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At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
War May Be Ending, but Fight Isn’t Over for Soldiers in Remote Afghanistan
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/13/2012 03:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anywhere that borders Pakistan will be dangerous.
Posted by: Fester Clunter7205 || 06/13/2012 13:52 Comments || Top||


Taliban Blast Kills Eight in Afghanistan
[An Nahar] Taliban kabooms killed at least eight people, including women and kiddies, in Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said.
That's as many as in Chicago this past weekend...
A jacket wallah on a bicycle targeted a police patrol in the main market of Chahar Bolak, a small town in the northern province of Balkh, regional police front man Lal Mohammad Ahmadzi told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the incident, saying three non-combatants were killed and five coppers were maimed.

Hours earlier, a roadside kaboom destroyed a minibus in the central province of Wardak, killing five civilians, an official said.

Provincial government front man Sahidullah Shahid said a mine went kaboom! under the minibus, killing five civilians, including women and kiddies. "Two others are injured," Shahid said.

Four other passengers survived the kaboom in the restive province's Sayed Abad district, he said.

Authorities blamed both attacks on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase commonly used by Afghan officials to refer to Taliban and other thugs.

On Monday, a roadside kaboom killed five people in northern Afghanistan and last week twin suicide kabooms killed 23 people in the south.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Man seized over Nairobi bomb attack
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A man suspected to have been behind the recent kaboom in Nairobi has been incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
in Tanzania.

Emrah Erdogan, a German of Turkish origin who police have linked to the May 28 terrorist attack at Assanands House, was incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
on Tuesday. The suspect is also known as Salahuddin al-Kurdi.

A police officer told the Nation that they had been contacted by their Tanzanian counterparts over the development.

Police said they were trailing four terror suspects, among them Erdogan, before the May 28 kaboom in Nairobi in which one person was killed and 36 others injured.

Police front man Eric Kiraithe said Erdogan, believed to have entered Kenya through Garissa from Somalia on May 3, was among the four suspects. A device was reportedly placed in a stall by a man posing as a customer.

According to political scientist Dirk Baehr and German media, Erdogan travelled to Wazoo in northwest Pakistain in early 2010 and joined a myrmidon Islamist group.

He then went to Somalia in 2011 and reportedly joined al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
terror group.

The ranks of Al-Shabaab include imported muscle from Kenya, Europe, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistain and the Horn of Africa.

Since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to pursue Al-Shabaab myrmidons, there have been a string of grenade and kabooms in Nairobi and northern parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Somalia: Heavy fighting between Gov't, Militants in Lower Jubba
(Sh. M. Network)- -- Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy...
broke out in Somalia's Lower Jubba region on Tuesday after Al shabab fighters attacked positions manned by pro-government forces on the outskirts of Qoqani town, reports said.

Local residents in Qoqani town confirmed to Shabelle Media on Tuesday that the fighting was fierce and both warring sides traded heavy and small weapons, forcing residents to flee their homes to the safe locations in the region.

Figures on the casualties are yet to be established, but witnesses said Kenyan army helping Somali forces involved in the combat against Al shabab gun-hung tough guys at Qoqani town.

Reports indicated that the situation has returned to normal after the fighting subsided and the area is under full control of Somali and Kenyan forces tightening the security.

No Al shabab official was available for comment on the battle so far.

Last week, Somali and Kenyan forces took control of Afmadow, a town in southernSomalia, all without firing a shot.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Al shabab arrests people in El Bur town, central Somalia
(Sh. M. Network)-Al shabab cut-throats have tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
on Tuesday at least four people in Somalia's central town of El Bur, after alleging to have links with Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a ASWJ and Æthiopian forces, who deserted the town before the cut-throats rolled in Sunday.

According to local residents two women are among the tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
people by Al shabab fighters after ASWJ and Æthiopian forces abandoned the town on Monday for what the officials called 'military tactics'.

"Al shabab tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
today Mohammed Wehliye, father of Al shabab official for Zakaat, and Three others, two of them women and taken to undisclosed location in the town," El Bur residents told Shabelle Media on the phone.

Local people expressed shock and fear over the arbitrary arrests and killings against locals by Al shabab fighters who poured into El Bur town on Monday, shortly after the allied troops from ASWJ and Æthiopia quit.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Libyan Jihadis Claims U.S. Consulate Attack
[An Nahar] An alleged Libyan jihadist group has grabbed credit for last week's bombing of the U.S. consulate in Libya's main eastern city of Benghazi, the SITE monitoring service said Monday.

The "Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman" said the attack was to avenge the death of Al-Qaeda number two Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in Pakistain, said the US-based SITE, which monitors jihadi websites.

The Brigades also said the June 6 kaboom at the U.S. diplomatic mission -- in which one person was maimed -- had come in response to the use of "American drones flying in Libyan skies," SITE said.

The group said it had "planted an bomb in a wall of the consulate, targeting a group of 'Christian overseers' who were preparing to receive one of the 'heads of instigation'" from the State Department, SITE said.

The statement added that the group -- which also grabbed credit for a May attack on the Benghazi offices of the International Committee of the Red Thingy -- would soon release its footage of the consulate attack.

The group is named after Abdel Rahman, 73, who received a life sentence in the United States for his involvement in plots to hit New York targets and a plan to assassinate former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Tunisia Imposes Curfew after Rioting
[An Nahar] Tunisia said Tuesday it has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in eight regions of the country including the capital Tunis after rioting blamed on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslims.

The curfews take effect from 9 pm to 5 am and cover areas in the southeast and northeast of the country including the greater Tunis region, the defense and interior ministries said in a joint statement.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Tunisian Islamists riot over "insulting" art show
More details from yesterday's story.
Hundreds of Salafi Islamists, angered by an art exhibition they say insults Moslems, clashed with police in Tunis on Tuesday, raising religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring and piling pressure on the moderate Islamist government.

Protesters hurled petrol bombs at officers in some of the worst confrontations since last year's revolt ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and launched uprisings across the Arab world.

Salafis, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam, blocked streets and set tyres alight in the working class Ettadamen and Sidi Hussein districts of the capital overnight.

By morning, protests had spread to a number of residential districts. Stone-throwing youths stopped trams from passing through the capital's Intilaqa district where demonstrators entered mosques and used the loudspeakers to call on Tunisians to defend Islam.

An interior ministry official on Tunisian state TV said 97 people had been tossed in the clink
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
during the unrest, including dozens of Salafis and some "criminals".

Tuesday's festivities came a day after a group of Salafis forced their way into an art exhibition in the upscale La Marsa suburb and defaced works they deemed offensive.

The work that appears to have caused the most fury and polarised Tunisians, spelt out the name of God using insects.

"These artists are attacking Islam and this is not new. Islam is targeted," said a youth, who gave his name as Ali and had removed his shirt and was preparing to confront police in Ettadamen.

In a statement released before the protests, Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that now leads the government, condemned what it described as provocations and insults against religion but urged its own supporters to respond peacefully.

DIFFICULT POSITION

The violence puts Ennahda in a difficult position.

While Islamists did not play a major role in the revolution, the struggle over the role of Islam in government and society has since emerged as the most divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
issue in Tunisian politics and several festivities have erupted in recent months.

Salafis, some of whom are loyal to al Qaeda, want a broader role for religion in the new Tunisia, alarming secular elites who fear they will seek to impose their views and ultimately undermine the nascent democracy.

A Tunisian official told Rooters seven members of the security forces were maimed as they tried to quell the riots by using teargas and firing into the air.

State television reported the offices of Tunisia's main labour union in the northwestern city of Jendouba had been set alight by Salafis overnight while the offices of secular parties were attacked.

The powerful union is considered a bastion of Tunisian secularism in a country that was seen as one of the most secular in the Arab region under the rule of Ben Ali and his predecessor, independence leader Habib Bourguiba.

A group of youths cut off the main road linking the capital to Bizerte, about 60 km to the north.

A day before the festivities, the leader of al Qaeda called on Tunisians to defend Islamic law from Ennahda, which won the first post-revolutionary election in North Africa in October and has said it would not seek to impose sharia (Islamic law) in the new constitution that is being drawn up.

The audio recording, attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri and released on Islamist websites, said Ennahda, which leads Tunisia's government in coalition with two secular groups, had betrayed the religion.

While pushing for a greater role for Islam, Tunisian Salafi leaders have said they would do so peacefully and did not intend to clash with Ennahda. However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
Salafis say they draw the line at actions they believe humiliate Moslems or Islam

Secularists have defended the offending art, criticising the Islamists they say are bent on curbing freedom of expression. They say Ennahda has been too lenient with Salafis, giving them the confidence to step up their demands.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Al-Qaida Confirms Fall of Strongholds in Yemen, Says 'Withdrew to Prevent Shedding Blood'
That'll be a first. Still, let us be proud that this particular branch of jihadism has discovered chivalry, however late the date.
[Yemen Post] The Sharia Supporters, the offshoot of Yemen Al-Qaeda, on Tuesday confirmed the fall of their key strongholds of Zinjibar and Jaar in south Yemen, saying in a statement of which Almasdar Online got a copy, its faceless myrmidons had withdrawn to avoid shedding the blood of Mohammedans.

After months of battles in Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
, the defense ministry said the army has finally cleared Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons from all towns in this southern province including the capital Zinjibar, which were seized in mid-2011.

"Our fighters withdrew from Zinjibar amid fears the government forces might repeat their crime of destroying the whole city and displacing its people, which occurred last year," the website quoted the statement as saying.

In the meantime, the defense ministry has said the forces have started the golden swords operation to hunt and clear all faceless myrmidons from Abyan, including the areas to where faceless myrmidons fled the battles in the past few days.

The statement, however, denied that the faceless myrmidons withdrew from Jaar after battles with the forces, saying the withdrawal started before the government forces could arrive in this strategic city, according to the website.

Earlier today, Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons distributed publications while leaving Jaar, saying they never wanted to disturb the locals and that their withdrawal came to prevent possible attacks against the civilians, the website said.

With direct support from the US and tribal fighters, the army stepped few months ago the offensive against Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons killing and injuring hundreds of them including big shots.

Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  Whose blood? Their own?
Posted by: gorb || 06/13/2012 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/13/2012 11:24 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Wanted terrorist killed in northern Caucasus
Security forces and local police in the North Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia have killed several terrorists militants, including a wanted terrorist militant leader.

Local authorities on June 13 identified one of the terrorists militants killed in the overnight raid as Umar Baichorov, 26, who officials said was wanted for masterminding and conducting several attacks targeting local police last year.

The terrorists militants had been surrounded by security forces in a private house late on June 12. The exact number of the killed terrorists militants was not made public.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/13/2012 11:12 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take that, baich...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/13/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||


Europe
French prosecutor seeks jail for six Somalis in piracy trial
(Sh.M.Network) -- The prosecutor in the Gay Paree trial of six Somalis charged with holding crew of a luxury sailing ship hostage in the Gulf of Adenin 2008 on Monday called for sentences of up to 15 years.

"These six men you are going to judge ... seriously endangered French lives," prosecutor Bruno Sturlese told the court.

"They were ready to sacrifice them to get money," he added.

Somali pirates seized 30 crew members of the luxury yacht Le Ponant in the pirate-infested waters in April 2008 and held them for ransom.

French Special Forces placed in long-term storage
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
the six men, aged 25 to 50, in an airborne operation after a ransom had been paid.

Only one of them admits to being a pirate. Two admit to having been aboard the elegant 88-metre (290-foot) three-master but only to sell goats, cigarettes and the mild narcotic khat. The other three deny ever having set foot on the boat.

Sturlese called for a 15-year sentence against Ismael Ali Samatar, 31, the only one to have admitted his role in the crime. The prosecutor said he had played a greater role in the hostage-taking operation than the others.

But he said the others were also implicated, having been placed in long-term storage
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
aboard an off-road vehicle that had $181,000 in it.

The verdict in the case, which opened on May 22, is expected late Thursday.

A total of 22 Somalis are being held byLa Belle Francein connection with four hostage-taking incidents.

Last year a Gay Paree court jugged
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
five pirates for between four and eight years for hijacking the Carre d'As in theGulf of Adenin September 2008. A sixth alleged pirate was acquitted.

Prosecutors are appealing those sentences as being too lenient.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Pirates

#1  "Only one of them admits to being a pirate. Two admit to having been aboard the elegant 88-metre (290-foot) three-master but only to sell goats, cigarettes and the mild narcotic khat."

Yes, because generally I find the best place to sell goats is aboard a luxury yacht.
Posted by: American Delight || 06/13/2012 6:12 Comments || Top||


Paris: Another Jewish youth attacked
Police arrest three suspects in anti-Semitic assault on 18-year-old in Sarcelles suburb of French capital
At least the French police are now taking reports and making arrests. Before they just ignored it, or told the Jews to stop triggering attacks by being identifiable. But we'll see how long it lasts under the Hollade government.
[Ynet] French police jugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
three men suspected of attacking an 18-year-old Jewish man in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Gay Paree over the weekend, Le Gay Pareeien reported Monday. According to the report, the three subjected the man to anti-Semitic insults and stole his mobile phone.

On Saturday, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls met with Jewish community leaders at the great synagogue of Sarcelles and expressed his determination to combat anti-Semitic words and actions.
 
The attack comes just a week after three Jewish men wearing skullcaps were attacked with hammers and iron bars in Villeurbaine, near the city of Lyon. Police jugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
two suspects and La Belle France's interior ministry labeled the attack anti-Semitic. The three received treatment and were discharged from hospital a short while later.
 
Valls condemned the attack which he described as an "intentional attack" against the Republic.
That, too, though it wouldn't be were the Republic to enforce its monopoly on violence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Another man shot dead in 'gang warfare'
[Dawn] A 38-year-old man was rubbed out and two others were maimed inside their house in Mowach Goth on Monday in what police described as an attack related to the gang warfare that had claimed five lives in the Mauripur area a day earlier.

The dear departed was identified as Shahmir and the maimed victims as Ahmed Ali and Ali Mohammad, all hailing from Jacobabad, said an official at the Saeedabad cop shoppe.

It emerged during the initial investigation that the incident was linked to the Mauripur killings, he said, adding that the same gang could be behind the early morning attack.

Saeedabad SHO Chaudhry Irshad said that Mowach Goth was once known as the area dominated by the Razzak Commando gang, which was associated with the slain Rehman alias Dakait.

The SHO said the attack could have been carried out on the suspicion that the victims were supporters of the Arshad Pappu gang.

The body and both the maimed victims were taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
for medico-legal formalities and treatment, respectively.

Nobody had turned up to lodge the case at the Saeedabad cop shoppe till Monday evening.

Army man killed

A sepoy was bumped off inside his home in Pakhtunabad within the remit of the PIB Colony cop shoppe late Sunday night, said officials.

Sepoy Waqar, son of Miskeen Ali, had recently arrived from Multan, where he was posted, to spend holidays at home, said PIB Colony SHO Nusrat Hussain Sheikh.

The officer added that two gunnies entered his home, shot at him and fled. He was rushed to the PNS Shifa Hospital, where he died during treatment. The body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

The police quoted his family as saying that the killing could be a result of some personal enmity.

A duty officer of the PIB Colony cop shoppe said that the family had not lodged the case till Monday night.

Following the killing, tension spread in some parts of the locality. Many shops in the area were not opened after the early morning attack. Other commercial activities were also partially suspended.

Police and Rangers were deployed in the area to avert an untoward situation.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Three killed in Tirah blasts
[Dawn] Two Islamic fascisti and a local primitive were killed in two kabooms in a remote village of Tirah valley in Khyber Agency on Monday.

Sources said that the driver of a passenger pick-up was killed when a remote controlled device, fitted in his vehicle, went kaboom! in Mastak village. The dear departed was identified as Kabeer Khan, a local primitive.

Sources said that another bomb planted along the road at the same venue went off when Alif Khan, local leader of a hard boy group Tawheedul Islam, reached there to inspect the site of the blast. Alif Khan was killed on the spot while four of his bodyguards received injuries in the second blast.

One of the injured identified as Umar Khan departed this vale of tears in a private clinic.

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed this guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread...
Khasadar Force recovered 34 kilograms of heroin and incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
three drug pushers during a raid on a house in Jamrud.
Officials said that the raid was conducted on the house of Alaf Khan in Shahkas locality.

They said that during the search Khasadar Force recovered the contraband from a cupboard in the kitchen. Three persons identified as Aseen Khan, Faizullah and Akhtar Sher were taken into custody and shifted to Jamrud lockup.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Iraq: Bomb attacks in Hilla and Baghdad 'kill 62'
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/13/2012 03:53 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians Open Fire On IDF Troops Near Gaza Border; No Injuries
[Ynet] Paleostinian bully boyz in Gazoo opened fire Tuesday afternoon on IDF soldiers operating in Israeli territory near the border fence. There were no reports of injury among the soldiers, who did not return fire.
 
Earlier today, Air Force helicopters fired on open field in central Gazoo strip.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this time to play F**k around? You act like you want to play serious but then don't. Like your mickey mouse games.

Here is NEWS. It is over.
Do not play and you may live.
May.
Posted by: newc || 06/13/2012 0:20 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Roadside bomb injures four in southern Thailland
Two soldiers and two village defense volunteers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Narathiwat province on Wednesday morning.

A village leader earlier this morning reported to a security unit that he found a suspicious box left near a roadside sign post in front of his house. Some soldiers and defense volunteers went to the spot and while they were inspecting the box the 5kg home-made bomb hidden inside it was remotely detonated, injuring four of them.

Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
Posted by: || 06/13/2012 10:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


25 Dead in 5 Days of Sectarian Unrest in Myanmar
[An Nahar] Around 25 people have been killed and scores more maimed in five days of sectarian violence in western Myanmar, a senior government official told Agence La Belle France Presse on Tuesday.

"About 25 people have been killed during the unrest," the official said, requesting anonymity, without providing details of how they died or whether they were Buddhists or Mohammedans. A further 41 have been maimed, he said.

Previously the official toll had stood at seven people dead since Friday.

A cycle of apparent Dire Revenge™ attacks has gripped western Myanmar following the recent rape and murder of a local woman, allegedly by three Mohammedans.

In response an angry Buddhist mob beat 10 Mohammedans to death on June 3 -- fatalities not included in the figure given by the government official.

Hundreds of homes have since been torched, forcing both Buddhists and Mohammedans to seek safety, and rights organizations fear the corpse count is higher than the official number.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Once again the Muslims are on one side (at least) of a violent conflict.

Other than Mexican/South American narco wars I can think of no on going violence that doesn't include Muslims can you?
Posted by: AlanC || 06/13/2012 12:58 Comments || Top||

#2  The Irish Republican Army is quiet lately, and FARC is a bit crippled so, none that come to mind. Unless you count the deaths US inner cities, which wax and wane.
Posted by: lotp || 06/13/2012 20:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Armed Clash in Dahiyeh between Moqdad Family Members, 'Hizbullah Gunmen'
[An Nahar] Clashes with machineguns erupted on Tuesday in the Beirut southern suburb of al-Kafaat between members of the al-Moqdad family and "others from Hizbullah," MTV reported.

The festivities broke out "after Hizbullah members cooled for a few years
Please don't kill me!
members of the al-Moqdad family for robbing a store," MTV said.

The TV network said "the fighting erupted as Hizbullah members arrived in al-Maamoura near Rammal Supermarket," adding that "some Hizbullah members were seen carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers."

MTV said members of al-Moqdad family attacked a Hizbullah official called "Abu Hadi."

Meanwhile,
...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end...
state-run National News Agency reported "an exchange of gunfire between members of the al-Moqdad family and unknown gunnies in an area between al-Mreijeh and al-Maamoura."

For its part, OTV said the festivities erupted between members of the al-Moqdad and Zoaiter families.

Later on Tuesday, the Army Command's Orientation Directorate issued a statement clarifying the circumstances of the incident.

"This afternoon, after an argument between citizens in the al-Kafaat-Hadath area over previous family disputes erupted into an exchange of gunfire with light assault rifles, an army unit intervened, imposing a security cordon around the area," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
[An Nahar] At least 73 people were killed in shelling and festivities across Syria on Tuesday, 61 of whom were civilians and rebels and 12 regime soldiers, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime forces rained shells on rebel positions in the northwestern Latakia province, pounding the town of al-Haffe for the eighth straight day as they appeared to be preparing to storm it, monitors said.

The Observatory said troops also shelled rebel bastions in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the northern province of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
and several parts of the central province of Homs.

It said 13 civilians, including a young girl, were killed when troops pounded a neighborhood of the city of Deir Ezzor.

Regime forces also pounded Hreitan in the northern province of Aleppo while soldiers clashed with armed rebels at the entrance to the town, leading to "heavy losses among regime troops," activists said.

The shelling "destroyed a large number of houses... and forced residents to flee," said the Local Coordination Committees, which spearheads protests against the regime.

According to the Observatory, troops used heavy artillery and helicopter gunships in their attacks on al-Haffe, where activists feared a massacre would be committed if regime troops managed to enter the restive town.

At least 120 people have died in fighting in al-Haffe over the past week, including 68 troops, 29 civilians and 23 rebels, with hundreds maimed, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Troops also stepped up attacks on the central city of Homs and its suburbs, pounding rebel positions, the Observatory said.

"The situation is horrific, murderous," an activist in Homs who identified himself as Abu Bilal told AFP via Skype.

Abu Bilal said 400 civilians -- including women and kiddies -- were trapped in a school in the Jourat al-Shiah neighborhood.

Rebel bastions Talbiseh, Qusayr, Khalidiyeh and Rastan -- in Homs -- were also under heavy attack by regime forces, according to the Observatory.

Three non-combatants were killed in Talbiseh, another three on the outskirts of Qusayr and three in Jousiyeh during a raid by regime troops.

In Andan, in the suburbs of Aleppo, five non-combatants were killed when troops "shelled the village arbitrarily," the Observatory said, adding that 12 soldiers were killed in fighting across the country.

The main opposition coalition has accused the regime of escalating attacks across the country in an attempt to wipe out dissent.

The Observatory said nationwide violence cost the lives of at least 111 people on Monday, including 79 civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 06/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-06-13
  At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Tue 2012-06-12
  Helicopter Gunships Deployed as More Than 100 Dead in Syria
Mon 2012-06-11
  Church Bombing Kills 15 in Nigeria
Sun 2012-06-10
  Syria Army Kills 70 Civilians in Protest Cities
Sat 2012-06-09
  Tuareg Rebels, Islamists, Clash in Northern Mali
Fri 2012-06-08
  UN monitors shot at trying to get to Syria massacre
Thu 2012-06-07
  47 Die in Hama Countryside 'Massacre' as Clashes Rock Damascus
Wed 2012-06-06
  Armed groups kill 15 Syrian soldiers in Latakia
Tue 2012-06-05
  U.S. Official: Al-Qaeda's No. 2 Killed In Drone Strike
Mon 2012-06-04
  US drone strike kills 10 in NW Pakistan
Sun 2012-06-03
  At least 12 dead in Nigerian church bombing
Sat 2012-06-02
  US drone strike kills three militants in Pakistan: officials
Fri 2012-06-01
  SCAF says it is going to end Egypt's state of emergency after 31 years
Thu 2012-05-31
  Somalia forces capture key al-Shabab town of Afmadow
Wed 2012-05-30
  19 Killed in Syria Violence


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