlier generation 5-ton trucks in U.S. Army service it offers increased payload and mobility. The HEMTT is available in a variety of configurations, including cargo, tanker, tractor and wrecker.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The HEMTT was developed from the outset as a tactical truck, but to minimize procurement and life cycle costs included militarized commercial automotive components where possible, these including the engine and transmission. Some components used in early HEMTTs are common with the Oshkosh Logistics Vehicle System (LVS) vehicles which were supplied to the U.S. Marine Corps.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: With the exception of the M984 wrecker variant (254 × 89 × 9.5 mm, front; 356 × 89 × 9.5 mm, rear), on all HEMTT variants the chassis is formed of 257 × 89 × 9.5 mm heat-treated carbon manganese steel with a yield strength of 758 MPa. Bolted construction with Grade 8 bolts is used throughout. A centrally mounted self-recovery winch is an option and this is fitted to around 20% of production.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The HEMTT's two-door forward control cab seats two. It is of heavy-duty welded steel construction with corrosion-resistant sheet metal skins. Simula Inc. (acquired by Armor Holdings in 2003 and now BAE Systems) supplied 186 add-on cab armoring kits for use in the former Yugoslavia. These were not issued, but from 2004 were used in Iraq. BAE systems supplied a next-generation armor kit for the HEMTT and by late-2006 had supplied the U.S. Army with around 3600 kits for the Oshkosh HEMTT and PLS. The HEMTT A4 is fitted with the slightly larger from the Oshkosh PLS A1. This cab complies with the U.S. Army's Long Term Armor Strategy (LTAS) requirements of an A- and B-kit armoring philosophy. It also comes as standard with integrated floor armor, an integrated mount for a machine gun and gunner protection kit, and air-conditioning.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: A Detroit Diesel 8V92TA V-8 two-stroke diesel developing is fitted in HEMTT A0 and A1 models, with the DDECIV version of this engine fitted to A2 HEMTTs. An EPA 2004 compliant Caterpillar (CAT) C-15 six-cylinder, 15.2-liter diesel developing a peak of is fitted to HEMTT A4 models. HEMTT A0 and A1 models are fitted with an Allison HT 740D 4F/1R automatic transmission, torque converter, and Oshkosh two-speed transfer case. HEMTT A2 models have the Allison HD 4560P 6F/1R automatic transmission. HEMTT A4 models are fitted with an Allison 4500SP 5F/1R automatic transmission and an uprated version of Oshkosh's two-speed transfer case.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: The front axles on all HEMTTs are single-reduction Oshkosh 46K, the rear are Dana single-reduction which vary according to configuration. Drive to the front axles is selectable and all axles have differential locks. Suspension on A0/A1/A3 models is by Hendrickson leaf springs with equalizing beams. Suspension on A4 models is Holland air suspension, load rating on the rear axles varying by configuration. Tire size is 1600 R20 on all models, and standard tire fit is Michelin XZL.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: All models are capable of fording water crossings up to deep, and can climb a gradient of at least 60%. All original variants are air transportable in the C-130. All variants are air-transportable in the C-17.


title: Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

text: Original HEMTT models now have the suffix A0. Only the M984 wrecker was produced in A1 configuration. All models were produced in A2 configuration. The A3 suffix is applied to HEMTT technology demonstrators with a diesel-electric drive system. Current HEMTT production models have the suffix A4.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The color cyan, a greenish-blue, has notable tints and shades. It is one of the subtractive primary colors along with magenta, and yellow.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The first recorded use of "cyan blue" as a color name was in 1879 ("cyan blue" being the name used for "cyan" in the 19th century).


title: Shades of cyan

text: In color printing, the shade of cyan called process cyan or pigment cyan is one of the three primary pigment colors which, along with yellow and magenta, constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. (The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green, and red.) As such, the CMYK printing process was invented in the 1890s, when newspapers began to publish color comic strips.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Process cyan is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure cyan ink. A typical formulation of "process cyan" is shown in the color box at right. The source of the color shown at right is the color cyan that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the tintbooks for CMYK printing.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The web color cyan, shown at the right, is one of the three secondary colors in the RGB color model, used for creating all colors on a computer or television display by mixing various combinations of red, green and blue light. The X11 name for this color is cyan; the HTML name for the same color is aqua. They are both composed of the same mixture of blue and green light, and are exactly the same color.


title: Shades of cyan

text: In an artistic context, this color could also be called azure mist or cyan mist. Despite its name, this color is a lighter shade of cyan rather than a shade of azure.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Bleu celeste ("sky blue") is a rarely occurring tincture in heraldry (not being one of the seven main colors or metals or the three "staynard colors"). This tincture is sometimes also called ciel or simply celeste. It is depicted in a lighter shade than the range of shades of the more traditional tincture azure, which is the standard blue used in heraldry. It has been used rarely since the 17th century, gaining popularity after the First World War.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Charleston green" is an extremely dark shade of cyan. The name "Charleston green" originated after the American Civil War, approximately 1865, when during Reconstruction, it was widely used to paint homes in Charleston, South Carolina.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Electric blue is a color close to cyan that is a representation of the color of lightning, an electric spark, and argon signs; it is named after the ionized air glow produced during electrical discharges.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The color name "keppel" has been in use since 2001, when it was promulgated as one of the colors on the Xona.com Color List.


title: Shades of cyan

text: It (or more specifically #004C54) has been the primary team color for the National Football League (NFL)'s Philadelphia Eagles since 1996.


title: Shades of cyan

text: It was formulated by Crayola in 1994 as part of their Gem Tones range of crayons. It is a slightly dark shade of cyan that is reminiscent of the bluish-green glow of some moonstones.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Myrtle green", also called "myrtle", is a color which is a representation of the color of the leaves of the myrtle plant.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Myrtle" is the official designation of the green stripes on Waterloo rugby club's shirts, the green of Hunslet rugby league club, the green (along with the cardinal red) stripes of the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the green of the blazers, sports kit and scarf of St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow. It is also one of the school colors of Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, the other being old gold.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The baggy green, the cricket cap worn by Australian Test cricketers since around the turn of the twentieth century, is "myrtle green" in color.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The color peacock blue is a deep greenish blue, from the iridescent color of a peacock. As a color between blue and cyan, peacock blue has been used as the process-blue ink in four-color printing.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Pine green" is a rich shade of spring green that resembles the color of pine trees. It is an official Crayola color (since 1903).


title: Shades of cyan

text: Pine green is a rich dark shade of cyan that resembles the color of pine trees. It is an official Crayola color (since 1903) that is this exact shade in the Crayola crayon, but in the markers, it is known as "crocodile green".


title: Shades of cyan

text: The color "pine green" is a representation of the average color of the leaves of the trees of a coniferous forest. The color "pine green" was originally known as "pine tree". The first recorded use of "pine tree" as a color name in English was in 1923.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Displayed at right is the color medium sky blue. This is the color that is called "sky blue" in Crayola crayons. This color was formulated by Crayola in 1958. "Sky blue" appears in the 32, 48, 64, 96 and 120 packs of crayons.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Tiffany Blue is the colloquial name for the light medium robin egg blue color associated with Tiffany & Co., the New York City jewelry company. The color was used on the cover of Tiffany's Blue Book, first published in 1845. Since then Tiffany & Co. has used the color extensively on promotional materials, including boxes and bags. The Tiffany Blue color is protected as a color trademark by Tiffany & Co. in some jurisdictions including the U.S.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Turquoise" is the name of a greenish blue color, based on the gem of the same name. The word "turquoise" comes from the French for Turkish, as the gem was originally imported from Turkey.


title: Shades of cyan

text: The first recorded use of "turquoise" as a color name in English was in 1573. Perhaps owing to sharing its name with a mineral, turquoise is currently a more common term in English than other cyan-like colors.


title: Shades of cyan

text: Verdigris is the common name for a green pigment obtained through the application of acetic acid to copper plates or the natural patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time. The name "verdigris" comes from the Middle English "vertegrez", from the Old French "verte grez", an alteration of "vert-de-Grèce" ("green of Greece"). Used as a pigment in paintings and other art objects (as green color) since ancient Greece, it was originally made by hanging copper plates over hot vinegar in a sealed pot until a green crust formed on the copper. The vivid green color of copper(II) acetate made this form of verdigris a much used pigment. Until the 19th century, verdigris was the most vibrant green pigment available and was frequently used in painting. Verdigris was sometimes used to illustrate cyan colors in early color wheels.


title: Shades of cyan

text: "Zomp" is one of the colors on the Resene Color List, a color list widely popular in Australia and New Zealand. The color was formulated in 2007.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( lit. "Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant"), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( lit. "Front for the Conquest of Syria/the Levant") after July 2016, and also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant, was a Salafist jihadist terrorist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an Islamic state in the country. The group has changed its name several times and merged with and separated from other groups.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Formed in 2012, in November of that year "The Washington Post" described al-Nusra as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces. In December 2012, the United States Department of State designated it a foreign terrorist organization, and in April 2013, it became the official Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In March 2015, the group joined with other jihadist groups to form the Army of Conquest. In July 2016, al-Nusra formally re-branded from Jabhat al-Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant").


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 28 January 2017, following violent clashes with Ahrar al-Sham and other rebel groups, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham merged with four other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a new Sunni Islamist militant group. Tahrir al-Sham denies being part of al-Qaeda and said in a statement that the group is "an independent entity and not an extension of previous organizations or factions".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: From 2012 to 2013, the al-Nusra Front's full name was the "Victory Front for the People of the Levant by the Mujahideen of the Levant on the Fields of Jihad" ()


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The al-Nusra Front is estimated to be primarily made up of Syrian jihadists. Its goals were to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria and to create an Islamic emirate under sharia law, with an emphasis from an early stage on focusing on the "near enemy" of the Syrian regime rather than on global jihad. Syrian members of the group claimed that they are fighting only the Assad regime and would not attack Western states; while the official policy of the group was to regard the United States and Israel as enemies of Islam, and to warn against Western intervention in Syria, al-Nusra Front leader Julani stated that "We are only here to accomplish one mission, to fight the regime and its agents on the ground, including Hezbollah and others". In early 2014, Sami al-Oraydi, a top sharia official in the group, acknowledged that it is influenced by the teachings of al-Qaeda member Abu Musab al-Suri. The strategies derived from Abu Musab's guidelines included providing services to people, avoiding being seen as extremists, maintaining strong relationships with local communities and other fighting groups, and putting the focus on fighting the government.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The tactics of al-Nusra Front differed markedly from those of rival jihadist group ISIL; whereas ISIL has alienated local populations by demanding their allegiance and carrying out beheadings, al-Nusra Front cooperated with other militant groups and declined to impose sharia law where there has been opposition. Analysts have noted this could have given the al-Nusra Front a greater long-term advantage.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In early 2015, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri instructed al-Nusra Front leader Julani to pursue the following five goals:


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Both al-Qaeda and al-Nusra tried to take advantage of ISIL's rise by presenting themselves as "moderate" in comparison. While they had the same aim of establishing sharia and a caliphate, they intended to implement it in a more gradual manner. Al-Nusra criticized the way ISIL alienated people by precipitously instituting sharia, preferring the more gradual approach favored by al-Qaeda of preparing society through indoctrination and education before implementing the hudud (scripturally-mandated punishment) aspects of sharia. They particularly criticised ISIL's enthusiasm for punishments such as executing gay people, chopping limbs off, and public stoning. However, Al-Qaeda agrees that hudud punishments should be implemented in the long term. The main criticism of defectors from ISIL is that the group is killing and fighting other Sunni Muslims, and that they are unhappy that other Sunnis like Jabhat al-Nusra are being attacked by ISIL.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: A video called "The Heirs of Glory" was issued by al-Nusra in 2015, which included old audio by Osama bin Laden (such as his 1998 announcement that "So we seek to incite the Islamic Nation so it may rise to liberate its lands and perform Jihad in the path of Allah, and to establish the law of Allah, so the Word of Allah may be supreme"). The video glorified the 11 September attacks and the Islamists Sayyid Qutb and Abdullah Azzam. Its magazine, "Al Risalah", was first issued in July 2015.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In 2015 Al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri urged ISIL fighters to unite with all other jihadists against their enemies and stop the infighting. The Nusra Front praised the November 2015 Paris attacks, saying that even though they view ISIL as "dogs of hellfire", they applaud when "infidels" get attacked by ISIL.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In an Amnesty International report in July 2016, the al-Nusra Front was accused of torture, child abduction, and summary execution. In December 2014, al-Nusra Front fighters shot dead a woman execution-style on accusations of adultery. They have also stoned to death women accused of extramarital relations. Overall, they have "applied a strict interpretation of Shari'a and imposed punishments amounting to torture or other ill-treatment for perceived infractions."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Members of the group were accused of attacking the religious beliefs of non-Sunnis in Syria, including the Alawis. "The New York Times" journalist C. J. Chivers cites "some analysts and diplomats" as noting that al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "can appear less focused on toppling" the Assad government than on "establishing a zone of influence spanning Iraq's Anbar Province and the desert eastern areas of Syria, and eventually establishing an Islamic territory under their administration".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 10 June 2015, al-Nusra fighters shot dead at least 20 Druze civilians in a village after one of them, a supporter of the Assad regime, opposed the expropriation of his house by a Nusra commander. Al-Nusra's leadership issued an apology and claimed that the killings had been carried out against the group's guidelines. "Foreign Affairs" magazine, which contends that Al-Jazeera is engaged in actively whitewashing Al-Nusra, said that there is absolutely no reference to the Druze in Al-Nusra's "apology", since Al-Nusrah forced the Druze to renounce their religion, destroyed their shrines and now considers them Sunni. Nusra and ISIL are both against the Druze, the difference being that Nusra was apparently satisfied with destroying Druze shrines and making them become Sunnis while ISIL wants to violently annihilate them as it does to Yazidis.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The leader of al-Nusra, a self-proclaimed emir, goes by the name of Abu Mohammad al-Julani ("also transliterated as "Mohammed" and "al-Jawlani", or "al-Golani), which implies that he is from the Golan Heights ("al-Jawlan", in Arabic). Prior to the formation of Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Mohammad al-Julani was a senior member of Islamic State of Iraq, heading operations in Nineveh Governorate. On 18 December 2013, he gave his first television interview, to Tayseer Allouni, a journalist originally from Syria, for Al Jazeera, and spoke classical Arabic with a Syrian accent.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The structure of the group varied across Syria. In Damascus, the organisation operated in an underground clandestine cell system, while in Aleppo, the group was organised along semi-conventional military lines, with units divided into brigades, regiments, and platoons. All potential recruits were required to undertake a ten-day religious training course, followed by a 15–20-day military training program.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Al-Nusra contained a hierarchy of religious bodies, with a small "Majlis-ash-Shura" (Consultative Council) at the top, making national decisions on behalf of the group. Religious personnel also played an important role in the regional JN leadership, with each region having a commander and a sheikh. The sheikh supervised the commander from a religious perspective and is known as "dabet al-shar'i" (religious commissioner).


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: A number of Americans have attempted to join the fighting in Syria, specifically with al-Nusra. Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, also known as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, was arrested in California on 11 October 2013, on charges of attempting to travel to join al-Qaeda, after reportedly having fought in Syria. As of November 2013, there had also been five additional publicly disclosed cases of Americans fighting in Syria, three of which were linked to al-Nusra. In February 2015, charges of conspiracy to support terrorism were laid against six Bosnian-Americans who were alleged to have financially supported another Bosnian-American, the late Abdullah Ramo Pazara, who they alleged died fighting with al-Nusra in 2014.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In September 2015 Nusra absorbed Katibat Imam al Bukhari, an Uzbek group which is a part of al-Qaeda. Child soldiers were used by Katibat Imam al-Bukhari. al-Fu'ah and Kafriya were attacked by the group in September 2015. They also participated in the 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: It was estimated that al-Nusra's fighting force was approximately 30% foreign fighters and 70% local Islamists in July 2016.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: All statements and videos by al-Nusra Front have been released by its media outlet, al-Manarah al-Bayda () (The White Minaret), via the leading jihadist webforum Shamoukh al-Islam ().


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In early 2015, there were reports that Qatar and other Gulf states were trying to get al-Nusra to split away from al-Qaeda, after which they would support al-Nusra with money. Western observers and a Syrian observer considered such a split unlikely, and in March 2015, al-Nusra's leadership denied a break-up or that talks with Qatar had occurred. Other Syrian observers considered such a split conceivable or imminent.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: With members of al-Qaeda still enmeshed throughout the group's leadership, it can be considered that al-Qaeda was not "external" to the group. After the announcement, numerous senior al-Qaeda members still within the group were targeted by the US in airstrikes. The group's leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in his first recorded video message, stated its new name would be Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant"). During the renaming announcement in July 2016, al-Julani thanked al-Qaeda leaders Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Khayr al-Masri. Ahmad Salama Mabruk, an associate of al-Zawahiri, sat alongside al-Julani during the announcement.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Despite the group re-branding and announcing no external affiliations, the United States Central Command continued to consider it to be a branch of al-Qaeda and "an organization to be concerned about". Al-Jazeera journalist Sharif Nashashibi noted that immediately after the rebranding, both the US and Russia called it "cosmetic" and promised that air strikes would continue" against al-Nusra. Journalist Robin Wright described the rebranding as an "jihadi shell game" and "expedient fiction"—a tactic known as "marbling" by jihadi groups—and that as of December 2016 Al-Qaeda had embedded "two dozen senior personnel" in the group.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Writing shortly after the rebranding, Nashashibi argued that it might help generate more "regional support", which the group needed in the face of Syrian government and Russian military success. Wright wrote that the move was effective with many conservative Sunnis in the region, and that hundreds of them joined its ranks since the rebranding, believing the group to be "less extreme" than the rival Islamic State.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Khorasan, also known as the Khorasan Group, is an alleged group of senior al-Qaeda members who operate in Syria. The group has been reported to consist of a small number of fighters who are all on terrorist watchlists, and to co-ordinate with al-Nusra Front. Al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani denied the existence of this alleged "Khorasan group" in an interview with Al-Jazeera on 28 May 2015.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Upon the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Islamic State of Iraq's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Qaeda's central command authorized the Syrian Abu Mohammad al-Golani to set up a Syrian offshoot of al Qaeda in August 2011, to bring down the Assad government and establish an Islamic state there. Golani and six colleagues crossed the border from Iraq into Syria, and reached out to Islamists released from Syria's Sednaya military prison in May–June 2011 who were already active in fighting against Assad's security forces. The six men who founded Nusra alongside Julani were Saleh al-Hamawi (Syrian), Abu Maria Al-Qahtani (Iraqi), Mustafa Abd al-Latif al-Saleh (kunya:Abu Anas al-Sahaba) (Jordanian/Palestinian), Iyad Tubasi (kunya: Abu Julaybib) (Jordanian/Palestinian), Abu Omar al-Filistini (Palestinian) and Anas Hassan Khattab (Syria).


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: A number of meetings were held between October 2011 and January 2012 in Rif Dimashq and Homs, where the objectives of the group were determined. Golani's group formally announced itself under the name "Jabhat al-Nusra l'Ahl as-Sham" (Support Front for the People of the Sham) on 23 January 2012.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Iraq's deputy interior minister said in early February 2012 that weapons and Islamist militants were entering Syria from Iraq.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The Quilliam Foundation reported that many of Nusra's members were Syrians who were part of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Islamist network fighting the 2003 American invasion in Iraq; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari agreed to that in 2012. The British "The Daily Telegraph" stated in December 2012 that many foreign al-Nusra fighters were hardened veterans from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: By the second half of 2012, Jabhat al-Nusra stood out among the array of armed groups emerging in Syria as a disciplined and effective fighting force.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In November 2012, they were considered by "The Huffington Post" to be the best trained and most experienced fighters among the Syrian rebels.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: According to spokesmen of a moderate wing of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Nusra had in November 2012 between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters, accounting for 7–9% of the FSA's total fighters. Commentator David Ignatius for "The Washington Post" described Nusra then as the most aggressive and successful arm of the FSA.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The United States Department of State stated likewise: "From the reports we get from the doctors, most of the injured and dead FSA are Jabhat al-Nusra, due to their courage and [the fact they are] always at the front line".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 10 December 2012, the U.S. designated Nusra a foreign terrorist organization and an alias of Al Qaeda in Iraq. That decision made it illegal for Americans to deal financially with Nusra. Days earlier, the American ambassador to Syria, R. Ford, had said: "Extremist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra are a problem, an obstacle to finding the political solution that Syria's going to need".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In August 2012, there were signs of Nusra co-operating with other rebels. The group took part in military operations with the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Abu Haidar, a Syrian FSA co-ordinator in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district said that al-Nusra Front "have experienced fighters who are like the revolution's elite commando troops."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In October–December 2012 Nusra received words of praise and appreciation for their efforts in the "revolution" against Assad from non-specified 'rebels', an FSA spokesman in the Aleppo region, a group of 29 civilian and military groups, and the leader of the Syrian National Coalition. At the same time, two anonymous FSA leaders, and a secular rebel in north Syria, expressed disapproval of the Islamist 'religious prison' Nusra might be wanting to turn Syria into.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The 6 January 2012 al-Midan bombing was claimed by al-Nusra, in a video seen by AFP on 29 February 2012. It was allegedly carried out by Abu al-Baraa al-Shami. Footage of the destruction caused by the blast was released on a jihadist forum.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: An al-Nusra-affiliated group announced the formation of the "Free Ones of the Levant Battalions", in a YouTube video statement that was released on 23 January 2012. In the statement, the group claimed that it attacked the headquarters of security in Idlib province. "To all the free people of Syria, we announce the formation of the Free Ones of the Levant Battalions," the statement said, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal. "We promise Allah, and then we promise you, that we will be a firm shield and a striking hand to repel the attacks of this criminal Al Assad army with all the might we can muster. We promise to protect the lives of civilians and their possessions from security and the Shabiha [pro-government] militia. We are a people who will either gain victory or die."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The 10 May 2012 Damascus bombings were allegedly claimed by al-Nusra Front in an Internet video; however, on 15 May 2012, someone claiming to be a spokesman for the group denied that the organisation was responsible for the attack, saying that it would only release information through jihadist forums.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 29 May 2012, a mass execution was discovered near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor. The unidentified corpses of 13 men had been discovered shot to death execution-style. On 5 June 2012, al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the killings, stating that they had captured and interrogated the soldiers in Deir ez-Zor and "justly" punished them with death, after they confessed to crimes.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 17 June 2012, Walid Ahmad al-Ayesh, described by Syrian authorities as the "right hand" of al-Nusra Front, was killed when Syrian authorities discovered his hiding place. He was reportedly responsible for the making of car bombs that were used to attack Damascus in the previous months. The Syrian authorities reported the killing of another prominent member of the group, Wael Mohammad al-Majdalawi, killed on 12 August 2012 in an operation conducted in Damascus.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 27 June 2012, a group of Syrian rebels attacked a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus. The station's studios were destroyed with explosives. Seven people were killed in the attack on Al-Ikhbariya TV, including four guards and three journalists. Al-Nusra claimed responsibility for the attack and published photos of 11 station employees they kidnapped following the raid.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The murder in July 2012 of journalist Mohammed al-Saeed, a well-known government TV news presenter, was claimed by Nusra in a video released on 3 or 4 August, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Three suicide car bombs exploded at the eastern corner of the central Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square killing 48 people. More than 122 people were reported to be heavily injured. The bombs targeted the Officers' club and the nearby buildings of the Touristic Hotel and the historic "Jouha Café". The hotel received major damage while the café was entirely destroyed. A small building within the Officers' club was ruined as well.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In the air defence base assault they reportedly destroyed buildings and sabotaged radar and rockets after over-running the base in co-operation with the al-Fajr Islamic Movement and a group of Chechen fighters.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: During the storming of the Hanano barracks 11 soldiers were killed and they held the complex for six hours before retreating.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In October 2012, they joined other rebels in an attack on the Wadi Deif base around Maraat al Numan, in a prolonged fighting that turned into a siege of the base. They also led an attack on the Taftanaz Air Base in November 2012, an important and strategic base for the Syrian army, containing up to 48 helicopters.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The group seized three army checkpoints around Saraqeb at the end of October 2012, forcing the Syrian Army to withdraw from the area the next day. In the battle, 28 Syrian soldiers were killed as well as five Nusra fighters. Some of the captured soldiers were summarily executed after being called "Assad dogs". The video of these executions was widely condemned, with the United Nations referring to them as probable war crimes.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Members of al-Nusra Front carried out two suicide attacks in early November 2012. One occurred in a rural development center in Sahl al-Ghab in Hama province, where a car bomb killed two people; while the other occurred in the Mezzeh neighbourhood of Damascus, where a suicide bomber killed 11 people. The SOHR claimed a total of 50 soldiers were killed in the Sahl al-Ghab attack.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Al Jazeera reported on 23 December 2012 that al-Nusra Front had declared a "no-fly-zone" over Aleppo, using 23 mm and 57 mm anti-aircraft guns to down planes. This would include commercial flights which al-Nusra believed transported military equipment and troops. In a video sent to Al Jazeera, they warned civilians against boarding commercial flights.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In February 2013, Al Nusra fighters were involved in fighting in Safira with government reinforcements, preventing these forces from reaching their destination of the city of Aleppo. A monitoring group claims this resulted in more than two hundred casualties over a period of two weeks.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Though it was initially reported that Syrian Catholic priest François Murad was beheaded by Nusra at a church in Gassanieh in June 2013, he was actually shot dead.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: As of June 2013, al-Nusra Front had claimed responsibility for 57 of the 70 suicide attacks in Syria during the conflict.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In December 2013, al-Nusra abducted 13 nuns from a Christian monastery in Maaloula. They were held in the town of Yabroud until 9 March 2014, The nuns reported they had not been harassed and could keep religious symbols.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: By January 2013, Nusra was a formidable force alleged to have strong popular support in Syria, and it continued to grow in strength during the following months. In January 2013, the Quilliam counter-extremism thinktank estimated its membership at 5,000 fighters with 2,000 trainees. In May 2013, analysts Ken Sofer and Juliana Shafroth estimated 6,000 foreign and domestic fighters. By July, "The Economist" estimated its strength at 7,000 fighters. Other size estimates, however, were more conservative; a report in the Turkish daily "Hurriyet" in March 2013 said that the group had increased its membership from around 300–400 jihadists to 1,000 as Syrian fighters in Iraq have returned to their country in the wake of the US designation of al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 8 April 2013, the leader of the then Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, released a recorded audio message on the Internet, in which he announced that Jabhat al-Nusra was part of his network, and that he was merging Jabhat al-Nusra with ISI into one group, "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham" (ISIL), under his command. Al-Baghdadi also said that Abu Mohammad al-Julani had been dispatched by the ISI to Syria to meet with pre-existing cells in the country and that the ISI had provided Jabhat al-Nusra with the plans and strategy needed for the Syrian Civil War, and had been funding their activities.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The next day al-Julani rejected the merger and affirmed the group's allegiance to al-Qaeda and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Julani was quoted as saying, "We inform you that neither the al-Nusra command nor its consultative council, nor its general manager were aware of this announcement. It reached them via the media and if the speech is authentic, we were not consulted." Nusra then split, with some members, particularly foreign fighters, following Baghdadi's edict and joining ISIL, while others stayed loyal to Golani or left to join other Islamist brigades.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In May 2013, Reuters reported that al-Baghdadi had travelled from Iraq to Syria's Aleppo Governorate province and begun recruiting members of al-Nusra. In June 2013, Al Jazeera reported that it had obtained a letter written by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, addressed to both Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in which he ruled against the merger of the two organisations and appointed an emissary to oversee relations between them and put an end to tensions. Later in the month, an audio message from al-Baghdadi was released in which he rejected al-Zawahiri's ruling and declared that the merger of the two organisations into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was going ahead. This sequence of events caused much confusion and division amongst members of al-Nusra.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In November 2013, al-Zawahiri ordered the disbandment of ISIL and said al-Nusra should be considered the (only) al-Qaeda branch in Syria, and bestowed the title "Tanzim Qa'edat Al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Sham" ("the Qae'dat Al-Jihad organization in the Levant") on them, officially integrating Nusra into al-Qaeda's global network.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Some units of al-Nusra began taking part in clashes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in late 2013.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In February 2014, after efforts to end the dispute between ISIL and Nusra had failed, al-Qaeda formally dissociated itself from its onetime affiliate ISIL, leaving Jabhat al-Nusra the sole representative of al-Qaeda in Syria. In the same month, al-Julani threatened to go to war with ISIL over their suspected role in the killing of senior Ahrar ash-Sham commander Abu Khaled al-Souri. Al-Julani gave ISIL five days to submit evidence that they were innocent of the attack to three imprisoned Jihadist clerics, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada al-Falastini, and Suleiman al-Alwan. On 16 April 2014, ISIL killed al-Nusra's Idlib chief Abu Mohammad al-Ansari together with his family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. In May 2014, open fighting broke out between ISIL and al-Nusra in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Also in July, an audio recording attributed to al-Julani appeared online, in which he said that al-Nusra planned to establish an Islamic emirate in the areas of Syria where they had a presence. A statement issued on 12 July 2014 by al-Nusra's media channel affirmed the authenticity of the recording, but stated that they had not yet declared the establishment of an emirate.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In June 2015, al-Julani stated in regards to ISIL: "There is no solution between us and them in the meantime, or in the foreseeable future [...] We hope they repent to God and return to their senses ... if not, then there is nothing but fighting between us."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 28 August 2014, militants from the group kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers from Fiji from Golan Heights in the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone. The group demanded that it be removed from the UN's list of terrorist organisations in exchange for the lives of the peacekeepers. In addition to UN personnel, the group routinely captures UN vehicles to use as car bombs. At the same time, two groups of UN peacekeepers from Philippines were trapped under fire in nearby Rwihinah. On 31 August, one group of 32 Filipinos soldiers was rescued and the other group of 40 soldiers escaped. The rescue operation was carried out by Irish peacekeepers. Colonel Ezra Enriquez of the Philippines, who oversaw the operations, resigned over disagreements with Indian Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha. Singha had allegedly ordered the Filipinos peacekeepers to surrender arms to ensure the safe release of the Fijian soldiers. On 8 September, Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City, called for Singha's death after he allegedly called the Filipinos soldiers cowards. On 11 September, the kidnapped Fijian soldiers were released.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In late October 2014, al-Nusra began attacking some FSA and moderate Islamist groups that it was formerly allied with, reportedly in a bid to eventually establish its own Islamic state in the cities it controlled in Idlib Governorate and other neighbouring Governorates.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In June 2015, fighters of al-Nusra massacred 20 Druze villagers in Idlib province located in north-west Syria. Al-Jazeera claimed that Al-Nusra's leadership apologized and blamed the incident on a few undisciplined fighters.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In October 2015, al-Nusra offered bounties worth millions of dollars for the killing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Al-Julani said he would pay "three million euros ($3.4 million) for anyone who can kill Bashar al-Assad and end his story".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In December 2015, two Army of Revolutionaries fighters were beheaded by Nusra, according to sources on social media. In December 2015, Nusra fighters celebrated the ransoming and exchange of Lebanese army prisoners in the town of Arsal in Lebanon, according to sources on social media.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In 2015, rebel factions in southern Syria vowed to distance themselves from the 'extremists' of al-Nusra in April 2015, but were seen cooperating with them in Daraa only days later. In May 2015, al-Nusra was estimated to have 10,000 fighters in Southern Syria, far fewer than the Free Syrian Army, but with superior weaponry on which the FSA depended in joint operations against the government.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: During successful Syrian opposition offensives in the northern Idlib Governorate from March until May 2015 , al-Nusra effectively coordinated its operations with the FSA, moderate and conservative Syrian Islamists, and some independent jihadist factions.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 24 January 2016, Ahrar ash-Sham expelled al-Nusra Front from the Syrian town of Harem, after tensions between the two groups boiled over. Subsequent clashes erupted in Salqin.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 17 February 2016, nearly half of Jund al-Aqsa, numbering 400 fighters, joined al-Nusra. Five days later, two Damascus-based jihadist groups swore allegiance to al-Nusra. On 25 February, al-Nusra Front withdrew from the town of Sarmada, near the Turkish border in the Idlib Province, in an attempt to prevent Russian warplanes from bombing the town after the implementation of the Syria ceasefire.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Jaysh al-Islam leader Zahran Alloush addressed Jabhat al-Nusra as "our brothers", saying that "The summary of this issue is that we in Jaish Al-Islam praise our brothers of the Nusrah Front and we don't consider them Khawarij as is propagated against us, We fight alongside them and they fight alongside us".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: According to the BBC in 2016, "Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has a complex relationship with the more moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is itself an alliance of allied groups, some of which were more willing to co-operate with Nusra than others."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Russia sees al-Nusra as a terrorist organization. Russian air strikes reportedly targeted positions held by al-Nusra from September 2015 and Al-Nusra set a reward for the seizure of Russian soldiers.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In October 2015 Al-Nusra militant Abu Ubaid Al-Madani, who speaks Russian, released a video addressed to the Russians warning that they would massacre Russian soldiers. Abu Mohammad al-Julani called for Russian civilians to be attacked by former Soviet Muslims and called for attacks on Alawite villages in Syria. In November 2015, al-Nusra fighters and Turkish-supported Syrian Turkmen Brigades were engaged in heavy fighting in Syria's northwestern Latakia Governorate against the Syrian government forces supported by the Shiite militias and the Russian air force.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 29 July 2016 Al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani announced the group changed its name to Jabhat Fath al Sham and had "no affiliation to any external entity". While some analysts have interpreted this to mean breaking away from Al-Qaeda, the group and association with it were not specifically mentioned in the announcement, nor has it been said that Al-Nusra's oath of allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri have been renounced. According to Sharif Nashashibi of Al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda had "given the split its blessing", and the separation "meant no change in the group's ideology". With numerous senior members of Al-Qaeda enmeshed within Al-Nusra, it can be considered that Al-Qaeda are not "external" to the group. To this extent, other analysts say that the announcement was cosmetic, a ruse to obfuscate their continued association and membership within Al-Qaeda. In the time after the announcement, a number of senior Al-Qaeda members have been targeted and killed by US air strikes, while operating within Al-Nusra


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: For over a year prior to this there had been speculation that the group would separate from Al-Qaeda and about what it would mean.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 12 February 2015, SITE Intelligence Group cited rumours that Nusra leader al-Julani had plans to disassociate from al-Qaeda.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 4 March 2015, Reuters reported that "sources within and close to al-Nusra" said that in the past months Qatar and other Gulf states had talked with Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani and encouraged him to abandon al-Qaeda, promising funding to Nusra once that break-up was carried out. An official close to the Qatari government had confirmed to Reuters that Qatar wanted Nusra to become purely Syrian and disconnect from al-Qaeda, after which Qatar would start to support Nusra with money and supplies. Muzamjer al-Sham, reportedly a 'prominent jihadi close to Nusra' had said that Nusra would soon merge with Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and other small jihadi brigades and disengage from al-Qaeda, but that not all Nusra emirs had yet agreed to that.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 9 March 2015, in a statement issued on Twitter, al-Nusra denied "completely all reports of a meeting with Qatari" and reports of a break-up with al-Qaeda. Expert Thomas Pierret at the University of Edinburgh assumed that Qatar was trying to force the hand of Al-Nusra with this "leak" about a split, and said a break with Al-Qaeda was very unlikely. French expert on jihadism Romain Caillet agreed: "The overwhelming majority of Al-Nusra members want to stay in al-Qaeda, particularly foreign fighters who represent at least one-third of the organisation".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: But in May 2015 Abu Maria al-Qahtani, the commander of al-Nusra in Deir ez-Zor province, still strongly advocated a split with al-Qaeda. Muhamed Nabih Osman, leading a charitable organisation for former Assad prisoners, said to website "The Daily Beast" on 4 May 2015: "I think it will happen soon. You have to understand that al-Nusra consists of two very different parts and that one part, mostly local fighters, are not interested in global jihad".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 7 May 2015, a Turkish official said that Turkey and Saudi Arabia were bolstering Ahrar al-Sham at Nusra's expense, hoping that al-Sham's rise puts pressure on Nusra to renounce its ties to al-Qaeda and open itself to outside help.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: A "well-connected Syrian Islamist" cited in May 2015 by Charles Lister in "The Huffington Post" said: "There are now two main currents... the conservatives are keen on keeping ties to Al-Qaeda and the others are more inclined towards the new Syria-focused approach". Another "Islamist official from Damascus" is cited: "Nusra's disengagement from al Qaeda would be good for the revolution, but Jabhat al-Nusra will always be in dire need of al Qaeda's name to keep its foreign fighters away from IS. Most Jabhat foreign fighters will never accept to fight and die for what looks like an Islamic national project."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In late July 2016, through various sources, the Middle East Eye claimed that an organizational split from al-Qaeda is "imminent", with the proposal reportedly been approved by AQ leaders and proposed a new name called "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham", or the "Conquest of the Levant Front". However, the sources claimed that the move would not affect al-Nusra's al-Qaeda ideology and its plan to commit attacks on the West.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The organisation grew in early 2016. Charles Lister reported that "According to three Islamist sources based in the area, Jabhat al-Nusra successfully recruited at least 3,000 Syrians into its ranks between February and June 2016." In mid-2016, reports suggested it was composed of around 5,000 to 10,000 fighters, with the Russian ministry of defence estimating 7,000 fighters in Idlib province.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In August 2016, the BBC estimated Jabhat Fatah al-Sham as having 5,000–10,000 fighters, all Syrian. Lister gave a figure of 10,000.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In July Jabhat Fatah al-Sham kidnapped the American journalist Lindsey Snell in northern Syria. She escaped to Turkey's Hatay Province in August and was subsequently arrested by Turkish authorities for being in a military exclusion zone and imprisoned.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The mid-2016 rebel offensive in Aleppo was made by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham alongside the Turkistan Islamic Party and Ahrar al-Sham.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 31 August, Hezbollah attacked a JFS outpost in the Qalamoun Mountains near the city of Arsal, Lebanon, on the Lebanon–Syria border, killing a number of their fighters.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 8 September an airstrike of unknown origin killed the top JFS military commander, Abu Hajer al-Homsi ("nom de guerre" Abu Omar Saraqeb), among several other Army of Conquest commanders in the countryside of the Aleppo Governorate, the rebels accused the United States of conducting the strike, but this was denied by the Pentagon and subsequently Russia took responsibility. On 3 October, Ahmad Salama Mabruk, an Egyptian JFS and al-Qaeda commander, was killed by a US airstrike against his vehicle in Jisr al-Shughur.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 9 October, Jund al-Aqsa, after infighting between them and numerous rebel groups including Ahrar al-Sham, merged with JFS. In early October, according to pro-government Al-Masdar News, a number of Mountain Hawks Brigade fighters defected to join Jabhat Fatah al-Sham due to several disagreements, mainly due to the established of the Free Idlib Army. On 25 January 2017, according to rebel social media, they returned, along with their leader Lt. Col. Nasha'at Haj Ahmad to the Mountain Hawks Brigade.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: As of late 2016, al-Nusra mainly controlled territory throughout Idlib Governorate, alongside other factions in the Army of Conquest. It also held some areas in the Quneitra Governorate.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 1 January 2017, a US drone strike killed Abu Omar al-Turkistani, a senior Al-Qaeda member and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham military commander, along with 3 other JFS members near the town of Sarmada in the northern Idlib Governorate. The Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party also counted him among their chiefs. The next day, more than 25 JFS members were killed in an air raid by suspected US planes. The Tora Bora battle saw Turkistani's participation. The Islamic Jihad Union enlisted Turkistani as a member. Jabhat Fath al Sham included Turkistani. SOHR identified al-Turkestani from among the dead. Before dying in Syria, al-Turkistani was in the Afghanistan war. He was also the emir for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Jihad in Central Asia. Europeans make up an amount while Central Asians make up the majority of foreigners in the Afghanistan-based Islamic Jihad Union which is allied to Al-Qaeda


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 19 January 2017, US airstrikes by Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers struck the former Syrian Army Sheikh Suleiman military base in western Aleppo, which was used by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, killing at least 110 al-Qaeda fighters, including Abu Hasan al-Taftanaz, an al-Qaeda senior leader, along with some al-Zenki fighters. Since 1 January 2017, more than 150 AQ members were killed by US airstrikes in 2017. Condolences were issued to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham over the killings, by the Uyghur jihadist Turkistan Islamic Party. The training camp had been operated by al-Nusra Front and al-Zenki since 2013. Outrage over the lack of condolences from other factions over an American bombing and killing of 100+ JFS members was voiced by Muhaysini.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 21 January 2017, five factions from Ahrar al-Sham left to join the al-Nusra Front;- Jaish al-Ahrar, al-Bara, Dhu Nurayn, al-Sawa'iq and Usud al-Har Battalion, accrodign to social media sources. On the same day, 2 al-Nusra Shura Council members based in Aleppo announced that they left the group. Ahrar al-Sham, the Suqour al-Sham Brigade, Jabhat Ahl al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and Fastaqim Union then established a joint operations room to combat al-Nusra and its subfaction Jund al-Aqsa.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 28 January 2017, several Salafist jihadist groups, including Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, agreed upon a merger agreement, resulting in the formation of a new group called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham ("Organization for the Liberation of the Levant"). With Jabhat Fateh al-Sham being one of the most powerful/influential groups in the new formation, its leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani was appointed the high level position of overall military commander of the new group. The only other position of equal or greater authority in the new group is the Emir, to which role was appointed Abu Jaber, who defected from Ahrar al-Sham to join this new group.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: At least one Arab government accused Qatar of helping al-Nusra. In October 2014, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates had "poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Al-Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra, and al Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world." In 2015, "The Independent" reported that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were "focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that [included] Jabhat al-Nusra."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Al-Nusra was also materially supported by multiple foreign fighters. Most of these fighters were from Europe and the Middle East, as pipelines to Syria from those locations are better established and navigable. However, as of November 2013, there were also 6 publicly disclosed cases of American citizens and permanent residents who joined or attempted to join al-Nusrah in 2013 alone.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The US Government sent weapons to rebels in Syria from at least late 2013, and perhaps as early as 2012, during the beginning phases of the conflict (CIA's covert program Timber Sycamore). Some of these weapons reportedly fell into the hands of al-Nusra. Weapons have been passed on to Nusra by Ahrar ash-Sham according to a Nusra member and rebels. The Pentagon confirmed in September 2015 that a small group of US-trained New Syrian Forces rebels gave six pickup trucks and a portion of their ammunition to al-Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: There were cases of al-Nusra combatants receiving medical aid in Israel and returning to fight. Former head of Mossad, Efraim Halevy, in an interview for al-Jazeera implicitly confirmed that such practices had taken place, as part of a general Israeli policy of treating wounded rebel fighters on the border. Israel, however, denies formal ties of any sort between itself and al-Nusra and Elizabeth Tsurkov reported that Nusra refused to cooperate with Israel, in fact kidnapping and assassinating suspected collaborators.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The Emir of Qatar publicly admitted, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour, that he doesn't always see eye to eye with American terrorist designations: "I know that in America and some countries they look at some movements as terrorist movements. ... But there are differences. There are differences that some countries and some people that any group which comes from Islamic background are terrorists. And we don't accept that. It would be a "big mistake," to consider every Islamic movement to be "extremists." It has been suggested that one of the designated groups that the Emir spoke of in this interview at CNN was Al-Nusra Front.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: According to the Consortium Against Terror Finance (CATF), Qatar was able to get away with funding Al Nusra, despite their terrorist designation, through Kidnapping for Ransom. Al Nusra has kidnapped a diverse group of people from nationalities that span the globe, including Turkey, Fiji, Lebanon, Syria and Italy. On each occasion, Qatar engaged in a substantial financial agreement with Al Nusra in exchange for hostages. CATF suggests that the U.S. turned a blind eye to Qatar's funding of Al Nusra because Al Nusra was one of the only groups posing a plausible threat to both ISIS and Assad. According to the one analyst, the reason why Al Nusra was the only plausible threat was because of Saudi and Qatari funding: "Jabhat al-Nusra has become the best-armed force among the opposition groups. It has been at the tip of the spear in operations in Eastern Syria, Aleppo, and Damascus. Its combat proficiency and relatively greater access to material and funding have led other opposition groups to tolerate its participation in military operations across the country."


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Qatar managed the negotiations with al-Nusra Front that ultimately led to American writer Peter Theo Curtis's release. Qatari Intelligence Chief Ghanim Khalifa al-Kubaisi sent a contact a text with the words "Done"—and a thumbs-up emoticon—after Curtis's release was completed.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: According to "The Fiscal Times", Qatar had great influence over the group that goes beyond ransom payments. In many cases, Qatar acted as a political mediator between Al Nusra and other countries such as Lebanon: "A prisoner swap between the Lebanese government and al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, Al-Nusra Front in early December showed how powerful the group has become on the ground. The deal released 16 Lebanese soldiers and police officers who were captured during a joint ISIS–al-Nusra operation along with 29 civilians, some of whom are known terrorists." Indeed, Qatar's mediation between Al Nusra and Lebanon ultimately guaranteed al-Nusra freedom of movement inside what was once a safe haven in Lebanon's Hamid valley, bordering Syria, giving Al Nusra access to the Lebanese town of Arsal.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: But one diplomat went so far as to suggest that, beyond the scope of mediation and paying ransom, "They [Qatar] are partly responsible for Jabhat al-Nusra having money and weapons and everything they need." The diplomat went on to say that while Qatar hasn't directly funded ISIS, it is responsible for the fact that ISIS gained Al Nusra weapons as members of Al Nusra are known to defect to ISIS.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: According to a 2021 articles by "The Times", Qatar has allegedly played a central role in a secret money laundering operation to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Al-Nusra Front terrorists in "Syria".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: The organisation is believed to have used, at various times and in various places, the following tactics: car-bombs, chemical weapons, suicide-attacks, targeting of checkpoints, conventional assault of military bases, assassination of political and military figures and members of the shabiha, targeting (destruction/killing) of pro-government media stations and personnel.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: By June 2013, there had been apparently 70 suicide-attacks in Syria. Of these, the group denied responsibility for 13 but claimed responsibility for the other 57. In June 2012, the group attacked the pro-government TV station at Drousha, near Damascus. The following month the government-TV presenter Mohammed al-Saeed disappeared; the group later declared him dead.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In June 2014, Human Rights Watch reported that several rebel groups, including al-Nusra, have enlisted child soldiers into their ranks.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In November 2014, al-Nusra claimed to have captured U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles supplied by the United States to moderate anti-Assad rebels. The group allegedly captured tanks, machine guns, ammunition, vehicles and American anti-tank missiles from the U.S.-backed Syrian Rebel Front.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: Al-Nusra Front allegedly have an elite sniper unit known as the "Wolf Group". Training is conducted in Aleppo by veteran jihadists who belong to the Khorasan Group, a collection of veteran al-Qaeda operatives sent from al-Qaeda strongholds along the Afghan-Pakistan border.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: In October 2015, al-Julani called for indiscriminate attacks on Alawite villages in Syria. He said "There is no choice but to escalate the battle and to target Alawite towns and villages in Latakia".


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 30 May 2013, Turkish newspapers reported that Turkish security forces had arrested al-Nusra fighters in the southern provinces of Mersin and Adana near the Syrian border and confiscated 2 kg of sarin gas. The governor of Adana claimed that the security forces had not found sarin gas but unknown chemicals. The Turkish Ambassador to Moscow later said that tests showed the chemical seized was anti-freeze, not sarin. In September, six of those arrested in May (one Syrian, Heysem Topalca, and five Turks, alleged to be members of al-Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham) were charged with attempting to acquire chemicals which could be used to produce sarin; the indictment said that it was "possible to produce sarin gas by combining the materials in proper conditions." The indictment said that "The suspects have pleaded not guilty saying that they had not been aware the materials they had tried to obtain could have been used to make sarin gas. Suspects have been consistently providing conflicting and incoherent facts on this matter." The indictment said the suspects working for al-Nusra and to Ahrar ash-Sham. The prosecutors were dismissed and the men were freed in October 2013. A new arrest warrant was later issued, but the perpetrators were never tried. Topalca was tried and convicted in absentia for other terrorism crimes, but not apprehended; he died in 2021.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 29 May 2012, a mass execution was discovered near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor. On 5 June 2012, the al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the 13 killings.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: During the 2013 Latakia offensive by rebel Islamist groups including al-Nusra Front in early August, according to Human Rights Watch, Salafist rebel forces led by al-Nusra systematically killed at least 190 civilians in several Alawite villages.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 10 September 2013, al-Nusra fighters attacked the Alawite village of Maksar al-Hesan, in Homs province. Al-Nusra later admitted to the killing of 30 civilians overall in three Alawite villages, includes those in Maksar al-Hesan.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 11 December 2013, the rebel Islamic Front and al-Nusra Front groups infiltrated the industrial area of the town of Adra, northeast of Damascus, attacking buildings housing workers and their families. The rebels targeted Alawites, Druze, Christians and Shiites, killing them on a sectarian basis. Some people were shot while others were beheaded.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: On 12 May 2016, according to pro-government media, rebels led by al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham massacred 42 civilians and seven NDF militiamen while kidnapping up to 70 people after taking control of the Alawite village of Zara'a in Southern Hama.


title: Al-Nusra Front

text: During the last days of the 17th Aleppo offensive in mid-December 2016, the al-Nusra Front arrested a media activist at a field hospital while he filmed the hospital operations. He was interrogated at al-Nusra's headquarters before the evacuation. During the evacuation of rebels from Aleppo, al-Nusra were the first to leave, along with prisoners whom they kidnapped.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Harvey Robert Levin (born September 2, 1950) is an American television producer, legal analyst, celebrity reporter, and former lawyer. He is the founder of celebrity news website TMZ, and the former host of "OBJECTified", which aired on the Fox News Channel.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin was born September 2, 1950, in Los Angeles County, California to a Jewish family. He attended high school at Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda, Los Angeles and graduated in 1968 with honors. Levin attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he graduated with a B.A. in political science in 1972. He later attended the University of Chicago Law School and graduated with a J.D. in 1975.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin was an active attorney in the state of California from December 18, 1975, until January 1, 1996. In the mid-1970s, Levin taught law at the University of Miami School of Law under Soia Mentschikoff. He briefly practiced in Los Angeles before returning to teach at Whittier College School of Law.


title: Harvey Levin

text: The introduction and debate surrounding California Proposition 13 in 1978 pushed Levin into the public's eye following his performances in a number of public debates. With his newfound fame, he started to contribute legal advice on a radio show where he was nicknamed "Doctor Law", as well as write columns for the "Los Angeles Times". His columnist career with the "Times" spanned seven years.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin covered legal issues for KNBC-TV in 1982. He subsequently joined KCBS-TV and spent a decade doing investigative reporting and legal analysis, most notably covering the O. J. Simpson murder case.


title: Harvey Levin

text: In 1997 he was named co-executive producer and on-air legal anchor for "The People's Court". He created "Celebrity Justice", which ran from 2002 to 2005.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin produced "Beyond Twisted", which aired in 2009 for one season before being cancelled. He created "Famous in 12" (2014), an experiment in exploiting a family for quick fame, but the show was cancelled after less than one season, with only five of the scheduled twelve episodes having aired.


title: Harvey Levin

text: In 2005, AOL and Telepictures Productions launched TMZ with Levin as the founder and managing editor. The website quickly rose to prominence when it broke the story of Mel Gibson's DUI arrest and subsequent antisemitic rant. It continued to break a number of high-profile stories including the abuse of Rihanna by Chris Brown, the deaths of Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jackson. The "Los Angeles Times" named TMZ's coverage of the Jackson death as the biggest story the website had covered to date.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin became increasingly supportive of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election. After Trump's victory, he met with President Donald Trump on March 7, 2017 in the Oval Office and chatted for an hour.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Harvey Levin Productions has produced Levin's media projects since he joined "The People's Court" in 1983. In 1985, Levin wrote "The People's Court: How to Tell It to the Judge", reviewing and providing commentary on several cases from the show. "The Library Journal" "recommended [the book] for public libraries."


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin appeared as an event speaker for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in April 2010 in which he publicly confirmed his self-identification as gay. He discussed his fear of losing his career if someone were to find out, which led to Levin compartmentalizing his personal and professional lives.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin's longtime partner is Andy Mauer, a chiropractor in southern California. The two own multiple properties together, sharing joint-deed listings since the late 1990s and early 2000s.


title: Harvey Levin

text: Levin has been named to "Out" magazine's "Power 50" list as one of the most influential voices in LGBT America since 2012 when he was named #15. He has since been named #25 in 2013, #34 in 2014, #48 in 2015, and #40 in 2016.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: Elijah Jovan McClain (February 25, 1996 – August 30, 2019) was a 23-year-old African-American massage therapist from Aurora, Colorado, who died six days after a violent police encounter, during which he was injected with ketamine by paramedics to sedate him.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: On August 24, 2019, three Aurora Police officers confronted McClain after responding to a call by an Aurora civilian about an unarmed person wearing a ski mask that looked "sketchy". The three police officers who were involved in the incident, Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema, all said that their body cameras were knocked off during a struggle with McClain. McClain was forcibly held to the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back, after which paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec administered ketamine to McClain to sedate him. While on scene McClain went into cardiac arrest. Three days after arriving at the hospital, he was declared brain dead, and was removed from life support on August 30.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: McClain's original autopsy report was inconclusive and the cause of death was listed as undetermined by the coroner. Aurora Police officers met with the coroner before his announcement, and police investigators were also present during the autopsy. In September 2022, the autopsy report was amended to list the cause of death as "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint", but the manner of death was still listed as "undetermined" rather than "homicide".


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: On June 24, 2020, after a social media outcry and Aurora lawmakers' requests for a new, third-party investigation into McClain's death, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced his administration would reexamine the case. Five days later, photos that were taken in October 2019 which showed officers posing inappropriately and reenacting the carotid restraint used on McClain, taken at the site he was detained, were discovered. One officer resigned and three were fired.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: In February 2021, an investigative report ordered by the City Council was released. The report said that the police officers involved in McClain's death did not have the legal basis to stop, restrain, or frisk him. The report questioned the police officers' statements, criticized the medical responders' decision to inject McClain with a sedative, and admonished the police department for failing to do a serious questioning of the officers following McClain's death. In September 2021, the three police officers (Woodyard, Rosenblatt and Roedema) and two paramedics (Cooper and Cichuniec) were arrested and charged through a Colorado grand jury with manslaughter and other lesser charges for the death of Elijah McClain. As of October 2022, all five of them were still free on bond awaiting trial.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: At the time of his death, Elijah McClain had been a massage therapist for about four years. He shared an apartment with his cousin close to the site where he was taken into police custody and subsequently died. He had never been arrested or charged with a crime. Friends and family described him as a "spiritual seeker, pacifist, oddball, vegetarian, athlete, and peacemaker who was exceedingly gentle."


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: McClain's mother Sheneen moved her family of six from Denver to Aurora to avoid gang violence. She said Elijah was home-schooled and she could see at an early age that he was "intellectually gifted, but fiercely independent". While still a teenager, he taught himself to play violin and guitar. During lunch breaks, he brought his instruments to animal shelters and played for the abandoned animals, believing that music put them at ease. Friends said that his gentleness with animals extended to humans as well. One of his clients recalled him as "the sweetest, purest person I have ever met. He was definitely a light in a whole lot of darkness". An acquaintance said, "I don't even think he would set a mousetrap if there was a rodent problem."


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: On the evening of August 24, 2019, an Aurora civilian called 9-1-1 reporting a male around Billings Street and Evergreen Avenue walking south on Billings Street wearing a ski mask and flailing his arms. The caller affirmed during the call that he did not believe the person was armed and that he did not believe that anyone was in immediate danger. Friends of McClain interviewed after the incident speculated that this arm-flailing was most likely just dancing, as he is believed to have been listening to music at the time of the call. McClain was dressed warmly and was wearing a ski mask because he had a blood circulation disorder that caused him to chill easily.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: According to the police report, McClain resisted when confronted by the responding police officers, and Officers Woodyard and Rosenblatt heard Officer Roedema shout "He is going for your gun!" An attorney representing McClain's family said the officers involved slammed McClain into a wall immediately after apprehending him. Roedema said that McClain "reached for and grabbed the grip of Rosenblatt's gun that was holstered". There are conflicting accounts about the officer's report that McClain had tried to grab his gun. Later accounts offered differing reports on whose gun McClain had tried to grab.


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: There was no visual body-camera footage of McClain's alleged reach for the gun, which the officers explained by stating that all of their cameras had fallen off. However, a news source states, "But if you watch the video from about the 15-minute mark (warning: It contains violent and upsetting content), you'll see someone pick up the body camera and point it toward McClain and one of the officers before dropping it back into the grass. Around 15:34, one of the officers seems to say, 'Leave your camera there.'"


title: Death of Elijah McClain

text: The three police officers held McClain on the ground for 15 minutes. McClain was clearly in distress while restrained, sobbing and repeatedly saying "I can't breathe". He vomited several times, for which he apologized, saying: "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to do that, I can't breathe correctly." While McClain's arms were handcuffed behind his back, Woodyard applied a carotid control hold, which intentionally cuts off blood flow to the brain by compressing the carotid arteries in the neck, rendering McClain briefly unconscious. One officer threatened he would have his police dog bite McClain as he lay handcuffed and pinned to the ground.