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Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Africa North
Two police officers killed by IED in North Sinai
[AlAhram] Two coppers were killed and four maimed after an IED went kaboom! near a security convoy in North Sinai's capital city of Arish on Thursday.

A statement by Egypt's interior ministry identified the victims as a lieutenant colonel and a captain.

The attack comes one day after a police colonel was killed in a kaboom on a security checkpoint in the same city.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)


Bangladesh
Hefazat renews threat to besiege Dhaka
[Dhaka Tribune] Radical Islamist platform Hefazat-e-Islam has renewed its threats to besiege Dhaka if the Greek “idol” was not removed from the Supreme Court premises immediately.

Leaders and supporters demonstrated over the issue in different districts including Dhaka, Chittagong and Narayanganj after the Jumma prayers Friday.

The Chittagong chapter of Hefazat organised a rally on the Anderkilla Shahi Mosque premises, protesting the installation of the Lady Justice statue. They also demanded withdrawal of the case in which a court recently issued arrest warrants against 25 leaders and activists of the platform.

Islamist pressure group Hefazat-e-Islam's Chittagong faction orgainsed a rally after Jum'ma prayers at the city's Andarkilla Shahi Mosque square on Friday; March 10, 2017 to press home their demand of removing "Themis," the idol of justice, from in front of Bangladesh Supreme Court premises in Dhaka Rabin Chowdhury/Dhaka Tribune

Islamist pressure group Hefazat-e-Islam’s Chittagong faction orgainsed a rally after Jum’ma prayers at the city’s Andarkilla Shahi Mosque square on Friday; March 10, 2017 to press home their demand of removing “Themis,” the idol of justice, from in front of Bangladesh Supreme Court premises in Dhaka Rabin Chowdhury/Dhaka Tribune

The Qawmi madrasa-based group that eyes Sharia law in the country has been actively campaigning to remove the sculpture that represents justice, claiming it an idol and branding the installation anti-Islamic.

They also threatened to assemble thousands of people and hold another rally at Shapla Chattar in Dhaka’s Motijheel, if necessary, like they did in 2013.

Alleging that “atheists” were campaigning in favour of the idol, the leaders said that Prophet Muhammad (SM) had been sent by Allah to demolish idols and therefore the idol on the Supreme Court premises must be removed.

Supporters of Islamist pressure group Hefazat-e-Islam attempted to organise a rally in front of Baitul Mukarram mosque in Motijheel, Dhaka on Friday; March 10, 2017 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Supporters of Islamist pressure group Hefazat-e-Islam attempted to organise a rally in front of Baitul Mukarram mosque in Motijheel, Dhaka on Friday; March 10, 2017 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

With central leader Mozammel Haque in the chair, the rally was addressed by central joint secretary generals Moinudin Ruhi, Mubinul Hoque and ANM Ahmadullah, among others.

Meanwhile, Hefazat’s Narayanganj chapter warned the government of creating another Shapla Chhattar rally if it delayed removing the “idol.”

Narayanganj unit Ameer Mawlana Abdul Awal issued the threat from a rally organised after Jum’ma prayers on Railway Jam-e Masjid premises in the city’s DIT commercial area.

A portion of the crowd the Hefazat-e-Islam rally drew in Narayanganj on Friday, March 10, 2017; after Jum'ma prayer. The pressure group is trying to to press home their demand of removing "Themis," the idol of justice, from in front of Bangladesh Supreme Court premises in Dhaka Dhaka Tribune

A portion of the crowd the Hefazat-e-Islam rally drew in Narayanganj on Friday, March 10, 2017; after Jum’ma prayer. The pressure group is trying to press home their demand of removing “Themis,” the idol of justice, from in front of Bangladesh Supreme Court premises in Dhaka Dhaka Tribune

He said that the Hefazat activists were not afraid of facing cases.

The sculpture in question portrays ancient Greek Goddess Themis, holding a scale and a sword to represent the law and undisputed order.
Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hefajat-e-Islam

#1  "WE don't need equal justice. We got Sharia and Islam"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/11/2017 6:51 Comments || Top||


Iraq
One killed, 5 wounded in 2 blasts south of Baghdad
[Iraq News] One civilian was killed and five others were maimed on Friday in two separate bombings that hit two neighborhoods south of Baghdad, according to security sources.

Alghad Press website quoted security sources saying that one person was killed and three others were maimed when an bomb went off near a popular marketplace in Suweib district, south of the capital. Another bomb went kaboom! near a fish market in Madaen region, also in the south, leaving two people maimed.

Nobody has grabbed credit for the bombings, but 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....
Death Eaters have said they had been responsible for several bloody kabooms and attacks that hit the capital in the past months.

The United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraqi forces recapture western Mosul’s Aamel, hold off attack on Tal Afar airport
[Iraq News] Iraqi special forces recaptured Friday another district in western djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
as operations against 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....
continue, also foiling an attack on a major military airport, according to security sources.

The Joint Operations Command said government forces recaptured al-Aamel district in southwest Mosul amid resistance from IS myrmidons.

Shafaaq news website had also quoted sources saying that the army’s 92nd brigade foiled an attack by IS on the Tal Afar military airport, a facility which al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) took over previously late 2016.

The Joint Operations Command said earlier on Friday that the government forces recaptured had the Nabi Sheet and Okaidat districts, both adjacent to the Old City, a major target for Iraqi troops leading the offensive against IS in western Mosul.

Sputnik News agency also quoted an Iraqi security source Friday saying that members from the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response forces raised the Iraqi flag above the Paleostine Hotel.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Clashes renew in western Anbar, 9 militants killed
[Iraq News] Iraqi security and allied militias clashed Friday with 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....
Death Eaters near Anbar province’s borders with Syria, with nine Death Eaters left dead according to militia sources.

Border guards, backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) rebuffed an attack by IS Death Eaters from several directions on a checkpoint in Okashat, west of Anbar, according to PMU local leader Wathiq al-Fartousi.

In a separate incident, nine Islamic State fighters were killed when security and militia troops detected their convoy near the borders with Syria, according to Shaker al-Rishawi, a commander of a so-called, pro-government "Desert Eagles Brigade".

According to Rishawi, who was quoted by al-Journal News website, the forces detected the group near al-Waleed border crossing with Syria. They were trying to pass to IS-held town of al-Qaem, according to Rishawi.

He said attempts by IS Death Eaters to sneak into Iraqi soil from Syria have receded by 60 percent due to losses they have been facing in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
. Is fighters currently have no other route except between Syria’s Boukamal region and Qaem.

Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaem have been under Islamic State control since the group’s emergence in 2014, and thousands of civilians are said to be held as potential human shields, according to local officials.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraqi forces recapture more villages at western Mosul town
[Iraq News] Iraqi government forces have become in control over the western bank of the Tigris River as they recaptured more villages around a strategic town in western djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, with operations continuing to clear the region from 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....
holy warriors.

The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said Friday the forces took over the villages of Hamidat and Gammasa near the town of Badush. The outlet said the forces have become in full control over the western bank of the Tigris River.

Government troops and allied al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) have been liberating areas around the town and recently took over its infamous prison.

The Iraqi government launched a major offensive in February to retake western Mosul from Islamic State holy warriors. The forces recaptured the eastern side of the city late January after three months of fighting.

In the western region, Iraqi forces have made remarkable gains, taking over a government complex last week that hosts the governor’s office, a main central bank branch, a police department, a courthouse and other public facilities. The forces had earlier retaken the city’s airport and biggest military camp.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


25 IS militants killed in central Mosul offensive
[Iraq News] The Iraqi Federal Police service said it killed 25 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....
bully boyz in central djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
as joint forces proceed to clear the city’s western side from bully boys.

The service’s chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said police commandos and Rapd Response forces members launched attacks from three axes on Bab al-Toub district, killing 25 bully boys, including three jacket wallahs, and destroyed nine booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the murderous Moslem group.

Jawdat added that his forces continue to evacuate migrant families from battlefields to camps in Khazer and Hammam al-Alil, both in Mosul.

The Iraqi government launched a major offensive in February to retake western Mosul from Islamic State bully boys. The forces recaptured the eastern side of the city late January after three months of fighting.

In the western region, Iraqi forces have made remarkable gains, taking over a government complex last week that hosts the governor’s office, a main central bank branch, a police department, a courthouse and other public facilities. The forces had earlier retaken the city’s airport and biggest military camp.

The army’s Counter-Terrorism Service said last week government forces had become in control over 60 percent of the western side. Generals from the Iraqi side and the allied U.S.-led coalition had estimated six months needed to fully liberate the city which fell to the murderous Moslem group in 2014.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iranian Revolutionary Guards opposite IS troops on Golan Heights as tensions mount
[Independent] Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of using the Syrian civil war to "gain a foothold to fight Israel" amid fears over Iranian troops stationed along the border with the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran is supporting Bashar al-Assad with deployments of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Basij militia and funding to allied militias including Hezbollah.

The IRGC are now reported to be present in Syrian-government controlled territory along the 1967 ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, which has seen months of Israeli air strikes met with rockets fired towards the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/11/2017 02:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  a good chance to prevent any IRGC presence on Golan. Unmarked artillery and mortars
Posted by: Frank G || 03/11/2017 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Israeli air strikes met with rockets fired towards the Israel Defence Forces

Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the air strikes were in response to the rockets and other provocations. This makes it sound like the Israelis are starting the fights.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/11/2017 6:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Lucky we didn't do "land for peace" with Syria a decade ago.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/11/2017 13:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the air strikes were in response to the rockets and other provocations. This makes it sound like the Israelis are starting the fights.

This is the Independent, written for readers who think the Guardian is too right-wing.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/11/2017 18:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Hear, hear ZF!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/11/2017 20:07 Comments || Top||

#6  I actually subscribed to The Guardian just so I could be a pain in the ass to their lockstep leftardisms. They had a few good articles, so I said what the hell, maybe they are trying. Got the "g" bag and everything, even though I asked TWICE that they not spend their money on such BS swaggery. They said they would not send it, TWICE, but I got it anyway. Look for 'Soulless' comments, if they don't get disappeared.
Barbara S. and I seem to have similar views. Sorry Barb, no offense intended.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/11/2017 20:17 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Fatal shooting linked to 21 other attacks in Thai south
[The Nation] Ten people were apprehended over the March 2 fatal shooting of four people, including assistant village chief Somchai Thongchan and an eight-year-old boy, in Narathiwat province. A 12-year-old girl was also injured in the shooting.

A police forensic investigation found that five rifles and one pistol were used in the assault, which they linked to 21 other violent attacks in the region, including the July 6, 2015 attack that killed one man and injured three others in Yala's Raman district, the July 31, 2015 assault of a military outpost in Yaha district and an October 17, 2015 shooting that wounded four people in Reu So district.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
At least 30 killed in Damascus bomb targeting pilgrims
At least 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded in an attack by two suicide bombers in Damascus on Saturday, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported, in an attack the Syrian Observatory said targeted Shi'ite pilgrims.
that's what I'd do - congregate for easier targetting
The attack took place near the Old City of Damascus. Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based TV station, said the bombings targeted buses transporting pilgrims to the Bab al-Saghir cemetery near one of the seven gates of the Old City of Damascus.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the attack had caused fatalities but gave no toll. It said the explosions were caused by "two terrorist bombs".
Posted by: Frank G || 03/11/2017 06:54 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I guess I will never understand religious pilgrimage. Why would a person go on a pilgrimage in the middle of an anarchistical war zone?
Posted by: 3dc || 03/11/2017 10:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Good question, 3dc.

Goes along with 'Why fly on an Arab airliner'. You can come back to earth in one of three ways. An actual landing, a bomb on board, or crappy maintenance.

Their whole culture is like throwing the dice, but that's what they're taught.

Inshallah.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/11/2017 16:26 Comments || Top||

#3  In the Orient, life is plentiful; life is cheap.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/11/2017 18:48 Comments || Top||


Turkey: 71 Syrian Kurdish fighters killed in northern Syria
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's military says Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces have killed -- or "neutralized" -- 71 Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week.

The operations are part of Turkey's months-long incursion into its war-torn neighbor in a push against 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 but also in an effort to restrict U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militias, which Ankara has declared a terrorist organization and which it considers to be linked to its home-grown Kurdish insurgency.

Friday's military statement says that since the Turkish operation started in August, the joint Turkish and Syrian opposition forces killed as many as 2,647 IS Lions of Islam and 425 Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria.

It says that more than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) in northern Syria are now under control of the Turkish-backed forces.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
[Iraq News] U.S.-backed Syrian forces said on Thursday they were closing in on 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....
-held Raqqa and expected to reach the city outskirts in a few weeks, as a U.S. Marines artillery unit deployed to help the campaign.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a militia alliance including the Kurdish YPG, is the main U.S. partner in the war against Islamic State in Syria. Since November it has been working with the U.S.-led coalition to encircle Raqqa.

SDF front man Talal Silo said: "We expect that within a few weeks there will be a siege of the city."

Coalition front man U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian said the additional U.S. forces would be working with local partners in Syria ‐ the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Arab Coalition ‐ and would not have a front line role.

Some 500 U.S. personnel are already in Syria to help the fight against IS. A 400-strong additional deployment which arrived in recent days comprised both Marines and Army Rangers, Dorrian said, adding they were there temporarily.

Coalition Arclight airstrikes killed 23 civilians, including eight children, in the countryside north of Raqqa on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor said. The coalition said it was investigating the incident.

Posted by: Fred || 03/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
25[untagged]
11Islamic State
4Sublime Porte
4Moslem Colonists
2Commies
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Syria
1Hefajat-e-Islam
1al-Shabaab (AQ)
1al-Qaeda
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)

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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2017-03-11
  Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
Fri 2017-03-10
   Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
Thu 2017-03-09
  Baghdadi abandons Mosul fight to field commanders
Wed 2017-03-08
  IS gunmen dressed as medics kill 30 at Kabul military hospital
Tue 2017-03-07
  Mufti Hannan jailbreak attempt fails
Mon 2017-03-06
  New wave of US air raids on Qaeda in Yemen
Sun 2017-03-05
  Jordan hangs 15 death row prisoners at dawn in further break from moratorium on executions
Sat 2017-03-04
  Kurdish YPG fighters repel treacherous Turkish attack near Syria’s Afrin
Fri 2017-03-03
  Syrian Army recaptures Palmyra, aided by Russian Air Force: Kremlin
Thu 2017-03-02
  Islamic State supreme leader’s speech admits defeat in Mosul
Wed 2017-03-01
  Two women in nerve agent attack on Kim Jong-nam charged with murder
Tue 2017-02-28
  Islamic State claims attempted bombing in Algeria -AMAQ
Mon 2017-02-27
  Taliban shadow governor among 21 killed in counter-terrorism operations
Sun 2017-02-26
  Hamas Diggers Dead in Gaza Tunnel ‘Work Accident'
Sat 2017-02-25
  Iraq Forces Enter First West Mosul Neighborhood

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