[Pak Daily Times] Millions of Afghans turned out to vote Saturday in a presidential run-off election despite Taliban threats and violence that killed nearly 50 people ahead of the withdrawal of 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... troops later this year.
Afghan officials said more than seven million people voted, a higher than expected turnout of 52 percent based on an estimated electorate of 13.5 million voters. But fraud allegations were likely from both campaign teams after the election, and a close count could lead to a contested result as the country undergoes its first democratic transfer of power.
The election will decide whether former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... or ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani leads the country into a new era of declining international military and civilian assistance. On the campaign trail, both candidates had offered similar pledges to tackle rampant corruption, build much-needed infrastructure and protect citizens from violence. Polling day saw no major attacks in cities, but at least 150 other incidents including a Taliban rocket that hit a house near a polling station in the eastern province of Khost ...which coincidentally borders North Wazoo and Kurram Agency... , killing five members of the same family.
"Eleven police, 15 ANA (Afghanistan National Army) and 20 civilians were martyred," Interior Minister Omar Daudzai told news hounds, adding that about 60 hard boyz were also killed in fighting.
"Election security was better than the first round despite level of threats being higher," he said. "People voted to reject the murderous Moslems. There were some casualties on our side, but the enemy has failed."
Independent Election Commission chief Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani admitted there had been problems with ballot paper shortages, as in the first round election in April. President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... is due to step down after ruling Afghanistan since 2001, when a US-led offensive ousted the austere Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda hard boyz behind the 9/11 attacks.
"We are very proud to be choosing our favourite candidate," he said after voting. "Today Afghanistan goes from a transition period towards long-lasting peace."
A smooth handover would be a major achievement for the international effort to establish a functioning state after the depredations of the Taliban era.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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According to news reports from the Bakool region, another violent confrontation erupted last night between co-allied Somali National Army soldiers and Ethiopian troops against A-Shabaab terrorist insurgents.
Al-Shabaab has been reported to have raided soldiers that were guarding aid supplies that were being transported to Waajid town.
The fight was serious, residents in the town reported to Shabelle although they were unable to describe the extent of fatalities.
But it was serious, you betcha...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Unbelievers, romantic and chivalrous,
Do battle for reasons most frivolous,
But when Muslim folk fight,
They're all earnest and right,
(that's straight from their nursery school syllabus).
And while I'm pointlessly slagging Muslims
A lusty old mufti of Mecca he,
Who never would dine on a peccary.
No corking or forking,
But oddly, on porking
His views were decidedly checkery.
Residents that live in Qoryoley have reported to Shabelle that fighters from the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization have burned a vehicle on the outskirts of the city.
My Land Cruiser! Ya bastids!
Al Shabaab has been suspected of burning the car in between Buulo-shekh and Danow on outskirts of Qoryoley after the vehicle exited the city.
The district commissioner of Qoryoley, Osman Shekh Ali, reported to Shabelle that before they burned the car, they demanded all civilians to get off the car.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
The malign influence of France? Black sheep bringing bad habits back to the farm?
A fierce battle broke out today on the outskirts of Baidoa, the provincial capital city of Bay region, in which co-allied Somali National Army soldiers and Ethiopian troops (of AMISOM) fought against Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab terrorist insurgents. The battle occurred near Goofgaduud and Shabeelow, towns on the outskirts of Baidoa. The Al-Shabaab terrorists initiated the conflict by attacking SNA and AMISOM bases in the town.
Another fight erupted in Kartun which is a town in the Bakool region after insurgents attacked government troops in the town.
The Chief of Somali Military Force for Bakool region, Abdirahman Mohamed Osman Timacade, reported to Shabelle that the soldiers retaliated in the attack of the terrorists. Mr. Timacade said that fatalities were caused although the extent of casualties and losses are still unknown. He added that Al-Shabaab has sustained significant losses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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According to news reports from the Mudug region, a strong explosion occurred today in Galkayo targeting soldiers of the Puntland state administration.
A minimum of two soldiers were wounded after armed fighters through bombs at a vehicle being driven by soldiers of Puntland state administration as they were passing by Garsoor, a neighborhood in North Galkayo.
After the blast, the surviving soldiers conducted search crackdowns in the Garsoor neighborhood in which they detained many youth suspected with being tied to the explosion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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BENGHAZI, Libya, June 15 21:52:25 (Xinhua) -- The forces loyal to the renegade Why do they keep saying that? Renegade to whom? Al-Qaeda? Get some perspective.
General Khalifa Haftar on Sunday launched a new offensive against Islamist military bases in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, leaving at least four people killed and nine injured, medical sources said. Sic 'em
The clashes continue on the western outskirts of Benghazi, mainly in Sidi Faraj and al-Hawari district. "There are now heavy clashes. Our forces are attacking terrorists with tanks and rocket launchers," Haftar's spokesman said.
Haftar's troops also launched airstrikes in the city. Some witnesses said they saw war planes circling above Benghazi.
Sources from Abyar Rural Hospital said they had received four bodies and nine injuries.
Haftar, who played a major role in toppling Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has led a series of military operations against Islamist militia in Benghazi in the name of "purging terrorists" since last month. Purging terrorist, a worthwhile pursuit. We could do with more of that.
[An Nahar] Egyptian police jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Saturday a runaway Sunni scholar who had been sentenced to death in absentia in a trial involving the leader of the Moslem Brüderbund, state media reported.
Abdallah Hassan Barakat, a former senior academic at the prestigious Al-Azhar University, was arrested at a checkpoint in Cairo, the official MENA news agency reported.
He was travelling in a car with his son and two of his brothers.
Barakat was among 10 runaways sentenced to death earlier this month in a case in which Moslem Brüderbund chief Mohammed Badie and 37 others, all in jug, are awaiting a verdict on July 5.
They are accused of inciting violence in which two people were killed in the Nile Delta city of Qaliub, only days after the military ousted 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... last July.
Under Egyptian law, Barakat is now entitled to a retrial.
After the army ousted Morsi, Badie and thousands of the deposed president's supporters were arrested in a police crackdown that also left more than 1,400 dead.
Hundreds have already been sentenced to death in often speedy trials.
Police also arrested 22 other members of the Moslem Brüderbund on Saturday who were on the run and were wanted in several cases, security officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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An assault on a Chinese road-building camp in northern Cameroon is the latest in a series of regional attacks on Chinese workers and facilities. The camp with 52 staff was run by a Sinohydro engineering unit involved in road improvement as part of a joint World Bank/Cameroon government project. Close to the camp is an oil exploration site run by Yan Chang Logone Development Holding Company, a subsidiary of China's Yanchang Petroleum (Reuters, May 20). The exploration group is working in the Logone-Birni basin in north Cameroon.
The nighttime attack, believed to have been the work of Nigeria's Boko Haram movement, overcame resistance from a much-diminished Cameroonian guard force before the attackers seized ten Chinese employees, wounded another and lifted ten Sinohydro vehicles as well as blasting equipment used in road construction (Xinhua, May 18). China has expressed concern over the possibility of military action to rescue the hostages: "We urge the Cameroonian authorities not to put the lives of the Chinese nationals missing in danger if actions to liberate them are launched" (China Daily/Xinhua, May 19). France quickly offered its assistance to China in finding the ten missing workers (AFP, May 18).
The timing of the attack appears to have been well-planned, coming as most of the camp's guard from the elite Brigade d'intervention rapide (BIR) was in Yaound" preparing to take part in a military parade marking Cameroon's National Day on May 20 (This Day [Lagos], May 17). Pursuit by Cameroonian air assets was also impossible as the helicopters normally deployed to the frontier region were also in the capital for the military parade (AFP, May 18). Ironically, the parade's highlight was Cameroon's newly acquired Chinese armor, including two platoons of Type 07P infantry fighting vehicles (equipped with a 30 mm gun and a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun) and three platoons of PTL-102-type armored tank destroyers (equipped with a 105 mm gun). The new armored vehicles are part of Cameroon's Bataillon blind" de reconnaissance (BBR -- Armored Reconnaissance Battalion) (Cameroon Tribune, May 21; IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, May 21). On May 26, the BIR returned north to the Nigerian frontier along with some of Cameroon's new Chinese-built armored vehicles. The force of roughly 1,000 troops is expected to join 700 other troops already deployed to the frontier region in March to combat Boko Haram (Reuters, May 27).
The attack also came at the same time Cameroonian president Paul Biya was in Paris attending the "Paris Summit for Security in Nigeria" with high-level representatives from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Benin, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Cameroon has committed to joining Nigeria, Benin, Niger and Chad in contributing one battalion each of troops dedicated to combatting Boko Haram (Vanguard [Lagos], May 20). An existing joint force of troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad has been largely ineffective in halting cross-border violence. Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, recently complained that Nigerian forces are unable to pursue Boko Haram forces when they cross the border without getting special permission from Yaound" (Daily Trust [Lagos], May 19). Cameroon is now in the process of creating military bases in all ten regions of the country to improve local security as regional conditions deteriorate (Cameroon Post, May 18).
Posted by: 3dc ||
06/15/2014 11:12 ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
Oh boy, when the Chinese get involved things can get very complex. I wouldn't put it past them to use false flag forces to gin up the violence to let them put their main military into play or at least send in their equivalent of the Foreign Legion, a very nasty bunch.
Posted by: Pearl Borgia1889 ||
06/15/2014 21:22 Comments ||
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A suspected American drone in Yemen's south has targeted a car reportedly carrying al-Qaeda fighters, killing all five passengers, Yemeni security officials said.
The officials said the attack on Saturday took place in a mountainous area in Mafraq al-Saeed area in the southern Shabwah province, about 458km southeast of the capital, Sanaa.
One of those killed in the attack was a suspected al-Qaeda leader named Musaad al-Habashi, the officials said.
48 hour rule unless we see a severed head...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] La Belle France announced Saturday that it has deported a Tunisian who was accused of recruiting young jihadists to fight in Syria, deeming him a threat to national security.
The interior ministry said the 28-year-old was expelled to Tunisia on Thursday "as a matter of absolute urgency in view of the threat that his presence posed for public safety and state security."
A French official said the Tunisian "played a central role in the recruitment of young jihadists" in the southeastern French city of Grenoble.
He is suspected of having taken part in the recruitment of young jihadists who were trained in Tunisia before being sent to Syria.
On April 23, the French government adopted a plan to fight jihadist networks which called for the immediate expulsion of foreigners implicated in them.
On June 3, Prime Minister Manuel Valls increased La Belle France's estimate of the number of its nationals embroiled in Syria's civil war to more than 800 and warned that they pose an unprecedented security threat.
The warning followed the arrest of Medhi Nemmouche, a French jihadist suspected of carrying out last week's Brussels Jewish Museum killings after spending a year fighting in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Pakistan on Saturday said it had deployed additional troops on the western border to reinforce security arrangements for 'peaceful conduct of presidential elections in Afghanistan'.
"A number of measures have been taken for the purpose after due deliberation and coordination with Afghan security forces," said Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement.
The steps have been taken following the start of second phase of the Afghan presidential polls on Saturday that will culminate in what the United Nations says the war-torn country's first-ever democratic transfer of power.
"While ensuring a smooth flow of voters move, checking by immigration staff at crossing points has been enhanced and patrolling has been increased in areas close to the border.
Strict checking measures have been taken on routes from mainland leading towards border areas," the ISPR said, adding that the communication at border coordination centres on both sides has also been enhanced and a hotline contact has been established between the two military operations directorates.
Additionally, it said, aerial surveillance is also being carried out to check any untoward cross border movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] A minority politician from the ruling National Party (NP) in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Handery Masih was bumped off here on Saturday by his own bodyguard.Masih was leaving his home in Nawa Killi suburb of Quetta when a policeman who had been his bodyguard for 13 years shot him, Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior government official told AFP.
Abddul Razzaq Cheema, the city's police chief, said, "The bodyguard had some personal dispute with Handery Masih's nephew and both had a brawl outside the residence of the politician. The bodyguard opened fire on the nephew as Masih came out of his home to stop him. He was hit in the neck and died on the way to hospital."
Cheema added Agha Abul Hayee, who belonged to Mastung, was 'loyal' and bore Masih no personal enmity.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... sources said that Masih had sacked the same guard some three days ago from job and had restored him to the work in the very morning.
Another police official in Quetta confirmed the killing and added, "Masih's nephew was also maimed in the attack."
Chief Minister has directed the authorities concerned to unearth motives behind the killing. Balochistan Assembly, which is in session these days, observed two-minute silence to mourn the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
"We're not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which, while we're there we're keeping a lid on things, and after enormous sacrifices by us, after we're not there, people start acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and prosperity of the country," Obama said.
Apparently he was not reading off the teleprompter.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/15/2014 6:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Secretary of State John Kerry, traveling in London Friday, urged Iraq's neighbors to also understand the gravity of the situation.
"Everybody in the region, every country that understands the importance of stability in the Middle East, needs to be concerned about what is happening with ISIL in Iraq today," Kerry said.
Also without 'prompter. That Yale education shining through.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/15/2014 6:44 Comments ||
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#4
For the first time in his presidency he's making a right decision.
#5
"Everybody in the region, every country that understands the importance of stability in the Middle East, needs to be concerned about what is happening with ISIL in Iraq today," Kerry said.
It seems Iran is. First Putin makes our community leader look like a fool, now it's Hassan Rouhani and his Iranian counsels turn.
#7
Why have we expended billions of dollars on airbases in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia? Are they and our drone bases from Saudi Arabia through Turkey to Azerbaijan just for show?
#9
Muslims are slaughtering Muslims. We need to supply more arms and ammunition to both sides, and encourage a mutual battle of annihilation.
Islam is an unholy pestilence upon the earth, and an existential threat to human civilization. We should do everything in our power to assist Muslims to self-destroy one another.
I believe that Islam will dominate the world by 2050. The few non-Muslim survivors of that future time will look back at the early years of the 21st Century, and mutter to themselves "What were those f%@$ing idiots thinking, 45 years ago, to have allowed the Islamic menace to grow, unimpeded by the civilized nations that could have contained the menace."
#14
A battle of annihilation is whats going on now - the ISIL basically is destroying everything Shiite they can get their hands on, including mosques and holy sites. These guys are trying to make the Khymer Rouge look like pikers in areas where they are fighting.
#15
OS,
Agreed. If ISIS/ISIL can get the Shea to siphon off manpower to protect shrines (that are otherwise not strategic) then that will leave fewer resources available to al-Maliki to defend Baghdad. If ISIS/ISIL decides to attack non-strategic targets like shrines than they deserve the fate of the Nazi 6th army that perished at Stalingrad (another non-strategic target).
#16
Direct from an Iraqi friend of min in Baghdad - they have over 300,000 volunteers, including local armed militias (Like Tater's groups) headed up to fight the ISIS and, in his words "send them screaming to hell". He says they are not afraid of ISIS, because they (and again I quote) "aren't as well armed as you Americans were".
#18
Iff Libya thru the Ukra8ine-Crimea Crisis is any meaure, the Bammer-the-Globalist will do + say all the right things before the Medias + Voters while simul knowing it will never be used or allowed to interfere wid the geopol expansion of Globalist-desired future OWG Co-Superpowers Iran, Russia, + China, etc.
More popularly known as "Going thru the Motions".
* CNN, CNBC this AM > PERTS PANELs = ...
> Iran is for all practical purposes establishing a new PERSIAN EMPIRE.
> IRAQ CRISIS + ANY ISIS CAPTURE OF BAGHDAD = iff you didn't know or recognize it yet wid the fall of Mosul, 'tis an Inter-Muslim "Clash of Civilizations" + a struggle to be #1 in World Islam.
> DE FACTO FORCED PARTITIONING OF IRAQ + POSSIBLY THE KURDISH KAR TAKING PLACE.
MORE< WORSE TROUBLES OR CRISES STILL TO COME???
* IIRC FREEREPUBLIC > [Reuters] US PREPARING DIRECT DIALOGUE WID IRAN ON IRAQ SECURITY.
D *** NG IT, I DON'T SEE ANY OBAMA/US-SUPPORTED OWG CO-SUPERPOWER, DO YOU!?
[SGT "I SEE NOTHING, ETC." SCHULTZ here].
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Independent.UK] ROBERT FISK: THE OLD PARTITION OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS DEAD, I
DREAD TO THINK WHAT WILL FOLLOW.
Next thing you know an angry disappointed US Elite Soldier will in convert to Islam in the future - WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!
* WORLD NEWS > [Washing Times] OBAMA IGNORED GENERALS' PLEAS TO KEEP US TROOPS IN IRAQ.
* SAME ROMNEY: ALL THE US FOUGHT FOR IN IRAQ COULD VANISH. Labels Obama FP a "monumental failure".
[Ynet] At least seven members of the Kurdish security forces were killed in an Arclight airstrike in Iraq's northeastern province of Diyala on Saturday, police said.
The secretary general of the Kurdish security forces said however that only two people had died near the town of Jalawla in what he described as shelling, and that it was not yet clear whether Iraqi forces or Death Eaters were responsible.
[Iraq Sun] The Iraqi security forces Saturday re-took control of three towns in Salahudin province lying north of capital Storied Baghdad, while troops were also being deployed in the south of the bustling provincial capital city of Tikrit for a military offensive later, a provincial police source said.
The troops backed by the residents of the town of Ishaqi, 90 km north of Storied Baghdad, clashed with the murderous Moslem groups and recaptured the town earlier seized by them, Xinhua quoted a source as saying Saturday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... the security forces attacked the nearby town of al- Mu'tasim, 100 km north of Storied Baghdad, and seized the town from the murderous Moslems' control, the source said.
Later Friday, the security forces backed by the residents of the town of Duluiyah, 80 km north of Storied Baghdad, re-took control of the town after they clashed with a group of snuffies who fled the town, the source added.
Two more villages near the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Storied Baghdad, were also cleared of snuffies by the residents and remnants of the local police who took up arms and clashed with the gunnies. Preparations are underway to retake the city of Baiji.
The Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, which is the hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, has been in the hands of the gunnies since Wednesday.
On Friday, the most influential Shiite holy man in Iraq Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on Iraqis to take up arms to defend their country against myrmidon groups who took control of large parts of the country.
"The situation in Iraq is very serious, entailing those who are able to volunteer to take up arms to defend their homeland," Sistani said in his statement read after the weekly Friday prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Xinhua reports are closer to the action than are the US so-called news agencies.
BAGHDAD -- A rebel juggernaut that captured Iraq's second-largest city and raced nearly 200 miles south in three days, raising fears of an imminent assault on Baghdad, stalled for a second day on Saturday about 60 miles north of the capital, leaving residents bracing for a siege that so far has not happened.
If the ISIL is as loosely organized and as thin on logistics as some are saying they may have hit their peak alright. Was their plan a lightning strike and hope to panic everyone to abandoning Baghdad?
While some Baghdad residents scrambled to leave, hoarded food or rushed to join auxiliary militias to defend the city, the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and their allies halted their advance within a two-hour drive, and there was no indication that they were seeking to push into Baghdad proper.
Would they want Baghdad? If they have most of the Sunni areas is that enough for them? Dare the Iraqi army to regroup and come back at them?
The rebel leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had boasted that he would soon take the capital and press on to the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq, fell silent as his followers worked to consolidate their gains in predominantly Sunni parts of the country, instead of trying to fight their way through more heavily defended, Shiite-dominated areas.
There were reports of fresh clashes in Dujail, Ishaqi and Dhuluiya in Salahuddin Province, just north of Baghdad, as newly armed Shiite militias surged to confront the largely Sunni insurgents. However, there did not appear to have been any decisive engagements between the insurgents and the Iraqi military, and there was no clear evidence to support an Iraqi general's claim on Saturday that the Iraqi Army had rolled the militants back in those towns.
The Iraqi authorities used the breather to recruit citizens to reinforce the country's beleaguered military, while worried Baghdad residents began to stockpile essentials, sending prices skyrocketing on Saturday, the end of the Iraqi weekend. Cooking gas quadrupled in price, to about $20 on Saturday from about $5 on Thursday for a 35-pound container. The dollar, normally stable here, spiked about 5 percent overnight. And the price of potatoes increased sixfold, to about $4.5o a pound.
A military spokesman, Gen. Qassim Atta, said government forces had reclaimed ground in the northern provinces of Salahuddin, Diyala and Nineveh, and insisted the capital was safe.
"The security in Baghdad is 100 percent stable," he said. "The majority of Salahuddin Province has been regained. The morale of the security forces is very high."
Sure, Qassim, and I'll believe you when you do a presser in Diyala...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
If they have most of the Sunni areas is that enough for them?
The area that ISIS/ISIL wants contains Arabs whose brand of Islam matches that in Saudi Arabia. It spans parts of Syria, parts of Iraq and parts of Saudi Arabia. ISIS/ISIL may have got what they wanted.
Now their Baathist allies may not be satisfied with that. First check.
Saudi Arabia has a history of setting up proxies to destroy their enemies after which the Saudis turn on their proxies and destroy them.
Dare the Iraqi army to regroup and come back at them?
Think back to the surge and what it took to take back Fallujah. Do you think that al-Maliki's corrupt and broken Shia army can repeat that feat without extensive US help? The IAF is finding that Close Air Support is not as easy as it looks.
B.O. has left a big mess for the next US President to fix. What an a*shat.
#2
Digging in, awaiting follow on. Pretty long movement over the last week, maybe time take a blow, to do a little joyful screaming and wait for the stragglers to come dragging in.
#3
I don't know what kinda supply line these guys use, if they have even a very primitive one, (instead of foraging) they likely have out run it. Not sure what they need that they can't get locally tho. Any insight here would be appreciated.
Remember is old saying: Amateur think of tactics, professionals think of logistics, the survivors seek quality cover.
Actually not old, I just made it up a minute ago.
(I think)
#5
Looks like it's gonna be another protracted proxy war similar to Syria with Iran backing one faction and Soddies backing another. Should keep 'em busy for a while anyway.
But I notice that John McCain has been strangely silent lately. What's up with that?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/15/2014 11:05 Comments ||
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#7
Hmmm, can I suppose out loud that maybe the empty suit's speech to West Point in which he essentially said the US will not use their military for anything was a green light for all of these people to move forward in Iraq?
Seems to me a lot of things are happening all at once on the heels of that pussification of US foreign policy/national defense posture.
So which do you want? The Bush Doctrine or the Empty Suit Doctrine?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2014 12:01 Comments ||
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#8
I'm not so sure this will go anywhere. In Syria yes, this will boost their efforts tremendously. But I see ISIL pulling back with all their new, shiny equipment in a week or two. In hindsight that may have been the plan all along, just they saw the Iraqi's flee Mosul. Then it was kind of a feeding frenzy for everything not nailed down.
But looking on the bright side, at least they know how to use the equipment.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/15/2014 12:31 Comments ||
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Iraq's Air Force has started bombing some areas of the country's city of Tikrit which is under the control of militants of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkish Haber7 TV channel reported on June 14.
The airstrikes resulted in some 40 people being dead and 30 more injured, according to the TV channel. The Iraqi authorities state that the killed people are terrorists, however, the locals say that the dead are the civilians, Haber7 TV channel said.
The Iraqi city of Samarra, located 132 km from Baghdad, fell entirely under the control of the ISIL militants ON June 13.
Anybody know what the Iraqi air force is flying for combat missions?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counter-attacks, easing pressure on the government.
As Iraqi officials spoke of wresting back the initiative against the militants, neighbouring Iran held out the prospect of working with its longtime US arch-enemy to help restore security in Iraq.
Thousands responded to a call by Iraq's most influential Shia cleric to take up arms and defend the country against the insurgency, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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The ISIS and its allies are in a position today that closely resembles the ISI's position prior to the US surge back in early 2007. More than 130,000 US troops, partnered with the Sunni Awakening formations and Iraqi security forces numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were required to clear Anbar, Salahaddin, Diyala, Ninewa, Baghdad, and the "triangle of death." The concurrent operations took more than a year, and were supported by the US Air Force, US Army aviation brigades, and US special operations raids that targeted the ISI's command and control, training camps, and bases, as well as its IED and suicide bomb factories.
Today, the Iraqis have no US forces on the ground to support them, US air power is absent, the Awakening is scattered and in disarray, and the Iraqi military has been humiliated while surrendering or retreating during the jihadists' campaign from Mosul to the outskirts of Baghdad. The US government has indicated that it will not deploy US soldiers in Iraq, either on the ground or at airbases to conduct air operations.
ISIS is advancing boldly in the looming security vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi security forces and the West's refusal to recommit forces to stabilize Iraq. This has rendered the country vulnerable to further incursions by al Qaeda-linked jihadists as well as intervention by interested neighbors such as Iran. Overt Iranian intervention in Iraq would likely lead any Sunnis still loyal to the government to side with ISIS and its allies, and would ensure that Iraq would slide even closer to a full-blown civil war, and risk a wider war throughout the Middle East.
Posted by: Squinty ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"No US forces on the ground to support them, , US airpower is absent" > AND THEY WON'T-N-NEVAR!-WILL IFF THE GLOBALISTS HAVE THEIR WAY.
Cold War US Allies will be screaming like hell for US help while wondering why USDOD Milfors were deployed just offshore or nearby just to watch them get conquered.
Iraqi security forces found the burned bodies of 12 policemen when they recaptured a town north of Baghdad from militants on Saturday, a police colonel and a doctor said.
Troops backed by tribal militia recaptured Ishaqi in Salaheddin province as they readied a fightback against the offensive that saw Sunni militants overrun a large chunk of northern and north-central Iraq this week.
It was one of the closest points to the capital that the militants had reached in the assault they launched in second city Mosul late on Monday.
So okay boys, you know what you're up against. The ISIS will show no mercy. You need to respond in kind.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
But, but, but...the good guys are supposed to play nice, what about the ROE? What will the press say? Will Amnesia International do their usual thing of criticizing the good guys and give the terrorists a free pass?
My goodness, we have to read them their rights, put them in air conditioned jails, give them three hots and a cot, cable TV, and free cell phones...can't have any of that nasty old open warfare stuff.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2014 12:06 Comments ||
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So this is what they look like when they're multi-tasking.
[Ynet] A rocket fired from Gazoo slammed into a community in southern Israel while security forces canvas West Bank in search of three Israeli teens presumed to be kidnapped.
A rocket went kaboom! in a community in southern Israel Saturday evening, only hours after IAF forces struck targets in Gazoo Strip in response to additional rocket fire from earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!... thousands of IDF troops searched the West Bank for three Israel teens who have been missing since Thursday evening and are presumed to have been kidnapped by Paleostinians in the West Bank.
The rocket Saturday evening slammed into a community in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Community, landing only a few meters from a residential home. The IDF confirmed the rocket landed in the house's yard, but said no injuries or damage were sustained.
The rocket was preceded by a Color Red siren; however, this was not the case with the rocket that landed earlier Saturday, which landed near the border fence with Gazoo in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.
Israeli Air Force struck a terror target east of Khan Yunis in the Gazoo Strip on Saturday morning, in response to Paleostinian rocket fire at the western Negev earlier.
According to Paleostinian TV channel Al-Quds, the IAF jets targeted a terror post of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, near the Islamic University. According to the Paleostinians, two missiles were fired towards the target.
An IDF front man said that the strike targeted "a terror activity site and a weapon storage facility," and that direct hits were identified.
The army stressed that the attack was in response to rocket fire towards Israel and that "the IDF will not tolerate any attempt to hurt the citizens of Israel and the IDF soldiers will act against any organization that uses terror against Israel."
The IDF Southern District Command has decided to close the two crossings into Gazoo Strip in wake of the rocket fire into Israel Saturday. According to the decision, no goods besides fuel will be allowed into Gazoo.
IAF aircraft attacked six terror related sites in the Gazoo Strip Saturday. Three terror activity centers were targeted along with two arms production and storage sites in the southern Gazoo Strip and one terror activity center in central Gazoo, IDF Spokesman's Unit said in a statement.
The statement also said that accurate hits were identified.
Three suspected Malaysian international terrorists including a senior militant who allegedly held training sessions at an Abu Sayyaf camp were arrested by the Malaysian Royal Navy on Friday.
Malaysian officials said one of the terrorists is a senior member of a militant cell that had trained since April 22 at an Abu Sayyaf Group camp in Mindanao. A police statement said, "The suspect has illegally entered Malaysia on June 11 and was hiding in a house in Sandakan."
Malaysian police have so far arrested 12 people alleged to have ties to militant groups in Syria and the southern Philippines, among them an East African national, thought to be member of Al-Shabaab, who was nabbed in Selangor.
Last year, the military neutralized Noor Fikrie Kahar, a Malaysian militant and Ibnu Gholob Al Jitli, known also as Sanusi, an Indonesian terrorist, both members of the Jemaah Islamiyah. The two were blamed for the series of bombings in Mindanao.
Kahar was gunned down by Davao City policemen while trying to detonate an improvised explosive at a hotel on December 18, while Sanusi was killed in a shoot-out with soldiers in Marawi City on November 21.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Nine top Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... resigned Saturday citing shortages and mismanagement of foreign military aid.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammad Abboud told Agence La Belle France Presse he and eight other officers quit because there was "too little" military aid from donor countries, including Western supporters of the revolt.
And they said the rebels' Supreme Military Council (SMC) of which they were key members, "has no role anymore. Donor countries have completely bypassed it".
Their resignation comes more than three years into the anti-Assad revolt, which saw protesters take up arms against the regime after the authorities unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent.
Weapons shipped to Syria from the West, but far more significantly from Gulf countries, are usually sent to specific groups, rather than to the Supreme Military Council, which was meant to centralize and coordinate the rebel military effort.
In recent weeks, some Western military aid has trickled into Syria, but overall the United States has been reticent to arm the rebels over fears advanced weapons could end up in jihadist hands.
"While we thank donor countries for their assistance, it has been really insufficient, and simply too little to win the fight," Abboud said.
Abboud also said donor countries have "bypassed" the SMC. Instead, they have funneled military aid, including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles, to factions of their choosing.
Rebels fighting Assad's regime have repeatedly urged the West to give them specialized weaponry to help tip the balance in the war against Assad's forces, which is backed by Iran, Russia and 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...
Earlier in June, President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... said Washington would "ramp up" support for rebels, without specifying what kind of aid they would receive.
But, faced with successive military defeats around Homs and Damascus province, rebels say they lack the aid needed to change the course of the war.
"We are fighting both the army and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... ," Abboud said, referring to a jihadist group operating in Syria and Iraq that Syria's opposition turned against in January.
"Yet we haven't got the help we need from countries who say they support our demands for democracy and a civil state."
ISIL has been battling a range of other rebel groups, from moderates like the FSA to Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, since January.
The inter-rebel fighting is estimated to have killed 6,000 people since then.
On Monday, ISIL fighters in Iraq spearheaded a major offensive in Iraq, seizing swathes of territory in predominantly Sunni areas and pushing towards Storied Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian rebels and their allies the jihadist Al-Nusra Front on Saturday withdrew from Kasab, a strategic village on the border with Turkey they seized in March, a monitoring group said.
Most fighters from Al-Nusra and the other rebel groups pulled out, "leaving behind only a small number" of men, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's regime sent tanks to nearby villages, signalling an imminent army advance on the border town.
The rebels pulled back as regime forces backed by pro-regime fighters, among them members of 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... , advanced on the nearby village of Nabaein, the Observatory said.
Activists confirmed the account, adding the rebel fighters and the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate, withdrew to rebel strongholds in the Jabal al-Akrad area.
Kasab, an Armenian town, is strategically important because it is located near the only border crossing with Turkey in sensitive Latakia province, the heartland of the Alawite sect from which Assad hails.
When the crossing fell from government hands in March, it was the last functioning border post with Turkey to slip from army control.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Ten 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... fighters have died in recent days while taking part in the ongoing Syrian war, most of whom were killed in an attack by the oppositions' fighters in the town of Rankous in Reef Damascus.
These reports were confirmed on websites affiliated with the Syrian opposition and with Hizbullah, which also revealed the fighters' identity and noted that while some of them were buried on Friday, others were laid to rest on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provided details on the battles that resulted in these deaths: "Regime forces, backed by Hizbullah fighters, clashed with opposition and Islamist gunnies in the neighborhood of Jobar in eastern Damascus as kabooms were heard at the outskirts of the region. This was followed by regime forces bombing several areas in Jobar."
"These festivities and the battles in Qalamoun and other areas in Reef Damascus resulted in the death of six Hizbullah fighters," the Observatory said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... opposition fighters launched an unexpected attack on regime and Hizbullah sites in Rankous between Damascus and the border with Leb, the Observatory added.
Hizbullah-affiliated websites said the killed fighters were Hussein Hassan Badran from Deir al-Zahrani region in the southern province of Nabatieh, Ali Hussein al-Hallani from al-Hallanieh town in the Bekaa, Raef Munif Dagher from the southern town of Bint Jbeil, Mahmoud Mohammed Fadel from the village of Qana also in the South, Zeid al-Moussawi and Amir Hamdani from the Bekaa's al-Nabi sheet, Hussein Shokr, Mahdi Fakhreddine from Younine in the Bekaa, Mohammed Abdullah Jouni from Haret Saida neighborhood in the southern city of Sidon, and Ibrahim Adel Hijazi from the South's Kafra.
Al-Jadeed television reported on Saturday afternoon that heavy gunfire was shot in the air in Haret Saida during the funeral of a Hizbullah fighter.
Hussein Hassan Badran, meanwhile, was laid to rest in Nabatieh also on Saturday.
Hizbullah had announced more than one year ago that its fighters are taking part in the ongoing war in neighboring Syria to defend the country against the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2014 00:00 ||
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A bomb attack targeting a weapons bazaar in eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border killed 30 "terrorists" on Saturday, state television reported.
"A big explosion hits a terrorist arms market in Mayadeen, killing 30 terrorists and wounding dozens of others," the television reported.
Just 80 kilometres from the Iraqi border, the town is under the control of rebel groups, including Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate the Al Nusra Front, that have been fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
ISIL is the same cross-border group which has spearheaded an offensive in neighbouring Iraq this week that has seen militants sweep down from second city Mosul towards Baghdad.
A rebel spokesman from Deir Ezzor province contested the television's report, and said the blast was a car bomb planted by ISIL that killed at least 15 civilians in a street market.
"Light weapons are sold nearby, but the targeted area was a street market and those killed were civilians," spokesman Omar Abu Leyla said.
ISIL's fighters in Syria have been under attack by rival rebels since the start of the year. They have been driven out of much of northwestern Syria, but retain control of the city of Raqa up the Euphrates Valley from Deir Ezzor. They have tried repeatedly to extend their area of control to the Iraqi border to unite their forces in the two countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2014 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.
BENGHAZI, Libya, June 15 21:52:25 (Xinhua) -- The forces loyal to the renegade 
A suspected American drone in Yemen's south has targeted a car reportedly carrying al-Qaeda fighters, killing all five passengers, Yemeni security officials said.
The ISIS and its allies are in a position today that closely resembles the ISI's position prior to the US surge back in early 2007. More than 130,000 US troops, partnered with the Sunni Awakening formations and Iraqi security forces numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were required to clear Anbar, Salahaddin, Diyala, Ninewa, Baghdad, and the "triangle of death." The concurrent operations took more than a year, and were supported by the US Air Force, US Army aviation brigades, and US special operations raids that targeted the ISI's command and control, training camps, and bases, as well as its IED and suicide bomb factories.
Three suspected Malaysian international terrorists including a senior militant who allegedly held training sessions at an Abu Sayyaf camp were arrested by the Malaysian Royal Navy on Friday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A bomb attack targeting a weapons bazaar in eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border killed 30 "terrorists" on Saturday, state television reported.
