Russian warplanes have carried out dozens of air strikes on the Islamic State (IS) group’s positions in the Syrian Desert, activists say. The jets are supporting an operation by Syrian pro-government forces to secure the road between Homs and Deir al-Zour, according to a monitoring group. IS militants have carried out a string of deadly ambushes and hit-and-run attacks in the region recently. The latest, on Wednesday, reportedly killed nine soldiers and militiamen. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria via a network of sources, said three others had died on Tuesday when a landmine planted by IS exploded in the desert near al-Mayadeen, in south-eastern Deir al-Zour province.Russian air strikes on Tuesday killed at least 10 IS militants in Deir al-Zour and eastern Hama province, while there were no immediate reports of casualties from Wednesday’s strikes in the al-Shawla area and what it described as “the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hama triangle”, it added.(BBC)…[+]

Customs authorities in Germany and Belgium have seized a record amount of cocaine – more than 23 tonnes – that was destined for the Netherlands. German officials discovered 16 tonnes in five shipping containers that had arrived in the port of Hamburg from Paraguay earlier this month. Police in the Netherlands were notified and a further 7.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized at the Belgian port of Antwerp. German officials said the cocaine had a street value of billions of euros. A 28-year-old man suspected of involvement in the trafficking of the drugs has been arrested in the Netherlands, Dutch police said on Wednesday. Is the Netherlands becoming a narco-state? The two raids, which took place earlier this month, resulted in the seizure of an “enormous amount of cocaine”, customs officials said.(BBC)…[+]