[DAWN] The Afghan government has enlisted hundreds of militia fighters controlled by local commanders to battle Talibs near the northern city of Kunduz, officials said, underlining how the armed forces are struggling to tackle the insurgency alone.
The recruitment of unofficial gangs in Kunduz is on a larger scale than previous attempts by the government and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces to recruit militias in the fight against the Taliban.
It may also signal a compromise of sorts for President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. 's administration, which had been trying to curb the influence of so-called "mujahideen" strongmen who held key positions in former President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's government.
Ghani's front man, Ajmal Abidy, denied that the Kunduz recruitment amounted to re-arming mujahideen militias.
"What is being considered is selective voluntary citizens' participation in the defence of the country against terrorists," he said in a statement.
The Taliban's weeks-long siege of Kunduz has involved thousands of faceless myrmidons and brought the Lions of Islam closer to capturing a major city than at any time in years.
The scale of the assault and the inability of Afghan forces to repel it is particularly worrying, because it comes just a few months after NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] A recent spate of attacks and reports of deteriorating conditions in much of the country have gripped the capital in recent weeks. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... as warm weather sets in, Kabul residents have sought to keep their morale high and distance themselves from the horrors of war in Afghanistan.
On Friday, hundreds of people - including men, women and kiddies - gathered in various picnic areas around the capital to enjoy leisure time with friends and family. While seemingly a simple, everyday affair, it is activities such as these that seem the greatest act of defiance against the terrorist groups seeking to subdue the Afghan public through fear.
"Today, I visited this picnic ground and had fun because of the environment here," a Kabul resident named Maryam told TOLOnews.
The Babur Gardens and Qargha Lake in Kabul are among the most historic and popular visiting sites in the city. Residents from various corners of the capital gather in both locations for picnics on warm days.
"When I came and saw my countrymen in joy, I felt at peace," a Kabul resident named Sher Khan said.
Nevertheless, while an afternoon picnic with loved-ones can offer a brief respite from the challenges of life in Afghanistan, the realities of the country's conflict are never too far off the minds of capital residents.
"The armed opponents conduct terror attacks in our country, therefore the security forces should struggle to secure the people from the attacks, as our countrymen are killed and maimed as a result of the violence," Maryam said just after marveling at beauty of the picnic scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] A number of Afghan politicians, tribal elders MPs and civil society activists met President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. on Thursday to voice their reservations and requests regarding a recent cooperation agreement signed by the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) and Pakistain's intelligence service (ISI).
According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) which was signed in secret last week, both countries commit to working closely together operationally to fight terror, and the ISI will help train and equip the NDS. In addition, Afghanistan and Pakistain will cooperate in investigating individuals and entities suspected of ties to terrorism within their respective territories.
The MoU has prompted a wave of heavy criticisms, particularly from politicians and analysts who are highly skeptical of Pakistain's intentions. With its long history of duplicitous rhetoric and covert support for the Taliban, many Afghans are disinclined to trust and collaborate with the Pak military and intelligence apparatus.
Regarding their meeting with President Ghani, a participant, Mohammad Amin Weqad, indicated that the MoU would be reviewed given the issues raised by those gathered. "It was agreed that the MoU must be reassessed and amended, because the views of the people's representatives in the national assembly, politicians, Jihadi figures and civil society must be included in the draft agreement," he said on Friday.
Other participants in the meeting emphasized that Ghani had said the agreement was not yet finalized, but was simply in draft form. For some, specific language as well as provisions of the MoU are unacceptable. "The 'separatist movements' and ANA soldiers being trained by Pakistain are among the issues that should be reviewed and amended," MP Abdullah Qarloq said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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NAIROBI -- A United Nations report has documented claims that the last grand coalition government recruited a criminal, now jailed in Belgium, for sea piracy and money laundering to assist it negotiate with pirates who seized the Mv Faina ship with 33 T-72 tanks imported from Ukraine off the Somalia coast on September 25, 2008.
Mohamed Abdullahi Moalim Aden alias Tiiceey is the name of the felon Kenya allegedly relied on to negotiate the release of its weapons from pirates. He was jailed last year in Belgium for allegedly supporting sea piracy himself.
He was arrested together with his alleged accomplice Mohamed Abdi Hassan alias Afweyne on arrival in Belgium in 2013, according to a report of the UN Security Council. According to the report, Tiiceey was 42 years old last October and holds US nationality after emigrating there at the age of 22.
During the Mv Faina crisis, Kenyan authorities alleged the tanks were imported for the Kenyan military but foreign media alleged the Kenyans imported them for the government of South Sudan. A parliamentary report four years ago showed that not all the tanks could be accounted for within Kenya’s military sites.
When the pirates released the cargo in 2009, Kenyan authorities denied paying ransom. But now a UN report suggests that not only was ransom paid but the Kenyan government relied on a network of criminals, with links to Somalia’s current government, to negotiate for the safe passage of the weapons.
Tiiceey’s exact role in the negotiations is described here as “facilitation” and his interest in negotiating for the release of the tanks is not understood but the report declare that “Tiiceey’s facilitation services are neither free nor cheap”.
Before his arrest in 2013 and imprisonment in Belgium last year, Tiiceey swindled governments and distraught families as a negotiator.
The UN report alleges for the first time Tiiceey was actively engaged with Kenya’s intelligence services and an official of the Kenya government using the pseudonym Major Yahya.
The report prepared by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea shows that Kenyan authorities allowed Tiiceey to negotiate with the pirates in Somalia for a hefty fee and he was later allowed a free reign and stay in Nairobi from where he made billions of shillings, opened bank accounts and operated an airline that still operates from Wilson Airport.
Tiiceey and brokers from Somalia living in Nairobi made billions from other ransom negotiations to free Western hostages including British Judith Tebbut who was snatched from a hotel in Lamu with her husband, David Tebbut who was killed in the hijack process on September 11, 2011.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] In a startling and damaging display of political disunity within the internationally recognised government, the newly installed police chief in Benghazi has ordered the arrest of the Omar Sinki, officially still Minister of the Interior in the Beida government.
Colonel Mustafa Ragaig, who was appointed by the interior ministry as police chief in Benghazi (or more formally, head of the security directorate) two months ago but only took up office last week, has ordered checkpoints, airports and border crossing to detain Sinki if they encounter him and send him to Benghazi.
The move by Ragaig, announced yesterday, is thought not to be legal. Normally, only the public prosecutor is supposed to issue such a warrant.
No reasons have been given for the move although Ragaig is said to have raised allegations about financial corruption. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... political infighting is seen as the real reason although it is not known if the police chief was acting under orders from above or made the decision himself.
In November, Thinni sacked Sinki as Interior, after Sinki had publicly attacked General Khalifa Hafter. However. Sinki refused to go, saying that he had been appointed by the House of Representatives (HoR) and only it could sack him. The House, although it had appointed Hafter as commander of the Libyan armed forces, agreed with Sinki and upheld his appointment in March.
Thinni, however, has effectively ignored this, refusing to accept Sinki back as interior minister and has instead relied on the deputy minister, Colonel Ahmed Ali Baraka, as the acting interior minister.
Two months ago, in a no-holds-barred attack on Sinki, the Prime Minister accused him of incompetence, complaining that he had been forced on him by the HoR. It had chosen him, Thinni claimed, because of pressure on it by the head of the National Forces Alliance, Mahmoud Jibril, and also because it wanted a top minister to be from Misrtata -- which is where Sinki comes from.
There are suggestions, however, that there is a longstanding personal feud between Sinki and Ragaig. At the beginning of the month, Sinki is reported to have sent a letter sacking Ragaig and reappointing his predecessor, Colonel Ramadan Elluhaishi.
It would not be the first time Ragaig has been sacked as Benghazi's police chief. He was appointed head of Benghazi's security directorate in November 2012 following the liquidation of Colonel Faraj Drissi.
He was sacked three months later by the then interior minister, Ashour Shuwail, following protests by the police who accused him of not being up to the task of ensuring security in Benghazi.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... despite the arrest order and being shunned by the Prime Minister, Sinki has been continuing to operate as interior minister.
Yesterday, the same day that Ragaig was ordering his arrest, he opened the new criminal investigation department in Shahat, accompanied by various ministry and local security officials.
In his speech, he made pointed reference to the fact that the HoR was the highest authority in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] Hezbollah firmly denounced the vindictive terrorist kaboom which targeted Imam Ali (A.S) mosque in Qadih town in al-Qatif, claimed over 20 deaders and maimed dozens of the worshippers who were performing blessed Friday prayers.
This crime is one of the criminal acts that target the mosques and the religious centers across the Islamic World and that are committed by groups which do not appreciate the prayer and do not take into account the sanctity of the Houses of Holy God and the pure blood of the innocent who are killed at the altar of ignorance, hatred, and the religious as well as the sectarian incitement, according to Hezbollah.
In a statement, Hezbollah considered that those who have the takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... holy warriors ideology do not distinguish when they launch their attacks between the Shiites and the Sunnites, nor between the Moslems and the non-Moslems.
"Those groups perform their brutality against everyone, departing from a spiteful ideology which atones everyone else. So, they deliberately commit against them the most terrible massacres, carrying out the schemes of the Ummah's enemies."
According to the statement, Hezbollah held the Saudi authorities fully responsibile for the heinous crime due to their financial, political and practical support to the criminal killers in order to commit similar crimes in many Arab and Islamic countries, due to their failure to provide their citizens in the eastern region with protection, and even due to their continuous sectarian incitement against them.
The party offered the deepest condolences to the families of the innocent deaders who were killed by the sinful bombing and expressed its sympathy with the maimed, wishing for them a speedy recovery.
Hezbollah finally asserted that victory will be on the side of the patient against the tyrants and their demonic tools.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Senior leaders of the ruling Awami League allege that those who had opposed the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 still are actively propagating against the spirit of the Liberation War in and outside the country.
Addressing different events in the capital yesterday, they asked the countrymen to come under a platform and resist the conspirators and the religious snuffies patronised by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... The ruling party organised the programmes marking the homecoming day of party President and Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said: "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been trying her level best to develop the country by ensuring the voting rights of her countrymen. But BNP Chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... and the Jamaat-e-Islami are trying to foil the initiatives.
Terming the BNP-Jamaat alliance a religious myrmidon group, Amu alleged they were again trying to take the country under Pakistain. "BNP chief Khaleda Zia and the Jamaat did not accept the country's independence," Amu said at a meeting at the National Press Club.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the BNP-Jamaat alliance had burnt people and destroyed property in the name of a movement since January.
"When BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jamaat-e-Islami ordered activists to carry out arson attacks on innocent people, the public refused them and supported the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he said at another programme in the city.
"The BNP-Jamaat alliance has been hatching a conspiracy against the country aimed at fulfilling the interest of Pakistain," he claimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's June 7 elections are turning into a showdown between the pro-Kurdish HDP party and the ruling AKP party's biggest champion, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... The outcome of the polls -- seen as Turkey's most crucial -- will decide not only the fate of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... member Turkey, but the region as a whole.
The elections are crucial because the Justice and Development Party (AKP) stands firmly behind Erdogan's ambitions to change the constitution and take Turkey from a parliamentary system to a presidential one. He also wants nearly total power invested in the presidency.
The Peoples´ Democratic Party (HDP), on the other hand, is fighting to win at least 10 percent of the votes in order to qualify for a seat in parliament as a party.
If it wins, it will be the first time that a Kurdish party sits in the Turkish parliament. In addition, HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas has vowed to derail the president's plans to change the constitution and to bar him from consolidating greater power.
¨Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, you will never be able to be the head of the nation as long as the HDP exists and as long as the HDP people are on this soil," Demirtas said at a party meeting last month.
For the first time in Turkish history, a pro-Kurdish party holds the key to what is seen as Turkey´s most critical elections ever.
Ironically -- and reluctantly -- the HDP has turned into the hope both of anti-AKP republicans and leftists. But that does not necessarily mean they will vote for the Kurdish party.
That is because they are highly suspicious that HDP would strike a deal with Erdogan in return for sealing a peace deal with the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK), whose incarcerated Please don't kill me! leader Abdullah Ocalan still calls the shots over Kurdish politics in Turkey. Ankara refers to the PKK as a "terrorist" organization.
It is with this backdrop that a sharp confrontation has begun and is escalating by the day, as HDP rises in polls.
After simultaneous kabooms hit the offices of the HDP in two cities in southern Turkey on Monday, Demirtas openly blamed Erdogan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... has signed legislation that gives Congress the power to review and potentially reject a nuclear deal with Iran.
It's a central element of Obama's foreign policy. He signed the measure without ceremony Friday at the White House.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/23/2015 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Like giving the current crop of 'pubs a say is going to make a difference?
[DAWN] KARACHI: Police Sherlocks said on Thursday that the four gunnies enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! for killing 45 members of the Shia Ismaili community in a bus attack near Safoora Goth last week told them that they had targeted human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activist Sabeen Mahmud because of her campaign against Lal Masjid
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] In a city that has recently witnessed a spate of attacks on minorities, a bullet-proof cross is being erected in the heart of Karachi. It better be explosives-proof as well.
Christian Pakistani businessman Parvez Henry Gill is building a 140-foot cross at the Gora Qabristan Cemetery. Following a dream in which Gill claims to have seen God asking him to do something for the Christian community four years ago, he, in due course, decided to build Asia’s largest cross in the 90 per cent Muslim country.
The nature of the structure was kept a secret until it became evident. When it did, 20 Muslims quit construction in disapproval, but one stayed. I'm surprised they didn't all quit.
The Muslim worker, Mohammad Ali, says the cross is a “work of God.” He is working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, mentioning Gill’s support of his family as a reason for his commitment, Christian Examiner reports.
Of Karachi’s 21 million population, about one million is home to the Christian community. Gill says the cross will “be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free.”
He further explains the motive behind the bullet-proof cross which is to prompt Christians to stay in Pakistan and do something for their community.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The United States on Friday blocked a global document aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons, saying Egypt and other states tried to "cynically manipulate" the process by setting a deadline for Israel and its neighbors to meet within months on a Middle East zone free of such weapons.
The now-failed final document of a landmark treaty review conference had called on the U.N. secretary-general to convene the Middle East conference no later than March 2016, regardless of whether Israel and its neighbors agree on an agenda.
Israel is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has never publicly declared what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program. A conference might force Israel to acknowledge it.
Since adopting a final document requires consensus, the rejection by the United States, backed by Britannia and Canada, means the entire blueprint for global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation for the next five years has been blocked after four weeks of negotiations. The next treaty review conference is in 2020.
That has alarmed countries without nuclear weapons, who are increasingly frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of nuclear-armed countries to disarm. The United States and Russia hold more than 90 percent of the estimated 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world today.
Amid a growing movement that stresses the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, Austria announced that 107 states have now signed a pledge calling for legal measures to ban and eliminate them.
The US comments Friday came after a top State Department official was dispatched to Israel this week for intense talks, as Israel protested the idea of being forced into a conference with its Arab neighbors without prior agreement on an agenda.
Israel had been furious when the US at the treaty review conference five years ago signed off on a document that called for talks on a Middle East nuclear-free zone by 2012. Those talks never took place.
The language on the final document rejected Friday was "incompatible with our long-standing policies," said Rose Gottemoeller, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security.
She named Egypt as being one of the countries "not willing to let go of these unrealistic and unworkable conditions."
Egypt later said it was extremely disappointed and warned, "This will have consequences in front of the Arab world and public opinion."
Iran, speaking for a group of more than 100 mostly developing countries, said it was surprised to see the US, Britannia and Canada willing to block the entire document in defense of a country that it said has endangered the region by not agreeing to safeguards for its nuclear program.
Israel has been a fierce critic of the current efforts of world powers to negotiate an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes only.
Gottemoeller also pointed out that the 2010 mandate to hold a conference on a Middle East nuclear-free zone has now effectively expired. The head of the Russian delegation, Mikhail Ulyanov, noted the setback, saying it was "a shame that an opportunity for dialogue has to be missed, perhaps for a long time to come."
#1
That has alarmed countries without nuclear weapons, who are increasingly frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of nuclear-armed countries to disarm.
Just a thought here - the countries we're talking about are the ones trying to get some kind of WMD tech so as to make US think twice about trying to keep them in line.
Not to mention that most of the nations we're talking about could absorb at most one or two warheads before they effectively cease to exist as functioning entities and revert to the loose collection of tribes they started out as.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/23/2015 12:13 Comments ||
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[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is reportedly planning to make a bid to head the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... ' Human Rights Council, in a move that has been described as the "final nail in the coffin for the credibility" of the HRC.
Reports of the bid come just days after Saudi Arabia posted a job advertisement for eight new executioners. This year it has already put 85 people to death in what has been branded by Amnesia Amnesty International a "macabre spike" from the 87 people it killed in total last year.
The country will move to assume lead control over the HRC after 2016 when the presidency is awarded to a new nation.
UN Watch, a non-profit human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... group that monitors the international body, disclosed Saudi Arabia's intentions in a recent report and urged the United States to fight against it.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said that the move was liable to be "the final nail in the coffin for the credibility of a body that already counts dictatorships like China, Cuba and Russia as members, and whose top advisor is co-founder of the Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV... Human Rights Prize".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Since Death Eaters 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 (IS) seized Syria's al-Tanaf crossing with Iraq, the Syrian regime has effectively lost control of all of its borders except those with Leb.
Of Syria's 19 border posts with Leb, Jordan, Iraq, and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , government forces now control just seven -- five with Leb, and two more, both closed, with Turkey.
Four crossings are controlled by Kurdish forces, four by IS, and another four by al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate or rebels. Opposition fighters also control an unofficial border point with Israel.
- Border with Turkey (9) -
- Kasab: in the western province of Latakia. Under regime control but closed by Turkey since fierce festivities in 2014 between the army and Salafist tough guys, who briefly overran the post.
- Bab al-Hawa: Held by Salafist tough guys, including Syria's al-Qaeda branch Al-Nusra Front. In the northwestern province of Idlib.
- Bab al-Salama: In the town of Aazaz in northern Aleppo province. Held by Salafist tough guys.
- Jarabulus: In Aleppo province. Held by IS.
- Tal Abyad: Held by IS in northern Raqa province, which is almost entirely held by the group.
- Ain al-Arab: In Aleppo province. Controlled by Kurdish fighters.
- Ras al-Ain: In the northeastern province of Hasakeh. Was the site of ferocious fighting between IS and Kurdish fighters before the latter forced the jihadists out of the post and nearby town.
- Qamishli-Nassibin: The only regime-controlled crossing in Hasakeh province, but closed by Turkey on its side.
- Ain Diwar: In Hasakeh. Controlled by Kurdish fighters.
- Border with Iraq (3) -
- Yarabiyah: In Hasakeh. Controlled by Kurdish fighters. On the Iraqi side, the crossing is knows as Rabia.
- Albu Kamal: In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Held by IS after it chased out 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 .. ... and other opposition fighters. Known as al-Qaim on the Iraqi side.
- Al-Tanaf: South of Deir Ezzor. Seized by IS on Thursday. It had been the only crossing with Iraq still controlled by government forces. Iraqis call it al-Walid.
- Border with Jordan (2) -
- Nasib: In the southern province of Daraa. Was overrun by rebels in April 2015. It had been the last remaining regime-held crossing with Jordan, which calls it Jaber.
- Former Daraa customs post: Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist fighters seized the crossing, known as al-Ramtha by the Jordanians, in October 2013.
- Border with Leb (5) -
All five crossings, which lead into Homs and Damascus provinces in Syria, are controlled by government forces:
- Jdaidet Yabus, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side.
- Daboussiye, known by the Lebanese as al-Abboudiyeh.
- Jussiye, called al-Qaa by Leb.
- Tal Kalakh, called Bouqueiya in Leb.
- Tartus, or al-Arida on the Lebanese side.
- With Israel -
There are no official crossings between Syria and Israel, which are officially still at war, but the Quneitra border point is controlled by rebels. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967.
- Maritime border -
All seaports are controlled by the regime.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/23/2015 09:01 ||
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#1
Syria don't mind the problem spreading to Iraq especially as a lot of the ISIS leadership are Baathist.
Posted by: paul ||
05/23/2015 13:01 Comments ||
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Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday warned that fighting in Syria could lead the militant organization to declare full mobilization of its members. "We have bargaining chips that we have yet to use in the struggle," he said. Yea, start firing your grads on ISIS held regions, Hassan.
"This is the time for everyone to mobilize, everyone who can participate," he added. "The danger facing us is an existential one that is similar to that in 1982." If the organization had not fought in Syria, said Nasrallah, it would have found itself fighting inside Lebanese territory. When he's right, he's right.
#4
The faculties of Harvard and Yale? Of course they'd probably hit Cyprus by mistake.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2015 10:11 Comments ||
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#5
Who then will stand ready to shoot off Hizb'allah's 80,000-100,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel when Iran orders it?
The Israelis won't exterminate Lebanon's Shiites. ISIS and Nusra will. Those rockets will be re-directed at Syria's Islamists. I'm gonna bet that they were theoretically directed at Israel so as not to worsen sectarian tensions in Lebanon, but in reality were a last-ditch weapon against both Lebanese and Syrian adversaries.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A senior Iranian military official Thursday warned that any Israeli attack would unleash a firestorm of missiles on its cities fired by the Islamic Theocratic Republic's Hezbollah allies in Leb.
The Shiite militia has more than 80,000 rockets ready to fire at Tel Aviv and Haifa, said Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Iran, with the help of Hezbollah and its friends, is capable of destroying Tel Aviv and Haifa in case of military aggression on the part of the Zionists," he said, quoted on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"I don't think the Zionists would be so unintelligent as to create a military problem with Iran," the general said. "They know the strength of Iran and Hezbollah."
Last week, a senior Israeli military intelligence official warned of a heightened threat of conflict over the next two years as a result of "escalation" in the region.
In a briefing to foreign journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, the official referred specifically to Hezbollah, with whom Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006, and to Iran's arming of the group.
"The Iranian threat is a tangible threat to Israel," said the official, whose country has not ruled out the use of military force to block any attempt by Tehran to produce a nuclear bomb.
Israel has opposed the efforts of world powers to strike a deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions, saying that Tehran cannot be trusted.
Iran has long asserted that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, and that international concern about it seeking a nuclear bomb is misplaced.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iran has long asserted that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, and that international concern about it seeking a nuclear bomb is misplaced.
"Ignore that recent little explosion at our Peaceful® Bridge Wire Detonator Facility".
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/23/2015 7:51 Comments ||
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#2
Iran gets Hizb'Allah to release many multiple 10,000s of rockets and Iran will cease to exist as a nation. IMHO.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2015 11:23 Comments ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Arsal's officials have voiced their opposition to the involvement of Hezbollah in battles in or around the town, saying the only party allowed to defend the area is the Lebanese Army.
The annoucement was made after a meeting held in the northeastern town's municipality building Thursday night, attended by Mayor Ali Hujeiri, Future Movement's Arsal official Bakr Hujeiri and representatives of the Syrian refugee communities in the town.
"Arsal is a Lebanese town, and the Lebanese Army is the only side authorized to maintain security in Arsal," said the first point of a statement released after the meeting.
"Arsal is a red line, and no one has the right of to threaten to invade it, shell it, or assault on it and its people," it added, referring to Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah's recent comments.
In a speech he gave Monday, Nasrallah warned that if the Lebanese Army does not liberate Arsal's outskirts from Nusra Front and ISIS holy warriors, his group would take matters into its own hands.
"We call on the Cabinet, the Information Ministry and the relevant authorities to silence the voices inciting and encouraging the attacking of a Lebanese town," the statement said.
The officials praised Future Movement Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. for taking a stance "supporting Arsal."
Hariri condemned Nasrallah's speech Thursday, describing it as a "call for incitement and strife." He also accused Hezbollah of trying to engage the Army in a deadly battle "scheduled" by the group itself.
Hezbollah and the Syrian army earlier this month launched an offensive in the border Qalamoun region from where jihadi groups have been staging attacks on Lebanese territory since the start of the Syrian conflict.
In more than two weeks of fighting, the allies have taken control of most of Qalamoun, sending bully boyz fleeing north, many toward the outskirts of Arsal.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Foreign Policy] Kayla Mueller, the American hostage who recently died in Syria under mysterious circumstances, rejected an opportunity to try to escape out of loyalty to another female hostage who was not physically capable of fleeing and would have had to remain behind, according to two people familiar with the case.
Mueller was the personal captive of a senior IS militant named Abu Sayyaf, who was killed by members of Delta Force last weekend during a raid on his compound in in eastern Syria. The details of Mueller's chance to attempt an escape — and her decision not to take it — have not been previously reported.
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/23/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Someone is trying to make Mueller into Mother Theresa.
Wasn't she a cheerleader for Palestinian violence?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/23/2015 11:34 Comments ||
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#2
Wasn't she a cheerleader for Palestinian violence?
If not, she was certainly a sympathizer. Having said that, if this story is true it doesn't cancel out any of her previous behavior but it does show she might have glimpsed a greater nobility before she was killed.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/23/2015 15:21 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] State Department on Friday released a first batch of emails by Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John C. Calhoun ... , giving an unprecedented glimpse into the work of the former top diplomat in the wake of a deadly 2012 attack on a U.S. mission in Libya.
A total of 296 emails -- out of a trove of 30,000 -- sent or received by Clinton were released Friday and uploaded onto a State Department website, which promptly crashed under the weight of traffic.
"The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf insisted.
The emails span two years from January 1, 2011 when the political upheavals in Libya began to December 31, 2012. And many of them have been heavily redacted after being deemed to hold classified information.
Paper copies of the emails sent on two private addresses (hdr22@clintonemail.com and hrod17@clintonemail.com) were handed over in December in 12 large boxes labelled with a rough time stamp for the documents inside.
A State Department team has been busy digitizing them and plowing through the emails since March to black out any classified or sensitive information.
Clinton said she had handed over every email relevant to her job as America's top diplomat and destroyed all the rest, which she maintained were personal.
#1
"The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf insisted.
Which is why they are the emails you released, lambchop.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2015 9:36 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
[DAWN] KARACHI: Police 
Hillary Clinton
