News on progress of WW3 ... fought the 21st century style

The vid showing the German convert to islam  seem to show the damage the terrorist army has done to Assad's government buildings.

Liz Sly writing at Washington Post
..... Foreign extremists dominate Syria fight.  Foreign fighters from across the Arab world and beyond are playing an increasingly dominant role in the battle for control of Syria, which has emerged as an even more powerful magnet for jihadist volunteers than Iraq and Afghanistan were in the past decade.
The number of Syrians battling to overthrow the regime led by President Bashar al-Assad outstrips by a large margin the thousands of Arabs and other non-Syrian Muslims who have streamed into Syria over the past two years to join in the fight.
But the flow of jihadist volunteers has accelerated, and non-Syrians have begun taking the lead in a variety of roles as the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attempts to assert control over large areas of the rebel-held north.........

Hassan Hassan writing at ForeignPolicy:
 ....The situation inside Syria has just gotten a lot more complex. Syria's exiled opposition and the United States have invested heavily in propping up the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as a counterweight to radical groups that emerged as key players in areas liberated from Bashar al-Assad's rule. But that effort is now circling the drain.
On Sept. 24, 11 of the rebels' most powerful Islamist groups, including several FSA-affiliated brigades, pulled the rug from under the political opposition by signing a joint statement announcing that they do not recognize its National Coalition and affirming that they view Islamic law as the sole source of legislation. And on Sept. 29, at least 50 groups operating mainly around Damascus merged into Jaish al-Islam ("the Army of Islam"), thus undermining the FSA's dominance in a part of the country where it had long been considered the strongest rebel force.

Syria's "southern front" has long been perceived as FSA turf. The opposition has for months worked hard to consolidate the insurgent groups in Damascus and the southern governorate of Daraa under FSA divisions that follow a clear command-and-control structure. They have been aided by the United States and Persian Gulf countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, which have provided them with valuable training and arms in the hopes that they can be a bulwark against extremism near the capital..........

From IraqiNews:
....Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) MP, Karim Alewi,     of the Iraqi national Alliance stated that there is a big project by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to undermine the political process in Iraq.
Speaking to Iraqi News (IraqiNews.com), he called “The government to protect the Shiite areas that are being continuously targeted due to being close to the Sunni areas where the protection can be either by forming security forces from these areas or by the security ministries to avoid the sectarian sedition.”
“Al Qaeda wants to involve Iraq in the sectarian war by being in touch with KSA and Qatar,” he added.
“There is a big project by the KSA and Qatar to topple the political process in Iraq where the political blocs have to accept the initiative to save the citizens,” he concluded.

From BBC:
 ....Two days after the attack we went to the school.
It had been one of the few to remain open in this part of northern Syria. But when we visited the classrooms were empty.

More than 100 countries have banned their use against civilians but Syria has not signed the treaty.

The air at the scene was still thick with the smell of whatever was dropped that day; it is hard to imagine or to describe the horrors of what the pilot did.
The headmaster said he felt helpless. He was too afraid to give his name.
"The worst thing in life is for someone to die before our eyes.
"People burning in front of you. People dying. People running. But where will they run to?
"They're not safe anywhere. This is the fate of the Syrian people."
Ten children died in the attack and many more have been left struggling to survive terrible burns.....

Jonathan Steele writing at TheGuardian:
 ...Syria: massacre reports emerge from Assad’s Alawite heartland.  Alawites are fleeing their homes, recounting gruesome tales of executions and other atrocities. In spite of their proximity to the Turkish border, across which rebel fighters are armed and financed, farmers continued their lives as normal, even though as Alawites allied to the Shia sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs they could have been obvious targets.

At dawn on 4 August their peace was shattered. Armed rebels, led by local jihadis as well as members of Jabhat al-Nusra and the al-Qaida linked group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, left their headquarters in the largely Sunni town of Salma. They sneaked into the al-Akrad mountains, taking control of five Alawite villages. The rebels called it Operation Liberation of the Coast and the aim was to send the government a message that even the Alawite heartland was no longer safe.



Rumours of massacres spread as some 25,000 Alawite villagers fled to Latakia. The next day the rebels captured more Alawite villages and reached Aramo, about 12 miles north of Qardaha, the Assads' home town where Hafez al-Assad, the former president, is buried in a mausoleum. Over the next few days government forces regrouped and gradually recovered the lost ground with help from air strikes as well as local paramilitaries.
On 19 August Syrian state TV reported that all the Alawite villages had been freed. But they did not highlight any massacres and refrained from showing graphic images of mutilation.
"For the first time the government acted discreetly because they feared a sectarian war could break out all along the coast. At the beginning they even denied massacres took place", Rajaa Nasser, an opposition politician in Damascus told the Guardian. He speculated that the attacks on the Alawites could have been revenge for the slaughter of Sunnis in Banias and Baida in May, two places about 30 miles south of the city of Latakia. Human Rights Watch said 248 Sunni civilians were executed there..........

From PremiumTimes:
The conservative Islamic kingdomis one of the main backers of rebels fighting Syrian President.
Saudi Arabia’s frustration at international inaction over Syria and the Palestinians led it to cancel its speech at the UN General Assembly for the first time ever this week, a diplomatic source said.
Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, had been scheduled to deliver an address to the general assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
By the standards of the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, which usually expresses diplomatic concerns only in private, the decision represented an unprecedented statement of discontent.......

From NATO Intl
...Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow together with ambassadors, commanders and other representatives from the North Atlantic Council and NATO's Military Committee observed Allied naval forces in action in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday (30 September 2013). A large fleet of warships from NATO’s Response Force (NRF) are currently conducting manoeuvres as part of the ''Brilliant Mariner'' exercise off Italy’s Sicilian and Sardinian coasts. ''This exercise tests, and sharpens, the ability of units from different NATO countries to work together seamlessly,''the Deputy Secretary General said........