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Prayer leader explodes in mosque
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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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 Horn
Govt troops take back southern Somali town in deadly battle
AWDHEGLE, Somalia -- Somali government forces have taken back southern Somalia town of Awdhegle and Mubarak village from Al Qaeda linked Shaboobs Al Shabaab militants in deadly battle on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.

Shaboobs Militants reportedly captured Awdhegle in overnight raid, remaining in control of the two districts until Saturday morning according to witnesses and officials. Awdhegle district commissioner Mohamed Aweys Abukar has confirmed that 26 Al Shabaab fighters were killed in the fiercest clashes in two years while on government side, they lost 19 soldiers on VOA Somali Service.

“The fighting occurred early in the morning. Al Shabaab attacked Aw Dhegle and Mubarak leading to fierce gun-battle and direct confrontation,” said Abukar.”19 government soldiers died on two battlegrounds, and we killed 26 Al Shabaab militants, their bodies are lying on outskirts of Mubarak village”.

The vicinities overrun by Al Shabaab fell to allied forces two years ago but African Union peacekeepers are said to have made pullout in late February.

Somalia government official said he was worried about the shortage of ammunition facing forces stationed in Awdhegle.

Al Shabaab claimed, it has killed 25 government soldiers in the deadly raid on Awdhegle and Mubarak. The attack is the second to be reported, highlighting revert to guerilla warfare by the beleaguered Shaboobs militants.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


MP killed, another wounded in Mogadishu drive-by
MOGADISHU -- Unidentified assailants have killed Federal Member of Parliament Yusuf Mohamed Dirir, wounding fellow MP and former Defence Minister Abdale Boss Ahmed in drive-by shooting on Mogadishu’s Maka Al Mukarama road on Saturday afternoon, Garowe Online reports. The two MPs and a driver have been wounded in the attack before being pronounced Dirir dead at Darul Shifa hospital.

The attackers in car have managed to speed-off from the heavily militarized road.

Meanwhile, in Mogadishu’s Hodon district two people, with one being identified as government employee were killed in separate gun attack.

No body claimed responsibility for the shootings but Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group is known for planned assassinations, mainly in volatile Mogadishu.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Libya Dawn nabs 600 more migrants
[LibyaHerald] The Libyan coastguard today intercepted another people-smuggling vessel off the coast and brought 600 migrants ashore in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
. This raises to at least 1,000 the number of illegals seized in the last six days.

The Libya Dawn
...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar...
antigovernment in the capital is seeking to demonstrate that it is cracking down on human traffickers who are charging up to $2,000 a head for the dangerous Mediterranean voyage toward Europe.

It is seeking EU financial and logistical support, and therefore de facto recognition from Brussels, to combat the trade. The problem is that the migrant smugglers are now dominated by the selfsame militias that have sustained the Libya Dawn operation.

According to AFP, there are now some 7,000 illegal migrants, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa held in 16 detention centres, all of which would be within Libya Dawn-held territory.
Presenting Europe with the same bargain Qadaffy did: us or the deluge.
Yup, they can turn the spigot on or off at will...
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 10:57 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria Military Says 'Scores' of Islamists Killed, 20 Hostages Rescued
[AnNahar] Nigeria's military on Saturday claimed the killing of scores of Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Death Eaters and the rescue of 20 more hostages during an operation in the notorious Sambisa forest, an Islamist stronghold.

"Despite continuous encounter with large number of land mines which still litter the Sambisa forest, troops have forged ahead...as scores of the holy warriors died in the assault on their bases on Friday," a defense ministry statement said.

"A total of 20 women and kiddies were rescued at the end of the Friday operation," in the forest in the country's northeast, it added.

One soldier died while 10 others were maimed in the assault on rebel bases, according to the statement.

There was no way to independently verify the military's claims.

The defense ministry's accounts of festivities with Boko Haram have in the past not been consistent with eye witness reports.

But Nigeria has reportedly won a series of successes over the Death Eaters in recent weeks.

More than 700 hostages, primarily women and kiddies, have reportedly been freed during the military's assault on Sambisa, which Boko Haram has used as a base for several years.

According to Amnesia Amnesty International, the bully boyz have kidnapped more than 2,000 women and girls since the start of last year. Many female hostages were victims of sexual violence while in captivity.

Nigeria's latest assault on the Death Eaters has been backed by troops in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
and Niger.

Despite the apparent successes, attacks have continued, including a surge in violence this week in northeastern Adamawa state, which has been relatively quiet for months.

Experts believe that while Boko Haram has been flushed out of dozens of towns it previously controlled, the group will continue to launch guerilla-style attacks, particularly targeting defenseless civilians.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Fresh air strikes and ground fighting in Yemen
[AlAhram] Saudi-led warplanes launched a fresh wave of air strikes across Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
on Saturday targeting Iran-backed rebels as fighting raged on the ground in the south of the country, witnesses said.

The air raids pounded arms depots under the control of the Shia Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
rebels in the locality of Ghula, in Omran province north of Sanaa, residents said.

They followed similar bombardments of weapons storage facilities in the capital that sparked deadly kabooms.

The Arab coalition has stepped up raids on positions held by the Houthis and their allies since a humanitarian ceasefire ended late on Tuesday.

At Hajja in the north of the country, a gathering of Houthis was struck, killing at least 12 of the Shiite fighters, witnesses reported.

Air strikes also attacked rebel positions in the central region of Dhamar, officials there said.

In southern Yemen, warplanes targeted rebels locked in combat with rustics in Ataq, the capital of Shabwa province, military officials said.

The fighting killed at least 28 people, including 17 Houthis and 11 rustics, the sources said.

In Aden, festivities raged in the north, east and west of the port city between rebels and fighters loyal to President Abd-rabbo Mansour Hadi, military sources said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Turkey detains, deports French national heading for Syria
[Rudaw] An official says Turkish authorities have deported a French national who was detained at an Istanbul airport on suspicion that he planned to join Islamic bandidos murderous Moslems fighting in Syria.

The government official said Saturday the man arrived at Sabiha Gokcen airport from Milan on Thursday, and was deported back to Italia after he confessed that he had planned to join a terror group in Syria.

The Turkish official spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules requiring authorization for comment.

The man, identified only by his initials B.T., is the latest European to have been detained in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on route to Syria following increased cooperation between Turkey and European governments to stop the flow of imported muscle to Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Turkish police injured in clashes over Morsi death sentence
[AlAhram] At least 11 Turkish coppers were maimed in festivities with Islamist demonstrators in the Kurdish-majority southeast who were protesting the death sentence given by an Egyptian court to former president Mohammed Morsi, the provincial governor said Saturday.
The protesters had gathered outside a mosque in the Diyarbakir province following Friday prayers and read out a statement denouncing the verdict, chanting "God is great", an AFP photographer said.

Police fired teargas and water cannon at protesters when they attempted to march towards Diyarbakir's main square.

The protesters, including members of the Islamist Huda-Par, known to be the political extension of Turkish Hezbollah, as well as members of dozens of Moslem NGO groups, responded by throwing stones, prompting festivities with club-wielding riot police.

The Diyarbakir governor's office said in a statement that at least 11 coppers had been hurt in the festivities and that "extensive damage" had been caused to the city.

Around 20 people were incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
It looks like all the kewl kids are doing it:
Israeli Arabs rally against Morsi death sentence

Hundreds march in Sudan against Mursi death sentence
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Prayer leader explodes in mosque
Islamabad -- A prayer leader believed to be a suspected militant was killed when he blew up his suicide vest in a mosque, in Charsadda near Peshawar, leaving four people injured on Friday night, police said.
And a good time was had by all...
Station House Officer Shabqadar Walayat Shah said that acting on information about the presence of a suspect in Saro Klay the police cordoned off the area. When police spotted the suspect and tried to capture him he ran into the mosque where isha (nightfall) prayer was in progress and blew himself up, he added.

The SHO said the man was later identified as Qari Naeem, the prayer leader at the mosque.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336150 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Practice what you preach.
Posted by: jvalentour || 05/24/2015 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  These false Idols you worship will end you and all of your generations.

They hold not the truth, not the reverence of The Lord, They are prideful declarations of un-abel men.

For their lack of Guidance, they made it up as they went along.

I HATE Islam.
Hate is a strong word.
Your "prophet" is bunk.

I do not have to put up with your shit.

Lift your burkah girly boy, I want to see your face your robber.

You Lie to GOD. All of you.

Posted by: newc || 05/24/2015 3:10 Comments || Top||

#3  The second collection today will be the prayer leader. Please place him in the basket.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/24/2015 6:36 Comments || Top||

#4  never deliver a breast-beating sermon while wearing a boom vest
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2015 11:58 Comments || Top||

#5  A religious ecstasy leading to an epiphany?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2015 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Serpent handling more safer
Posted by: Shipman || 05/24/2015 16:07 Comments || Top||

#7  As long as they are not like, you know, self-catalyzing exothermic serpents.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2015 16:29 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Coalition warplanes pound ISIS snipers in western Mosul
[Rudaw] US-led coalition Arclight airstrikes targeted a kerosene refinery on the western Dijla front in western djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
on Sunday, destroying the facility, Captain Dilshad Maulood, a media officer to the Zeravani Peshmerga command, told Rudaw.

"With the help of our intelligence information, the Arclight airstrikes successfully managed to destroy the factory ISIS snipers had taken advantage of; here, they frequently targeted Peshmerga from the factory," Maulood said.

"A number of the ISIS bully boyz were killed inside the factory," he added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [336111 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Exactly how you pound snipers from a warplane?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2015 14:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Everyman is a sniper these days G.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/24/2015 16:09 Comments || Top||

#3  If fishes are acting refractory,
Say, sniping at one from a factory,
Bombs might serve your purpose;
Though deaders won't surface,
It's otherwise quite satisfactory.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/24/2015 17:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Surely if the building is thoroughly pounded, those in and on it will share the pain.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 17:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Exactly how you pound snipers from a warplane?

Artillery is the best way to fight snipers, assuming the building is dispensable. Nobody has to get within sniper range, and the bombs (by definition) can miss by yards and still put the sniper out of commission, whether by injuring or killing him.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/24/2015 21:21 Comments || Top||

#6  The best counter-sniper program involves your own snipers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2015 21:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Mortars are the best sniper program.

No finesse, though.
Posted by: badanov || 05/24/2015 22:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Artillery is the best way to fight snipers

Airplanes are just artillery with fins.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2015 23:02 Comments || Top||


Official claims Iraqi army recaptures areas of Baiji
[Rudaw] Iraqi joint forces have recaptured several villages and areas in the town of Baiji 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....
, Baiji Mayor Mohammed Mahmood told Rudaw on Saturday.

"The Iraqi army, police, counterterror forces and Hashd al-Shaabi have launched a multi-pronged massive assault on the Islamic State faceless myrmidons in the villages of Albu Hajab, Hawi and Albu Toma in southern Baiji," he said. "Fierce festivities are underway and very soon villages in the areas will be cleared of the remaining ISIS elements."

"The western Baiji prong has been held by Iraqi security forces since yesterday, the prong before was an ISIS corridor being used for transferring heavy weapons, faceless myrmidons and ammunition inside Baiji," he said.

Friday Iraqi joint forces captured a strategic area in Baiji and entered the city's key oil refinery where fighting has raged for most of the last two months, the Baghdad government announced.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Shiite militia, Iraqi army launch counteroffensive at Ramadi
[WASHINGTONPOST] Shiite forces of Evil and Iraqi army forces launched a counteroffensive against 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....
gunnies near Ramadi on Saturday, a militia front man said, aiming to reverse potentially devastating gains by the jihadi myrmidons.

Anbar provincial council member Azzal Obaid said hundreds of Shiite fighters, who had assembled last week at the Habbaniya air base, moved into Khaldiyah on Saturday and were nearing Siddiqiya and Madiq, towns in contested territory near Ramadi.

Two coppers later told Rooters the pro-government forces, which they said included locally allied Sunni rustics, had advanced past those towns to within one kilometer of Husaybah, an Islamic State-run town four miles east of the Ramadi city limits.

One officer said the Shiite-led forces exchanged fire with the holy warriors, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

Jaffar Husseini, front man for Shiite paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah, said more than 2,000 reinforcements had joined the pro-government advance and they had managed to secure Khaldiyah and the road linking it to Habbaniya.

"Today will witness the launch of some tactical operations that pave the way to the eventual liberation of Ramadi," he told Rooters by telephone.

At the same time, Islamic State units have been pushing toward Fallujah to try to absorb more territory between it and Ramadi that would bring them closer to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, some 50 miles to the east.

Islamic State has controlled Fallujah for more than a year.
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  So, it's the forces of evil vs jihadi myrmidons. This pleases me. Add in a few Iranians and we can dance. Why do we do anything other than watch? Popcorn!
Posted by: jvalentour || 05/24/2015 1:06 Comments || Top||


US, coalition hit Daesh targets near Ramadi
Washington -- The United States and its allies have staged 22 air strikes on Daesh targets since Friday, including four near Ramadi, the city taken by the militants this week, the US military said on Saturday.
Air strikes. That'll show 'em...
Coalition forces also attacked five Daesh sites in Syria between Friday and Saturday, a statement from the Combined Joint Task Force said.
Five strikes, five aircraft? Good thing we're serious, else we might have sent only one plane...
The strikes near Ramadi hit tactical units, armoured vehicles and a fighting position in militant-controlled territory. Ramadi fell to Daesh on Sunday in a serious setback for Iraqi forces that also cast doubt on the US strategy of using mainly air strikes against the militants.

The other US-led attacks in Iraq were near the cities of Al Asad, Bayji, Fallujah, Haditha, Kirkuk, Makhmur, Mosul, Sinjar and Tal Afar. Daesh tactical units, vehicles, fighting positions, heavy machine guns and buildings were hit.

In neighbouring Syria, air strikes near Al Hasakah, Dayr Az Zawr, Kobani and Tadmur destroyed fighting positions, a tank and six anti-aircraft artillery systems, the joint task force said.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The coalition now includes the Iranians and Maddi's.
The Irony.
Posted by: jvalentour || 05/24/2015 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  What irony?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2015 5:35 Comments || Top||


Iraqi forces move to Anbar frontline
Baghdad -- Iraqi forces retook territory from the Daesh group east of Ramadi on Saturday, commanders said, in their first counterattack since Anbar’s provincial capital fell a week ago. A mosaic of anti-Daesh forces had for days been massing in the Euphrates Valley to ready for an offensive aimed at turning the tide on militants.

The May 17 takeover of Ramadi was Baghdad’s worst defeat in almost a year while the capture three days later of the Syrian city of Palmyra positioned Daesh for a possible drive on Damascus.
Don't worry about it. Champ says it's just a 'setback'...
Security officials said an operation was launched early on Saturday to retake Husaybah, a town seven kilometres east of Ramadi in the Euphrates Valley, that Daesh had seized earlier in the week.

“The Husaybah area is now under full control and the forces are now advancing to liberate neighbouring Jweibah,” a police colonel said from the front.

Anbar’s most prominent Sunni tribal leader, Sheikh Rafia Abdelkarim Al Fahdawi, deployed his forces, whose knowledge of the terrain is key, alongside fighters from the Hashed Al Shaabi, an umbrella for Shia militia and volunteers. The police colonel said the Husaybah operation also involved local and federal police, the interior ministry’s rapid intervention force as well as the army.
Notice the complete absence of any mention of the Iraqi Federal Army. It's like they don't exist...
Swift action was seen as essential to prevent Daesh from laying booby traps across Ramadi, which would make any advance in the city more risky and complicated. But government and allied forces were also keen to prevent further losses as Daesh used its momentum after seizing Ramadi to take more land to the east of the city.

“What happened in Anbar is very similar to what happened last year in Diyala, Mosul and Salaheddin,” said Ahmed Al Assadi, spokesman of the Hashed Al Shaabi (popular mobilisation).

He was referring to the debacle of security forces when Daesh-led fighters swept across Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June last year, bringing Iraq to the brink of collapse.

Some Iraqi forces were criticised for avoiding battle during the fall of Ramadi, which led Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi to call in the Hashed Al Shaabi, which has some well-trained units but mainly adds numbers and determination.

He and Washington had opposed the mass deployment in the Sunni province of Anbar of militia groups with direct ties to Iran and a dubious human rights record. However, the strategy of US-led coalition air strikes while the security apparatus gets revamped has failed to keep up with the pace of Daesh advances.
So we're not being useful and instead are carping about the Iraqi government moves. That's rather typical of Champ...
“At this time, the Hashed are Abadi’s best bet. I don’t think he has many options,” said Ayham Kamel, director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group.

Washington tried to remain unrealistically upbeat after the loss of Ramadi and Palmyra, playing down the Daesh advance as a tactical “setback” and denying the US-led coalition was “losing”.

The militants, who now control roughly half of Syria, reinforced their self-declared transfrontier “caliphate” by seizing Syria’s Al Tanaf crossing on the Damascus-Baghdad highway late Thursday. Fabrice Balanche, a French expert on Syria, said “Daesh now dominates central Syria, a crossroads of primary importance” that could allow it to advance towards the capital and third city Homs.

The Daesh advance in both countries forced tens of thousands of civilians from their homes, sparking mewling concern among humanitarian agencies.
I can hear the hand-wringing...
The fall of Ramadi displaced at least 55,000 people, who join the more than 2.8 million people made homeless by fighting nationwide since the start of 2014.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  Maybe Iraqis can use Shia militias as barrier forces?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2015 15:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Simplistic I know, but part of me wants to set up a cordon sanitaire and let all comers smite the shit out of themselves.

Arms and ammo in, nothing out.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/24/2015 16:13 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Two wounded in Jerusalem stabbing attack
[Ynet] Two 17-year-old Israelis were stabbed in the back late Saturday night on Beit Habad Street in Jerusalem's Old City, just a few minutes' walk from Damascus gate. The two teens were on their way to the Western Wall for prayers marking the holiday of Shavuot when they were attacked in what has been ruled a terrorist incident.
I remember, a few years ago, there was a car sticker: "Have Arabs, have terrorism". Of course, the courts outlawed it as racist.
The Israelis were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital in fair and stable condition and initial searches led authorities to the home of a 19-year-old Palestinian where the knife was found that was allegedly used in the stabbing.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2015 05:31 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS militants purge Syrian town of Assad loyalists
[Rudaw] 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 forces of Evil hunted down Syrian government troops and loyalists in the newly captured town of Palmyra, shooting or beheading them in public as a warning, and imposing their strict interpretation of Islam, activists said Friday.

The purge, which relied mostly on informants, was aimed at solidifying the myrmidons' grip on the strategic town that was overrun Wednesday by ISIS fighters.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 01:40 || Comments || Link || [336089 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Now the turn of the rest of the population?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2015 14:46 Comments || Top||


Hizbullah, Syrian Army Take Control of New Hilltop in Qalamoun
[AnNahar] Hizbullah
...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
backed by the forces of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
allegedly captured Saturday a new position in al-Qalamoun battle.

Fighters reportedly seized Sadr al-Bustan hilltop, inflicting casualties among the ranks of jihadists, Hizbullah's mouthpiece al-Manar said.

The report said that several gunnies fled the area after it was taken by Hizbullah and the Syrian Forces.

Al-Nusra Front-affiliate Jaish al-Fatah announced that a Hizbullah member, who was killed in Qalamoun, was buried in the area.

The group shared via its Twitter account a picture of Abbas Hassan Yassine's corpse, his driving license and a neck chain indicating that he was a member of Hizbullah.

Yassine's funeral procession was reportedly held last week in his hometown in the Bekaa Valley.

In the past two weeks, Hizbullah says it has secured around a third of the Qalamoun region, on both the Lebanese and Syrian sides of the mostly non-existent border.

The area of roughly 1,000 square kilometers is a landscape of imposing hillsides riddled with caves, and open valleys full of scrub and wildflowers.

The fate of Qalamoun is particularly important for Hizbullah, which has long defended its intervention in Syria alongside President Bashir al-Assad's troops as key to the security of Leb.

Hizbullah cites that fear of gunnies (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 and al-Qaeda-affiliate 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 .. ...
Front) sweeping through Shiite and Christian villages in diverse Leb as one of the main reasons for their involvement in Syria.

Some observers however fear the Qalamoun offensive could prompt Islamist gunnies to launch attacks in Shiite areas of Leb itself, including Beirut's southern suburbs.

The IS and Nusra Front have infiltrated Leb in the past, and last August briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal, taking with them several soldiers and coppers hostage. Four of whom have been executed.
Negotiations between the Lebanese government and al Nusra continue via various third parties. Occasionally there is a moment of hope, followed by despair, as a possible resolution of the situation appears on the horizon before disappearing again. All very predictable, and not worth paying attention to until the soldiers are returned or somehow rescued.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah



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