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Syria-bound British councilor's son arrested in UK
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
U.S. Says 'More Robust' Rules after Sentencing for Blackwater Shooting
[AnNahar] The U.S. State Department offered assurances Tuesday that it had strengthened the rules governing private security firms in the wake of a 2007 shooting in Iraq in which 14 people died.

A former Blackwater guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others received 30-year sentences Monday for their roles in the mass shooting in which 17 people were also injured.

The four ex-employees of the U.S. private security firm had been convicted on an array of charges ranging from first degree murder to voluntary manslaughter stemming from the incident in Baghdad's Nisour Square.

"We respect the court's decision in this case and have no comment regarding the findings of the decisions here," acting State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told news hounds.

But she added that after "the tragedy there, the department took a number of steps to strengthen oversight of private security contractors such as moving quickly to improve investigative policies and strengthening procedures for use of force."

The aim had been to put in place a "more robust oversight" as well as making sure "we had better rules and regulations for private security contractors."

But she stressed that the State Department, which has its own diplomatic security bureau, would still need to work with private contractors in some places "for a variety of reasons."

The killings in Baghdad on September 16, 2007 deepened Iraqi resentment of America's involvement in the country.

In final statements, all four defendants protested their innocence and asked for leniency.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
French aid workers kidnapped in south Somalia
French aid workers are reported to have been kidnapped in a town in southern Somalia’s Gedo region by heavily armed gunmen taught be Al Shabaab, according to officials and witnesses
Do they work for UNHCR?
At least 4 were said to work for French solidarity agency while the 3 others have been working for Hodan Global Company in Gedo region, a witness told Shabelle Media station in Mogadishu.

Sehal Mo’alin, Elwak deputy commissioner told Shabelle Media that the foreign aid workers were abducted an area sandwiched between Garilley and Fafahdhun towns, adding that the hostages were taken to Bardere.

However, Somalia authorities in Mogadishu did not comment on the kidnapping against French aid workers who were working in south Somalia’s Gedo region, according to Freelance journalist.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  Ye pays your penny farthing, ye takes ye chances. Too bad, so sad.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 2:04 Comments || Top||

#2  I reserve my sympathy for worthier cases.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/15/2015 2:40 Comments || Top||

#3  How many stories like this do we have to read before these aid workers grab a clue?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/15/2015 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Might be more going on the aid word.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 16:07 Comments || Top||


Shaboobs kill 17 in Mogadishu attack
Follow-up from yesterday.
Al-Shabab militants have attacked a government complex in a busy area of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, leaving at least 17 people dead, including seven assailants.

A car loaded with explosives was driven into the wall surrounding the compound, and gunmen then stormed the building. Officials say the attack is now over and the building has been secured.

Tuesday’s attack began when a suicide bomber struck the walled compound – which houses the education ministry and other government buildings – in a car laden with explosives. The mangled wreckage of the car bomb could be seen outside the complex.

Gunmen then streamed into the hole in the building’s defences and started shooting.

Somali government spokesman Ridwan Abdiweli said a total of 17 people died in the attack. That includes eight civilians and two soldiers – one from the African Union Mission and the other from the Somali military. Seven al-Shabab fighters also died.

Omar Mohamed, a trader who works near the scene, told Reuters news agency that he was thrown off his chair when the blast went off. He said attackers sprayed gunfire at security forces as they battled to retake the building.

Shooting and the wail of ambulances could be heard, and many injured people were carried away to hospital. Public buses sat abandoned in the street close to the ministry compound.

The ministry’s director-general, Ismail Yusuf, was among the injured, state radio reported. It said the head of security at the ministry, who it named as Sandheere, was among the dead.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Two Military Cadets Killed in Egypt Bombing
[AnNahar] Two Egyptian military cadets were killed in a bombing north of Cairo on Wednesday as they waited to board a bus, officials said.

The blast struck in the Nile Valley city of Kafr al-Sheikh and wounded 10 other people, police officials said.

Scores of policemen and soldiers have been killed in attacks since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Most have taken place in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Islamic State group's affiliate in Egypt is based. Other attacks have targeted policemen and soldiers in the capital and the Nile Delta.

Kafr el-Sheikh governor Osama Hamdi Abdel Wahid told the private CBC Extra news station that he could confirm two cadets had been killed. The bombing took place outside the city's football stadium where the cadets were waiting for their bus, he said.

Though facing stiff resistance from jihadists in Sinai, police have killed and detained many militants in Cairo and Nile Delta. Yet small-scale attacks continue.
Ynet adds:
Two students from an Egyptian military academy were killed and six were maimed on Wednesday when a bomb targeting a minibus went kaboom! in the northern city of Kafr al-Sheikh, two health ministry officials said.

While members of Egypt's security forces have regularly been targeted in attacks claimed by Islamist holy warrior groups in a wave of violence since 2013, this appeared to be the first such attack on young students linked to the army.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


Three Killed in Suicide Attack on U.N. Peacekeepers in Mali
[AnNahar] A jacket wallah attacked a U.N. barracks in northern Mali on Wednesday, the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
said, killing three civilians and wounding 16 people, including several peacekeepers.

The bully boy was attempting to drive into a camp used by the U.N.'s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Ansongo, in the northern region of Gao, when the explosives went off.

"The attack left nine injured, two seriously, among the peacekeepers from the Niger contingent. In addition, the kaboom has killed at least three civilians. Seven (civilians) were also injured," MINUSMA said in a statement.

The mission did not specify if the bomber was acting alone or if there were others in the vehicle but its head, Mongi Hamdi, condemned the "cowardly and odious" attack.

"I am shocked that valiant peacekeepers are again being targeted, as well as innocent civilians," he was quoted as saying.

"This attack will not deter MINUSMA from its mission of restoring peace and security in Mali."

Divided into rival armed factions, plagued by drug trafficking and infiltrated by jihadist groups, Mali's desert north has struggled for stability since the west African nation gained independence in 1960.

The attack comes at a sensitive time as the United Nations is seeking to seal a peace deal for northern Mali and stem a wave of attacks that have targeted MINUSMA.

The country descended into chaos in 2012 when an insurgency by Tuareg rebels led to a coup in the capital Bamako.

Militants linked to al-Qaeda then overpowered the Tuareg to seize control of Mali's northern desert.

A French-led military operation launched in January 2013 drove the forces of Evil into the bush but the Tuareg rebels and Islamist holy warriors remain active throughout the northeast of the country.

The Islamists have staged attacks on U.N. forces, with at least 35 peacekeepers killed since MINUSMA was deployed in July 2013 -- one of the highest tolls for a U.N. peace mission -- and more than 140 maimed.

The camp targeted on Wednesday is situated near the scene of the killing of a Red Thingy worker, claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), two weeks ago.

Last month a Chadian peacekeeper and two children died when holy warriors fired more than 30 rockets at a U.N. barracks in the northern city of Kidal.

The attack on the U.N. base in Kidal came a day after heavily-armed Islamists attacked a Bamako nightclub, killing five people, including a French national and a Belgian.

Meanwhile Mali's main Tuareg rebel alliance, known as the Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA), has refused to sign a peace deal agreed by other gangs and the government.

Algeria, a mediator in the grinding of the peace processor, had scheduled a ceremony for Wednesday during which the Coordination's representatives were expected to initial the accord.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Benghazi Medical Centre sustains more damage from shelling
[Libya Herald] The third tower at Benghazi Medical Centre (BMC) was struck by mortar shells yesterday, causing substantial damage to an area between the fifth and sixth floors but no injuries . . .
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  A wild Muslim lion in Libya,
While nibbling an infidel's tibia,
Was tickled: "Taqqiya
Will claim me to be a
Mild martyr to Islamophibia!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 04/15/2015 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Ooooh, an anatomy pun (fibia) on top of playing with -philia love of), all in the final word. Nicely done, Zenobia F!
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 7:41 Comments || Top||


IS in Derna grabs four petrol tankers and army vehicles
[Libya Herald] Gunmen from the Shoura Council of Islamic Youth in Derna, which has declared its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), have managed to seized four tanker loads of petrol that were being sent for the town’s petrol stations by the state–owned petrol distribution company, Brega Marketing . . .
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
General Shaking Up America's Yemen, ISIS, and Hostage Rescue Plans
[Daily Beast] Lt. Gen. Bennet Sacolick's little known office is grabbing the spotlight with its review of U.S. hostage policy and ISIS and Yemen strategy. He talks about being an 'honest broker.'

Army Lt. Gen. Bennet S. Sacolick still remembers the call: The body of an American hostage had been found in Iraq.

It was 2004, and the Iraqi insurgency was building momentum. Four Blackwater USA contractors had recently been killed and their burned bodies hung from a bridge in Fallujah. The Mahdi army, a Shia militia created by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was rising up and Sacolick, then a colonel, was commanding a special operations task force in Iraq.

After the call, Sacolick and his men tracked down the insurgents and captured or killed the group responsible for the kidnapping. It was a single-minded hunt with little concern for anything but the location of the next target. Sacolick never considered the victim's family--either during the hunt for the insurgents or after the body was recovered near an overpass. The family wasn't part of the mission.

“We eventually were able to kill or capture every single one of them, but I never associated that with a family back home,” said Sacolick, who asked that the victim not be named for privacy reasons. “I’ve since met the family and they are wonderful people, and now I’m on the other end of it and I realize there is a huge tail associated with hostages. Maybe that was my own personal maturing process, when you realize there was more to it than just what is going on in my battle space in Iraq.”

That disconnect between those trying to free the hostage and the family waiting for news of their loved ones is one reason the Obama administration ordered a review of how the U.S. government handles hostage negotiations and rescues. Sacolick, now director of the strategic operational planning directorate, was tapped to oversee the review, thrusting his little known planning office at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) into the spotlight.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 06:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “We eventually were able to kill or capture every single one of them, but I never associated that with a family back home,” said Sacolick,

Knowing the family back home might've made for less captures and more kills
Posted by: Frank G || 04/15/2015 9:16 Comments || Top||

#2  2004.
Petraeus in IRQ.
McCrystal in AFG.
A different time.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/15/2015 13:26 Comments || Top||


UN Imposes Arms Embargo on Yemen's Ansarullah Movement
[ALMANAR.LB] The UN Security Council on Tuesday imposed an arms embargo on Yemen's Ansarullah movement and demanded it immediately pulls back from territory seized and instead seek a political settlement.

Russia abstained from voting but did not veto the resolution, the first formal action taken by the council since a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
on March 26.

Drafted by the Gulf countries and Jordan, the resolution imposes sanctions on the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
leader, Sayyed Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, and a key ally.

The Saudi-led coalition began on March 26 air strikes against Yemen, killing or wounding hundreds of civilians and causing much destruction across the state.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Yemeni Army Advances in Maareb As Saudi Warplanes Massacre Civilians
[ALMANAR.LB] The Yemeni army, backed by the popular committees, advanced in the provinces of Maareb, clashing fiercely with Qaeda terrorists.

In restive Lahj
... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement
, the Yemeni forces continued expelling Qaeda bandidos Death Eaters from the province and seized ammunitions downed by the Saudi warplanes to the terrorists.

The Saudi warplanes continued striking the civilians and the residential areas in the various Yemeni cities, targeting a school in Sanaa, and committing a massacre in Ibb by shelling the same house several times.

The Saudi-led coalition began on March 26 air strikes against Yemen, killing or wounding hundreds of civilians and causing much destruction across the state.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Al Qaeda Group Says GITMO grad and Top Cleric 'Tango Uniform' in Yemen
[ABSee News] Al Qaeda's most lethal branch said today that its top cleric, a man with a $5 million American bounty on his head, has been killed in Yemen, as the Arab nation falls deeper into chaos.

The group said in a statement posted online that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, also spelled al-Rubaish, was killed in a "crusader strike" over the weekend "after he spent almost two decades carrying out jihad against America and its agents." The statement did not say who exactly AQAP believed carried out the purported strike.

The U.S. has killed a number of high ranking AQAP leaders in recent years through targeted drone strikes, as part of its sustained counter-terrorism operations in the area.

A senior White House official told ABC News he could not comment on "any specific reports coming out of Yemen," but said, "We continue to actively monitor terrorist threats emanating from Yemen, and we have capabilities postured in the area to address them. As we have in the past, we will take action to disrupt continuing, imminent threats to the United States and our citizens. That remains the priority of this Administration."
Similar story from the Aay-Pee...
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Al Rubbish? Really is now.
Posted by: Steven || 04/15/2015 2:12 Comments || Top||


Fighters in southern Yemen say pushing back Houthis
Aden -- Militiamen in southern Yemen said on Tuesday they had pushed back Iranian-allied Houthi rebels on several fronts, three weeks into a Saudi-led air strikes against the northern movement of fighters.

In the southern port city of Aden, which has seen nearly three weeks of fierce street fighting, Houthi fighters withdrew from the Khor Maksar district, home to an international airport and several foreign missions. The pullout deprives the Houthis of a bridge to downtown districts where they are facing heavy resistance from local fighters.

Saudi Arabia and Arab allies have been bombing the Houthis to try and drive them away from Aden, the last major city in Yemen loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has run away fled to Riyadh.

The conflict in Yemen is widely regarded as a sectarian proxy war between predominantly Saudi Arabia and Iran. Riyadh says it is protecting Hadi and his government in exile from the Houthis, but as the world’ largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia is also unhappy at the prospect of protracted upheaval in its southern neighbour.

Hadi and his Saudi backers also face fierce opposition from soldiers loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a shrewd political operator who has teamed up with his old foes the Houthis.

Al Qaeda, which has staged suicide bombings against the Houthis, also poses a threat to Yemen’s stability. Nearby shipping lanes and the narrow Bab El Mandeb passage, through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily to Europe, the United States and Asia, could also be at risk from the fighting.

Southerners make gains, supplies low

Southern militia sources said they wrested control of an infantry base loyal to the Houthis after heavy fighting on Monday night near the Balhaf liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in southern Shabwa province on the Arabian Sea. Yemen LNG, the company managing the facility, said it had halted production due to insecurity and began evacuating its staff, while militia sources said they had moved into the port to secure it from looting.

In the southern province of Dhalea, militiamen said their fighters had killed around 40 Houthis and allied soldiers over the past day, although this could not be independently confirmed.

In the southern town of Houta in the province of Lahej southern fighters said they attacked a Houthi tank with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns on Monday night, killing around 15 rebels.

Weeks of street battles have left parts of once thriving Aden in ruins and led to shortages of water, food and electricity.

But armed townspeople say they have laid siege to pockets of Houthi and army fighters loyal to Saleh, forcing them to surrender in the dozens after running out of supplies. Mosque loudspeakers blared appeals for the fighters to turn themselves in.

“We won’t rest until we’ve ejected them from all our areas and neighbourhoods,” one fighter in Khor Maksar told Reuters.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Six Arrested in UK on Suspicion of Terrorism
Follow-up on this report from yesterday.
[AnNahar] British police have incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
six people on suspicion of terrorism after Turkish authorities stopped a group crossing the Syrian border, police said.

Four people aged between 22 and 47 were arrested at Manchester airport in north west England early Wednesday, following on from the arrest on Tuesday of a 21-year-old man at Birmingham airport in central England and a 31-year-old man in Rochdale, near Manchester.

All six remain in police custody for questioning, according to a statement from Greater Manchester Police.

The investigation was launched after nine people -- five adults and four children -- were stopped by Turkish authorities trying to cross into Syria last month.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
deported the nine Britons, including the son of a local councillor from Rochdale, on Tuesday, two weeks after arresting them for attempting to cross into Syria to join jihadists, Turkey's official news agency Anatolia said.

The four children have been placed in the care of a guardian.
Ynet adds:
Four Britons who were detained in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey on suspicion of trying to cross illegally into Syria were locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
on their return to England on Wednesday, police said.

The four were part of a group of nine people, all members of the same family, who were detained in Turkey at the beginning of the month.

One of the nine, a 21-year-old man named in the media as Waheed Ahmed, the son of a British local politician, was incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
when he returned to Britannia on Tuesday.

They were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, police said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-bound British councilor's son arrested in UK
[AA.TR] A British Labour councilor's son was tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
Tuesday in the U.K. after being deported from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on suspicion of trying to illegally enter Syria to join bad boy groups.

On Monday night, Waheed A., 21, was deported to the U.K.

Manchester police said in a statement that "in the early hours of Tuesday, a 21-year-old man was arrested" at Birmingham Airport on suspicion of preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

"Officers were working to ensure the safe return of eight other people to the U.K.," the statement added.

On April 1, Turkish authorities had caught Waheed A. and eight other British citizens, including four children, while allegedly trying to illegally enter Syria from Turkey's southern Hatay province to join bad boy groups, including Daesh.

Thousands of imported muscle from all over the world are believed to have joined terrorist organizations, including Daesh, in Syria and Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraq
IS Seizes Parts of Iraq's Largest Oil Refinery
[AnNahar] Jihadists from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group broke into Iraq's massive Baiji oil refinery, seized some of its facilities and are hiding among fuel storage tanks, officials said Wednesday.

IS has attempted repeatedly over the past 10 months to capture the refinery -- the country's largest -- but security forces have managed to fight them off.

The group "now controls the oil (training) institute and the products and shipping department and some of the roads in the refinery," a bigwig in the state company responsible for northern refineries told AFP.

"The force stationed at the refinery is fighting fiercely," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that an operation to clear the facility will be launched in the coming hours.

But Lions of Islam are hiding among full fuel tanks, and there are fears they will torch them if there is an assault.

An army major general said IS fighters had attacked from two sides and were able to penetrate several hundred meters (yards) into the facility.

"Security forces defending the refinery... continue to besiege (fighters) hiding in some limited locations" and among the storage tanks, the officer said.

The Lions of Islam are being tracked electronically and visually, he added.

The oil ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the situation.

The U.S.-led coalition providing support to Iraqi forces said it conducted 16 air strikes in the Baiji area from Monday to early Wednesday.

"Coalition Arclight airstrikes support (Iraqi) efforts by destroying (IS) buildings, excavators, tactical units, vehicles and weapons," a statement said.

The refinery -- some 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Baghdad -- once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined products per day, meeting half the country's needs.

That ended when an IS offensive overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, cutting the refinery off.

An Iraqi operation backed by coalition air strikes eventually broke the siege in October and retook the town of Baiji, just south of the refinery.

But the jihadists have since wrested the town back.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/15/2015 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


ISIS vehicle finds IED, launches skyward, survivors doubtful.
[Jerusalem Post] The fight against the Islamic State has played out on the battlefield and through the camera lens as factions resisting its spread have taken to sharing footage of their victories against the self-styled Caliphate.

In a recent video uploaded by Kurdish Peshmerga forces to YouTube, a vehicle driven by a would be suicide-bomber is seen careening down a roadway on its way to detonating itself near a Kurdish outpost, allegedly in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Before it completes its attack however, the vehicle can be seen launched into the air by a roadside IED [improvised explosive device], before bursting into a fireball, presumably due to its own payload or due to the detonation of its gas-tank.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boy Howdy that was some IED.

How big was that thing? 500 Kg??
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/15/2015 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  That wasn't the gas tank!
Posted by: gorb || 04/15/2015 1:13 Comments || Top||

#3  The triggering device held by the Marine in the picture is a typical IED electric 'pressure plate' initiator. It is has an 'air gap' that when stepped on or driven over, collapses to permit contact between two or more electrical contacts. The contacts are wired to a blasting cap in the main charge. Pressure Plate IED's are usually powered by a 9 volt battery. Crude yes, but very effective.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/15/2015 1:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Agree, I have only seen gas tanks do that in the movies.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/15/2015 16:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I love a happy ending.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/15/2015 19:13 Comments || Top||

#6 

Width fixed. In future, please set width to 400, otherwise, as you'll have noticed, you break the Burg.

For the moderators,
trailing wife at 10:10 pm ET
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 04/15/2015 19:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Houston, we have liftoff.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/15/2015 19:48 Comments || Top||

#8  ISIS vehicle finds IED, launches skyward

Nice hang time.
Posted by: gorb || 04/15/2015 21:22 Comments || Top||


Car bombs kill eight in Baghdad area
Baghdad — Car bombs in the Baghdad area, including one near a hospital, killed at least eight people on Tuesday, security and medical officials said.

One blast hit a car park across the street from Yarmuk hospital in the west of the Iraqi capital, killing at least four people and wounding 10. The second struck a residential area in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding at least 13.

Bombings and shootings in the capital were once a daily occurrence, but have declined since the militant group spearheaded a sweeping offensive last June and overran large areas north and west of the city. That has tied them down in fighting outside the capital that distracts from their ability to carry out attacks against civilians in Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitaries have regained significant territory from militant groups in recent months, with backing from a US-led coalition carrying out air strikes and training, as well as from Iran.

But large parts of two provinces — Nineveh in the north and Anbar in the west — remain under militant control.

On Monday seven people were killed and 31 wounded in a car bomb blast in Baghdad’s western neighbourhood of Bayaa, a police colonel said. Another two people were killed the same day by a roadside bomb in Taji, just north of the capital, he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
BIFF founder Kato dies in Mindanao
[Reuters] The leader of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters died on Tuesday. Ameril Umbra Kato suffered a heart attack in his hideout in Maguindanao province.

General Gregorio Catapang said, "We have pictures of his burial. He died of natural causes. Before this, he had a diabetic stroke that immobilized him."

BIFF spokesman Abu Misri Mama also confirmed the Kato's death after speaking with the militant leader's son, Omar, who is expected to be the armed group's new leader.

Kato, a former field commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, opposed peace talks with the government after an ancestral land deal in 2008 was nullified by the Supreme Court.

The peace process has stalled after the bloody clash that killed 44 police commandos, 17 militants and four civilians on January 25 as lawmakers suspended debates on a law to create a new autonomous Muslim area in the south. BIFF militants were involved in firefight.

General Catapang said, "This will help the peace process because we all know his group is a peace spoiler."

Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF chief peace negotiator, said they will welcome back Kato's followers to their group if they wish to rejoin. He added, "We will not accept those who had committed crimes, like bombings and extortion. You can take out the leader, but like any other terrorist organization, the leader can be replaced."
Posted by: ryuge || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters

#1  Also from IQBAL ...

* MANILA TIMES > [Commentary] IQBAL: SABAH BETTER OFF UNDER MALAYSIA.

Author indics that Iqbal's "moderate" tones or rhetoric in favor of alleged peace between the Muslim Moros and Manila may be a false façade or front.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/15/2015 2:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Saaaaaaaah!
Posted by: Shipman || 04/15/2015 5:05 Comments || Top||

#3  ...The Green Hornet will be devastated.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/15/2015 11:56 Comments || Top||

#4  MILF's founder, however, doing great?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/15/2015 12:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Chief Inspector Clouseau, and OJ Simpson could not be reached for comment. And remember BIFF, two coats of wax this time.
Posted by: Jiggs Bumble7505 || 04/15/2015 14:09 Comments || Top||

#6  De latest this AM ...

* MANILA TIMES > "AGGRESSIVE" LEADER IS NEW HEAD OF BIFF FACTION.

* MANILA BULLETIN > BIFF'S NEW LEADER: SHEIKH ISMAIL ABUBAKAR.

BIFF Spox Misty Mama = ALLAN-MANDATED "HOLY WAR" TO CONTINUE OR GO ON IN MINDANAO, despite Kato death.

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [GMA News] AFP: BIFF POWER STRUGGLE [post-Kato] PITS KATO KIN VERSUS ABUBAKAR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/15/2015 22:23 Comments || Top||


Three killed in two attacks in southern Thailand
[The Nation] Early Monday morning, a farmer and his wife were gunned down in Yala province in a rubber plantation. The couple's two sons worked as paramilitary ranger volunteers. Two hours later, a local health official was shot and killed in Narathiwat province by two gunmen while he was riding his motorbike to his second job.

Meanwhile, provincial Governor Natthapong Sirichana and provincial police chief Maj-General Patthanawuth Angkhanawin yesterday inspected the site of a Sunday attack, in which militants fired M16 rifles and killed four villagers in Narathiwat. Initial investigation found that the five or six attackers split into two teams; one went to shoot Jul and Dam In-erb and burned their bodies, while the other went to the nearby house to kill Aree Rattana and her son Somneuk.
Posted by: ryuge || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aleppo rebels blow up Air Force Intelligence building
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Rebels of Al Shamiya Front blew up remains of Syrian regime's Air Force Intelligence building in Aleppo with 2 tunnel bombs, according to footage posted on YouTube Monday.

Aleppo, near the Turkish border, is a major frontline in the Syrian war. Rebel groups in and around the city have repelled repeated attempts by the Syrian army and militia fighting with it to cut supply lines from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
to the rebels.

Rebel-held parts of Aleppo have faced regular air strikes by the Syrian military. A U.N. commission of enquiry on Syria has recorded the intense use of barrel bombs - improvised bombs dropped by helicopter - by government forces in the city.

Meanwhile,
...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often......
Syrian Civil Defense officials of Aleppo called on citizens to stay in their shelters and basements to avoid Syrian regime's aerial bombardment as the corpse count of Saturday air strikes rose to 60 people.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Barrel Bomb kills Manager of Christian Elderly Centre in Aleppo
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Michael Ebajeh, manager of Mar Elias Elderly Center in Aleppo, was among the 30 casualties who passed away last Saturday when Syrian regime air raid struck Maadi district of Aleppo.

Ebajeh, a 48-year-old Christian man who preferred to stay in Aleppo in a rebel-held area to help his elderly friends.

Abo Yusuf, as he used to be called, was killed when an explosive barrel was thrown on the vegetable market, as he was there with his wife buying food for the elderly, he died straight away, while his wife had serious wounds and injuries.

The manager was known of his support to the revolution, despite his son was killed last year as a result of a mortar's shell, but he refused to accuse the rebels of killing him.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


HRW says Syrian regime used chemical weapons in Idlib
[AA.TR] Human Rights Watch
... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge....
said Tuesday that strong evidence shows that Syrian regime forces launched chemical attacks on Idlib province in northern Syria.

According to a written statement by the international organization, the Assad regime used toxic chemicals in several barrel kabooms on Idlib between March 16 and 31.

The assaults, which violated the Chemical Weapons Convention and a United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
Security Council resolution, affected at least 206 civilians, including 20 civil defense workers, HRW said.

The attacks also killed six civilians, including three children, the organization added.

"Syrian authorities appear once again to have shown complete disregard for human suffering by violating the global prohibition against chemical warfare," Nadim Houry, HRW deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said. "The UN Security Council and countries that are members of the Chemical Weapons Convention need to respond strongly."

Human Rights Watch said it documented evidence of three chemical attacks through photos, videos and eyewitnesses, who described smelling chlorine.

The Syrian opposition has repeatedly accused the Assad regime of using chemical and toxic weapons against civilians since August 2013, when a single attack reportedly killed more than 1,400 civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria: Army Kills More ISIL & Nusra Terrorists in Various Areas
[ALMANAR.LB] Units of the Syrian army and armed forces on Tuesday continued to tighten the noose around foreign-backed terrorist organizations across the country, killing and injuring scores of their members and destroying their weaponry.

Latakia

A number of terrorist groups' leaders were killed during intensive military operations against hideouts for bandidos murderous Moslems from al-Nusra
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
Front and its affiliates in Salma town and Droushan village in the northern countryside of Latakia.

The operations also resulted in destroying terrorists' vehicles, most of them were equipped with heavy machine guns, according to a military source said.

More hideouts were destroyed in the villages of al-Mugheiriyeh and Tirtiah, where all bandidos murderous Moslems inside left dead and their weapons and ammunition destroyed.

Quneitra

The army repelled an assault launched by J al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
bandidos murderous Moslems against al-Samadaniyeh al-Sharqiyeh village in the northeastern countryside of Quneitra, a military source said Tuesday.

The army members clashed with the assailants, killing many of them and injuring others, the source explained in a statement to SANA.

The source said while the remaining bandidos murderous Moslems managed to flee, their vehicles were left destroyed.

Earlier terrorist organizations' hideouts were destroyed during army operations in the villages of Um Batena and al-Hamidiyeh in the western countryside of the southern province.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart...
the army carried out military operations in Mumtanah village, destroying terrorists' vehicles, weapons and ammunition and killing and injuring many of them.

An army unit destroyed al-Nusra terrorists' vehicles, weapons and equipment, killing a number of them in the village of Abu Shatta to the south of Jibata al-Khashab in the countryside.

Other army units destroyed terrorist organizations' gatherings and hideouts, killing a number of their members in the villages of Um al-Izam, its surroundings and Bair al-Ajam in the countryside of the province.

Idleb

The army destroyed a workshop for making bombs and shells and two so-called Jahannam (hell) cannons in Idleb city and the area surrounding Kafarlata town in the countryside, in addition to killing Saudi terrorists.

Hasaka

An army unit, in cooperation with the popular defense groups, carried out a special operation targeting bandidos murderous Moslems from ISIL to the west of Hasaka city, northeastern Syria.

The operation, which took place on the road linking the areas of Abyad, al-Sawda and Abd, resulted in destroying several vehicles, some equipped with heavy machineguns, according to a military source.

Many ISIL bad boyz were potted and others were maimed, while their weapons and ammunition were destroyed.

Homs

Units of the army and armed forces continued special operations against ISIL terrorist organization's gatherings in the eastern countryside of Homs, killing and injuring many of its members and destroying their vehicles, machineguns, weapons and ammunition in the villages of Rahom.

The army units destroyed terrorist organizations' gatherings and hideouts, killing many of their members and destroying their vehicles in the villages of Abu Hawadit, Um Sahrij, al-Mshairfeh al-Shamaliyeh and al-Mazbal in the eastern countryside of the province.

The source added that a number of bandidos murderous Moslems of al-Nusra and the so-called Homs regiment and al-Farouk Battalions were killed in the army precise operations to the east of the post center in al-Rastan city.

Another army unit killed and injured a number of bandidos murderous Moslems in a special operation in the village of Ein Hussein in the countryside of the province.
Posted by: Fred || 04/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2015-04-15
  Syria-bound British councilor's son arrested in UK
Tue 2015-04-14
  Ajnad Al Sham 'declares war' on ISIS south of Damascus: statement
Mon 2015-04-13
  U.S. drones kill 2 leaders in Pakistan
Sun 2015-04-12
  Paks free Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, terrorist behind Mumbai attacks
Sat 2015-04-11
  Fierce fighting in south Benghazi as LNA 'masses forces' outside city
Fri 2015-04-10
  Saudi warplanes pound military airport in southern Yemen
Thu 2015-04-09
  Red Cross Says Situation 'Catastrophic' in Yemen's Aden
Wed 2015-04-08
  Teams Exhume Tikrit Mass Graves Suspected to Hold Bodies of 1,700 Iraqi Soldiers
Tue 2015-04-07
  27 Houthis reportedly killed in S. Yemen ambush
Mon 2015-04-06
  Shaboobs attack two checkpoints in Bossaso, wound mayor
Sun 2015-04-05
  Civilians flee as militants seize most of Yarmouk camp
Sat 2015-04-04
  Qaeda advances on Syria army base near Idlib: monitor
Fri 2015-04-03
  Yemen Rebels Push Deep into Hadi's Former Refuge Aden
Thu 2015-04-02
  Shabaab militants claim responsibility for Garissa University attack
Wed 2015-04-01
  Libya's Tripoli govt sacks Hassi

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