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Today: 61 articles and 158 comments as of 19:26.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Iraq air force to back Kurds fighting Islamists
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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4 13:01 Bobby [3]
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1 10:19 Zhang Fei [6]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
2 13:54 Ebbang Uluque6305 [1]
1 12:10 SteveS [2]
3 13:53 Bright Pebbles [1]
4 22:21 KBK [3]
5 22:53 JosephMendiola [3]
Page 6: Politix
2 13:42 DarthVader [1]
20 22:49 gorb [3]
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 01:25 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is there much difference between Islam and Ebola?

They operate pretty much the same...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/06/2014 10:23 Comments || Top||

#2  We will find a cure for Ebola... Islam, not so much.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/06/2014 10:49 Comments || Top||

#3  same cure - complete quarantine until it burns itself out....
Posted by: Sonny Splat2488 || 08/06/2014 12:33 Comments || Top||

#4  same cure - complete quarantine until it burns itself out....

That would be fine if it weren't for all the minorities stuck inside the quarantine borders.

Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 15:32 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Pakistani Military Fires 63 Missiles Into Kunar
[Tolo News] Pak military has fired 63 missiles into eastern Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
in the past two days, local officials reported on Tuesday, adding that the attacks have not led to any causalities yet.

According to the Kunar's Provincial Police Chief Abdul Habib Sayedkhili, the bombardment started around 7 p.m. Monday evening thru 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"The Pak military fired 63 missiles into several parts of Dangam and Marawara districts," he said.

Bordering Pakistain, Kunar has been the target of hundreds of missiles in the past week. Diplomatic tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistain have increased with the cross-border bombarding from Pakistain and reported occasional Afghan retaliation in the past few years.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  63 missiles and nobody even caught a scratch? Sounds like more classroom time for somebody.
Posted by: Steven || 08/06/2014 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe they had North Korean instructors...
Posted by: Steve White || 08/06/2014 8:27 Comments || Top||

#3  I've often been curious as to why they keep count of (and report qty's on) the missiles they fire.

Based on the outcome, would 62 have been enough for 'show'?

Would firing 64 have made a difference?

Does it matter to anyone other than the 'bean counters'?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/06/2014 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Who is the axis of evil these days?Russia,Saudi,Qatar,Iran,Pakistan,Syria and Sudan come to mind.
Posted by: Paul D || 08/06/2014 15:02 Comments || Top||

#5  You forget the Democratic Party of the US. Oh and Barak Obama...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/06/2014 15:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Nowadays you'd need a Sunni axis of evil, or perhaps two -- one each ISIS/Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood, all funded by various Gulf oil potentates in the hope of getting ahead of Darwin and aided/abetted by Pakistan -- a Shiite axis of evil (Iran, Alawite Syria, Hizb'allah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and, however reluctantly returning to the fold, Hamas)...

Russia is playing round the edges with Iran and Syria, China is buying up resources... There's more than enough evil to go around.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 15:30 Comments || Top||

#7  IIRC see PAKISTAN DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > "ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE" UNLESS KABUL DOES SOMETHING: PAKISTAN.

More trouble for the Bammer.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/06/2014 22:57 Comments || Top||


Hesarak of Nangarhar Cleared of Taliban Insurgents
[Tolo News] Eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
's district of Hesarak has been cleared of hard boyz where more than 150 hard boyz have been killed and 28 others injured in the past three days, said Hesarak's police chief on Tuesday.

Fazl Ahmad Sherzad, provincial police chief, added that five other hard boyz were placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
during the operation.

The operation was launched three days ago by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and ended early Tuesday. More than 1,000 hard boyz attacked the district Friday night and began festivities with the ANSF, Sherzad explained.

He added that there were neither civilian nor ANSF casualties during the operation.

According to security officials, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) air forces supported the Afghan troops in the operation.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


U.S. general dead, German general wounded in Afghan attack
[REUTERS] A U.S. general was killed and more than a dozen people were maimed on Tuesday, including a German general, in the latest insider attack by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, U.S., German and Afghan officials said.

The U.S. Army said late on Tuesday the slain general was Major General Harold Greene, a senior officer with the international military command ISAF. He was the most senior U.S. military official killed in action overseas since the war in Vietnam, military officials said.

"These soldiers were professionals, committed to the mission," U.S. Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno said in a statement, referring to the soldiers killed and maimed in the attack.

Pentagon front man Rear Admiral John Kirby told news hounds that "many were seriously maimed," and the gunman was killed in the attack, which took place on Tuesday at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University, a training center in Kabul.

The attack raised fresh questions about the ability of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
soldiers to train and advise Afghan cops as western nations gradually withdraw. The U.S. and German generals were on a routine visit, the Pentagon said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Gunmen Kill Five Egyptian Police
[AnNahar] Five Egyptian police were killed Tuesday during a shootout with assailants in the northwest of the country, security officials said.

The faceless myrmidons opened fire on a police car carrying an officer and four agents on the coastal highway between second city Alexandria and Marsa Matruh, close to the Libyan border.

The coppers returned fire and during the exchange their car overturned and caught fire with all five of them on board, the security officials said.

The bodies of the coppers were charred, the officials said.

Two gunnies were also killed in the clash while the rest of them were able to flee, the officials said, describing the assailants as "terrorists".

The state-run MENA news agency said police were combing the area for the gunnies.
It seems they found them, however briefly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 01:09 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The region from Mersa Matruh south to Siwa Oasis and west to the border crossing with Libya has long been a Salafist/Muslim Brotherhood stronghold. There presence was so deleterious that tourism at the beautiful Mersa Matruh beach hotels has suffered greatly.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 || 08/06/2014 7:36 Comments || Top||

#2  How long, Beldar Sloque3832? My husband never mentioned it when he worked in Egypt in 1986-'91. Though to be fair, I don't think he got farther from the Mena House than the factory of one of his suppliers in Alexandria...
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 15:37 Comments || Top||


Egypt army troops kill 11 militants in volatile Sinai
[Iran Press TV] Egyptian military forces have killed eleven turbans during separate shoot-outs in the restive Sinai Peninsula.

The gunnies were killed on Sunday, when Egyptian troops clashed with them during a raid in north Sinai, the army said on Monday.

Egyptian soldiers also destroyed three cars and eight cycle of violences belonging to the "terrorist elements" in the firefight.

Sinai Peninsula has long been considered as a safe haven for gunnies who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.

Since the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on July 3 last year, gunnies have launched almost daily attacks on the peninsula, killing members of security forces.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


American Soldier Shot In Egypt's Sinai
[IsraelTimes] US soldier with the Multinational Force and Observers mission (MFO) in Egypt's Sinai was maimed when gunnies shot at his camp late Monday, a security official said.
Wishing him speedy healing with little pain...
The restive Sinai Peninsula has witnessed a surge in holy warrior attacks since the army ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

The security official said that the soldier was maimed in the arm and treated by medics inside the MFO camp, near the northern Sinai village of El-Joura.

Since Morsi's ouster police have cracked down on his Islamist supporters, leaving at least 1,400 dead in street festivities and thousands imprisoned.

The Egyptian army has recently intensified its raids against Islamist fighters after Death Eaters killed 22 soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint near the western border with Libya.

The MFO is an independent multinational peacekeeping mission in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Paleostinian Gazoo Strip.

Its role is to monitor the implementation of the 1979 peace treaty that led to Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the aftermath of the Camp David Accords, along with annual payments in excess of $3 billion to Israel and $1 billion to Egypt the US funds the Multinational Force. It served its purpose for more than a quarter-century; what good it does now is debatable.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 || 08/06/2014 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry for the typo. That should read an annual payment of $2 billion to Israel.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 || 08/06/2014 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  :-) typos....
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 23:44 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram Has Forced 650,000 Nigerians from Homes, Says the U.N.
[AnNahar] Attacks by 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...
Islamists in Nigeria's crisis-hit northeast have forced nearly 650,000 people from their homes, the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
humanitarian office (OCHA) said Tuesday, an increase of nearly 200,000 since May.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) for its part reported that about 1,000 people trying to escape the fighting had fled to an uninhabited island on Lake Chad across Nigeria's northeastern border.

"The group, mainly women and kiddies, is in urgent need of food, water, shelter and medical care," the UNHCR said.

They reached the remote island of Choua on Thursday after fleeing a Boko Haram attack in their hometown of Kolikolia, according to the refugee agency.

Chad has pledged to send two helicopters to the island to help evacuate the Nigerian refugees to a nearby area where they can be temporarily settled with host communities, the UNHCR added.

The refugee agency said it was sending staff to the area to coordinate the relief effort.

Thousands have fled over Nigeria's borders into Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, Chad and Niger seeking refuge from Boko Haram's relentless violence, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians this year and left scores of villages destroyed.

Relief workers have avoided setting up refugee or internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, but some fear camps may soon become necessary, especially in Nigeria, as the security forces struggle to contain the escalating Islamist violence.

OCHA said 436,608 people have been displaced in the three states -- Adamawa, Borno and Yobe -- that were placed under emergency rule in May 2013.

The agency put the IDP figure at 250,000 in May this year.

Another 210,085 have fled their homes in areas neighboring the state of emergency zone, bringing the total number of people displaced by Boko Haram unrest to nearly 650,000, OCHA reported.

The Islamist holy warriors, who are seeking to create an Islamic state in the country's predominantly Mohammedan north, have killed more than 10,000 people since 2009.

The military has for more than a year been waging an offensive in the northeast aimed at crushing the uprising, but the campaign appears to have yielded few gains and the military's tactics have been harshly criticized.

The latest report of massive abuses by Nigeria's military came Monday from Amnesia Amnesty International, which released videos that appeared to show the security forces and allied vigilantes carrying out extrajudicial executions, including by slitting people's throats.

Nigeria's defense ministry said it was taking Amnesty's allegations "very seriously" and would launch an investigation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 01:09 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  How much aid per head relative to Gazans? Are they less tha Gazans because of their color?
Posted by: JFM || 08/06/2014 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  How about giving some of those refugees M-16s?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 08/06/2014 12:39 Comments || Top||

#3  My thought exactly, EU6305. Boko Haram is very good at terrorizing unarmed people. let's see how they do when people shoot back.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/06/2014 17:16 Comments || Top||

#4  The ruling caste in Nigeria are less afraid of Boko Haram than of arming their own people, probably with good reason.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/06/2014 18:34 Comments || Top||


Britain
Man arrested on suspicion of making bomb hoax after passenger plane lands at Manchester
[FOXNEWS] A man has been incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat after a passenger plane landed Tuesday with a military fighter escort at Britannia's Manchester Airport.

There were 269 passengers and 13 crewmembers on board Qatar Airways Flight 23 from Doha, Qatar, which landed safely at the airport.

Qatar Airways said its crew received a threat about a possible device on board.

"An incoming plane has been escorted into the airport by the Royal Air Force as a result of information received by the pilot about a possible device on board," Police Chief Superintendent John O'Hare said.

Officers are responding to the scene. Takeoffs and landings at the airport were temporarily suspended.

"The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is our top priority," the airline said in a statement. "As this is a matter of a police investigation, we cannot comment further at this time."
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Qatar Airways Flight 23 from Doha, Qatar,

freaking Amish
Posted by: Frank G on the road || 08/06/2014 10:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bomb targets military vehicle in Dir
[DAWN] UPPER DIR: A security forces' vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb in Surbat area of Upper Dir on Monday. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
no casualty was reported in the incident.

The blast took place when the army vehicle was on its way to Dir town from Barawal, a main town on the Pak-Afghan border.

Police sources said the bomb couldn't cause death and destruction because the vehicle was fitted with jammers. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
they said the vehicle was slightly damaged.

After the blast, the security forces imposed curfew in the area and launched search operation in which about 12 suspected people were rounded up.

The blast occurred on the road that leads to the Pak-Afghan border region in an area that is situated some 15kms off Dir town.

The border areas in Upper Dir have been volatile for the last three years with Pak Taliban hiding in Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
of Afghanistan launching several cross-border deadly attacks, killing scores of security officials and villagers in Upper Dir. Militants had killed General Officer Commanding Maj-Gen Sanaullah Niazi in a remote-controlled kaboom in the border region in September, last year.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Faqir Jamshed dead in kaboom
[DAWN] DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Faqir Jamshed Ahmad Gesu Daraz, leader of the Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP), and his companion were killed in a bomb blast on Mudhi Road in Kulachi tehsil on Monday.

Faqir Jamshed, also known as a spiritual leader, and his companion died when their car hit a bomb placed on the road.

Their bodies were taken to a hospi-tal in Kulachi.Police are looking for the people responsible for the attack.

Faqir Jamshed earlier belonged to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf but left it before the general elections after he was denied the PTI ticket.

He contested the elections on PSP ticket for NA-24 and NA-25 seats and lost.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  Dead? I didn't even know he was sick.
Posted by: Steven || 08/06/2014 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Faqir Jamshed, a man of the Book,
Led a combo that really could cook:
Blew his horn high or low,
Drove a tune fast or slow,
Read a head at a cursory look!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 08/06/2014 7:50 Comments || Top||

#3  :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 23:58 Comments || Top||


Airstrikes in N Wazoo kill 30
[DAWN] At least 30 suspected bully boyz were killed and six of hideouts destroyed in fresh air strikes carried out by fighter jets in Datta Khel, Marsikhel, and Kamsham areas of North Wazoo tribal region, the ISPR sources said.
However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
these claims could not be independently verified as journalists have limited access to the restive tribal agency.

Military operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
was launched by the Pakistain Army on June15 following a brazen Lion of Islam attack on Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
's international airport and failure of peace talks between the government and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain negotiators.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
40 Yazidi children reported dead after Iraq attack
Forty children from northern Iraq's Yazidi minority are reported to have died as a result of a jihadist attack on the Sinjar region, the United Nations Children's Fund said Tuesday.

"According to official reports received by UNICEF, these children from the Yazidi minority died as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration over the past two days," a statement said.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) jihadist group that controls much of northwestern Iraq took over Sinjar Sunday, which had been under the control of Kurdish troops, AFP reported. The town, near the Syrian border, is a hub for Iraq's Yazidis, a very closed community that follows an ancient faith rooted in Zoroastrianism and referred to by jihadists as "devil worshippers."

Sinjar was also a temporary home for thousands of displaced people from other minorities, such as Shiite Turkmen who had fled the nearby city of Tal Afar when ISIS launched its offensive on June 9.

The attack on Sinjar sent thousands of people running from their homes in panic, some of them scurrying into the mountains with no supplies.

"Families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children who are now stranded in mountains surrounding Sinjar and are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including drinking water and sanitation services," UNICEF said.

Pictures posted on the Internet by members of the Yazidi community show little clusters of people gathering on the cave-dotted flanks of a craggy canyon in the Sinjar mountains.

Yazidi leaders and rights activists have said the very existence of the multi-millennial community on its ancestral land was at risk as a result of the latest violence and displacement.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Since these aren't Gazan children, who cares?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/06/2014 8:14 Comments || Top||


Iraq air force to back Kurds fighting Islamists
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has called upon his country's armed forces to help Kurdish forces battle militant offensive in northern Iraq that has caused tens of thousands of people from the minority Yazidi community to flee their homes.

Iraq's military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim Al Moussawi said Monday that Al Maliki has commanded the air force to provide aerial support to the Kurds in the first sign of cooperation between the two militaries since Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, was captured by the militants on June 10.

The Islamic State captured the northern towns of Sinjar and Zumar on Saturday, prompting an estimated 40,000 from the minority Yazidi sect to flee, said Jawhar Ali Begg, a spokesman for the community.

"Their towns are now controlled by (Islamic State) and their shrine has been blown up," Begg told The Associated Press. The militant group gave the Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion with links to Zoroastrianism, an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death, Begg added.

Kurdish forces have been battling with the militants for control of several towns stretching between the province of Nineveh and the Kurdish Iraqi province of Dahuk. At least 25 Kurdish fighters were killed in clashes with the militants on Sunday, and another 120 were wounded, according to Muhssin Mohamed, a Dahuk-based doctor.

Relations between Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, which has its own military, and the central government, have long been strained and the announcement about the air force could indicate a degree of rapprochement in the face of the Islamic State attack.

A statement Monday by the Islamic State said it had captured dozens of Kurdish prisoners during the clashes and seized "large number" of weapons. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it was posted on a website used by the group.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Liveblogging The Gaza Hudna: Day 30 After The Start Of Operation Protective Edge
[IsraelTimes] The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Wednesday, the 30th day since the start of Operation Protective Edge and the second day of a truce intended to lead to a long-term ceasefire. An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into force on Tuesday morning, and Hamas fired a salvo of rockets minutes before, and then fell quiet. Israeli military chiefs said they had delivered a "serious blow" to Hamas, including destroying all its known cross-border tunnels, and would restart military action if needed. IDF troops withdrew from Gaza, and Israeli and Palestinian delegations are in Cairo for indirect ceasefire talks.
Hamas's friends are not pleased with their performance. At time marker 5:56:
Iranian official: Hamas must do more to protect civilians

A high-ranking Iranian official criticizes Hamas for failing to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip during the conflict with Israel, saying the group should in future allow civilians to hide in its tunnels.

"They use the tunnels to launch missiles, but they should also use them to protect civilians," Mohsen Rezai, a member of the Iranian government and an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tells Iran's Al-Alam news network.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 00:07 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Iran: "next time, put the human shields in the tunnels too!"
Posted by: Frank G on the road || 08/06/2014 11:01 Comments || Top||


Masked Rioters Attack Police Near Temple Mount
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of masked Paleostinian protesters hurled stones, Molotov cocktails, and firecrackers at coppers near the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday morning, before being pushed back into the Al-Aqsa mosque by security forces who were rushed to the area.

Five coppers were maimed during the riots, and 12 protesters were locked away
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
The rioting took place as thousands of Jews gathered nearby for prayers at the Western Wall on Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar, a day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the first and second Jewish temples. According to tradition, both temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the second by the Romans in 70 CE, on Tisha B'Av.

Police increased their presence at the site and around the city, hours after a cycle of violence rider shot and seriously injured a soldier in East Jerusalem, and after, in an unrelated incident, an excavator driver rammed a bus in the capital and killed a pedestrian, police said.

The shooting took place on Hanadiv Street, which separates the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz from the Hebrew University. The soldier, 20, was rushed to the nearby Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, where he was listed at death's door.

Security forces chased the gunman, who had reportedly escaped into Wadi al-Joz. A security guard opened fire on him, police said.

The driver of the excavator, who carried out the attack on the city's Shmuel Hanavi Street, was identified as 23-year-old Muhammed Naif el-Ja'abis. He was rubbed out by police who ran to the scene.

Ja'abis was a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber. The family of Ja'abis argued that the suspected attack was actually a car accident, and that Ja'abis was shot by police in cold blood. Security officials asserted that the excavator driver's assault may have been a Dire Revenge™ attack, as the man's cousin had had his house in East Jerusalem demolished two weeks ago.

Ja'abis is known to police from a previous, unspecified, security-related matter, Channel 2 reported.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Child Dies, Troops Injured in Tripoli Clashes
[AnNahar] Clashes between the Lebanese army and gunnies left a child dead and several injured on Tuesday as roads in and around the northern city of 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...
remained blocked, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The fighting renewed on Tuesday morning after a cautious calm following a night of gunbattles between the army and masked men.

A 12-year-old girl died after she was shot in the head, and several people were maimed from sniper fire, NNA said.

Seven soldiers, were also maimed, one of them seriously, when their bus came under fire on the road that links Tripoli with the northern district of Akkar, the army announced.

The military communique said army units were searching for the attackers to arrest them.

The roads, which lead to the impoverished neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and mainly the highway that links Tripoli with Akkar, remained closed.

The festivities between the masked fighters and the army erupted after news broke about the injury of Moslem scholars in the northeastern border town of Arsal where the military is locked in gunbattles with terrorists, it added.

Media reports said that Sheikhs Salim al-Rafehi, Nabil al-Halabi and Jalal Kalash from the Moslem Scholars Committee were maimed late Monday after coming under fire.

They were in Arsal to negotiate a ceasefire.

Tripoli had been relatively calm since the army and security forces implemented a plan in April to restore law and order.

The city had in the past witnessed several rounds of deadly fighting between Bab al-Tabbaneh, whose residents are Sunnis, and Jabal Mohsen, a mainly Alawite neighborhood that backs Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 01:19 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Report: ISIL Emir, Who Led Attack on Army in Arsal, Killed in Qalamoun
[AnNahar] Abou al-Hassan al-Filastini, the emir of 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...
(ISIL), who initiated the attack on the northeastern town of Arsal on Saturday, was killed.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Tuesday, al-Filastini succumbed to wounds he sustained during battles with the Syrian army in the Qalamoun, which borders the Bekaa valley town of Arsal.

Al-Filastini reportedly led an Islamist assault on the Lebanese army in Arsal after the arrest of al-Nusra Front official Imad Ahmed Jomaa on Saturday.

He is accused of kidnapping and executing several people from Arsal and leads around 100 fighters and the Fajr al-Islam brigade.

Jomaa, also known as Abou Ahmed Jomaa, hails form the Syrian border town of Qusayr and has confessed upon his arrest to belonging to the al-Qaeda-inspired al-Nusra Front.

The terrorist suspect is known to be a prominent figure of armed Islamic organizations, and he led the Fajr al-Islam brigade that fought in al-Qusayr and later in Syria's Qalamoun.

He recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
in a videotaped message.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 01:19 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Understand this is the first major Lebanese town that ISIS has captured (40,000 population). Given their simultaneous incursions into Kurdish territory plus the usual fighting in Syria/Iraq they are demonstrating an unusual span of control.
Posted by: Jinetch Ghibelline6418 || 08/06/2014 16:24 Comments || Top||

#2  * FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Commentary Magazine] ITS TIME FOR A [US] BASE IN KURDISTAN.

Author Michael Rubin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/06/2014 23:02 Comments || Top||


Jihadists Behead Sunni Tribesmen in Syria
[AnNahar] Islamic State jihadists beheaded three fighters from a Sunni tribe that is battling the Death Eater group in eastern Syria, a monitor said on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the group had decapitated the men and put their heads on display in Jerthe a day after seizing the town in Deir Ezzor province.

The fighters are from the Sunni Shaitat tribe, which has been clashing with the Islamic State for nearly a week in parts of the oil-rich province, after a deal between the two sides collapsed.

The IS has captured most of Deir Ezzor and declared it to be part of its "caliphate," along with large swathes of territory it has captured across the border in Iraq.

The Observatory said Syrian regime planes carried out raids against the IS in Jerthe and near the town of Baseera, killing five members of the group on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, the monitoring group also said the toll in regime air raids around the capital on Sunday night had risen to 64.

The raids killed 38 people, among them six children, in Kfar Batna east of Damascus, and 26 people, including five children, in Douma, northeast of the capital.

Both strikes hit markets, the Britannia-based group said.

More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country's conflict began in March 2011.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/06/2014 01:09 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Ceasefire agreed in Lebanese border town battle
[FIRSTPOST] A 24-hour ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday to halt fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist turbans who seized a border town at the weekend, in the most serious spillover into Leb from Syria's three-year-old civil war.

A security source said the ceasefire, due to come into force at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), aimed to allow time for a mediator to investigate the fate of 22 soldiers missing since the turbans seized the town of Arsal on Saturday. Sunni Mohammedan holy mans have been pursuing peacekeeping efforts.

At least 16 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in the violence. It is unclear how many turbans and civilians have been killed, though corpse counts given by security officials and a doctor indicate it is in the dozens.

The turbans have been identified by officials as members of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria, and the Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria.

Earlier the Islamists released three coppers they had been holding, in what one murderous Moslem described as a goodwill gesture.

The festivities in Arsal began on Saturday after security forces incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
an Islamist commander popular with local rebels who frequently move across the mostly non-existent border with Syria. Shortly after the arrest, gunnies attacked security forces in the area.

Leb - a country of about 4 million, bordering Israel - has avoided the kind of war afflicting Syria and Iraq, but regional conflicts have rekindled decades-old tensions.

Syrian activists and medics in Arsal say fighting has badly damaged the camps that are home to many of the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees estimated to live in and around the town.

"The situation is bad. Families are blockaded inside the city. Refugees are on the streets. There is a severe shortage of bread. The medical situation is very bad," a Syrian witness told Rooters in a text message.
Posted by: Fred || 08/06/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra



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Two weeks of WOT
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Sat 2014-08-02
  Islamic State Withdraws from Deir Ezzor Villages
Fri 2014-08-01
  Woman wearing explosive belt arrested in N. Lebanon
Thu 2014-07-31
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Wed 2014-07-30
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Mon 2014-07-28
  IDF warns resident of three Gaza regions to evacuate to central Gaza City
Sun 2014-07-27
  Israel resumes Gaza offensive after Hamas rockets break cease-fire
Sat 2014-07-26
  Islamic Jihad number 3 killed in Gaza
Fri 2014-07-25
  Key Taliban commander among five killed in Orakzai blast
Thu 2014-07-24
  295 Suspects Arrested For Jerusalem Riots
Wed 2014-07-23
  Clashes in Libya's Benghazi kill 16, injure 81


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