Hundreds of Syrian women, children and elderly are dead following an assault by Da’esh operatives from the ISIS terror organization on the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor on Saturday.

The murders were carried out in the suburb of al-Bghailiye in Deir Ezzor city, capital of the province of the same name, according to the Syrian state-run SANA news agency, which quoted local sources.

Some reports of the assault claimed fewer deaths but a higher number of captives, dragged away to Raqqa, the so-called capital of the mushrooming Da’esh “caliphate.”

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that closer to 400 civilians were abducted Saturday after Da’esh seized new territory in Syria’s eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

The attack places Da’esh in control of approximately 60 percent of Deir Ezzor City. The oil-rich province borders Iraq.

“After their attack on Deir Ezzor [on Saturday] ISIS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the al-Baghaliyeh suburb it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city,” the Observatory said in a statement to media.

“Those abducted, all of whom are Sunnis, include women, children and family members of pro-regime fighters,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman added.

The hostages were reportedly taken to areas under Da’esh control in the western area of Deir Ezzor province, to the border with the Raqqa province, in the northwestern part of Syria.

According to the Observatory, the attack on Saturday left 85 civilians and 50 regime fighters dead. In addition, 42 member from the “Islamic State” organization (including 12 infiltrators and members who blew themselves up with explosive belts in the same attack) were killed as well, the organization reported on its website.

The report from state-run SANA, quoting local residents, said “around 300 civilians” were killed in the assault, and cited a “massacre.”

If the figures are confirmed it will be one of the highest death tolls in a single day in the nearly 5-year civil war.

(JNi.media) Major General Herzl “Hertzi” Halevi, head of Military Intelligence, told a closed lecture on Thursday that Israel and Iran are already engaged in a technological war, in which the Iranians are rapidly reducing Israel’s advantage, Ha’aretz reported Sunday. In regard to the recent wave of terror, Halevi said that if the videos showing stabbing attacks distributed over the social networks existed in 1948, Israel would never have won the War of Independence. He also confided he recently had cancelled a military intelligence operation at the last minute because of a letter he received from a junior officer in Unit 8200, Israel’s cyber spy agency.

Halevi said that the tasks faced by Israel’s Military Intelligence are becoming harder every day. Twenty years ago, he said, when his unit scored a major intelligence coup, “we were fixed for the next five to seven years.” But nowadays, “you may have struggled very hard, invested, put people’s lives at risk, did all kinds of moves, you retrieved something, but at the speed with which our world lives and the speed at which technology is changing,” the expiration time of your discovery is shortened a great deal.

The Military Intelligence chief gave as an example the efforts to gather intelligence on ISIS: “You see those guys from [ISIS] with their djellabas and such, but they are using top technology. This is not homing pigeons, these are the most advanced communication systems with the most complicated encryptions — now go deal with it. And it changes every day.”

Halevi noted that in this new milieu, junior soldiers and officers have more influence on decision making, using as an example a recent anecdote: “We were in a dilemma as to whether or not to carry out an operational maneuver somewhere,” he said. “We were at the moment just before this thing goes up to the Chief of Staff for a decision, and we had to decide — should we or shouldn’t we go ahead with it. Just then one of my officers entered my office and said to me, ‘Listen, I want you to read this, it’s a letter from, a SIGINT (intelligence-gathering by interception of signals) officer from unit 8200.”

Halevi continued: “He is a Major. He writes a letter to the commander of 8200 and to the chief of Military Intelligence, saying, ‘Listen, I think you’re making a mistake.’ It was just five minutes before making the decision. I could have not read it had it come a minute later, after the conversation with the chief of staff. Indeed, this shows the ability of [junior staff] to influence decision making at the most critical moment.”

As to the Iranian threat, the Military Intelligence chief said, “If you ask me whether we will have a war with Iran in the next 10 years, I would give you a surprise answer — we already are at war with Iran. We have a technological war with Iran. Our engineers are fighting the Iranian engineers — today. And it’s going to become more and more significant.”

Halevi said that the technological battle between Israel and Iran is over intelligence gathering on the weapons held by each party and their military capabilities. He was pessimistic regarding the trend of that technological war. “Today we have an advantage,” he said, “but Iran gradually closes the gap. Since 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the number of universities and the number of students in Iran has grown 20 times. Ours have grown by 3 and a half times.”

Vice President Joe Biden used the “W” word – war – in a speech Thursday night that is part of a new White House charm offensive to calm down Israel’s concerns that Washington is ready to sign a “bad deal” with Iran over its nuclear program.

Biden said at his speech to the conservative Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

A war with Iran, if required, it will happen. It is a risk we may have to take should Iran race to a bomb….

The finest military in history remains at the ready. Don’t underestimate my friend Barack Obama. He has a spine of steel and he is willing to do what it takes to keep our allies safe.

Biden also emphasized parts of the proposed deal that Iran has thoroughly rejected in public, particularly “phased sanctions relief” and a demand that Iran take off the mask off past nuclear weapons research.

President Obama sent Biden two weeks ago to placate Israel at the annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration in Washington, where he began his speech by declaring, “My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel.”

The White House clearly is trying to mend fences after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress in March, when he warned of a “bad deal” with Iran.

Obama lost the elections in Israel two weeks later. His aides not only have given up hope that Netanyahu won’t be able to form a new coalition government, they also have finally realized it will be much more stable and more right-wing than previous governments.

The president has no choice but to play ball with Netanyahu, and Biden is his pitcher, although he showed his ignorance of Jewish self-guilt by throwing a couple of spitballs in his Yom Ha’Atzmaut speech , bragging that two of his children married Jews.

Netanyahu is reciprocating to a certain extent and laying off high-profile attacks on the proposed Iran deal.

Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Netanyahu and former ambassador to the United States, told Bloomberg News Thursday that Israel “would like to do what we can to remove the unnecessary hindrances in our relationship with the U.S.”

“Neither side want to have an open conflict, but Netanyahu will certainly continue to criticize the Iran talks and there isn’t much he can deliver on the actual peace process,” Robbie Sabel, a Hebrew University professor and a  former Israeli diplomat, told Bloomberg.

Netanyahu last month suddenly released nearly half a billion dollars in tax revenues that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority, without deducting the entire sum from a large debt Ramallah owes Israel for electricity and other services.

Israel also has allowed more permits for Arabs in Judea and Samaria to travel to Jerusalem.

Obama reiterated last month he will visit Israel, but not before June 30th, the deadline for a final deal with Iran.

Tehran already has said that the deadline is not holy, so don’t expect Obama land at Ben Gurion Airport on July 1

A 56-page handwritten notebook belonging to World War II Nazi code-breaker Alan Turing sold for more than $1 million at auction Monday by Bonhams in New York.

Turing, a British pioneer in computers and a mathematical genius, led a team of cryptographers in cracking the “unbreakable” Enigma code of Nazi Germany’s military. He is believed to have had a significant impact on helping to end the war.

The notebook, which dates from 1942, is believed to be the only extensive Turing manuscript in existence; its sale price was considered by the auction house to be a tribute to the code-breaker.

Part of the proceeds from the $1,025,000 sale will be donated to charity, according to NBC News. The identity of the person who purchased the manuscript were withheld by Bonhams at the request of the buyer.

Cassandra Hatton of Bonhams said in a statement to media, “It has been a great privilege to have been involved in this sale and we are immensely pleased that all the people who bid for this unique item and indeed the wider public have recognized Turing’s importance and place in history.”

The 2014 Oscar-winning movie, “The Imitation Game” was based on the real life story of Alan Turing and his race against time to break the “Enigma” code.

Iran has sent Hamas tens of millions of dollars to rebuild its terror tunnel system that the IDF devastated in Operation Protective Edge last summer, the London Telegraph reported Sunday.

The newspaper quoted “intelligence sources” and confirms a statement last week by the head of the Southern Command that Hamas is digging again underground to prepare for attacks on Israel.

Even more money will be available if the United States lifts sanctions against Iran as part of a deal to allow the Islamic Republic to continue with a scaled-down nuclear program under supposed supervision

Israeli soldiers last summer exposed dozens of tunnels, one of which ended only a short distance from a kibbutz that could have been virtually wiped out had terrorists succeeded in an attack.

Southern Command Gen. Sami Turgeman told Israeli media Friday, “It is clear that they have gone back to digging tunnels, and they apparently hope to reach at least the numbers they had before the war last summer.”

The report from the Telegraph stated that Iran also is helping Hamas replenish missiles that were wiped out by Israel Air Force bombings.

Iran needs Hamas if it wants to carry out a proxy war on Israel from Gaza in the south and  from Lebanon in the north via Hezbollah, which it backs with manpower, money and weapons.

Hezbollah has more than 100,000 missiles ready to launch against Israel, and a simultaneous attacks from the north and south would be too numerous for Israel’s anti-missile system to intercept them.

This scenario has been played out several times, and it gets more dangerous each time it is renewed.

Israel fought Hamas and Hezbollah on two fronts during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, but Hezbollah gas since multiplied its stockpile of missiles, courtesy of Iran.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is warning that the international battle against Daesh – the terror organization known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS or ISIL – has launched World War III, although the rest of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the radical Islamic terror group may not yet realize it.

In fact, the Hashemite monarch told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Global Public Square earlier this week, “This has to be unified.

“I’ve said this to leaders both in the Islamic and Arab world, and to the world in general: This is a third World War by other means.

“This brings Muslims, Christians, other religions together in this generational fight that all of us have to be in this together.

“So it’s not a Western fight,” the king continued. “This is a fight inside of Islam where everybody comes together against these outlaws, so to speak, together.

“We have a moral responsibility to reach out to those Muslims, to protect them, and to stop them before they reach our border.

“There’s a short-term part of this which is the military part of the issue.

“There is the medium part, which is the security element of it.

“And then there’s a long-term element of this, which is obviously the ideological one,” Abdullah said.

The terror group twists Islam, he noted, using “intimidation” as its weapon to “put fear in people’s hearts.”

But not in Jordanian hearts.

King Abdullah II, a trained helicopter pilot dubbed “the warrior king” after 35 years of military service uploaded to Instagram a photo of himself dressed in military fatigues and black gloves to rally his nation after a Jordanian pilot captured by ISIS was burned to death by the terror organization.

He cut short his visit to the United States to fly home at that news, and increased his forces in the U.S.-led coalition in the bombing raids against Daesh. There were, in fact, rumors that the king himself took part in some air strikes against the terror group as well.

“Death to Daesh” was the cry roared by the thousands who swamped the streets of Amman in the wake of the pilot’s execution.

Jordan vowed to “wipe out Daesh completely.”

More than 150 Americans have joined 20,000 others fighting for the Islamic State (ISIS) and pose a clear and present danger of terrorist attacks in the United States.

The threat of violence in the United States from ISIS recruits could be carried out by less than a dozen “uncoordinated and unsophisticated” attacks, National Counter Terrorism Center director Nicholas Rasmussen said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday.

The Islamic State on which President Barack Obama wants Congress to declare war has grown into a monster that finally prompted the president on Wednesday to ask Congress to give him the power that he already has under the Constitution to unilaterally declare war.

Obama wants broad support, and his decision not to use the power under the Constitution and instead turn to Congress for support could make it difficult for future presidents to declare war at a time of emergency.

He has ordered Air Force strikes on ISIS by relying on a general Congressional authorization from 2002 for military operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist threats, but the ISIS’ success in working through social media in the United States has brought the threat of war to the shores of the United States.

US-led global task force raids have killed and wounded thousands of ISIS fighters, and it seems that for every one that dies, 10 new ones show up for the funeral.

“The number of those seeking to go to Iraq and Syria is going up,” Counterterrorism Director Nicholas Rasmussen testified at the hearing.

He added:

We assess that at least 3,400 of these fighters are from Western countries, and that number includes also over 150 U.S. persons who’ve either traveled to the conflict zone or attempted to do so.

Homeland Committee Chairman Michael T. McCaul, a Republican from Texas, said the Islamic State “now controls an area equal to the size of Belgium” despite US-led aerial bombings, and “governs millions of people, draws on billions of dollars in revenue and commands tens of thousands of foot soldiers.”

“This evolving Islamic terrorist landscape has given rise to the dual threats of foreign fighters returning to the United States and homegrown terrorism,” he added.

McCaul cited ISIS social media for “inciting their followers and potential recruits to wage war…in their home countries, and it’s working.

“ISIS social media also gives step-by-step instructions on how to get to the fight and how to return,” he said.

The committee investigated profiles of American who have traveled or have tried to travel to join the ISIS and sis covered that they come various backgrounds without a single stereotype.

The list includes six teenagers from Chicago and Denver who were recruited online.

McCaul said he was “worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home.”