[Xinhua] Afghan forces captured a Taliban key commander Mullah Abdullah in the eastern Pashtun-infested Logar province on Monday, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here.
[Shabelle] According to impending news reports from Lower Shabelle, a fierce violent conflict erupted last night in Qoryoley between the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... terrorist group and the co-allied pro-government forces; 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... Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops and Somali National Army.
Several towns under the district were struck with a barrage of mortar shells resulting in severe fatalities of which the precise numbers of casualties and losses have not yet been confirmed. Witnesses described that the mortars destroyed homes and shops in the town.
A military official of the Somali National Army reported to Shabelle that a fleet of AMISOM soldiers were preparing to withdraw their presence from the district when they were unexpectedly attacked thus causing the Somali National Army to intervene and retaliate against the terrorist krazed killers, eliminating them one-by-one.
Qoryoley was recently liberated by the partnered Somali National Army soldiers and AMISOM troops and has since then experienced several stealth attacks. Although Al-Shabaab were drawn out from the district, a few snuffies have covertly sneaked in staging quite a number of terror attacks and engaging in ferocious battles with the government soldiers.
[Shabelle] Two people, an army officer and a civilian, have been hospitalized after assailants suspected to be members of Somali militia Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... attacked Wajir town on Friday night.
Confirming the attack, Wajir East OCPD Odhiambo Wambia says police are pursuing the suspects who executed the vicious gun attack.
The injured Kenya defence force officer David Mugambi, who is admitted at Wajir county hospital, says he was shot on the back as he waited for transport to a Meru assignment.
Friday night's attack comes as Wajir County has experienced several incidences of insecurity and attacks by terror suspects in recent months.
[AnNahar] A special U.N. military force to protect aid workers deployed for the first time in the war-ravaged Somali capital Sunday, amid a wave of attacks blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab bully boys.
The 400-strong "defensive" guard force of Ugandan troops, based at the heavily fortified Mogadishu airport, is "mandated to protect U.N. staff and installations" in the capital.
Despite the government's insistence that it has improved security, the Shabaab continue to carry out bombings -- including targeting aid workers -- in their bid to overthrow Somalia's internationally backed but fragile leadership.
Shabaab suicide commandos last June blasted their way into a fortified U.N. base in central Mogadishu, killing 16 people.
"The deployment of the U.N. Guard Unit is an important step as we continue to expand our operations in support of the Somali people," U.N. envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay said at a ceremony Sunday to mark the start of operations.
Ugandan troops are already in Somalia as a key part of the U.N.-mandated 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... force AMISOM, which is fighting the Shabaab.
The gunnies have been driven out of fixed positions in Somalia's major towns by 22,000- strong force of AMISOM troops, but still regularly launch guerrilla raids.
Warplanes on Sunday pounded Shabaab bases in their stronghold of Jilib in southern Somalia's Middle Juba region, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.
Senior Shabaab commander Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Hamze said warplanes had struck the town, but denied any casualties.
"The enemy tried to terrorize the children and women by dropping bombs in the suburbs of the city, but thanks to God, there were no casualties at all," Abu Hamze told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
"The mujahedeen fighters have managed to repel the enemy with anti-aircraft weaponry. They have fled."
It was not immediately clear where the jets were from, but Kenya is part of the AU force and has used its air planes to strike Shabaab bases before.
Recent Shabaab attacks have targeted key areas of government, or the security forces, in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities that they are winning the war against the Islamist fighters.
"We are proud to join the U.N. family, and will do our utmost to ensure the U.N. is able to continue its work in Mogadishu under safe and secure conditions," said Uganda's deputy army commander Charles Angina.
The U.N. force in Mogadishu comes amid a wider warnings of the threat of attacks by Shabaab fighters or supporters in the wider region, especially in neighboring Kenya.
The United States on Saturday said it was preparing to cut staff levels at its Nairobi embassy because of the mounting threat of attacks in Kenya by Islamist hard boys.
Earlier this week Britannia, La Belle France and Australia also issued updated travel advice for their citizens in Kenya, following a string of grenade attacks.
In Somalia, continued conflict, compounded by poor rains and funding shortfalls, are threatening the few gains made since an extreme famine less than three years ago, with the U.N. and aid agencies warning that the troubled country could be sliding back into a food crisis.
Somalia was the hardest hit by extreme drought in 2011 that affected over 13 million people across the Horn of Africa, with famine zones declared in large parts of the war-ravaged south.
Some 250,000 people, around half of them young children, died in Somalia during that famine, according to the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... , which has acknowledged it should have done more to prevent the tragedy.
Among the warning signs today is the fact that seasonal rains crucial for farming and usually lasting from April to June have yet to start in key southern areas of Somalia.
[Magharebia] An Egyptian terrorist eliminated in Mali was the main weapons supplier for Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
A top figure of al-Qaeda breakaway group "Mourabitounes" died last week following a clash with French forces in northern Mali.
Abu Bakr Al-Nasr was the logistics chief and weapons procurer for runaway Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar (aka Laaouar), Le Monde cited a French government official as saying on Saturday (May 10th).
According to El Khabar, Egyptian national al-Nasr was active in the transfer of heavy weapons to Belmokhtar's fighters in the desert region near the southern Algerian border.
"He did not belong to any of the countries of the Sahel," Mauritanian journalist Boulkheir Ould Bilal Oumar noted.
"Being Egyptian made him unknown and that's what made Laaouar exploit that and rely on him for the transfer of weapons through smuggling," he added.
His death is the second significant blow to Belmokhtar's leadership cadre in six months.
Hacene Ould Khalil (aka Jouleibib), killed last November by French forces in northern Mali, was the deputy commander of Belmoktar's former "Signed in Blood" battalion. The group was behind last year's deadly siege at the In Amenas gas complex in Algeria and the twin suicide boom-mobileings in Niger.
"When gangs lose their leaders, they are on their way to collapse," said Abdul Rahman Mtaly, a professor at the University of Nouakchott. "The young entrants who join the organization do not have the same conviction, because their main motive is money."
Other young people see Belmokhtar as bad news for the Sahel.
According to Touareg youth activist Ameknas Ag Akal, "Laaouar and his fighters are thwarting efforts of development and stability in the region."
"I think that when they are confronted forcefully, things will return to normal," the young Toaureg tells Magharebia.
Mohammed Aali, a young Mauritanian student of Islamic Sharia, denounced Belmokhtar on religious grounds.
"If Laaouar and his group believe that what they are doing serves Islam, they are wrong," he said.
"It is not one of the values of Islam to kill innocents, or kidnap people who disagree with them religiously, or to take drugs and smuggle arms. True Islam intersects with other religions in the care for human life and the search for good," the student added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Pappy said this yesterday, but it's still funny:
#1 "You lost another top deputy, Mokhtar?"
Posted by Pappy 2014-05-18 15:25
[AlAhram] Unidentified suspect throws a small bomb at an election rally in Cairo in support of presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi
At least four people were maimed on Saturday when a bomb was thrown at an election rally in support of Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in the Ain Shams district of Cairo.
The candidate was not present at the event.
A security source said an unidentified assailant threw the device into the audience as the rally in Ezbet El-Nakhl was ending, according to Al-Ahram Arabic news website.
A police officer, a low-ranking policeman and the security coordinator of the presser were among the injured.
Presidential elections are scheduled to take place in Egypt on 26-27 May.
Expatriate voting is on 15-19 May.
Nasserist poltician Hamdeen Sabahi and former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi are the only candidates.
Last week, unidentified suspects set fire to the El-Sisi campaign headquarters in Sharqiya governorate.
Unidentified groups have also set fire to his campaigns headquarters in Cairo and other governorates.
El-Sisi recently claimed to have survived two liquidation attempts since he led the removal of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... amid mass protests last year.
One person was killed on Wednesday during festivities in Ezbet Al-Nakhl between supporters and opponents of the Moslem Brüderbund.
Frequent kabooms have struck towns in Cairo, the Nile Delta and the Sinai Peninsula since Morsi's ouster.
Militant groups have been announced responsibility for the attacks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Mali's Prime Minister Moussa Mara said Sunday the country was "at war" against forces of Evil in the rebel-controlled northern city of Kidal after festivities between separatist faceless myrmidons and the Malian army left 36 dead.
"The forces of Evil have declared war on Mali, so Mali is at war against these terrorists. We will mobilize the resources to fight this war," Mara told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
Earlier on Sunday, the government said weekend fighting between regular soldiers and Tuareg rebels in the northern city of Kidal has claimed at least 36 lives, while almost as many civil servants have been taken hostage.
Oh, Tuaregs, not Al Qaeda in North Africa. Gotcha.
The fighting broke out on Saturday outside the regional governor's offices as PM Mara was visiting Kidal as part of his first tour of the country's restive northern desert.
"Eight members of the armed forces were killed and 25 were maimed while 28 of the attackers were killed," the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that around 30 civil servants were being held hostage.
Kidal, 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako, was the scene of anti-government protests by several hundred youths and women on Friday and Saturday who demonstrated at the regional airport.
Mara's predecessor Oumar Tatam Ly was forced to cancel a trip in November to Kidal, the stronghold of Mali's Tuareg separatist movement, after protesters occupied a runway at the airport.
A front man for the MNLA, a secular separatist Tuareg rebel group that wants an independent state in northern Mali called Azawad , claimed control of the town of Kidal on Sunday.
"We've taken about 40 prisoners, including high-ranking military officers and civil servants," said Attaye Ag Mohammed, a MNLA front man. "They're all safe and sound and doing well," he told Rooters.
He added that Mali's United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... peacekeeping mission had called for a ceasefire and that there had been no fighting on Sunday.
"The town is completely secured by us...the army are back inside their base. If they attack us, however, we'll fight back," Mohammed said.
Mali, a former French colony, was thrown into turmoil in 2012 when al-Qaeda-linked fighters took advantage of a Tuareg-led rebellion and seized control of the country's north.
A French-led military operation drove back the fighters last year, but the Mali government has shifted its focus to the Tuareg rebels.
Mara criticised both the French and UN forces in the country for allowing the attack to take place on Saturday.
"You were witnesses today to the more than passiveness of these forces," he said.
[Xinhua] An kaboom in a Christian-dominated area in Nigeria's northern city of Kano killed at least five people and injured four others on Sunday night, the police said.
A car went kaboom! on a busy road in Sabon-Gari area of Kano, capital city of the Kano state, at about 9:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) when the area was usually crowded with street hawkers and traders, state police front man Musa Majiya told Xinhua by phone.
Bomb disposal experts had been dispatched to the scene, said the front man.
Although it was thought to be a boom-mobileing, no one or organization has grabbed credit.
The same area witnessed two major bombings last year -- one at a bus terminus and another at a fun spot, killing more than 100 people in total. The area, being densely populated by southern Christians, is a popular nightlife district in the most cosmopolitan city in the Muslim-majority north.
Nigeria faces the insurgency 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... , which has grabbed credit for many previous bombings in the West African country.
[AnNahar] Yemeni forces killed seven al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons in separate festivities on Saturday while a soldier died in a firefight as the army pressed an offensive against jihadists, officials said.
"Five al-Qaeda members" were killed in the southern Shabwa province when festivities broke out after faceless myrmidons ambushed a military convoy, a security official said.
One soldier was killed and five others were maimed in the shootout east of the town of Ataq, the official said.
Earlier the defense ministry said on its 26sep.net news website that army forces killed "two Saudi terrorists, Ibrahim Hamad and Ahmed al-Harbi," in the town of Azzan, also in Shabwa.
The army seized Azzan after launching its operation on April 29, but continues to clash with some al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons still holed up in houses there, witnesses said.
The provinces of 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... and Shabwa and the neighboring central province of Baida have been the focus of the offensive.
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi vowed Thursday to clear al-Qaeda from all its remaining bastions by extending the offensive to other regions.
He named Marib, east of Sanaa, where al-Qaeda is firmly implanted.
A military official cited by state news agency Saba Saturday said "al-Qaeda members are still being hunted" and stressed that the operation "will continue until they are cleared."
The official urged people to be vigilant about faceless myrmidons "fleeing" from Mahfad and Shabwa to neighboring areas.
The jihadists' Yemen franchise, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, took advantage of a 2011 uprising that forced veteran president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... from power to seize large swathes of the south and east.
The army recaptured several major towns in 2012 but has struggled to reassert control in rural areas despite recruiting militia allies among the local tribes.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] A reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... activist might plead guilty in bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... to failing to tell US immigration officials about her conviction in a deadly bombing in Israel in 1969, her attorney said Saturday.
A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday for Rasmieh Yusef Odeh, associate director at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago.
"We are engaging in serious negotiations, which could lead to a guilty plea," defense lawyer William Swor told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "If she enters a guilty plea, she will likely have to leave the country."
OdehÂ’s case has angered pro-Paleostinian activists in the US who accuse the government of trying to silence dissent on Israel. Her appearance at the bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... federal courthouse last fall drew sidewalk protesters who traveled from Illinois to chant criticism of the US Department of Homeland Security.
Odeh was convicted of an attack that killed two people at a Jerusalem market in 1969. An Israeli military court sentenced her to life in prison in 1970, but she was released 10 years later in a prisoner swap with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s... The indictment refers to her as Odeh, but she’s commonly known as Rasmea Yusef in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... . Hatem Abudayyeh, head of the Arab American Action Network, called her an “icon” in the community after her arrest last year. She’s been free on bail.
If you think they didn't know exactly who she is, what she's done, and celebrate her for it, you haven't been paying attention.
In 2013, Odeh received the Outstanding Community Leader award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, a coalition of ethnic museums and cultural centers in the Chicago area.
#1
Not certain how her deportation squares with Champ's recent release of 30,000 convicted thieves, rapists, murderers. Has Rasmieh Yusef Odeh somehow managed to vote for a republican in Chicago ?
#4
It was simply a regime business decision. She's nearly 70 years of age and will undoubtedly soon be requiring expensive gov't proviced medical and elderly care. Under the Tour Bus please.
[Dawn] LAHORE: Police claimed on Friday to have busted a network of terrorists-cum-hit mans associated with the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and another outfit.
It tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! eight forces of Evil including a traffic warden and seized a huge quantity of explosives, suicide jackets, laptops and illegal weapons.
Police identified the arrested suspects as Shafique Shah of Fazal Colony, Bund Road, warden Muhammad Azam of Ravi Road, Saqib Anjum, Obaidullah, Muhammad Aftab, Qari Mushtaq, Hafiz Azeem and Qari Asif Mahmood.
Most of the arrested are said to be associated with those six members of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... who were captured last month and were produced before the media. They were also taken into 'custody' by the Crimes Investigation Agency last month but their arrests were not made public for further investigation, Dawn learnt on Friday.
Two important members of the alleged terrorist network --Haroon Bhatti and Saeed of Kot Pindi Das, Sheikhupura -- are still absconders, police sources say and claim the recent arrests were made possible only after the arrested suspects disclosed their plans to target some senior coppers and known figures from different segments of society.
Capital City Police Officer Chauhdry Shafique told a news conference that a 'terror plot' had been averted as eight arrested suspects had planned to kill religious and important personalities, senior journalists, doctors, lawyers and senior coppers, and that they had completed surveillance of around 39 targets besides some important buildings and international companies' offices.
The suspects used to contact each other through emails and had been using several internet cafes of the city for communication. They also used to contact their accomplices in Afghanistan through the net.
The CCPO said the network had also planned to carry out a pressure-cooker blast and suicide kabooms during a national anthem ceremony in the Punjab University in winter, but cancellation of the programme failed their mission.
He said two jacket wallahs, who had to hit the ceremony, stayed at the Rehmanpura (Ichhra) residence of Qari Asif Mahmood who is a tutor at Jamia Qasmia, Rehmanpura.
He said Shafique Shah joined a banned turban outfit in 1992, operated along forces of Evil wanted in several cases and was currently playing a central role in planning terrorist activities after joining the TTP.
Similarly, warden Azam of Ravi Road, who joined a banned outfit before his selection as warden, also acted as an informer to target senior coppers and important government buildings. Azam's father was a police inspector.
The CCPO said the suspects, who brought a huge quantity of explosives and arms from Wazoo, had planned to kidnap or kill foreigners to damage the country's image and abduct members of elite class for fund raising.
A senior police investigator told Dawn that the CIA police with the help of an intelligence agency first picked warden Azam and later Qari Asif Mahmood around 50 days ago and came to know about other members of the network involved in a series of murders in the bustling provincial capital since May 2012.He said police then captured Shafique Shah and his two accomplices from Waziristan and later took others into custody, bringing the total arrests to 14.
The officer said the CIA police earlier captured sharp shooter Abdur Rauf Gujjar, who was directly involved in the liquidation of Maulana Shamsur Rehman Moawia, Allama Nasir Abbas, Advocate Shakir Ali Rizvi and others.
He said Rauf and his five accomplices were directly linked with recently arrested forces of Evil Shafique Shah and Qari Asif.
The officer said one Saeed, who provided weapons to Rauf to kill renowned personalities in Lahore, and Haroon, who introduced Rauf to Malik Ishaq and the TTP, were still on the run and were a potential threat to law-enforcement agencies.
[Dawn] QUETTA: Two bodies were found in Shalkot and Kuchlak areas of the quiet provincial capital on Sunday, police and hospital sources said.
Police brought a body to civil hospital from Shalkot area on the outskirts of Quetta.
The corpse was charred beyond recognition.
The other body found in Killi Autuzai area of Kuchlak carried bullet wounds.
Local people informed the police about the presence of the body in the area. The body was shifted to hospital where it was identified as that of Mohammad Azeem, a resident of Kuchlak.
"Five bullets were pumped into head and chest," police said.
[Dawn] KHAR/GHALANAI: A Khasadar man was killed and five Levies personnel were maimed in two separate kabooms in Mohmand and Bajaur tribal regions on Sunday.
In Bajaur, five Levies Force personnel and a woman were maimed in a roadside kaboom blast while in Mohmand, a Khasadar man was killed and an FC man and two civilians were maimed.
Bajaur Assistant Political Agent told Dawn that when a vehicle carrying Levies personnel from Khar to Nawagai reached near Rashakai, a remote-controlled bomb planted by hard boyz went off.
Five Levies personnel and a woman were maimed.
Our Correspondent adds from Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... : A Khasadar man was killed and three people, including an FC man, were maimed in a roadside kaboom blast in Chamarkand lower area of Mohmand. An improvised bombwent kaboom! when the Khasadar and FC personnel were removing IEDs and landmines from the road.
[Dawn] PESHAWAR: Residence of a doctor and a trader were targeted with bombs here on Sunday, but no one was injured in both the incidents, police said.
First blast took place outside the residence of Tariq Khan, a doctor, at Landi Sarak on Charsadda Road which damaged a portion of the building, but the inmates remained unhurt.
In his complaint to the Khazana cop shoppe, the doctor said that unknown callers using two cell phone numbers had demanded Rs3 million from him, but he had refused to do so. Police said that it was a time device which weighed about 600 grams. The police started the paperwork but haven't done much else and began investigations.
The other blast took place outside the residence of a trader, Ali Haider, at Khan Mast Colony in limits of Yakatoot cop shoppe. The blast smashed windowpanes of the house and created panic among people who came out of their houses.
The trader, who deals in scrap, informedpolice that unknown people had made his life miserable by calling him repeatedly to give them chanda (donations) in the name of Taliban. He said that someone identifying himself as Qari Sahab had called him on phone to pay donation for Taliban in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... .
Police said that FIR had been registered in the case against unknown suspects and investigation got underway.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... one person was injured when an LPG cylinder went kaboom! at City Circular Road on Sunday. The injured was identified as Shakeel.
Security forces raided a village outside a Philippine military base hosting US forces in Zamboanga City and arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber. Policemen, backed by soldiers, swooped in and arrested the militant who goes by the name Abu Jomar.
Capt. Maria Rowena Muyuela said the militant was arrested after a long surveillance operation. She said, "The raid resulted to the apprehension of Abu Jomar, who is a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group, and an explosives expert."
In a separate report, the police identified the militant as Nujir Ahidji.
The Western Mindanao Command is one of several military bases in southern Philippines where the US maintains a high-security facility which is helping local troops fight terrorism. Just recently, police also captured a 36-year old Abu Sayyaf militant, Harijin Jinny, in downtown Zamboanga while working as a security guard on a store just outside the police headquarters.
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Two rockets fired fired on Sunday from the Eastern Mountain Range (on the Lebanese-Syrian border) landed on the outskirts of the Bekaa Valley towns of Hawr Taala.
According to a communique issued by the army command, no casualties were reported.
The statement said that an army unit headed to the targeted area and a military expert arrived at the scene to inspect the two rockets.
Media reports had earlier said that one rocket had targeted the heights of the Bekaa town of Brital. media reports said.
LBCI said that the rocket was fired from Syrian territories.
On saturday night several rockets hit on the Bekaa towns of Hermel and Arsal, without causing any fatalities.
Since 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... 's intervention in the fighting in Syria, rockets from the Syrian side of the border have frequently landed mainly in Hermel and in Britel.
Earlier in May, two rockets launched from the Eastern Mountain Range landed in the outskirts of the Baalbek town of Britel without causing any injuries.
The assaults are usually claimed by Al-Nusra Front in Leb and the Islamic State in Iraq of Iraq and the Levant.
[AnNahar] Forces loyal to a rogue Libyan general attacked the country's parliament Sunday, expanding his eastern offensive against Islamists into the heart of the country's capital. Gunmen detained some 20 politicians and officials, authorities said, as black smoke rose over the parliament.
The violence, three years after the 2011 civil war that toppled strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... , threatens to further splinter a country dominated by militias.
The troops of Gen. Khalifa Haftar targeted Islamist politicians and officials, his front man Mohammed al-Hegazi told Libya's al-Ahrar television station.
Al-Hegazi said Haftar blames the officials for allowing bully boyz forces to exert considerable influence in the country.
His troops struck two Islamists militia bases Friday in Benghazi, the country's second-largest city, setting off festivities that killed 70 people, Libya's Health Ministry said.
"This parliament is what supports these myrmidon Islamist entities," al-Hegazi told the station. "The aim was to arrest these Islamist bodies who wear the cloak of politics."
Al-Hegazi said Haftar's forces met resistance from militias he accused of "holding the country hostage." He called the parliament the "heart of the crisis" in Libya.
The head of the parliament, the Islamist-leaning Nouri Abu Sahmein, later told TV station al-Nabaa that the militias loyal to the parliament and government have matters "under control."
"Those who plan and plot such things want to strike here and there to make others feel he has influence," Abu Sahmein said. "We are not in battle with individuals. We are carrying out a role that we were elected to do."
Gunfire near parliament could be heard for kilometers (miles) around. Witnesses said the attacking forces shelled parliament from the city's southern edge. The attackers rode in on trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and armored vehicles.
Lawmaker Khaled al-Mashri told Libya's al-Ahrar television station that gunnies entered the parliament complex, damaged the building and attempted to detain employees and guards.
An official with the Libyan Revolution Operation Room, an umbrella group of militias groups who answer to the interim parliament and are in charge of the security in the capital, said fighters engaged the attackers but there were no reports of casualties. He said the attackers also "kidnapped" some 20 politicians and government officials. Gunfire could be heard on the road to 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... 's airport and fire continued after sunset.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.
Forces loyal to the interim parliament set up checkpoints around the parliament, sending journalists away.
The front man said the attacking forces are suspected members of the al-Qaaqaa and Sawaaq militias, the largest in the capital. While they operate under a government mandate, they back the non-Islamist political forces.
Al-Qaaqaa posted a statement on its official Facebook page, saying it attacked parliament with Sawaaq because politicians supported "terrorism."
The two groups previously gave parliament an ultimatum to dissolve after its mandate expired in February, threatening to detain politicians. They never carried out their threats, though the parliament vowed to hold elections later this year.
Lawmakers say security officials evacuated them from the building out of fears it would be stormed. The security official told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that politicians received warnings ahead of the attack that the building would be assaulted.
Libya's parliament is divided between Islamist and non-Islamist. Rival militias, which wield the real power in Libya, have lined up behind competing political factions.
Recently, Islamists backed the naming of a new prime minister amid walkouts from the non-Islamist groups. The new interim prime minister has not yet named a Cabinet.
Al-Mashri said the attackers wanted to prevent politicians from picking a new Cabinet.
"There aim is to destroy an icon democracy elected by the people," he said.
But splits in Libya are also regional and ethnic, with longstanding rivalries between the country's eastern and western regions.
Since Haftar's offensive in Benghazi began on Friday, many of his supporters have pushed for him to take action in the capital, Tripoli, complaining about the country's ineffective government.
On Saturday, Haftar said he will press on with his offensive in Benghazi, despite warnings by the central government that cooperating troops will be tried. They labeled his moves a coup attempt.
Haftar, who once headed the army under Qadaffy but defected in the 1980s, had been assigned to help rebuild the country's military, but he was removed soon after. He appeared in an online video in February and proclaimed he intended to "rescue" the nation. Authorities described also that declaration as a coup attempt, though he apparently was never jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! .
[AnNahar] The chief of Syria's air defense forces, General Hussein Isaac, has been killed in combat near Damascus, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday.
The general died of wounds suffered in fighting at Mleiha, a key battleground southeast of the capital, making him one of the few top-ranking officers whose deaths have been announced during Syria's three-year war.
The air defense forces' headquarters is in Mleiha, a key flashpoint in current fighting around Damascus.
Because the rebels do not have an air force, the forces under Isaac's command have rarely been deployed for air defense.
"The regime's air defense force is to face a possible U.S. attack, but in this war it is using its firepower against the rebels," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The army's entire arsenal and forces are deployed in Damascus' war against rebels seeking to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... , whose regime brands the uprising as a foreign-backed "terrorist" plot.
Abdel Rahman called Isaac's death an "important psychological blow" to the regime.
For more than a month, the army backed by Leb's 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... has been battling to recapture Mleiha, a strategic rebel bastion.
It has been under siege for more than a year, and under near-constant bombardment for more than a month.
The Observatory said that despite initial regime advances in Mleiha, the rebels have recovered ground, retaking several buildings around the central town hall.
While the army is squarely in control of Damascus, rebels still hold a number of towns and villages on the outskirts, despite a suffocating blockade and frequent air strikes and shelling.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed Ishaq's death. It said he died from wounds he suffered during Saturday's fighting.
The Observatory, which bases its reports on a network of activists on the ground, said Ishaq was killed in festivities with fighters from the Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and other Islamic rebel groups.
"We announce good news to the Islamic nation, of the killing of one of the leaders of unbelief, General Hussein Yaqoub Ishaq, head of the Air Defence Administration in Mleiha," the Islamic Front said in a statement.
#1
I would have thought that we would would have seen a picture with some dancing girls? Anytime either side of that Civil War loses a top commander is a time for merriment and celebration.
Posted by: Herb Bumble4862 ||
05/19/2014 15:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sorry, Herb Bumble4862. I was the only moderator on article duty last night, so you got what I could do on my own.
[AnNahar] Several people were tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... on Saturday in the suburbs of Beirut on charges of opening fire and attacking army troops.
"An army force raided the St. Therese-Hadath region looking for runaways and managed to arrest Jalal Mohammed Jaafar and Moussa Mohammed Jaafar," the military institution said in a communique.
The statement clarified that both runaways are wanted on charges of attacking army troops.
The troops also seized a quantity of hashish, light ammunition, military equipment and a fake identification document during the raid.
And on Friday evening, an army force arrested Sami Ghaleb al-Husseini and Paleostinian national Bilal Mohammed al-Saleh in the Haret Hreik area in Beirut's southern suburbs.
They are both wanted on charges of opening fire, the army communique revealed.
The army announced on Thursday the arrest of Mahdi Sobhi Siblani for repeatedly opening fire, and Imad Makkouk for possessing and smuggling illegal substance in Dahieh.
The arrests come as troops are implementing a security plan in the North, the Bekaa and in Beirut, which resulted in the arrest of several dangerous runaways while other turned themselves in.
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.
[AnNahar] A special U.N. military force to protect aid workers deployed for the first time in the war-ravaged Somali capital Sunday, amid a wave of attacks blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
Wazoo
Mohmand Agency
Security forces raided a village outside a Philippine military base hosting US forces in Zamboanga City and arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber. Policemen, backed by soldiers, swooped in and arrested the militant who goes by the name Abu Jomar.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
