[AnNahar] A suicide kaboomer targeting a 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... convoy in Kabul on Sunday killed four civilians and maimed at least seven others, officials said, the latest blast in the capital as politicians wrangle over disputed election results.
The NATO force made no immediate comment after the attack, which came as foreign troops rapidly wind down combat operations at the end of a 13-year war against Taliban krazed killers.
"At around 11:30 am, a convoy of foreign forces was targeted by a jacket wallah in police district 6, killing four civilians and wounding seven," interior ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi said on his Twitter account.
A front man for the Taliban said the hard boyz grabbed credit for the attack.
Ahmad Shah, a shopkeeper at the scene, told Agence La Belle France Presse: "I saw several people covered in blood around the area. The blast was huge, our windows are shattered.
"Several vehicles were damaged."
U.S.-led foreign troop numbers in Afghanistan have declined from a peak of 150,000 in 2012 to just 44,300 now.
All NATO combat soldiers will depart by the end of the year, though a follow-up support mission of about 10,000 troops is planned if the next president signs security deals with the U.S. and NATO.
Afghanistan's two rival presidential candidates signed a deal Friday to form a national unity government, opening an apparent way forward in a dispute over the election that threatens to revive ethnic conflict.
Ashraf Ghani and 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... vowed to work together -- whoever becomes president -- after an ongoing audit of all eight million votes finally declares the winner of the June 14 election.
[Iran Press TV] Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... holy warriors say they have killed 13 people in festivities with the Somali government and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... (AU) troops in the central Hiran region.
Al-Shabaab front man Abdulaziz Abu Musab said on Saturday that the deaths occurred after the group's holy warriors attacked a base of the AU force in the town of Buloburde, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu.
He further said nine soldiers with the AU, four of their Somali counterparts, as well as five al-Shabaab holy warriors were killed in the fighting which started around midnight Friday.
The government said six al-Shabaab holy warriors had been killed, but gave no figures of any casualties on their side.
"Our fighters went into the camp, ... where the killing took place," Musab added.
Troops from the AU force captured Buloburde from the group earlier in the year, but the holy warriors control large parts of the rural area surrounding the town.
The development comes as the al-Shabaab continues launching assaults in Mogadishu. On July 8, al-Shabaab holy warriors attacked the presidential palace. Several people were killed during the raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian security forces tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a female terror suspect near Jradou, in Kef, Tunisie Numerique reported on Friday (August 8th).
The woman allegedly provided material support to snuffies in the local forests. A large sum of money was seized in the operation.
In other security news, a suspected cyber-terrorist was arrested Thursday for links to the group operating in Jebel Chaambi. The suspect is accused of using his website to provide coded information to terrorist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] An air assault by Operation Dignity forces allegedly killed 70 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 Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... and other Islamist fighters near Benghazi, Libya Herald reported on Thursday (August 7th).
The Islamists were bombarded in Maghzana overnight as they tried to approach the Benina airbase in Benghazi, according to Brigadier-General Saqr Adam Geroushi, the commander of Operation Dignity's air forces.
Saiqa Special Forces ...Libya's elite army unit, insofar as they have one, formed from a mixture of paratroopers and commandos. The group emerged from a militia with the same name in 2010. It now numbers a few thousand and reports to the Ministry of Defence. It deployed in Benghazi in an attempt to control the carnage. As a result, it has been attacked and several of its officers murdered. The force is popular in Benghazi for its stance against Ansar al-Sharia group... moved to the Benina base nine days ago after they were forced out of their Buatni headquarters by Ansar al-Sharia.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
According to my sources in Libya, there is a complete disconnect between the central government and the man on the street.
The average Libyan wants nothing to do with Sharia law, nor do they support the militias in any way. They want the Libyan Army to squash the militias like a bug.
Most of them believe the militias that have not disbanded as either left over Qaddafi supporters or radical Islamists who want to turn Libya into some kind of crazy crap Taliban type paradise.
Many of them are fleeing Tripoli in droves, fearing an Islamic take over as those militias seem to have the best weapons and finances.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/11/2014 12:38 Comments ||
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#2
"The average Libyan wants nothing to do with Sharia law, nor do they support the militias in any way."
Average Libyans don't count for much.
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian security services thwarted a major terrorist plot targeting public figures and institutions, TAP reported on Thursday (August 7th).
Twenty-one people, belonging to five separate 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 Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... cells, were jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in several Tunis suburbs, Interior Ministry Spokesman Ali Laroui said.
The suspects are accused of planning attacks on politicians, security officials, journalists, citizens, police premises and "sensitive sites" in the capital.
The plot was revealed after the arrest of terrorist Hichem Ben Rabah on August 2nd, as he was trying to flee to Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Yemeni warplanes on Sunday launched a series of raids against suspected al-Qaeda positions in Hadramawt province, a hotbed of jihadist attacks on troops, a military official said.
The raids on the outskirts of Qoton coincided with a visit to the town in southeast Yemen by Defense Minister General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed to inspect troops preparing to launch an offensive against the growing jihadist presence in Hadramawt, the source said.
The military official said the raids caused casualties but could not provide a toll.
During his tour, the defense minister vowed his forces will "avenge the 15 soldiers executed" by al-Qaeda on Friday after they were seized near the Hadramawt town of Shibam, according to another army official.
On Thursday, 11 suspected al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons and four Yemeni soldiers were killed in attacks on two army posts in Qoton and Sayun, a jihadist stronghold in Hadramawt.
The army had reinforced its positions in Hadramawt ahead of the anticipated operation against faceless myrmidons in the province.
On Wednesday, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula grabbed credit for several attacks in the south and southeast of Yemen that killed 20 soldiers.
AQAP is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network.
The group is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... In late April, the army launched a ground offensive against AQAP in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues....
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Four Saudi men who travelled abroad to fight in Syria's civil war have been sentenced by a special Criminal Court to prison, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.
"The accused were proven to have quit their obedience to the ruler by traveling abroad to fight," said the SPA report, adding that the men were sentenced to terms ranging between four months and two years and 10 months.
Their crimes included forgery of travel documents and money laundering, the report said.
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah decreed in February that citizens involved in fighting overseas faced up to 20 years in prison, a move meant to prevent the radicalization of young people.
Two of those convicted were said to have fought in Syria before becoming disillusioned with the conflict and surrendering to Saudi authorities. The other two had traveled to Yemen with the intention of then going to Syria, other reports say.
The sentences were lenient as the defendants had shown remorse and cooperated with authorities, officials said.
The kingdom has called on citizens fighting in Syria, Iraq and Yemen to return home, describing them as "misled" in official statements.
Earlier reports have said a number of Saudi citizens have died fighting abroad, including one professor at a prestigious university.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Eighteen suspects have "surrendered" to police investigating an attack which led to almost 100 deaths in China's Xinjiang region, home to the mainly Mohammedan Uighur minority, state media said Sunday.
A total of 37 civilians and 59 "terrorists" were killed in an attack on a cop shoppe and government offices on July 28 in the far western region's Shache county, or Yarkand in the Uighur language, according to earlier reports.
It was the latest in a series of violent incidents over recent months in and connected with the vast, resource-rich region.
The toll made it the bloodiest since rioting involving Uighurs and members of China's Han majority left around 200 people dead in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009.
State-run news agency Xinhua said the 18 suspects "have surrendered to police", citing the regional government.
"The suspects have turned themselves in under tense pressure from the public," the news agency added, offering no further details.
Dilxat Raxit, a front man for the exiled, Germany-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), said in a statement to Agence La Belle France Presse that the suspects gave themselves up to "save their lives" after being pursued by security forces.
Beijing has blamed a series of recent violent attacks on separatists from Xinjiang, where information is often difficult to verify independently.
Rights groups accuse China's government of cultural and religious repression they say fuels unrest in the region, which borders Central Asia.
[DAWN] UPPER DIR: Gunmen killed four members of a family and injured two women during an attack on a house in Sonai Darra village bordering Afghanistan early on Saturday.
The local police said security forces and local volunteers chased attackers and killed two of them.
The village has come under attack from the Talibs hiding in Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... of Afghanistan several times over the last three years.
No bully boy group has grabbed credit for the attack.
Forces, volunteers chase attackers, kill two
Sources in the police said the Taliban didn't appear to be involved in the attack as the family had a land dispute with another, whose members had left the village and taken shelter in Afghanistan.
They said the land dispute could be the cause of the attack.
The sources, however, didn't rule out the possibility of the attack being carried out by bully boys.
When contacted, Shahikot SHO Gul Fazil confirmed deaths but didn't say who was behind the attack.
He said the police had lodged an FIR against unidentified attackers and began investigation.
The army troops are deployed on the border to prevent cross border attacks.
Last Monday, a remote controlled bomb targeted an army vehicle on the road that leads to the border town.
In Batkhela, two suspected bad boyz were potted when explosives they were carrying on a cycle of violence went off in Sakhakot area of Malakand early on Saturday.
According to the personnel manning the Sakhakot levies post, two motorcyclists were carrying explosives to Mardan when the cycle of violencewent kaboom! on the main road near a telephone exchange.
The two died in the blast.
Soon after the blast, the levies personnel cordoned off the area to collect evidence.
One of the dead men was later identified as Zohaib of Sakhakot, while pieces of the other's body were sent to the laboratory for DNA test.
The sources said security forces and levies personnel raided the house of Zohaib and collected evidence from there. They said a number of suspects had also been detained for interrogation.
The Sakhakot levies force started the paperwork but haven't done much else of the kaboom and began investigation.
In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... , unidentified snuffies fried several rockets and mortars at three different border areas of Nawagai and Mamond tehsils on Saturday. No casualties were reported, however.
Officials of the political administration said snuffies fired several rockets and mortars from across the border targeting Matak and Redawnoo of Nawagai tehsil and Ghakhi, the border area of Mamond tehsil.
They said the attack missed targets as the rockets and mortars landed several meters away from residential areas.
After the attack, security forces and members of local peace committees in the area took positions and fired at attackers forcing them to flee.
In Charsadda, the building of a government high school in Sheikhabad area of Shabqadar tehsil was damaged when explosives planted there went off early on Saturday.
The police said two rooms were badly damaged in the blast, while the building developed cracks.
They said they also found a bomb weighing five kilogrammes in a room and defused it.
The police said they had begun a search operation in the area but nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! no one by night.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#6
Well, according to the Brits and French who drew the 'lines', it was. Apparently, when the Americans and Russians did the same thing with the Ukraine, they too thought it was a nation. To paraphrase someone else, the graveyards are filled with politicians that drew lines, along with those lines.
#8
BP, reminds me of the Yugoslav "Nation" after Tito.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/11/2014 10:56 Comments ||
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#9
I don't think of #1 as being snark. I think that sums it up pretty well. We keep meddling in the ME, deposing or attempting to depose various dictators like Saddam, Qadaffy, Mubarak, Assad, etc. But the sad fact is those guys are the best leaders their countries can come up with. And when you come right down to it, the only difference between them and the Soddy king is the Soddy king bribes our politicians. There never was and there never will be an Arab Spring. That was a fairy tale invented by the Champ. Smack 'em when they get out of line but otherwise leave 'em alone. Buy their oil if they want to sell it. If they don't then let them pound sand. Don't take any more bribes from Soddies and don't pay any more jizya to any of the rest of them.
#10
Paul Bremer and his nonsensical policies and edicts gave the Baath party propaganda some traction.
He locked every American up in the Green Zone, only sent out American Troops in armored convoys and pointed guns at everyone.
I was there in EARLY 2004 and could not get in the green zone.
I remember asking a SFC standing guard with a detail on the July 17th bridge.
"Do you mean a California drivers license, a US Passport, and a Texas accent can't get me in the green zone?"
"Unfortunately sir, you have to have a CPA badge to get in."
When I was there, random Iraqis were hugging and kissing me, I couldn't pay for a meal at a restaurant, I would go to internet cafes and not be charged for the time, I would walk the streets and was handed flowers and candy. Kids would ask for my autograph...they really wanted the Americans to come out and mingle with them.
Of course Bremer wouldn't let American soldiers marry locals...and anyone that knew tribal customs would tell you the second you are part of a tribe, even as a foreigner and by marriage, they will protect you with their lives and give you valuable information.
I blame it on Bremer but whoever was making the rules that turned us from liberators into an occupying army should have been flogged on the spot. I was told innumerable times by soldiers and officers that the policies were wrong and we were squandering good will and feeding right into the Baath party and Al Douri's story that we were only there for the oil and we were not there to free them but to exploit them.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/11/2014 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
The Fallujah ambush occurred 31 March 2004. That was "early". Not enough good will to go around.
The first death occurred about 12:35 p.m. on Sunday [6 July 2003] when an American soldier who was accompanying United States officials visiting Baghdad University was fatally shot by an unidentified gunman, witnesses and American officials said.
... At the university, several students who said they had witnessed the shooting, outside a cafeteria near the engineering school, said the gunman had pulled out a pistol and fired a single shot at point-blank range into the soldier's head. An American official said the soldier had apparently just left the cafeteria after buying a drink.
The gunman fled, disappearing into the crowd of students, witnesses said. The soldier, whose name was not released, was evacuated to a military hospital, where he later died, military officials said.
I once talked to a Viet Nam vet whose grandfather, a US "occupier", was assassinated in occupied Germany a few weeks after V-E Day. Some incidents like that then led to the use of 50-100,000 GI "occupiers" going house-to-house & confiscating all firearms in a wide part of Germany, IIRC. I imagine other measures were taken. That was either never possible in Iraq, or never even considered.
A few weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein, I drove into Fallujah. What a dump -- no disrespect to any Fallujans reading this. I had a late lunch in a seedy cafe full of Sunni men. Not a gal in the joint. And no Westerners except me. As in the movies, everyone stopped talking when I walked through the door...My cuff links were the most stylish in the room, and also the only ones in the room... If you're an infidel and agent of colonialist decadence, you might as well dress the part...The locals watched me -- a few obviously surly and resentful, the rest somewhere between wary and amused. As a parodic courtesy, mein host switched the flickering black-and-white TV from an Arabic station to the BBC, which as usual was full of doom and gloom about the quagmire.
Maybe Fallujah went downhill so fast after 2003 because Steyn didn't leave a big enough tip.
#17
Just about every Iraqi I talked to had one MAJOR criticism of the US attack and deposing of Saddam.
The question was "Why did you guys stop in Baghdad? You should have gone into Fallujah and Ramadi and shot all of those Baathist bastards."
Fallujah was where most of the senior NCOs and officers in Saddam's secret service, security forces and elite forces lived. It was a festering sore from the beginning and I think my Iraqi friends had it right.
Al Douri put out a bounty on US soldiers, that kept increasing till it hit over $100k. Only the one soldier was shot...When you could feed a family of four in Baghdad for $30 a week, $100K was a lot of money, very few takers.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/11/2014 17:32 Comments ||
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#18
OWG Globalism + a Globalist POTUS.
Unfortunately, I do not see the drive to establish OWG-NWO as ending just because the Bammer formally legally leaves office in Jan 2017 - AS BAD AS GLOBALIST OBAMA'S SSSSHHH ....
CCCCCCC INTENTIONAL? POLICY FAILURES ARE, IT MAY BE WORSE FOR AMERIKA UNDER ANY POTEN GLOBALIST POTUS SUCCESSOR(S).
THE WORSE THE ANARCHIES + CHAOSES, ETC. THE BETTER FOR OWG + GLOBAL FED UNION.
Again, GLOBALISM = CAN BE ASCRIBES AS HOW MUCH OR HOW FAR, ETC. CAN THE SOLE SUPERPOWER USA GIVE UP, FALL BACK, OR OTHERWISE ENGAGE IN WILFUL INTENTIONAL UNILATERAL STRATEGIC RETREAT ACROSS THE WORLD WIDOUT BEING EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED BY GEOPOL WANNABES, INCLUD FELLOW GLOBIE OWG CO-SUPERPOWERS???
D *** NG IT, DON'T FEAR GLOBALIST OBAMA - FEAR MORE HIS GLOBALIST POTUS SUCCESSORS!
Don't force me to send my Ancestors, Celine "Titanic" Dion, + the Battleship USS Oklahoma over there.
In a nutshell! What we call Iraq is a collection of tribes. Your tribe matters more than some abstract nation. Tribal loyalty trumps everything, including being part of the national army as we have seen. It why al-Maliki sucks, because he cares more about his tribe getting over than he cares about running a country.It is also why marrying your cousin, on your father's side in particular, makes a whole lot of sense - never mind the inbreeding.
#2
Hard to be effective against ISIS if your best forces are deployed against your own parliament in your Capitol. His cronies and other crooks on the take will not willingly give up their boodle and power.
Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday said he was filing a complaint against the president for violating the constitution and ordered a massive security deployment across Baghdad.
A defiant Maliki made the shock announcement on the third day of US strikes against jihadist militants in the north of Iraq and amid mounting calls for him to step aside.
"Today I will file a formal complaint to the federal court against the president," Maliki said in an address broadcast at midnight (2100 GMT Sunday) on state television.
He alleged that Iraq's newly-elected president, Kurdish veteran Fuad Masum, had violated the constitution twice, essentially by failing to designate him as the prime minister.
Maliki's Shiite coalition won April polls comfortably but his standing has been undermined by a devastating jihadist offensive launched on June 9 that overran large swathes of Iraq.
The political process has also been complicated by a constitutional tussle on how to define the largest parliamentary bloc entitled to nominate a prime minister.
The 64-year-old premier had pledged in a 2011 AFP interview he would not seek a third term but he has since changed his mind despite flagging support from nearly all his erstwhile allies: the United States, Iran, Shiite clerics and even his Dawa party.
Confirmation of Washington's stance came in a tweet by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Brett McGurk who wrote: "Fully support President of #Iraq Fuad Masum as guarantor of the Constitution." Take that #Maliki
- Security everywhere -
Security sources told AFP of a massive security deployment, akin to measures taken in a state of emergency, across the capital Baghdad.
"There is a huge security presence, police and army, especially around the Green Zone," the highly-protected district that houses Iraq's key institutions, a high-ranking police officer said.
He said the deployment started at around 10:30 pm (1930 GMT), just 90 minutes before Maliki gave his speech.
While it remains unclear whether Maliki has a valid constitutional argument, the mass deployment of counter-terrorism SWAT teams across Baghdad was an obvious show of force.
"There is security everywhere in Baghdad, these are very unusual measures," the police official said.
"Several streets have been closed... as well as some key bridges," said an official at the interior ministry. "It's all linked to the political situation."
In his brief address, Maliki said Iraq was facing a "dangerous" situation and urged "the sons of Iraq" to be on alert.
Masum is a Kurd and relations between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq have been strained of late.
The Kurds have long complained that the federal government was not sending them their 17 percent share of federal oil resources.
Fuad Masum, the new president of Iraq and a veteran Kurdish politician, speaks during a press confer ...
Kurdish peshmerga fighters then seized long-coveted areas over which they were in dispute with Baghdad, including the oil-rich Kirkuk region, when routed federal forces retreated in the face of the jihadist onslaught two months ago.
That prompted Maliki to accuse the Kurdistan Regional Government of siding with the Islamic State (IS) group and the "caliphate" it declared in late June over parts of Iraq and Syria.
Cash-strapped Kurdistan's troops initially fared better than Baghdad's but over the past week jihadists made spectacular gains, seizing the country's largest dam and advancing within striking distance of the Kurdish capital Arbil.
- Peshmerga fightback -
That was one of the reasons that prompted US President Barack Obama to announce on Thursday he was sending warplanes back over the skies of Iraq for the first time since the last US troops withdrew in 2011.
His other justification was the risk of an impending genocide against the Yazidi minority, many of whose people had been stranded on a mountain following an Islamic State attack.
Three days of strikes by US jets and drones appeared to make an impact on both fronts, raising hopes that US intervention could turn the tide on two months of jihadist expansion.
"The peshmerga have liberated Makhmur and Gwer," peshmerga spokesman Halgord Hekmat told AFP, adding that "US aerial support helped".
[ARABNEWS] Kurdish forces, supported by US air strikes, took back two towns in northern Iraq from Islamic State holy warriors but it will take time to turn the tide of the conflict, a senior Kurdish official told Rooters.
Hoshiyar Zebari said the Kurds had recaptured the towns of Guwair and Makhmur. Asked how long the United States would have to continue Arclight airstrikes to help the Kurds defeat the Islamic State, Zebari said: "As President B.O. said, there is no time limit."
US President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... said on Saturday that it would take some time to tackle Islamic State fighters whose latest push through northern Iraq has rattled the Baghdad government and its Western allies.
The US Defense Department confirmed that a new round of Arclight airstrikes by US fighter jets and unmanned drones has targeted IS holy warriors in Iraq.
US Central Command says the strikes destroyed armed vehicles, including one that was firing on Kurdish forces in the approaches to the city of Irbil, and a mortar position.
The military says the Arclight airstrikes took place from about 2:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Sunday to about 5:45 a.m.
It was the fourth round of Arclight airstrikes against Islamic State forces by the US military since they were authorized by President Barack Obama.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Four ISIS trucks were destroyed in a massive U. S. airstrike today.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/11/2014 7:32 Comments ||
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#2
The battles between the Peshmerga + ISIS for these towns remain in seesaw, wid one side capturing one or more of same today + then losing it the next.
[AnNahar] Britannia has begun airdropping food and water to thousands of civilians stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq after fleeing jihadist myrmidons, officials said Sunday.
The first delivery of aid to the minority Yazidis, which also includes tents, water filters, and solar-powered lights and phone chargers, took place overnight, a defence ministry front man said.
Two Royal Air Force cargo planes were deployed to the Sinjar region on Saturday in the wake of an attack by murderous Moslem Islamic State turbans on the region a week ago.
The United States has already started dropping food and water on Mount Sinjar and is conducting air strikes against the myrmidons, while Britannia has said it currently has no plans for any military intervention.
La Belle France was expected to begin delivering first aid equipment to the Sinjar region later in the day, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius left for Iraq early Sunday.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Britannia planned to set in motion "a continuing drumbeat of airdrop operations working in coordination with the U.S. and potentially with others as well."
"But more widely we are looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain, how we are going to facilitate their exit from what is a completely unacceptable situation," Hammond told news hounds on Saturday.
Britannia's Department for International Development on Friday released 8 million ($13 million, 10 million euros) in emergency humanitarian aid for Iraq.
This includes 2 million of emergency supplies for 75,000 people, including the Yazidis.
#1
(Reuters) - A British military plane was forced to abort a mission to deliver humanitarian supplies to refugees trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq over fears the falling aid packages could hit crowds below, Britain said on Monday.
"So many people were coming towards the plane that unfortunately we weren't able to carry out that aid drop because we were concerned that we could have put lives at risk," a spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters...Britain has so far delivered one aid drop to the mountain.
[Ynet] Islamic State ravages northern Iraq, kidnaps 300 women as slaves, kills at least 500, 'burying some alive'.
Islamic State gunnies have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq's human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... minister told Rooters on Sunday.
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Sunni gunnies had also buried alive some of their victims, including women and kiddies. Some 300 women were kidnapped as slaves, he added.
"We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also scene of the crime images that show indisputably that the gangs of the Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," Sudani told Rooters.
Sinjar is the ancient home of the Yazidis, one of the towns captured by the Sunni gunnies who view the community as "devil worshipers".
"Some of the victims, including women and kiddies were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar," Sudani said.
The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, has prompted tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians to flee for their lives during their push to within a 30-minute drive of the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.
A deadline passed at midday on Sunday for 300 Yazidi families to convert to Islam or face death at the hands of the Islamic State. It was not immediately clear whether the Iraqi minister was talking about the fate of those families or others in the conflict.
#2
That's how that murder-and-slavery cult spread more than a thousand years ago. There is no middle ground with the dar-al-islam, just as there wasn't with Nazi Germany and there wasn't with Bushido Japan. Either we crush them completely, or civilization dies.
Posted by: Si vis pacem para bellum ||
08/11/2014 19:18 Comments ||
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Monday, August 11, the 35th day of Operation Protective Edge. A new 72-hour ceasefire came into effect at midnight Sunday-Monday. Israel indicated it would send its negotiators back to Cairo for talks on a longer-term arrangement if the ceasefire was still holding on Monday morning.
However, the sides are far, far apart, with Israel determined not to reward Hamas for using force against it, and conditioning rehabilitation and eased access for Gaza on the demilitarizing of the Strip; Hamas is adamant that it will not give up its arms.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Paleostinian and Israeli negotiators on Sunday accepted an Egyptian proposal for a new 72-hour truce, clearing the way for a possible resumption of talks on a long-term cease-fire arrangement in the Gazoo Strip.
Egypt brokered a similar truce last week. But after the three-day window, Gazooturbans resumed rocket fire on Israel and new fighting erupted.
The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said they accepted Egypt's latest offer Sunday. But they said they were wary after last week's breakdown.
Paleostinian negotiators accepted the Egyptian proposal ahead of the Israelis.
"We are here to look for an agreement. We cannot have an agreement without talks, so we accepted an Egyptian proposal to have a cease-fire for 72 hours in order to resume the talks," said a Paleostinian negotiator.
He, along with other Paleostinian negotiators who confirmed the decision, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations with the media.
The Egyptian-mediated talks are aimed at reaching a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, following the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies since Hamas took control of the Gazoo Strip in 2007.
In nearly a month of fighting, more than 1,900 Paleostinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, nearly 10,000 were maimed and thousands of homes were destroyed. Sixty-seven people were killed on the Israeli side, including three civilians.
The fighting ended in a 72-hour cease-fire last Tuesday, during which Egypt had hoped to mediate a longer-term agreement. But when the three-day window expired, turbans resumed their rocket fire, sparking Israeli reprisals. The violence has continued throughout the weekend, albeit at a lower level than during the height of the war.
Earlier Sunday, Paleostinians threatened to quit the negotiations if Israel did not return, while Israeli leaders said there would be no talks while the rocket fire continues.
"Israel will not negotiate under fire," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, warning that his country's military campaign "will take time."
The Israeli military said rocket fire continued throughout the day, with at least 24 projectiles fired into Israel. Israel responded with some 35 Arclight airstrikes, the military said.
Gazoo officials said at least three people, including a 14-year-old boy and a woman, were killed in the Arclight airstrikes. Israel said it closed a main cargo crossing used to deliver goods into Gazoo in response to rocket fire.
Hamas is seeking an end to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has been in place in varying forms for seven years and decimated the local economy.
Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent arms smuggling, and it says Hamas must disarm as part of any long-term arrangement. Hamas has said handing over its arsenal, which is believed to include several thousand remaining rockets, is inconceivable.
The blockade has greatly limited the movement of Paleostinians in and out of the impoverished territory of 1.8 million people for jobs and study abroad. It has also limited the flow of goods into Gazoo, and blocked virtually all of Gazoo's exports.
An Egyptian crackdown on a network of smuggling tunnels along Gazoo's southern border has made things even tougher by robbing Hamas of its key economic pipeline and weapons conduit. As a result, Gazoo's economy is in the doldrums, with an unemployment rate above 50 percent and Hamas unable to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of workers.
A senior Paleostinian negotiator acknowledged that the Paleostinians would make more modest demands if cease-fire talks resume. He said they will seek an end to the bloodshed in Gazoo, internationally backed efforts to rebuild and an easing — but not an end — to the blockade.
"We might not get everything we want, particularly on freedom of movement. But we believe the Israelis and the world have gotten the point that Gazooks should live normally and things should be much better than today," said one negotiator.
An easing of the blockade would mean an increased role for Western-backed Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , whose forces were ousted in the Hamas takeover seven years ago. Officials said that the rival Paleostinian factions were already exploring options that would give Abbas a foothold in Gazoo, including the likely control of its border crossing with Egypt.
At a minimum, though, Israel will want guarantees that the rocket fire will stop. A cease-fire that ended a weeklong round of fighting in 2012 promised an easing of the blockade, but was never implemented — in part because of sporadic rocket attacks by various armed factions in Gazoo.
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said Hamas could get the blockade lifted by accepting longstanding international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
"Basically what they are trying now to do is not to lift the blockade," she told a news conference. "They want to get legitimacy as a terrorist organization, without accepting the requirements of the international community."
The current Gazoo war escalated from the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of its members in the West Bank, as Hamas and other turbans unleashed rocket fire from Gazoo.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Three people were slightly injured yesterday in a bomb attack outside a hospital in Pattani province.
A witness said the bomber, dressed like a fish trader, rode a modified motorcycle and parked at the scene. He left that motorcycle and quickly went to ride pillion on another motorcycle. The witness suspected something was amiss and called police but the bomb went off before they arrived.
The injured mother and son were passing by and the hospital employee was standing in front of the facility when the bomb exploded.
Police said the bomber wanted to stage an attack at an event held by kamnan and village heads five kilometers from the hospital but changed his mind when he saw a security checkpoint had been set up.
[AnNahar] The Lebanese army deployed in strategic ares around the northeastern border town of Arsal on Sunday as the official corpse count of residents in the battles with holy warriors stood at 16, the state-run National News Agency reported.
NNA said that the troops took position in the strategic locations of Wadi al-Hosn, Wadi Hmeid, Wadi Ata in the eastern sector, Ras al-Sarj and near the Rafik Hariri clinic at the town's Western entrance to confront the danger that jihadists pose.
Other positions include the base of Wadi al-Rahyan and Sarj Hassan in the town's southern sector, the agency added.
Soldiers also carried out patrols inside Arsal and erected checkpoints to preserve security in the town from which faceless myrmidons withdrew to the rugged hills separating Leb and Syria on Thursday.
The gunnies overran the town last weekend upon the army's arrest of an al-Nusra Front member. The battles that ensued left scores of soldiers dead and injured.
At least 35 soldiers and coppers were held captive by the Islamist fighters. Their fate remains unknown after contacts were lost with them.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was wondering if Buck was okay. He suspected he wasn't... Arsal residents said 16 non-combatants were killed in the fighting. Some of them died defending the military and security bases that were attacked on the first day of battles.
Around 100 residents were maimed in the fighting, NNA said. Only a few of them were taken to hospitals in the Bekaa Valley for being at death's door.
The damage to private and public properties was mainly in Arsal's northwest in the areas of Ras al-Sarj and the surroundings of Abou Ismail mosque.
Around 500 tents of Syrian refugees were burned, NNA added.
[AnNahar] Syrian regime air raids killed 12 people on Sunday and maimed 23, including a mother and a baby boy removed from her womb, according to a monitoring group and amateur video.
The video, broadcast by gunnies in the city of Raqa in northeastern Syria and whose authenticity could not be verified, shows a frail infant being resuscitated with a respiratory mask on his face and blood-soaked cotton by his side.
His little chest is seen responding to treatment as his bloodstained head is wrapped in gauze.
"This baby's mother was maimed in the belly, and we had to remove him. He was hit in the head by shrapnel, and the doctors are trying to save him," said a commentary on the video footage.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported that the infant had been removed from his mother's womb, and said both mother and child survived the ordeal.
It said 12 people -- including five children, a woman and a teacher -- were killed when regime warplanes bombarded parts of Raqa city which is held by Islamic State jihadist fighters.
Since the IS launched a lightning offensive in neighboring Iraq two months ago, regime forces have been pounding positions of the jihadists who also control territory in eastern and northern Syria.
The group, which declared a "caliphate" straddling the two countries at the end of June, is seeking to extend the territory it controls.
IS fighters have spread terror in its strongholds such as Raqa, where it imposes its own extreme interpretation of Islam, and arrests people, beheading some and stoning others.
In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, most of which it controls, the IS has seized three villages from the influential local Shuwaitat tribe.
Two weeks of fighting between the jihadists and rustics is reported to have killed dozens of people and led to an exodus of more than 5,000 civilians.
The more than three-year conflict in Syria, which the Observatory says has killed more than 170,000 people, has become even more complex with the rise of jihadist groups battling both government forces and mainstream rebels.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] A former Primark worker from Portsmouth has become the latest Briton to be killed in the Middle East fighting for the feared Jihadist group Islamic State.
Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, whose father runs an Indian Restaurant travelled to Syria via Turkey telling his family he was going to help deliver humanitarian aid.
But he was recruited by the terror group ISIS which is fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate and already controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.
According to his family, Rahman was killed during an intense firefight with troops loyal to the Assad regime around a fortnight ago.
His father Abdul Hannan, 52, said the family had received a text message from someone who had been fighting alongside his son to confirm that he had been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Security agencies enforced strict security measures in areas in eastern Leb as several Syrian nationals have been jugged Please don't kill me! recently to "avert any possible terrorist sabotage operation."
"The strict security measures come in light of the festivities in (the northeastern border town of) Arsal in an attempt to prevent any sabotage operations from occurring," security sources said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
The sources pointed out that the measures are mainly implemented near Syrian encampments across Leb.
The sources described the measures taken by security forces as "preventive," saying: "It aims at detaining individuals who are suspected of having myrmidon links."
Bashir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek and Hermel, told the newspaper that the sub-security council of the Bekaa tasked municipalities with boosting security measures and counting the numbers of the displaced Syrians in their areas.
"The precautionary measures come amid the rising security threats," Khodr noted.
The Mayor of Baalbek, Hamad Hassan, told Asharq al-Awsat that the aim is to "safeguard the area from security risks," adding that the "security measures don't violate the freedom of the Syrians."
on Saturday, seven Syrian nationals were apprehended during security raids in residential compounds hosting refugees in the northern Koura district.
On Wednesday, army troops raided the houses of Syrian refugees in Beirut, the Bekaa and the South, and managed to detain a number of people during the operation.
These raids and arrests come after army troops were involved in fierce battles against Islamist gunniest in Arsal on August 2.
Media reports said on Saturday that Death Eaters infiltrated Leb from Syria, prompting Lebanese villagers to force them back across the border.
The gunbattle was reportedly near the village of Kfar Qouq, which lies near the Bekaa Valley town of Rashaya and some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Arsal.
#1
I have to say that I never thought I would be rooting for Asaad's forces to win in Syria, but I do now.
After reading all of the publically available intelligence on ISIL, studying what has happened in Libya, and the fiasco that was the MB in Egypt until adult supervision took over, I have to admit that maybe, just maybe, an iron fisted dictator or four would be the best solution to the current human disaster in the ME.
Dang, I can't believe it, have I become a policy pragmatist or have I lost my moral compass?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/11/2014 12:26 Comments ||
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#2
Dang, I can't believe it, have I become a policy pragmatist or have I lost my moral compass?
Least worst option, Bill. If only there would arise in the Middle East a couple of dictators like the men who taught Taiwan and Singapore to accept the rule of law and the self-rule via democracy that can flow from that. On the other hand, both of those societies are fairly homogenous, unlike anywhere in the MidEast as the indigenous peoples define homogeneity. Except Israel of course, but we're not to count her in this discussion.
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.
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] A former Primark worker from Portsmouth has become the latest Briton to be killed in the Middle East fighting for the feared Jihadist group Islamic State.
