Days of the ISIS are numbered claims a Colonel of the British Special Forces

A British Colonel of the Special Forces has claimed that the ISIS is in dire straits and its days are numbered – its strength has dropped drastically from 18,000 to hardly 8,000 because of losses it has incurred at the hands of the airstrikes. In the opinion of the Colonel, British troops have helped to train Kurdish forces in Iraq and the defeat of Islamic State is imminent.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 18 September 2015.

The Special Forces Colonel feels ISIS are 'fragile' and in a 'poor position' after suffering devastating losses of both land and militant fighters and that can be attributed to the training that the Kurdish soldiers have received from the UK special forces and also the continuing air strikes.
Ever since British MPs authorized taking part in air strikes in Iraq a year ago, RAF jets and drones have been deployed almost 1,300 times and they have carried out 300 successful bombing missions in Iraq in the last year. Obviously, the tide of the battle is turning against IS and they lack the aura of invincibility because the people have understood that ISIS were beatable and it is now just a question of time for the end.
It may be recalled that British soldiers had returned to Iraq at the end of last year to train Kurdish fighters in using heavy weapons as the running battles were intensifying. Their arrival was five years after the last combat troops had left Iraq following the invasion which ousted former dictator Saddam Hussein.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Drones are the new delivery boys of drug peddlers in Ohio prison

Drug peddlers have gone hi-tech – they are using drones as delivery boys. It has been reported that a drone had dropped a package of drugs into the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio and the inmates who were outside began to fight for the booty. Pepper spray was used to disperse the inmates.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 5 August 2015.

The incident happened on July 29 and has created a new front in the war on drugs in prison.
The consignment contained almost a quarter of an ounce (7 grams) of heroin, over 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana and more than 5 ounces (140 grams) of tobacco. It seems there have been earlier instances of drones breaching security. The authorities have initiated action to increase awareness and improve drone detection.
The video footage has revealed that the drone was seen over recreation yards immediately before a fight began.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the drone had indeed dropped a package that was meant for a particular inmate on the north recreation yard, and it was thrown over a fence to the south recreation yard. Obviously, it was a well-coordinated mission.
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Drones are overcrowding the skies and endangering the safety of flights

The skies are getting overcrowded with drones in the air and, experts are apprehensive about the safety of the crews and passengers of aircraft in view of two commercial jets coming to within 100 feet of a drone at the time of landing at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 2 August 2015.

JetBlue Flight 1843 reported sighting a drone as it approached the airport at an altitude of around 800 to 900 feet at 2.24pm on Friday. As per the statement of the pilot as told to the control tower – the unmanned aircraft had passed just below the plane's nose.
Within three hours, Delta Flight 407, carrying 154 passengers back from Orlando, Florida, saw a drone flying just 100 feet below its right wing as it approached the runway at 5pm.
Drones could break through the windscreen and injure the pilot or could get ingested into the engine and lead to a major accident. In both cases, the lives of crew and passengers would be at stake.
It is not clear whether it was the same drone that had been sighted by both the pilots but, neither plane needed to take any evasive action - both the flights landed without incident. As per the directives of FAA - unmanned aircraft are not supposed to fly above 400 feet and operators must not fly within five miles of an airport unless they 'contact the airport and control tower before flying'.
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Tech-savvy burglars are buying £30 drones to case the joint they want to burgle

Burglars have become tech savvy and are using drones as cheap as £30 to go one up on sophisticated intruder systems that have been installed at expensive properties in Britain and the US. This has been revealed in dailymail.co.uk dated 19 May 2015.

The burglar gangs are buying the drones for as little as £30 and are using them to spy on probable targets by sending them over electric gates and fences in order to get a closer look at their targets by filming the layout of estates and zooming in on alarm system wiring.
It seems a drone was allegedly used to identify a property for a burglary in Suffolk and the police have revealed that in the past 18 months, it has investigated 16 varied incidents that involved the mini-helicopters.
The US police have named them ‘the Tub Gang’ and they have used drones in New York and New Jersey to identify burglary targets.
Incidentally, drones can be fitted with cameras and are usually used for recreational purposes – but, gradually, there is an increase in commercial applications like carrying deliveries and monitoring crops.
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SAS hit squad on its way to Iraq to hunt down and eliminate ISIS leaders

Since the ISIS militants have become knowledge on how to avoid airstrikes, a decision has been taken to dispatch nearly 60 SAS fighters to Iraq to hunt down and eliminate Islamic State leaders – one of the primary targets is believed to be Jihadi John, the Briton who is supposed to have killed British and American hostages in a series of gruesome executions.
The SAS squadron from Hereford was supposed to travel to Afghanistan to hunt Taliban leaders but have been ordered to proceed to Iraq and turn their attentions on ISIS.
As indicated by a senior Whitehall source, some good early progress had been made against IS but they know how to avoid the jets now and, the only to defeat them is to get up close to them on the ground. Moreover, while hunting for top Islamic State leaders on the ground, they will also help to pinpoint targets for air strikes.
This revelation has come a month after it had been revealed in the media of how SAS troops with sniper rifles and heavy machine guns had killed hundreds of Islamic State extremists in a series of deadly quad-bike ambushes inside Iraq. It seems soldiers from this elite fighting unit had eliminated ‘up to eight terrorists per day’ in the daring raids, carried out during the past four weeks. The method was to airdrop small groups of soldiers into IS territory in RAF Chinook helicopters so that they could take on the enemy. The targets used to be identified by drones operated either from an SAS base or by the soldiers themselves on the ground using smaller devices.

Gift a drone this Christmas – they come for less than £50

The latest fad this Christmas appears to be to gift a drone - for less than £50, battery-powered drones with four motors are available and they will perform your commands. Spend a bit more and the drone will hover perfectly still, then loop the loop and keep sending back quality video of the surroundings and the landscape below.
Obviously, these machines have great appeal and are great fun to play with. The electronics shops have lined up these strangely-shaped flying machines. These remote-controlled devices, officially described as ‘multi-copters’ or ‘unmanned aerial vehicles’, are usually known by a much more recognizable name: drones.
Till recently, drones were the exclusive purview of the military – but, gradually, civilian applications have been introduced like delivering pizzas and books by drones.
Many kids will love this present but, if not handled properly, it could lead to an accident or, even help a terrorist to launch a deadly attack. Already, there was a near miss near Heathrow airport when a drone narrowly missed an aircraft in flight.

Drones are a new source of danger for aircraft

Drones used to be called UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and were operated by the law enforcing agencies in order to track down unwanted elements for elimination. However, with the introduction of drones for use by commercial establishments the sky is getting overcrowded and airlines are finding it difficult to avoid these airborne gadgets.
As reported by the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, airline pilots have told safety administrators regarding at least of 25 near misses which could have been catastrophic. The incidents are from a Jet Blue flight arriving at LaGuardia airport earlier this month to close calls at Norfolk, Virginia and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Moreover, last month a drone came within 25m of a passenger plane landing at London's Southend Airport.
The dangers posed by drones in the air cannot be overlooked because companies like Amazon want to use drones to deliver goods and this unique unmanned aircraft industry is set to boom. FAA has estimated that in the US alone there could be as many as 7500 commercial drones in the skies within five years.
Google has entered the business of using drones for making supplies - in Australia, it made delivery of packages including chocolate bars, dog treats and cattle vaccines to two farmers in Queensland. The deliveries were made by a 1.5m-wide (5ft) single-wing drone prototype that has four propellers that move into different positions for different stages of flight and the goods fit into a gap in the middle of the wing. It made use of a fishing line like apparatus to lower the payload to customers from about 150 feet above the ground.
Other applications of drones in civilian life are in Bhutan, where these are used to deliver medical supplies to remote clinics and in Namibia the World Wildlife Fund is trying to spot wildlife poachers.