Nathan Bradley Bethea, an infantry officer in the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2014, writes about Sgt. Bergdahl in the Daily Beast. Very much worth the read for how your smart, hard-working military types who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are going to view this guy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Soldiers from the Somali National Army and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) fought against the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab terrorist group after they were attacked whilst en-route to Hudur.
The battle was intense according to locals, although they were unable to specify the numbers of casualties and losses.
Furthermore, a convoy of 20 vehicles transporting aid to Wajid and Hudur are currently delayed in Baidoa in the Bay region.
Mohamed Hassan and Abdirazak Omar spoke about the convoy and said that there is strong fear of transporting the aid to the cities whilst on the other hand there are hundreds of needy families that are in urgent need of the supplies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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According to news reports from tows under the Bakool region, the death toll of a fight yesterday afternoon between AMISOM and New Police against Al-Shabaab has increased rapidly.
The name of the territory where the fight took place is called Atto and other areas have seen severe fatalities.
The deputy governor of Bakool region, Sheikh Hassan Ibrahim Lug bur reported to Shabelle that the government troops killed a lot of the fighters and said that they killed over 74 of the terrorists. The deputy governor added that the regional administration are working on transporting aid to the towns affected by the fighting.
74? That's about 0.1% of the problem, right?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Turkey will apply to INTERPOL following a court in Ankaraâs ruling to issue an arrest warrant for five al-Shabab leaders in relation to a suicide attack in Somalia.
Ankaraâs 6th Penal Court has ruled to issue an arrest warrant on five Ethiopian al-Shabaab leaders as part of a probe into a suicide attack on the Turkish Embassy, which killed an embassy personnel in Mogadishu in July last year. Ankaraâs public prosecutor will also apply to INTERPOL to issue a red alert on the suspects after determining that the attack was held upon their leadersâ instructions.
On July 28, al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants staged a suicide attack on a Turkish Embassy annex, killing one Turkish guard and wounding three others.
The court ordered the arrest in absentia of Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed, the leader of the terrorist organization, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the deputy leader, a senior commander Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, the spiritual leader Hassan Dahir Aweys and Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, another senior leader.
During the attack police officers who guarded the Turkish Embassy annex, housing Turkish diplomatic staff, managed to kill two assailants but a third attacker detonated a vehicle laden with explosives.
Personally I think the Turks should send out a hunting party, and load up on mustache wax and truncheons...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Two men described by security forces as Al Shabaab militants were gunned down in Mandera on Sunday night, sparking protests from locals who claimed one of them was a known Sheikh in the region.
A local sheikh? Double-plus good!
According to Military Spokesman Maj Emmanuel Chirchir, the two militants are from Somalia, and were shot after attacking police officers and Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers.
âTerror gang hurled grenade at police in attempt to escape. The police shot them, killing 2 and 1 reported escaped, 8 Grenades recovered,â Chirchir tweeted on Monday morning, identifying one them as âSheikh Hassan âBlackâ.
He claimed the Sheikh is a âSuicide Bomber from Khadija Haji in Somalia.â
The killings sparked protests from locals, some of who claimed they knew the two men well, insisting they were not criminals.
Just a sheikh. A heavily-armed shiekh...
âThere is tension in the region after word went round that the two men have been killed, people are accusing the security forces of killing innocent men,â a senior police officer from the region said, and insisted âbut we know these are criminals, because Sheikhs donât walk around with grenades.â
Promote that officer to police sergeant!
Maj Chirchir on his part said KDF and police had learnt of the menâs plan to conduct a terror attack in Mandera before they laid an ambush.
âKDF/Police shared intelligence that three suspects believed armed with explosives were heading to Mandera to conduct terror,â Chirchir said.
The two are reported to have been travelling from Garissa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Clear as mud. TRIPOLI: Libya's new prime minister Ahmed Maiteeq on Monday held his first cabinet meeting at the premier's office after police forces helped him take over the building. Can you check my office for explosives?
The North African country is struggling with turmoil and a political crisis as outgoing premier Abdullah al-Thinni has refused to hand over power to Maiteeq who was elected by parliament in a chaotic vote last month.
Thinni had resigned in April but has said he received conflicting orders from Libya's divided parliament over the legitimacy of Maiteeq's election and would continue in his post until the General National Congress (GNC) assembly resolved the dispute.
Maiteeq arrived at the prime minister's office late in the evening escorted by police cars, witnesses said. Thinni had moved earlier to another government building, his spokesman said.
In a brief statement after a cabinet meeting, Maiteeq denounced clashes between militant Islamists and army forces that had erupted in eastern Benghazi, killing around 20 people.
Standing behind his cabinet, the businessman vowed to make improving security and fighting terrorism a top priority.
There was no immediate comment from Thinni after Maiteeq's statement was read live on television. The cabinet's tenure might be short-lived as Libya is preparing for elections later this month. Most plans have four categories, now, six weeks, six months, a year. This simplifies things.
First deputy parliamentary speaker Ezzedin al-Awam told Reuters on Monday that Thinni had told him he had not handed over officially the prime minister's office to Maiteeq. Where are the keys to the men's room?
Parliament is at the heart of a growing confrontation among rival political parties and brigades of former rebels who refuse to disarm and have allied themselves loosely on competing sides of a split congress.
Four decades of authoritarian rule by Muammar Gaddafi and three years of unrest since his ousting have left Libya with few institutions and no real army to impose state authority on former fighters and Islamist militants who often use their military muscle to make demands. I wonder why they are considered more legit than Haftar?
Those rivalries have come closer to open confrontation since last month after Khalifa Haftar, a renegade former general, began a self-declared campaign with renegade forces to purge Islamist militants he says the government has failed to challenge. Sic 'em.
Maiteeq, a businessman backed by independents and Islamist lawmakers, was appointed by GNC members after a chaotic vote contested by rival factions as illegitimate. Sounds to me like more head knocking is called for.
[Ynet] A mob of angry Islamic turbans burned shops owned by Coptic Christians near the ancient city of Luxor on Monday, hours before a trial for a Coptic Christian accused of blasphemy, a security official said.
The official said saw the mob throw gasoline bombs at the shops in the village of el-Mahameed near Luxor. The official said authorities are investigating the attack. The attack came hours before the start of a trial in Luxor for Kerolos Ghattas, a young Coptic Christian charged with contempt to Islam over a series of alleged Internet postings.
[AnNahar] Fierce fighting between Islamists and a rogue Libyan general killed at least 18 people in Benghazi on Monday, triggering fears of an all-out war as hospitals urged citizens to donate blood.
Officials at hospitals in the eastern city, the birthplace of the 2011 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... -backed uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... , said at least 11 soldiers were among the dead and that 81 people were maimed.
The government of outgoing prime minister Abdullah al-Thani said it was holding an "emergency meeting" on the violence, which residents said had eased in the afternoon.
An air force commander said the festivities erupted when three Islamist groups, including Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, with the Libyan and Tunisian versions currently most active... , attacked a base of elite forces who support the renegade general, Khalifa Haftar.
Images posted on the Internet showed army assault helicopters firing missiles at suspected Islamist targets.
The fighting was the bloodiest since 76 people were killed in mid-May when Haftar unleashed an offensive dubbed "Operation Dignity" to purge Libya of Islamists he brands "terrorists".
It triggered panic in Benghazi, Libya's second city where hospitals appealed to people to donate blood.
"Benghazi is suffering, people are fed up, spare them," the head of the Benghazi Medical Center, Doctor Leila Buigiguis, said in remarks broadcast on television.
The education ministry closed schools, forcing the postponement of scheduled final exams.
Residents cowered indoors and many shops and businesses were closed as gunfire rang out and kabooms shook Benghazi, witnesses said.
They said some families were trapped in the western neighborhood of Sidi Freij, a stronghold of Ansar al-Sharia.
Haftar front man Mohammed al-Hijazi called on residents in combat zones across Benghazi to evacuate.
Colonel Saad al-Werfelli, who commands the Benghazi air force base, said the jihadists "bombarded base 21 early on Monday, killing and wounding soldiers (from the elite unit) who were trapped inside".
The air force retaliated by launching strikes on the assailants, added Werfelli, who along with the elite forces backs Haftar's campaign against Islamists accused of repeated violence in Benghazi.
The latest bloodshed comes a day after Haftar's forces launched fresh air raids on Islamists in Benghazi, with one strike targeting a meeting of Ansar al-Sharia, one of his aides said.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has urged Libyans to fight Haftar and his so-called National Army, labeling the ex-army general an "enemy of Islam".
Authorities have denounced Haftar as an outlaw, but after thousands of Libya rallied for his support he said he has a mandate from the people to pursue his offensive to crush "terrorism".
Since the 2011, Libya has been rocked by lawlessness with near-daily attacks blamed on radical Islamists targeting security forces in Benghazi.
The interim authorities, caught in their own power struggle, have been unable to stamp out the violence in the absence of a strong army and police force.
Ansar al-Sharia, classified as a terrorist group by the United States, was backed by the February 17 Brigades of ex-rebel leader Rafallah al-Sahati and the Libya Shield Force Islamist groups, said Werfelli.
The powerful February 17 group of ex-rebels denied any involvement in Monday's fighting, in a statement posted on Facebook.
The group of ex-rebels is suspected of having strong ties with Ansar al-Sharia, which has threatened Haftar that he could end up like Qadaffy, killed by rebels eight months after the 2011 uprising.
Haftar, 71, lived in exile in the United States before returning home to command ground forces in the uprising.
Last week, he said in a statement read on a private television that he would not rest until he has purged Libya of Islamists.
"No steps backwards until the country is liberated, security and stability restored and freedom and democracy established," he said.
But many in Libya doubt that he will have any impact on the Islamists and question his motivation.
#4
The average Achmed on the street in Libya doesn't want an Islamic paradise governed by Sharia, enough of them have been on the Hajj to KSA and have seen THAT. And many of them have listened to the lunatics from the Muslim Brotherhood babble their radical "Islamic" nonsense on TV.
Trust me, most Libyans want an end to the militias and are sick and tired of the posturing and bickering in the GNC over run with Islamist who do not represent the will of the people.
Most want the GNC disbanded and they want a modern democratic constitution, something neither the GNC nor the Islamic militias want.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/03/2014 22:05 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Officials say a bomb went kaboom! near a drinking spot in the northeastern Nigerian town of Mubi, apparently causing multiple casualties.
The kaboom Sunday evening came less than 48 hours after a letter purportedly from the 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... terrorist group threatened to attack a university in the town.
A local official, Ahmad Gude, says security personnel were taking victims to the hospital, but he did not have an exact casualty figure.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Seven soldiers and several other people were killed Monday in festivities between the Yemeni army and Shiite Houthis close to the capital, tribal and medical sources said.
The festivities erupted after troops tried to expel rebels from a strategic position near Amran controlling the road to Sanaa, local officials said.
The air force intervened to back the army and its allies from the Sunni Islah party, they said.
The rebels, known also as Ansarullah and backed by local tribes, retaliated by attacking telecom installations and blocked traffic on the main Amran-Sanaa road, the officials said.
"Seven soldiers were killed and 16 others maimed in the battle," a medical source told AFP.
Tribal sources said 18 rebels were also killed, a toll that could not be verified.
The rebels' front man, Mohammed Abdulsalam, declined to provide a corpse count in a telephone call with AFP.
The rebels are suspected of trying to enlarge their sphere of influence as Yemen is split into six regions, pushing out from their mountain strongholds in the far north to areas closer to Sanaa.
The rebels complained Yemen would be divided into rich and poor regions under a federalization plan agreed in February following national talks as part of a political transition.
Huthis have been fighting the central government for years, complaining of marginalization under ex-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... , who was ousted in a 2012 uprising.
In February, they seized areas of Amran province in fighting with tribes that left more than 150 people dead.
AoS at 17:00 CT -- 3dc, please embed links. I don't have time to do it now, but embedding the links makes the copy clean and allows readers to go there directly. Thank you.
Chechens confirm their brand worldwide every year. Unfortunately, it is not a brand of high fashion, or new direction in art or science. Chechens are regularly depicted as the bad guys prepared to fight anywhere in the world. The theme of the Russian mafia in Hollywood movies has given way to the Chechen mafia and Chechen jihadists--a Chechen criminal world that threatens American interests around the globe (http://www.militaryparitet.com/perevodnie/data/ic_perevodnie/2256/).
Chechens have also surfaced in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. News agencies have provided links to video reports purporting to show the presence of Chechens among the unidentified armed groups in eastern Ukraine. Sometimes, the uninformed opinion of a lay person looking outside from his car (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAPe02IXBQI) is considered sufficient to figure out that the Chechens are kadyrovtsy, meaning those Chechens who are loyalists of Ramzan Kadyrov, the authoritarian Moscow-backed Chechen leader.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian anti-terrorist operation, Vladislav Seleznev, confirmed that people of Caucasian appearance are among the militants fighting in eastern Ukraine. "We have operative information about many people of Caucasian appearance among the militants" (http://www.ukrinform.ua/rus/news/na_donbasse_deystvuyut_kavkaztsi___seleznev_1637090). One of the videos shows a person who states on camera that he and the other armed men around him are Chechens, Afghans, Muslims who came to eastern Ukraine "to protect Russia, to protect Russians and to protect the interests of this country" (http://inforesist.org/video-batalon-vostok-daet-intervyu/).
The clearest apparent confirmation of the presence of Chechens in the conflict came in a CNN report in Donetsk. Two people replied to the reporter's question that they were from Chechnya and were kadyrovtsy. They refused to say what unit they were from, but nodded affirmatively when the reporter suggested that they were with the Russian interior ministry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAAqqBIRxIY).
When I was in Libya, all of the Russian stooges running around thought I was Chechen...I was constantly being accosted on the street by big lumpy guys who would babble Russian at me. I would give them a dumb look and answer in German or Spanish that I didn't understand them...and I didn't my Russian is TERRIBLE. But I would mindfuck them by answering in German and then in Spanish...
I guess that means I was in some kind of danger?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/03/2014 17:48 Comments ||
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#2
3dc use tis substitute < and > for [ and ]
[a href='http://paste.linky/here'] clickable visible link here [/a]
I use ' the single quote as the demarcation for the URL.
So instead of
(http://www.militaryparitet.com/perevodnie/data/ic_perevodnie/2256/). Chechens have also surfaced in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
It seems to me Rochester has appeared in our pages before...
Rochester, NY -- A Rochester man is accused of plotting to shoot and kill members of the U.S. armed forces returning from war to Western New York.
Rochester man? Who could it be? Mark? Samuel? Jason? Tyrone?
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Mufid A. Elfgeeh, 30, a Yemeni man, on Saturday on charges of receiving and possessing an unregistered silencer. Elfgeeh is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
The FBI, using confidential informants, has been investigating Elfgeeh since early 2013. According to the affidavit, Elfgeeh told an informant, "I'm thinking about just go buy a big automatic gun from off the street ... and just put on a vest or whatever and just go around and start shooting."
Authorities allege Elfgeeh changed his plans in March to killing returning soldiers. Elfgeeh expressed support for various terrorist organizations on his Twitter account.
Elfgeeh operates a convenience store, MoJoe's Famous Pizza and Chicken, on Clinton Avenue in Rochester.
I would have sworn he was operating a corner grocery in a troubled part of town...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Attacks across Iraq, including in the normally peaceful south, killed nine people Monday after unrest a day earlier left 40 dead, the latest in a protracted surge in nationwide bloodshed.
The violence comes as politicians jostle to build alliances amid what is expected to be a months-long period of government formation following April elections, with bloodletting at its worst since Iraq emerged from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war.
A spate of bombs went off around Storied Baghdad and in restive Sunni-majority Salaheddin province Monday, as well as in Najaf and Dhi Qar in the typically quiet Shiite-dominated south, officials said.
In the deadliest attack, three soldiers were killed by a suicide kaboomer who detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle in Tarmiyah, just north of the capital.
South of Storied Baghdad, a roadside kaboom near a secondary school in Mahmudiyah killed a male pupil, and a boom-mobile near a Shiite mosque in Iskandiriyah killed two people.
Mahmudiyah and Iskandiriyah lie in the confessionally-mixed "Triangle of Death", so called for the brutal violence that plagued the area in 2006 and 2007.
Three separate kabooms in Salaheddin province left two soldiers dead and three people maimed, and rare bombings in Najaf and Dhi Qar provinces, in Shiite-majority south Iraq, left one person dead and 36 maimed overall, security and medical officials said.
The latest violence came a day after 40 people were killed in nationwide unrest, including 22 who died as a result of festivities and shelling in and around the conflict-hit city of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... which lies just a short drive from Storied Baghdad.
Security forces have shelled Fallujah for months and repeatedly tried to storm the city in a bid to re-take it, but anti-government fighters have held sway over it.
Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said last month that Iraqi authorities have likely violated the laws of war by targeting Fallujah hospital.
The crisis in the desert province of Anbar, which borders Syria and of which Fallujah is a part, began in late December when security forces dismantled a longstanding protest camp maintained by the province's mainly Sunni Arab population to vent grievances against the government.
Militants subsequently seized parts of the lovely provincial capital Ramadi and all of Fallujah, the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the peak of the deadly violence that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
They have held all of Fallujah since, and protracted battles have continued for Ramadi.
The unrest in Fallujah is part of a year-long surge in nationwide violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead so far this year, according to an AFP tally.
Figures separately compiled by the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... and the government in Storied Baghdad showed more than 900 people were killed last month alone, with bloodletting at its worst since 2008, when Iraq was emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war.
Officials blame external factors for the rise in bloodshed, particularly the civil war in neighboring Syria, and insist wide-ranging operations against krazed killers, especially in Anbar, are having an impact.
But the violence has continued unabated, while analysts and diplomats insist the Shiite-led government must do more to reach out to the disaffected Sunni minority in order to undermine support for militancy.
[Ynet] A suspicious object was found at the Hadasim School in the Sharon Region. Security and police forces were alerted to the area and they are examining whether the object is a bomb.
[AnNahar] Rocket fire from Gazoo and Syria hit Israel early Monday in two separate incidents that prompted the Israeli military to hit back, just hours before the swearing in of a new Paleostinian government.
The exchanges of fire took place as Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... was to unveil a new government pieced together as part of a surprise April reconciliation agreement between leaders in the West Bank and the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo Strip, that has been fiercely opposed by Israel.
Early on Monday, Israeli warplanes staged two bombing raids on targets in central and southern Gazoo following rocket fire on southern Israel, a front man said.
"After two rockets were fired at Israeli territory over the last two days, the Israeli airforce attacked two terrorist sites in central and southern Gazoo," he said, noting the raids were successful.
Since the start of the year, about 150 rockets have struck Israeli territory, but the border has been relatively calm for the past few weeks.
Meanwhile in the north, Israeli troops fired across the Syrian ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights after a projectile struck Israeli territory, the military said.
"Earlier this morning, a projectile fired from Syria went kaboom! near an Israeli position on Mount Hermon," a military front man told Agence La Belle France Presse, saying troops had responded with artillery fire towards the area from which it came.
Army radio said three mortar shells had been fired from Syria, although only one had struck inside Israeli-held territory.
Israel, which is technically at war with Syria, seized 1,200-square-kilometer (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights plateau during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the plateau has been tense, with a growing number of projectiles, mostly stray, hitting the Israeli side, prompting an occasional armed response.
The tension spiked just hours before the formal unveiling of the new Paleostinian government at a ceremony at Abbas' Muqataa headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The new government, which will be headed by Rami Hamdallah -- the current prime minister in the West Bank -- will count a total of 17 ministers. Five of them, including Hamdallah, hail from Gazoo.
Although the formal line-up has not yet been made public, it has been pieced together by Abbas' mainstream Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas movement.
Technocratic in nature, it will not have a political mandate but will be tasked with organizing elections within six months.
Israel has vowed to boycott the new government, with officials reportedly warning that after it is sworn in, they would hold Abbas directly responsible for any rocket fire emanating from Gazoo.
Philippine security forces have captured a Filipino militant believed to be behind the deadly bombing that killed two U.S. servicemen in the southern province of Sulu five years ago.
Miraji Bairullah was captured in the town of Indanan after soldiers and policemen tracked him down in his hideout a tipoff, according to reports. No security officials wanted to give a statement about the capture of Bairullah, who is currently being interrogated by authorities in an undisclosed location.
Bairullah, a member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MILF), has been long wanted both by the Philippines and the U.S. for the bombing that killed SSG Jack Martin and SFC Christopher Shaw, and a Filipino soldier on September 29, 2009. The U.S. soldiers were on their way to inspect a school project with Filipino troops when their vehicle went over a landmine.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A truck kaboom killed at least 10 people at a village in the central Syrian province of Homs on Monday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
"The terrorist kaboom in Haraqi village in Homs province was caused by a tanker truck bomb. The initial toll says 10 people were killed, and major damage was caused to houses," the television station reported.
The attack comes a day before a presidential election is held in regime-held parts of the war-ravaged country, with the incumbent Bashir al-Assad expected to stay in power.
Haraqi is a regime-held village.
Earlier on Monday, at least 50 people, including nine children, were killed in two days of rebel mortar and rocket fire on regime-held areas of Aleppo in northern Syria, a monitoring group said.
"At least 50 people, including nine children, were killed in mortar and rocket fire on regime-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday and Sunday," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The bombardments killed 23 people on Saturday and another 27 on Sunday.
The Britannia-based monitoring group said the casualties on Saturday and Sunday came after 230 people had been killed in two months of rebel bombardments of areas of Aleppo controlled by the government.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said "the escalation by rebels against regime-held areas is linked to the imminent presidential election" that is expected keep Assad in power.
The opposition has branded the vote, that will only be held in regime-held areas, as a "farce".
The Observatory has also reported the killing of some 2,000 civilians, among them more than 500 children, in regime Arclight airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo since January.
Once Syria's commercial capital, Aleppo has been divided between pro- and anti-regime areas ever since a major rebel offensive in July 2012.
Abdel Rahman said: "Targeting civilians is a war crime and the fact that the regime uses barrel bombs to target civilians in rebel areas does not justify targeting civilians in regime areas."
Syria's war has killed more than 162,000 people in three years and forced nearly half the population to flee their homes.
The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times -- down to how many gunmen were guarding him -- but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn't want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a "deserter," sources familiar with the mission plans said.
Commanders on the ground debated whether to pull the trigger on a rescue several times in recent years, according to one of the sources, a former high-level intelligence official in Afghanistan, who said the conclusion each time was that the prospect of losing highly trained troops was too high a price to pay for rescuing a soldier who walked away from his unit before being captured by the enemy. And the reason President Hussein wants to promote him? One and the same?
#1
OK lets get over this. He deserted, he got taken, we needed to get him back. He's an idiot, 550,000 troops and one idiot pulled a stunt. Lets let it go.
Second, our loser in chief gave five Taliban away to get him back. Not AQ, Taliban. We screwed up by taking these guys in the first place. We put way too much effort in capturing Taliban, when we needed to just kill them. By capturing them we create a bad dilemma. Let these five go. As soon as they leave Qatar, drone zap them. Claim we were killing someone else in the car, Primary is collateral damage. Done. Emptied GITMO, killed the bad guys, all is right with the world. As soon as I get done with this bottle of Jack I might even believe it enough to think our president didn't just put every American traveling abroad at risk...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/03/2014 0:27 Comments ||
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#2
And how many American soldiers and civilians will be killed by the Gitmo 5 which Obama released?
But since it gives Obama cover and a distraction from the VA it's worth it right?
#3
I heard on the radio a soldier talking about how they went way out of their way looking for this jihadist MF for two months. He suggested men died during the effort. Does anyone else know about this?
#5
There are some indications he may have been more than a deserter - that he may have aided his 'captors' in their actions against our forces. If so, and not under duress, then a court martial for treason would be in order. It should be seriously investigated.
#8
President Zero and Susan Rice met with Hildebeast two days prior to the exchange. It is being speculated that Hildebeast was involved in the decision and Congress is now wanting to know the details of her involvement.
MSM is now going as far as saying the obvious, it was a move to take the spot light off of the VA fiasco, and that it was a bone head move by Obama.
#9
Champ is probably getting his marching orders from the Beast at this point. He may have been getting them during Benghazi as well. I doubt she wants to have to deal with GITMO during her reign.
Interesting to note a large number of the regime's controversies and scandals from Gaye marriage, "war against women", purging of senior military officers, Benghazi, the dem connection to the IRS, or the recent Taliban prisoner release all have, or could potentially have a Hildebeast connection.
#16
Anyone else notice the weird vibe when Obama appeared with Bergdahl's parents at the White House yesterday? Specifically, between Obama and Mrs. Bergdahl? It reminded me of i) his public flirtation with the Danish Prime Minister at Mandela's funeral and ii) Clinton's embrace of "that woman - - Miss Lewinski" on the rope line all those years ago. Wonder what that's all about.
Posted by: F. Hayek ||
06/03/2014 13:05 Comments ||
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#17
Wonder what that's all about.
Well...he is married to the Sasquatch, and maybe he's missing Reggie. The man needs some variety.
#18
latest "breaking news" is that Bergdahl left a note renouncing his citizenship before bailing out while on guard duty. If so, then that is, prima facie, desertion.
#20
Anyoneelse notice the weird vibe when Obama appeared with Bergdahl's parents at the White House yesterday? Specifically, between Obama and Mrs. Bergdahl?
Yes, I caught it. Very unprofessional, but intentional nonetheless. A sharp, televised stick-in-the-eye for.....'the man.' Nothing more.
I wondered why they were invited to the White House for a photo op with the president. He must have figured it would look good on the evening news but the more we learn about Bergdahl the worse it looks. Did Champ miscalculate?
#27
Taliban just abducted Indian head of Charity organization in Herat Province.
Statement from the Taliban: The Taliban vowed in a statement over the weekend that since they got five of their commanders back in a swap for the U.S. hostage, they would henceforth be determined to get all the Mujahidin prisoners released as soon as possible.
If Congress does not act on Obama, the world will act on Obama and the US.
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.
TRIPOLI: Libya's new prime minister Ahmed Maiteeq on Monday held his first cabinet meeting at the premier's office after police forces helped him take over the building.
Philippine security forces have captured a Filipino militant believed to be behind the deadly bombing that killed two U.S. servicemen in the southern province of Sulu five years ago.
The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times -- down to how many gunmen were guarding him -- but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn't want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a "deserter," sources familiar with the mission plans said.
