Syrian war planes hit a bakery run by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the city of Raqqa, killing at least 17 people, in air raids on Saturday that also hit a major training camp used by the group for a second day running, a group monitoring the war said. ● The air strikes on Raqqa, Islamic State's stronghold some 400 km northeast of Damascus, also hit a building used as an Islamic court, and another of the group's offices, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Quoting activists on the ground, Rami Abdulrahman, founder of the Observatory, said the bakery was run by the militant group. He said those killed included at least eight civilians and an unknown number of Islamic State activists. Islamic State, which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August when its fighters seized an air base, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers. Raqqa is the main Syrian foothold of Islamic State, where it provides electricity and water, pays salaries, controls traffic, and runs nearly everything from bakeries and banks to schools, courts and mosques.

SANA: Terrorists eliminated, their weaponry destroyed across the country

NATO is ready to support the Iraqi military to the fight against “Islamic State”. From a combat mission but is so far no question it should go to training and arms supplies. ● NATO has the Iraqi military basically promised help. At the start of the NATO summit in Wales said Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance so far from Baghdad but no request for assistance had received. However, if the Iraq ask for help, so Rasmussen, “we have to discuss seriously”. The Secretary-General, however, a limited immediately, a maximum possible support would mean a training mission for Iraqi forces. From a combat mission against the units of the “Islamic State” (IS) you want in the alliance do not even talk yet. Illustrate the cautious remarks of the Secretary-General’s otherwise quite investigate how difficult the NATO members do in this crisis. Although warned the United States and Great Britain before the summit at every opportunity, the international community must stop the advance of the IS by all means.

Stephen Lendman ■ NATO Summit Day Two + NATO Summit Day One

Reports say a "fugitive American Citizen" is behind the ISIL Takfiri terrorists’ vast social media operation. ● Ahmad Abousamra, 32, who was born in France and raised in an upscale Boston suburb, is the son of a prominent specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated from college with a degree in a technology field and has a knack with computers. Sources say he is believed to be working with ISIL from Syria, attracting hundreds of militants from places across the world, including the United States, Britain, and Canada, through social media. The FBI says he fled the United States in 2006 and was trained by terrorists in Yemen and Pakistan. Last year, the FBI issued a $53,500 reward for information leading to the capture of Abousamra.

The Department of Homeland Security has [allegedly] lost track of 58,000 foreigners on student visas but only 6,000 of them are subjects of 'heightened concern'. ● The federal government has let more than 6,000 foreigners on student visas who represent a national security threat slip through the cracks, according to a news report released Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security lost contact with the foreigners, who ABC News says are of 'heightened concern,' after they overstayed their visas and has been unable to reestablish contact. While only 6,000 of the expired visa holders are considered subjects of interest, DHS says it has lost track of a total of 58,000 foreigners who entered the U.S. on student visas but appear not to have left.

Russia's foreign minister warned NATO not to offer Ukraine membership of the alliance as it gathered for a summit on Thursday and told the United States not to try to impose its will on the former Soviet republic. ● Sergei Lavrov also urged Kiev and pro-Russian rebels fighting Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine to back peace moves outlined by President Vladimir Putin and avert what he said could be a large-scale crisis in the heart of Europe. Putin unveiled the seven-point plan on Wednesday, the eve of a NATO summit at which the crisis in Ukraine will be discussed.

Les Visible ■ Yesterday afternoon I lay down for a nap. Some time after I fell asleep, I found myself in a noxious and toxic swamp. Hot winds blew across a blasted landscape, where the souls of the damned howled and shrieked. It was a place of infinite sadness and terror, juxtaposed in a land that the ineffable had forgotten. It was somewhere outside of The Ring Pass Not. I continued slogging my way through this odoriferous country that constantly reminded me of the intestinal track of a drowned hyena, ten days after the fact. I went on and on. I could not stay and I could not go back. Somehow...I knew that going back led to an even worse environment. Finally, I found myself in a long tunnel. It also stank horribly. Everything in this place stank. It stank of rot and a corruption that was both physical and spiritual. Under any normal circumstances I would have been retching uncontrollably but...it was a dream.

Tim King ■ Look at what Israel did to Gaza