[Xinhua] Two Afghan children were killed and seven civilians were maimed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... Arclight airstrike earlier Saturday in the eastern province of Ghazni, which also claimed the lives of 12 Taliban Death Eaters, authorities said.
"The helicopters with the NATO-led coalition forces launched an attack against Taliban position along a road in Espand-de area outside lovely provincial capital Ghazni city this morning," Deputy Provincial Governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told Xinhua.
But the bombing also claimed the lives of two children and maimed seven others aboard two vehicles parked near the site, besides killing several Death Eaters, he said without providing more details.
"(Saturday) in the morning the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and Coalition Forces conducted a successful attack on a group of armed Taliban hard boyz in Espand-de village in eastern Ghazni city," said a statement issued by coalition here earlier in the day. It said no civilian was killed in the operation.
It said the hard boyz were preparing to attack the ANSF, adding the coalition conducted an Arclight airstrike killing 12 terrorists.
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[An Nahar] A rebel faction in Sudan's Darfur region on Saturday freed a group of 31 displaced people they had kidnapped "by mistake" a week earlier, the International Committee of the Red Thingy said.
"Thirty-one civilians were released today by the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdel Wahid (SLA-AW) in Darfur, Sudan," a statement said.
A convoy of buses carrying internally displaced Sudanese to a conference under escort from the hybrid United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peacekeeping force in Darfur was stopped by rebels on March 24.
The heavily armed rebels took their captives away to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location but their leader then said the attack was a mistake and promised the group would be released immediately.
Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads the faction, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Monday night that his forces had seized the 31 in error.
"One of the commanders made a big mistake," he said. "I gave (an) order to release these people, civilians, immediately."
He has not been reachable since then.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Two Libyan military officers were killed and three soldiers injured when unknown assailants forced their way into a military camp in the desert south, an army front man said on Saturday.
The early morning attack happened at the Tamahind base, which was previously a storage place for army equipment under ousted dictator Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV... and is near the desert town of Sabha, some 800 km (500 miles) south of the capital 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...
Sabha residents contacted by phone said the attackers came in eight cars before fleeing.
"They came in by cars, shooting. Two officers were killed and three others were maimed," Ali al-Sheikhli, front man for the army chief of staff, said. "An investigation is under way."
General Ramadan al-Barasi, military governor for the south, was not in the camp during the attack but his assistant Musaal-Awami was among the casualties, Sheikhli said.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Clashes in northern Mali between a Tuareg separatist group and jihadist fighters have left nine dead, Tuareg officials said Saturday.
The fighting pitted Al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups against the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) -- a secular separatist Tuareg group that currently supports the government.
"After the fighting, we recorded four dead and two maimed in our own ranks... There were five dead on their side," Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, a top MNLA official based in neighbouring Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... , told AFP.
Mossa Ag Attaher, an MNLA leader based in the northern Malian city of Kidal, added that one jihadist fighter was captured by his men.
The fighting lasted about two hours, they said, and took place on Friday between Gao and Kidal, two of the three main cities in northern Mali, which was under Islamist control for nine months until La Belle France intervened in January.
According to the Tuareg officials, the five Islamist fighters included three Algerians, a Mauritanian and one Malian.
The two MNLA officials disagreed however on their opponents' affiliation.
One said they were from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and the other said they belonged to "Signatories In Blood", a group recently founded by a former Al-Qaeda chief, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Many former Tuareg rebels who had worked as mercenaries in Libya returned to Mali bristling with weapons after Moamer Qadaffy's demise in late 2011 and rekindled their decades-old struggle for independence.
The MNLA launched a military offensive in January 2012 and conquered the entire north but was soon overpowered by its allies from the Al Qaeda-linked groups based in the region.
The secular Tuareg group has since sided with the Malian government and the French forces leading the reconquest. Its forces have engaged jihadist groups on several occasions in recent months.
No source among the jihadist networks being hunted down in northern Mali could be immediately reached to confirm Friday's festivities.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
a secular separatist Tuareg group that currently supports the government
ALEXANDRIA - Clashes erupted on Friday in two cities in northern Egypt, and protesters rallied in Cairo in the latest demonstrations against Egypts President Mohammed Mursi , who claims the recent wave of anti-government unrest is the work of conspirators.
In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, hundreds of unidentified assailants threw stones and fire bombs at protesters rallying against Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypts most powerful political group. The anti-government protesters hurled stones back at the assailants during the clash in a square that used to be home to the Brotherhoods office before it was stormed weeks ago by demonstrators. The clashes also halted train traffic for a few hours at a station near the site.
Separately, protesters and riot police clashed in the presidents home province of Sharqiya in the Nile River Delta. Police fired tear gas and exchanged stones with demonstrators tried to torch a Brotherhood office in the city of Zagazig, 50 miles north of the capital, Cairo.
In Cairo, hundreds of Egyptian protesters rallied in front of the office of the nations embattled Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah, part of a nationwide call to hold demonstrations against actions that Mursi has taken against the opposition.
The protesters, clapping and beating drums, sealed off Abdullahs office with locks and chains and displayed a sign that read: Leave. Enough.
We are here to say that we are not fearful, we are not hiding, said Wageh Abdel Salam, one of the demonstrators. The revolution must continue.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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The helicopter flew with its lights off in the dead of night. When we finally landed, we could feel the sharp rocks under our boots but still could not see anything. It felt like we were cut off from the rest of the world.
Later the first light of dawn revealed the vastness of a rocky desert, with mountain crests and sandy lines cutting through the landscape like human veins.
As the sun rose, soldiers appeared one after another in their beige uniforms, ready to march through yet another day in this hostile wilderness.
These men were from the French Foreign Legion, a force which, uniquely, draws its soldiers from many nationalities.
"We've just left planet Earth and we're now on Mars," a Romanian legionnaire shouted.
We were climbing a steep hill, over jagged and slippery rocks, at the time. From the top we hoped to get a view of the whole valley below.
With flak jacket on, helmet, rucksack, TV and radio equipment, enough food for the day and six litres of water, we were carrying more than 30 kilos in weight. The soldiers, with their weapons and ammunition, each carried twice that weight.
By 9am, we had been walking for three hours and it was over 40 degrees Celsius. The heat waves were actually visible in the air, and as an Australian corporal put it to me: "A bit of wind feels like someone aiming a blow-dryer right into your face."
The legionnaires were searching the desert for jihadi fighters. They had discovered plenty of their hideouts already.
In some, established near the rare wells in this dry and arid landscape, militants had grown their own vegetable gardens. The soldiers loved the fresh tomatoes and onions - delicacies after days of military rations.
One legionnaire pointed towards his boots - they were so destroyed by the rocks that he was happy to find a pair which had been abandoned by the enemy. He swapped his boots and joked about wearing "jihadi shoes".
We marched nearly all that day under the boiling sun. When darkness eventually fell, the temperature, in this landscape of extremes, rapidly dropped to freezing point. Exhausted, we lay our sleeping bags on the desert floor, climbed in and went to sleep under the stars.
The legionnaires had been chasing jihadi fighters on foot for weeks. They had lost track of time.
For them, this was just another day in Mali's far north or, as they call it, planet Mars.
[Al Ahram] Violence involving rival ethnic groups in central Nigeria has killed at least 36 people and left dozens of houses burnt over the past week, the military said Saturday.
The latest casualties are in addition to at least 23 people killed in attacks in the volatile region last week on 20 and 21 March.
Security has been tightened in the area for the Easter holidays and a military helicopter could be seen hovering Saturday.
Violence since Monday has seen ethnic Fulani Mohammedans raid Christian villages in Nigeria's Plateau state, an area where thousands have been killed in recent years in a cycle of attacks and reprisals.
Military officials could not give the cause of the fresh outbreak of violence in several villages, but such flare-ups often result from community disputes over land or cattle.
Plateau state lies in the so-called Middle Belt region dividing the mainly Christian south and mostly Mohammedan north of Africa's most populous nation.
The latest attack occurred late Thursday in the Barkin Ladi area, said Lieutenant Jude Akpa, front man for a security task force in the region.
"Unknown gunnies suspected to be Fulanis attacked and killed nine persons there and three were maimed," Akpa told AFP.
On Wednesday, an attack and subsequent shootout in the Bokkos area killed 25, with the gunnies again believed to be Fulanis, according to Akpa.
Two coppers were also maimed by gunfire, he said.
"We had 19 persons killed," Akpa said of the initial attack. "We sent in reinforcements ... Six of the attackers were killed."
Violence in the Riyom district Monday left at least two coppers dead when their patrol was ambushed.
At least 30 houses were burnt in the area on 23 March 23, said Akpa, adding he could not confirm any casualties.
Plateau has seen waves violence involving the Fulani ethnic group and Christian Beroms, who see themselves as the indigenes of the state.
Separately, Islamist Death Eater group 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... has carried out bombings in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, as part of its insurgency in central and northern Nigeria.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A prison guard was killed and a colleague maimed in a gun attack in the port city of Aden, police said on Saturday, as southern Yemen observed a "civil disobedience" campaign called by separatists.
The overnight attack came as several district of the main southern city, including Mansura, Sheikh Othman and Crater, were brought to a virtual standstill by the protest action.
Police said the shooting took place when a police vehicle from Mansura prison arrived at the local hospital carrying a sick inmate. The assailants expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.
On Saturday morning, dozens of southern activists used rocks and logs to block main roads around Aden, where shops, banks and schools stayed closed, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
Pro-autonomy groups have staged such actions every Wednesday and Saturday since February 21 in protest at killings of southern activists in confrontations with security forces.
On March 18, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi warned Yemenis against the use of force to express political views, as he opened a national dialogue to pave the way for the drafting of a new constitution and the staging of elections.
The dialogue, scheduled to run six months, brings together 565 representatives of Yemen's various political groups -- from secessionists in the south to Zaidi Iranian catspaws in the north, in addition to civil society representatives.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Sixteen people, including a former Jamaat leader, an Afghan war veteran and four Pak nationals, who were tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! on Friday with bombs and fake currencies, are paraded before the media yesterday.
Police in the capital have arrested 12 alleged beturbanned goons, including a former Jamaat leader and an Afghan war veteran, with bombs, bomb-making materials and Tk 1.29 crore in fake Indian currency. One crore=10 million, or 100 lakh. One Bangla taka=one cent.
Of the 12, all arrested on Friday night, one is a former Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... leader and the rest are members of different terrorist outfits like Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west. and Harkatul Mujahideen and Allah'r Dal.
In a separate drive the same night, the Detective Branch of police arrested four Pak nationals with fake 6.3 million Indian rupees. One Indian rupee=2 cents
Briefing newsmen, DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said the arrested Bangladeshis were preparing for subversive activities, including attacks on public gatherings and eminent personalities.
To remain financially secure, they were counterfeiting money in coordination with the Pak nationals.
The seizure also includes eight hand-made bombs, $400 in cash, 4,000 Pak rupees and seven passports -- four Pak and three Bangladeshi.
DB officials said they first arrested former Madaripur district Jamaat unit Ameer Dr Farid Uddin Ahammad, 55, Afghan war veteran Farid Uddin Masud, 35, former Shibir cadre Mizanur Rahman, 31, and beturbanned goon activist Mahfuzur Rahman, 23, at a house on Free School Street, Kathal Bagan, with bombs and bomb-making materials.
According to DB officials, Dr Farid and Masud had been reorganising the leaders and members of various beturbanned goon outfits to establish Khilafat in Bangladesh through subversive activities.
Dr Farid was a Shibir leader while studying at Sylhet Medical College.
On completion of MBBS, he got involved in the committee of the Sylhet city unit Jamaat. As he hails from Madaripur, he acted as the ameer of the district unit Jamaat for a decade.
Dr Farid, who took part in parliamentary elections as a Jamaat candidate, got involved with beturbanned goon outfit Allah'r Dal, HuJI and Harkatul Mujahideen.
He was the ideologue of different beturbanned goon outfits, Joint Commissioner Monirul said.
In 1991, Dr Farid allied himself wth Farid Uddin Masud, who stayed in Pakistain till 2004 and got involved with Harkatul Jihad there.
Another detainee, Mizanur Rahman, who is a former Shibir cadre, was also a leader of Allah'r Dal. Mizan, a former student of Dhaka University, also had been recruiting members for carrying out subversive activities under the directives of Dr Farid and Masud.
DB officials said following the arrest of the four, they around 8:00pm arrested two others -- Abdul Khalid and Mohammad Sajal -- in Paltan area.
On information given by the duo, detectives arrested six members of a gang, involved in making fake currencies, at a house in Nikunja-2 under Khilkhet area with counterfeit 66 lakh Indian rupees.
The six are Md Mostofa, Mamunur Rashid, his wife Dolly Akhter, Md Abul Bashar, Rezaul Karim, and Roksana Begum.
DB said following the arrest of the six, the force conducted a raid at a residential hotel in Bangshal from where they arrested four Pak nationals with fake 63 lakh Indian rupees.
The jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! Paks -- Sayeed Uddin, Mohammad Farhan, Rubina Begum and Nargis Akhter -- have visited Bangladesh between six and 12 times.
Nazrul Islam Mollah, deputy commissioner of DB (North), said Dr Farid, Masud, Mizan and Mahfuzur had been taken on remand for three days each, the Pak nationals for seven days each and the rest for four days each.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[FOXNEWS] A terror alert at the Eiffel Tower has been cleared after the monument was evacuated Saturday when an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat. It's cheaper to make the call than it is to actually plant the bomb.
A Gay Paree police official said Saturday that nearly 1,400 people were evacuated following a request from tower operators after the warning Saturday. Police then searched the monument with sniffer dogs for possible explosives, and set up a broad security perimeter.
French authorities have stepped up counterterrorism measures in recent weeks amid heightened concern about threats to La Belle France over its military campaign against Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Mali which began more than two months ago.
The tower is occasionally evacuated because of such warnings -- at least once last year and twice in 2011. The 1,063-foot tower is one of the world's top tourist attractions, with millions of visitors a year.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] A Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for wiring money to Pakistain to help fund terrorist attacks against U.S. military personnel.
Oytun Ayse Mihalik was sentenced Friday in federal court in Santa Ana. She pleaded guilty in August to one count of providing material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors said the 40-year-old Mihalik admitted that she provided about $2,000 to a person in Pakistain with the intention that the money would be used for attacks against U.S. military personnel and other people overseas.
Mihalik, who worked as a pharmacist, has been in federal custody since she was locked away Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! in August after she attempted to board a flight to her native Turkey.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2013 10:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
can she lose her pharmaceutical license for funding terrorists? Need consequences beyond one year (look for a suspended sentence for this sweetheart)
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/31/2013 12:22 Comments ||
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#3
Need consequences beyond one year (look for a suspended sentence for this sweetheart)
RJ, she's an alien and has been in custody August 2011, so yes your probably right.
[Pak Daily Times] A policeman was killed and five others were maimed as a jacket wallah struck a police patrol in Mardan district on Saturday.
"Police signalled two people riding a cycle of violence to stop. One of them opened fire on police instead," police officer Jaffer Khan said. Police retaliated and one of the injured bombers went kaboom! after falling from the cycle of violence," he said. The other suicide bomber was chased and rubbed out in the Katlang area, he added. "Additional Sub-Inspector Khushdal Khan died and two copperswere maimed," the police official told media.
Three civilians were also injured in the incident, he said. It was unclear what target the bombers had set for themselves. "It was our success that the bombers were intercepted before they could reach their target," Jaffer said. Nobody immediately claimed the responsibility. Separately, a kaboom damaged a non-governmental organization office in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. early Saturday but caused no casualties, police said. The bomb went kaboom! outside the office of Society for Appraisal and Women Empowerment in Rural Areas (SAWERA). No loss of life was reported as the kaboom took place at 4am when the office was closed, senior management of the NGO working on women's empowerment in tribal areas, said. A official at Sawera said the organization had not received any specific threat but gunnies have attacked NGOs and aid workers in the past.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Gunmen on Saturday hurled a firecracker and opened fire at a primary school in Karachi, killing its principal and wounding eight children, police said. The children were aged between five and ten while the headmaster was a member of the Awami National Party, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtun migrants from the country's northwest, police added. "The principal of the private school was killed and eight children were wounded when unknown gunmen fired at school gate and threw a cracker inside the school," senior police official Imran Shaukat told AFP. The gunmen fled on motorbikes and nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, Shaukat said, adding that police have started an investigation. The attack took place in the low-income Ittehad Town neighbourhood of Karachi -- a port city of 18 million people plagued by murders, kidnappings and politically linked violence. Pakistan is due to hold elections in May but a surge in violent sectarian attacks against minority Shiite Muslims, including a bombing in Karachi earlier this month which killed 50 people, has raised concerns over security at the polls.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Two men wanted on several charges were maimed on Saturday in an exchange of gunfire with an army patrol in Bekaa's Baalbeck city, the state-run National News Agency reported.
"The gunfire exchange took place when the army was trying to arrest the suspects," it detailed, noting that they are allegedly wanted in several cases, among them kidnapping incidents.
"They were involved in the shooting at a general security patrol in Bekaa's Shtoura region earlier in March".
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... LBCI television identified the men as Mohammed Ismael Choucair and Abbas Choucair.
"They were maimed in an exchange of gunfire in Baalbeck's al-Sharawina area," it remarked.
Both men were transferred to a hospital in the area for treatment, and NNA said one of them is in a critical condition.
A General Security first sergeant was killed on March 12 and three security personnel were maimed while chasing a runaway in Shtoura.
MTV said the incident happened near the Ramia hunting rifles store where a security patrol came under gunfire.
A statement issued by the General Directorate of General Security said one of its patrols "came under gunfire while passing on the main road in the Shtoura area, which resulted in the martyrdom of Third Inspector Michel Maalouf and the wounding of two other members".
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A ship raising a Tanzanian flag and carrying Iranian arms cargo is expected to cross the Suez Canal within six hours, an opposition source told Al Arabiya Saturday.
'The ship is said to be carrying 8,500 tons of weapons and ground missiles from Iran to be given to the Syrian regime,' the source said, adding: 'It is scheduled to make a 'fuel stop' at a Syrian port where it will unload its cargo.'
The source also said that the vessel is owned by Syrians, although he did not specify to whom he was referring. He, however, said that the boat was registered in Lebanon and had links to the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
There have been various media reports that the Islamic republic has been militarily helping the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which -- according to the U.N. -- has killed more than 70,000 people in the two years since the uprising began.
A Western official told Reuters earlier this month that Iranian weapons continue to pour into Syria from Iraq as well as other routes, including Turkey and Lebanon, which violates the U.N. arms embargo on Iran. Iraqi and Turkish officials denied the allegations.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
A little detour to the bottom of the sea would be in order here.
[An Nahar] Syrian rebel forces killed a pro-regime Sunni holy man in the city of Aleppo, with some reports suggesting he was beheaded, and then dragged his body through the streets, a watchdog group said on Saturday.
Sheikh Hassan Seifeddin, imam of a mosque in the northern Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud, "was killed overnight Friday by rebel fighters in the east of the area and his body was dragged through the streets," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Seifeddin was "assassinated by beturbanned goons who mutilated his body afterwards," while official television station al-Ikhbariya said he had been "slaughtered" and beheaded.
"The Learned Elders of Islam (holy mans) of Aleppo denounce this despicable crime committed by the enemies of humanity who assassinated Sheikh Hassan Seifeddin and laid his head on the minaret of al-Hassan mosque in Sheikh Maqsud," the station reported.
Sheikh Maqsud is a majority Kurdish district of Aleppo, and fierce battles between rebels and regime forces have been raging since Friday in its eastern quarter where much of the district's non-Kurdish Sunni residents live.
The Learned Elders of Islam called on the Syrian army to "liberate Syria from the criminal mercenaries with obscurantist ideas," in an apparent reference to hardline jihadist groups amongst the armed opposition.
A March 22 suicide kaboom on a central Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... mosque claimed by jihadists killed 42 people, including the country's most prominent pro-regime Sunni holy man.
The Observatory said 31 people had been killed in Sheikh Maqsud in 24 hours, including 10 civilians, 14 pro-regime gunman and seven rebels.
At least 157 people were killed through Syria on Friday, according to the watchdog group which gathers its information from a network of activists and medics on the ground.
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Syrian rebels have seized a key town on a main highway between Damascus and the south in their latest advance in Daraa province on the border with Jordan, a watchdog said on Friday.
Rebels seized control of Dael after destroying the three army checkpoints at the entrances to the town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The town is located on a main road linking Daraa to Damascus.
The Britain-based watchdog said that a child was among 10 civilians killed in the fighting for the town over the past 24 hours. At least 15 rebels and a media activist working with them were also killed, as were 12 loyalist troops, it added.
Large swathes of Daraa (province) are now under rebel control. Their advance in the south is escalating, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The rebels are inching closer to the provincial capital, and several towns and villages are now out of army hands. Daraa city is cut off almost completely from Damascus, he added.
The capture of Dael came a day after a loyalist MP from Daraa province raised the alarm in parliament. Walid al-Zohbi said rebels were advancing in all towns and villages in Daraa province, which is torn from east to west after the army withdrew from many positions.
They may have pulled out for tactical reasons, we dont know. But at any rate, terrorists from Al-Nusra Front have taken their place, he added of a jihadist group with roots in Iraq which is blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organisation.
On Sunday, the Observatory reported that the rebels had seized a swathe of land stretching 25 kilometres (15 miles) east to west along the Jordanian border to the sensitive ceasefire line between Syria and Israel.
Elsewhere fighting raged in the northern city of Aleppo and clashes erupted on the outskirts of Damascus, mostly in the districts of Qaboon and Yarmuk, the Observatory said.
At least 14 pro-regime fighters were killed in Aleppo where shelling left eight people dead, including two children, and wounded 60, it said.
Farther west of the city a missile slammed into the village of Hreitan killing at least nine civilians, including two children and four women, the watchdog added.
At least 150 people were killed in violence nationwide on Thursday, including 14 students and a child who died in a mortar attack on Damascus University.
On Friday, at least 65 people were killed, the Observatory said.
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03/31/2013 00:00 ||
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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.
ALEXANDRIA - Clashes erupted on Friday in two cities in northern Egypt, and protesters rallied in Cairo in the latest demonstrations against Egypts President Mohammed Mursi , who claims the recent wave of anti-government unrest is the work of conspirators.
The helicopter flew with its lights off in the dead of night. When we finally landed, we could feel the sharp rocks under our boots but still could not see anything. It felt like we were cut off from the rest of the world.
[Al Ahram] Violence involving rival ethnic groups in central Nigeria has killed at least 36 people and left dozens of houses burnt over the past week, the military said Saturday.
[An Nahar] Syrian rebel forces killed a pro-regime Sunni 
