[AnNahar] Talibs killed 22 coppers and maimed eight after ambushing a police convoy in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said.
The early morning attack in Sari Pul province highlights Afghanistan's fragile security situation, with local forces facing a persistent Taliban insurgency as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... winds down its military presence.
The police were attacked as they traveled to reinforce colleagues in another district in Sari Pul.
"They were ambushed as they were going from Laghman area to Alaf Safid. Twenty-two police were martyred, eight maimed and seven were taken captive," provincial governor Abdul Jabar Haqbin told AFP.
Around 10 police vehicles were torched, he said.
"They called for foreign forces' air support, but they arrived very late," he added.
He said the attack sparked a gunbattle that lasted several hours and left 23 Taliban fighters dead.
Kazim Kenhan a provincial police front man, confirmed the incident.
The Taliban were not immediately available to comment, but the ambush is typical of attacks they have launched on Afghan cops.
Also on Monday morning, a Taliban suicide boom-mobileer rammed his explosive-laden vehicle against a NATO military convoy on the eastern edge of the Afghan capital Kabul killing an Afghan civilian and wounding three more.
The last attack on NATO forces in Kabul was on September 16, also when a bomber rammed a boom-mobile into a NATO convoy, triggering a massive blast that killed two Americans and one Polish soldier, and maimed a dozen civilians.
Kabul was also rocked two weeks ago by a series of suicide kabooms staged during the inauguration of new president Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. . More than a dozen people were killed in several attacks on Afghan cops.
The attacks comes at a testing time for Afghan cops as NATO combat troops will complete their withdrawal by the end of this year, leaving Afghan troops and police to fight the forces of Evil on their own.
NATO's follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1, will be made up of 9,800 U.S. troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italia and other member nations that will focus mainly on training Afghan forces and counter-terrorism operations.
[AnNahar] Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Monday that a boom-mobile which killed at least 13 people the day before was an act of "desperation" by Islamist Shabaab hard boys.
The attack took place on Sunday evening on a busy road leading to the government district, outside a popular cafe.
"It shows the desperation of Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... because they are only hurting innocent civilians," Mohamud said in a statement, updating an initial toll after the blast of four.
In addition, 18 others were maimed, some of them seriously, Mohamud added.
Witnesses said the blast could be heard several streets away.
"I saw charred bodies, I don't know who was targeted but the kaboom was very strong and the site was destroyed," said witness Ahmed Yusuf.
The al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab bandidos hard boys have not grabbed credit for the attack, but the fighters have stepped up guerrilla attacks in the capital and elsewhere in the country after being chased from key cities by 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... -led troops.
The bombing also came a week after the Shabaab were pushed out of Barawe, the last major port in Somalia that was held by the group and a key source of revenue for the Islamist militia.
[Libya Herald] There are reports tonight of heavy fighting near Ghariyan between Zintani and Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... forces. No estimate of casualties has yet been given. On Sunday it is possible that some 50 people were killed and dozens maimed in battles which the Zintanis claimed won them Aziziya and allowed them to surround Ghariyan.
Ghariyan hospital said that it had received 23 bodies while a Zintani commander claimed that his men had also counted 23 dead Dawn fighters in territory they had gained.
Reliable sources say that this morning turbans from Misrata were sent to reinforce Dawn forces in the mountains.
Sifting between claims and counter-claims from rival commanders is a challenge. Today Zintan has denied that it has lost control of Al-Rabta, which it had taken on Saturday and that it has been forced out of Aziziya. However a promise that by today, Zintani turbans would have driven Libya Shied forces and Zawia's Abu Obeida brigade out of Zahra does not appear to have been fulfilled. Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy's udder had begun to ache... this evening there were claims that Dawn militias had retaken Kikla.
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[AnNahar] A Chinese court on Monday condemned 12 people to death and gave another 15 suspended death sentences in connection with a July attack in violence-racked Xinjiang, the regional government's Tianshan portal said.
Thirty-seven civilians and 59 "terrorists" were killed and another 13 civilians maimed in the July 28 attack on a cop shoppe and government offices in Shache county, also known as Yarkand, according to state media.
The incident was the bloodiest in Xinjiang since rioting involving members of China's Han majority and the mostly Moslem Uighur minority -- the largest group in the region -- left around 200 people dead in the capital Urumqi in 2009.
The sentences bring the number of death sentences passed for Xinjiang-related violence to almost 40 since June, with 21 executions publicly announced.
"In adjudicating the case, the court fully implemented the criminal policy of combining justice with mercy," Tianshan said.
In addition to the 15 given a suspended death sentence -- normally commuted to life imprisonment, depending on the convict's behavior -- nine people were sentenced to life in prison and 20 were given sentences ranging from four to 20 years, according to Tianshan.
State broadcaster China Central Television ran footage from the sentencing on its Monday evening broadcast, showing several defendants standing in court wearing bright orange prison vests and with their heads shaved.
Prosecutors showed images of large vehicles and axes they said were used in connection with the attack.
Overseas-based Uighur exile groups have cast doubt on the government's version of events in July, saying that Beijing's security forces used submachine guns and sniper rifles, leading to "huge casualties".
Access to information in Xinjiang is strictly controlled by the authorities and reports can often not be independently verified.
Beijing has blamed a series of recent violent attacks on separatists from Xinjiang. Rights groups accuse China's government of cultural and religious repression which they say fuels unrest in the region bordering Central Asia.
The sentences are the latest in a series of harsh punishments by Chinese authorities, who are in the midst of a "strike hard" campaign against violence in Xinjiang.
Last month a court in the ancient Silk Road oasis of Kashgar sentenced to death two teenagers for the killing of the government-appointed head of the country's biggest mosque.
The imam, Jume Tahir, was killed after leading morning prayers on July 30, two days after the Yarkand incident.
Another three people were given death penalties earlier in September over a mass stabbing that left 31 people dead in the southwestern city of Kunming in March.
In August China announced the execution of eight people for "terrorist attacks", including three who were described as criminal masterminding a fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... car attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October last year.
Violence in the region has intensified in recent months.
In May 39 people were killed, along with four attackers, when assailants ploughed two vehicles through a market in Urumqi and threw explosives, state media said.
In the latest incident, reported on Monday, a pregnant Uighur policewoman was stabbed to death by two "thugs" in Pishan county last Friday.
In September, 40 "rioters" were killed after a series of kabooms in Luntai county, in an incident that also claimed the lives of six civilians, two coppers and two auxiliary police.
The violence took place just two days before prominent Moslem Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti was convicted of separatism and sentenced to life in prison.
International rights groups have called for Tohti's release and denounced the trial, which they say was retribution for the scholar's outspoken criticism of Communist Party policies towards Uighurs.
[DAWN] KOHAT: A policeman, who was injured during an encounter with outlaws on Saturday night, succumbed to injuries in hospital, while body of a miscreant was also recovered from the encounter site on Sunday.
The police also locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! 15 persons, including five outlaws, during the action carried out in Kamardhand and Surgul mountains on the night between Saturday and Sunday.
The dear departed constable was named Jehangir Khan, while the outlaw Ibrar Khan.
Police said that Ibrar had recently been released from jail after serving sentence in a double murder case. But, he had taken shelter with other criminals in Kamardhand and Surgul mountains.
The police said that the raid was carried out to arrest about 25 outlaws belonging to Zareen Mohammad alias Daddi group who had taken shelter in three hideouts in the mountains. The action was put off on Saturday morning after no one could be arrested.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... the police again launched the action on the night between Saturday and Sunday and arrested five outlaws and 15 others for sheltering them.
Personnel of the Frontier Reserve Police, Elite Force and all the cop shoppes of Kohat took part in the action.
A machine gun, three rifles and a shotgun were also recovered from the arrested persons.
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[DAWN] Militants of the Pak Taliban have been demanding extortion money from at least 11 key members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) in 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... , the party revealed on Monday.
Speaking to news hounds, MQM big shot Farooq Sattar said that party leaders have been receiving threatening letters from the banned outfit in the recent past, asking them to immediately pay up extortion money or face dire consequences.
Among the leaders said to have received the 'extortion letters' are Farooq Sattar, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Nasreen Jalil, Babar Ghauri, and Abdul Rasheed Godil.
"Our leaders have also been receiving threats over telephone and SMS. They have been threatened to pay up to Rs1.5 million within one week otherwise they will be targeted along with their families," Sattar told news hounds at a presser.
"We've been warned that we will be punished by death if we seek help from security agencies," he said.
The MQM says it is being warned for its ideological stance against the krazed killers.
The last letter was received on Sept 15, a copy of which was attached to a letter the party wrote to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... informing him of the situation.
Ghauri said MQM had received threats in Karachi as well as London, where the party's chief Altaf Hussain has been living in self-imposed exile for the past two decades.
Pakistain's commercial hub Karachi is considered a political stronghold of the MQM, which draws its majority support from the Urdu-speaking population of the port city.
The party has for years claimed that the Taliban and other hard boysnuffies have increased their foothold in Karachi, with Sattar saying earlier this year that the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) now controls up to 25 per cent of the city.
The party has been the target of several bomb and gun attacks by Talibs in the past, with at least three MQM leaders killed in such attacks
Last year, the banned outfit vowed to target the MQM ‐ along with the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism.... (ANP) ‐ for its secular ideology, badly affecting the party's campaign for the May 2013 general elections.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain has also been a vocal critic of peace talks with Talibs.
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[DAWN] Sindh Rangers official Colonel Tahir on Monday told a media briefing in 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... that a bid to break into the city's Central Jail had been foiled by Rangers personnel.
Colonel Tahir said the Rangers personnel managed to find an underground tunnel being build inside a house near Central Jail which was aimed at leading directly into the jail barracks where high-value targets are being held.
The Rangers official said that during a raid conducted in Ghosia Colony -- an impoverished locality near the Central Jail -- Rangers personnel took some men into custody. The men, who were interrogated, revealed that a tunnel was being dug to enter directly into the jail.
Colonel Tahir praised the response of Karachi's citizens in informing the Rangers about suspicious activities and said that 45 metres of tunnel had already been dug, whereas according to the Rangers' estimate, at least 55 metres were required to enter the premises.
The central jail has been a scene of kabooms and other criminal activity in recent years with an attack on a Sindh High Court judge planned and partly executed from within the precincts of the prison.
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[DAWN] Five suspected gangsters were killed in two alleged encounters in Malir and Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... on Sunday, officials said.
A spokesperson for the Sindh Rangers said that four suspected gangsters were bumped off in the Malir area, while one in Lyari in separate encounters with the paramilitary troops.
Continued on Page 49
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Baghdad (AFP) - A string of jihadist attacks has shrunk the Iraqi government's footprint in Anbar to a bare minimum and officials are warning time is running out to save the western province from falling completely.
Kurdish and federal troops backed by US-led airstrikes have pinned back their enemy and notched up gains in northern Iraq in recent weeks, but in Anbar the jihadists have retained the initiative.
A senior US defence official told AFP that the Iraqi's army position in Anbar was "tenuous".
"They are being resupplied and they're holding their own, but it's tough and challenging," the official said. "I think it's fragile there now."
The latest retreat came as recently as Sunday, when around 300 government forces abandoned a camp outside the city of Heet to join other forces holed up at Asad air base, deeper in the desert. IS had already taken control of the city centre following deadly attacks which the UN said caused the displacement of an estimated 180,000 people.
"Heet is now 100 percent under IS-control," a senior Anbar police official said Monday.
IS-led insurgents control Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, Qaem nearly 300 kilometres farther west on the border with Syria, and most of in between. Thanks in part to intensive US air strikes, government forces backed by Sunni tribal fighters opposed to IS have retained control of Haditha dam, the country's second largest, and a handful of other areas.
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[AnNahar] Iraqi government troops stationed on the edge of Heet in beleaguered Anbar province have withdrawn to another base, leaving the city under full jihadist control, security sources said on Monday.
Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) fighters had assaulted and eventually seized the center of the western city on the Euphrates river, but a sizable contingent of government forces remained holed up in a nearby base.
"Iraqi forces evacuated Heet training camp last night (Sunday) on the orders of the military command," a senior police official in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, told AFP.
"Our military leaders argued that instead of leaving those forces exposed to attacks by IS, they would be best used to shore up the defense of Asad air base," he said.
Ahmed Hamid, who heads the Anbar provincial council's security committee, said around 300 members of the security forces pulled out of the Heet training academy a few kilometers (miles) northwest of the city.
Asad is a large base northwest of Heet and one of the last still under government control in the restive western province. It is surrounded by desert and a tougher target for IS fighters.
Other security officials said military aircraft picked up senior officers from the Heet base, and the rest of the force drove in a convoy to Asad.
They set fire to trailers and other infrastructure before abandoning the base. Witnesses told AFP IS fighters took over what was left of the camp on Monday morning.
"Heet is now 100 percent under IS-control," the police colonel said.
Government forces have suffered a string of setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks, and officials have warned that their grip on the capital Ramadi was increasingly tenuous.
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#1
We need a Monty Python Sir-Robin "Run Away" graphic of some sort for the Iraqi Army.
[Ynet] Three bombs went kaboom! in Shi'ite parts of Baghdad on Monday, killing 30 people, police and medical officials said, continuing a wave of attacks targeting Iraq's majority religious group.
Baghdad's largest Shi'ite neighbourhood, Sadr City, was rocked by two blasts: a bomb in the late afternoon that killed six people near a marketplace, and a boom-mobile at a police checkpoint that killed 16 people and maimed 30, according to medical and police officials.
In Kahdimiya, in western Baghdad, a boom-mobile killed eight civilians and maimed 21 others at the main checkpoint to the district, police and medical officials said.
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of Arab rioters, primarily young men, were on Monday holed up in the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount.
The site was surrounded by Israeli police forces, who entered the plaza atop the holy site before 7 a.m. after receiving information according to which Paleostinian activists had gathered stones and set barbed wire obstacles in preparation for planned attacks against Jewish visitors to the site.
When they entered the site Monday morning, police were met with thrown rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, Israel Radio reported. The rioters were pushed back into the mosque, and remain holed up there surrounded by police forces. Police removed multiple obstacles on the site, including stretches of barbed wire.
The site was opened to Jewish visitors at 7:30 a.m.
On Sunday, the Temple Mount was closed to Jewish visitors, and streets were closed off around the Old City to vehicular traffic, as tens of thousands of Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall for holiday prayers.
On Sunday, too, several protesters had holed themselves up in the Al-Aqsa Mosque after being chased by police. Police said flammable material was sprayed at them and a fire was started.
Paleostinian sources said dozens of Paleostinians were maimed in the Sunday festivities.
Five coppers were lightly injured during the Sunday fighting. None was injured on Monday.
The Sunday closure came on the heels of festivities between police and masked rioters at the Temple Mount last Wednesday morning before the start of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Many Jews have the custom of visiting the Temple Mount on holiday eves.
The Mughrabi Gate, the lone entrance for non-Moslems to enter the compound, has been the site of frequent festivities between Israeli security forces and Moslem worshipers.
Last Wednesday's festivities came amid an uptick in inter-ethnic violence in Jerusalem over the past several months, with incidents of East Jerusalem rioters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails and using fireworks as a weapon.
There have been several incidents of rock throwing at the Jerusalem light rail in recent days as the train passed through the city's northern Arab neighborhood of Shuafat.
The Temple Mount, which holds the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, is considered the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest site for Jews as it was the location of the two ancient Jewish temples.
In September, an addition to the Mughrabi Bridge meant to boost the flow of non-Moslem visitors to the Temple Mount was dismantled after it was deemed "illegal" by Netanyahu. The move, which was praised by Jordan and the Islamic authorities of the site, was seen by some as an attempt to decrease tensions.
[Ynet] Paleostinians fired fireworks at balconies of Jewish homes on the Mount of Olives in the capital during Sukkot.
Paleostinians launched fireworks Sunday night at the homes of Jewish residents on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The locals claimed the fireworks were fired towards Sukkot erected for the holiday in the neighborhood.
There were no casualties and no damages were caused by the incident. A Border Guard force was deployed to the scene and responded with crowd dispersal measures until the hostilities ended.
Jerusalem Police did not arrest any suspects in connection with the fireworks.
A local resident told Ynet: "We were sitting in the Sukkah with the family, when we suddenly heard loud kabooms. We were alarmed, left the Sukkah, and saw fireworks being launched from Arab homes directly on homes in the Jewish neighborhood."
She added: "For three or four minutes they fired more and more fireworks. Some reached the balconies with the Sukkahs in them."
The neighborhood has seen its share of rock hurling incidents in recent weeks.
The Jerusalem Light Rail came under a hail of stones in five separate attacks Saturday evening. All of the incidents took place in East Jerusalem, near the village of Shuafat, highlighting the perils the rapid transit system faces in the Paleostinian parts of the city.
In four of the attacks, the windows of the trains were damaged. No one was maimed and the police or security forces have yet to make an arrest.
According to data by the Light Rail, since riots broke out in July in wake of a string of violent incidents in the West Bank between Israelis and Paleostinians, which included the kidnap murder of three Israeli teens and the murder of a Paleostinian boy in retribution by Jewish Lion of Islams, over 100 cases of attacks on the train have been reported.
According to the data, the majority of the attacks are at night, sometimes up to three an hour. In some cases, the cars' windows are shattered, forcing the rail to take it temporarily out of use. The damage caused by these attacks during the past two months is estimated by the company at roughly half a million NIS.
[AnNahar] A Jordanian court charged 26 people on Monday with "terrorist acts" following unrest that maimed four people, including two police, when security forces shut a market in central Amman.
They were jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! during festivities Friday evening that flared again on Saturday after stalls at Abdali second-hand clothing market were dismantled, a judicial source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... "The prosecutor general of the state security court charged 26 people over terrorist acts, using weapons and inflammable materials in contravention of the anti-terrorism law," the source said.
The prosecutor general took the men into custody for 15 days.
"Four people were maimed during the unrest, including two gendarmes," a security source told AFP. The source added that security forces were targeted by "live gunfire and Molotov cocktails".
The Islamic Action Front ...Jordan's branch of the Moslem Brüderbund... , the political wing of the Jordanian Moslem Brüderbund and the country's main opposition group, criticized the decision to close the market because it "did not take into account the hundreds of families whose sole income comes from the market".
Authorities say the market was impeding traffic and needed to be relocated, although stallholders believe such a move would see its size halved.
The Thai army has ordered security officers to track down militants who set fire to six public primary schools in Pattani province early Sunday. The simultaneous torching of the schools was believed to be in retaliation for recent military operations, army spokesman Winthai Suwari said.
No one was wounded, but the schools were devastated. The attackers tied up volunteer security guards before pouring gasoline around the school buildings. They also soaked clothes in oil before setting them alight.
Pattani deputy governor Sompote Suwannarat said officials had not yet estimated the cost of the damage, but most of the buildings were destroyed.
Police said more than ten militants had set the schools ablaze. The deputy governor believed the attacks might have been in retaliation for the recent killing of a key separatist leader in Pattani's Panare district, and raids on the suspected militant hideouts that led to arrests and seized equipment.
Communist militants killed seven Philippine soldiers in separate attacks in retaliation for the brutal slaying of a farmer and his son, a spokesman for the New People's Army said on Monday.
Roel Agustin said the militants ambushed members of the 66th Infantry Battalion in the town of New Bataan in Compostela Valley province. He said another NPA unit also attacked soldiers from the 67th Infantry Battalion in Baganga town in nearby Davao Oriental and in Trento town in Agusan del Sur province.
Agustin accused troops from the 66th Infantry Battalion as being behind the murder of farmer Rolando Dagansan and son Juda on October 12.
There was no immediate statement from the military on the NPA accusations, but Agustin said militants would continue offensive operations in the region. He also dismissed military declarations that many provinces have been liberated from communist control or influence.
The militants are also holding two army soldiers - Privates Marnel Cinches and Jerrel Yurong - who are members of the 8th Infantry Battalion. Both Cinches and Yurong were unarmed when militants captured them on August 22 and declared the pair to be prisoners of war.
Regional military chief Maj. Gen. Aurelio Baladad has ordered security forces to pursue the militants who are holding the two soldiers. He said the NPA has kidnapped at least 21 soldiers during the past four years in eastern Mindanao alone and used them as political propaganda.
Philippine troops killed two militants in a clash in Maguindanao province in the Muslim autonomous region.
Officials said the fighting broke out late Sunday after members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked the headquarters of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion and several detachments in the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan.
Military spokesman Capt. Rolando Ocharan said a seven-year old child was also injured by a stray bullet fired by militants. He said the fighting lasted almost 30 minutes and that no soldiers were killed or injured in the clash.
Ocharan identified the two slain militants as Muslemen Abdul and Tong Adzal. He said several militants were also injured, but managed to escape.
[AnNahar] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... broke out on Monday between Islamist jihadists and Kurdish fighters close to the Turkish border just north of the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.
The festivities threatened to cut all access from Kobane to the Turkish border and block the passage which which has so far allowed some 200,000 refugees from the Kobane area to find refuge in Turkey.
Clashes with automatic gunfire and mortar fire were taking place an an area less than one kilometer (half a mile) from the barbed wire fence that marks the border between Syria and Turkey, the correspondent on the Turkish side of the border reported.
Meanwhile the U.S.-led international coalition carried out at least two new air strikes against positions held by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... gunnies (IS) in and around Kobane.
The first took place a little before 0430 GMT, witnesses said, while the second in the late morning struck at the heart of Kobane and sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky, the correspondent reported.
Turkey has so far not intervened in the battle for Kobane despite building up its military presence on the border. Over the last day, new Turkish tanks and artillery arrived with their weaponry pointing towards Kobane.
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#8
bman - possibly not. Remember the No Fly zone prior to OIF? We have been supporting, training and arming (clandestinely) the Kurds for decades, going back to Bush I and Clinton. I wager we have at least a few Kurds we trust (and trained) who may be involved in supporting the Syrian Kurds.
Or maybe the CIA finally let their operations people in the Kurdish regions off the damned leash.
[AnNahar] Police and the army have nabbed Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Lebanese, Gulf and Syrian nationals having hundreds of thousands of dollars in their possession for the purpose of buying arms, As Safir daily reported on Monday.
The ISF arrested a couple of weeks ago a Lebanese man in 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... . He had 200,000 dollars in his possession, it said.
Police also apprehended earlier this month a man, likely a Syrian, carrying with him 300,000 dollars.
As Safir quoted well-informed security sources as saying that the suspect intended to buy explosives and arms for bad boy groups based in Leb.
Two Lebanese and a Syrian have also been arrested by the Army Intelligence in Beirut on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group and having ties to the weapons purchases, the report said.
As part of the arrests carried out by the military, two Gulf nationals who head terrorist networks were stopped after landing in Leb from Turkey, As Safir said.
Foreign intelligence agencies have informed Lebanese security apparatuses that sleeper cells linked to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front are present in several Lebanese regions.
The recent raids carried out by the army and police across Leb are a sign that the military would not tolerate their presence.
A security official told As Safir that dozens of suspects have been recently arrested to stop turbans from operating in Leb.
[AnNahar] U.S. and Saudi warplanes carried out eight air strikes in Syria on Sunday and Monday, mainly targeting Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadists fighting for a key border town, the U.S. military said.
Bombers and fighter aircraft hit IS positions in seven strikes around Kobane, the scene of heavy fighting between the jihadists and Kurdish rebels near the Turkish border, U.S. Central Command said.
The targets included IS units, staging areas, a heavy machine gun position, and five buildings held by the jihadist group.
The IS group has poured in reinforcements to try to overcome tenacious Kurdish resistance, and the fighting has threatened to cut Kobane from the outside world.
An air strike also hit an IS garrison northwest of the Syrian town of Raqa, according to the command, which oversees US military operations in the region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
mainly targeting
Seems to leave some weasel room for the Saudis to be bombing someone else.
[Ynet] Syria's air force carried out strikes against rebels at more than double its usual rate on Monday, according to a monitoring group, ramping up its offensive near the capital while Washington strikes Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters far away.
Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Syrian air force had struck 40 times on Monday in areas in Idlib and Hama provinces, including dropping oil drums packed with explosives and shrapnel. Typically Damascus has carried out no more than 12-20 raids a day.
#4
I wish our country had loyal vassals like the one Russia has in Obama. Of course if we did Obama would try to get them surreptitiously killed, like the Kurds in Kobane, the Ukranians with their WW2 C-rations, etc.
Combine this with the latest from Turkey, which is allegedly withholding aid from the Kurds because the coalition Obama put together isn't explicitly backing Assad.
#5
That doesn't make any sense to me, seems birdygone has been trying to pick a fight with assad for a while now, going so far as to get one of Turkey's fighter jets shot down, and Turkey shooting down a Syrian fighter jet.
[Ynet] Three Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters blew themselves up on Monday in Kobani near the Turkish border with Syria, a monitoring group said, with the hardline turbans making slight advances inside the besieged Kurdish town.
In one of the attacks an IS fighter detonated a truck laden with explosives in a northern district of Kobani, which has been the scene of heavy festivities between Kurdish forces and Islamic State fighters, Kurdish sources said.
Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official in Kobani, said two Kurdish fighters had been maimed during the suicide kaboom.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/14/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] After weeks of speculation about the involvement of Trinidad and Tobago nationals joining the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a mother confirmed her 29-year-old son left the Caribbean country a year ago to join the bad boy group, according to a local media report.
Shane Crawford, also known as Asadullah, sold his valuables including a van and a big-screen TV to purchase airfare, the Sunday Express reported in an interview with the mother.
He traveled to nearby Venezuela with one of his wives, then to London and Turkey before ending up in Syria, she said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/14/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] new Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... video, posted online Saturday, documents what appears to be a group of volunteer fighters graduating from a training camp in Iraq.
Video can be seen at the link. Just click on the headline, above.
In the video, hundreds of fighters can be seen after completing a basic training course, which included drills in self-defense, urban warfare tactics, physical fitness, weapons proficiency, and instruction in Islamic law, according to a narrator.
An excerpt of the video was translated by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, an Israel-based watchdog. A longer six-minute clip was uploaded to YouTube on Saturday.
The recording offers a rare glimpse into the training methods employed by the group, which barreled through an outmatched Iraqi army earlier this year, capturing a series of towns and forcing thousands of civilians to flee their extreme version of Islamic rule.
The new fighters demonstrated the skills they have learned by simulating rescue operations while being fired at, rehearsing hand-to-hand combat techniques, and assembling and disassembling weapons.
In a display of physical strength, one instructor can be seen kicking each fighter in the stomach.
Toward the end of the video, a holy man addresses the new ââmujahideen,â telling them that stepping foot onto the battlefield is only the first step for those destined for martyrdom.
The training took place at the al-Ansari military camp in Nineveh, approximately 100 kilometers from the Islamic State stronghold of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , which the group captured earlier this year. The area is home to hundreds of thousands of minorities, most of whom have fled in fear of persecution by the Islamists.
A US-led coalition has battered the group from the air in a bid to keep fighters from continuing their advance, mainly in Iraq.
In Syria, Kurdish fighters have managed to hold off an IS sally into the border city of Kobani, pleading for international help.
On Saturday, Islamic State fighters reached the outskirts of Baghdad, threatening the Iraqi capital for the first time.
According to the MEMRI, this clip is the first installment in a series called The Blood of Jihad.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The training took place at the al-Ansari military camp in Nineveh, approximately 100 kilometers from the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul
A question: If the IS can set up a camp in Nineveh, why the hell aren't we bombing it into dust? Why are letting people graduate? Why are we turning them into blobs of molten grease?
This looks like the mother of all target opportunities.
Posted by: frozen al ||
10/14/2014 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
Somebody told the White House that ACA facilitators and Democrat GOTV workers are also being trained there.
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[DAWN] Sindh Rangers official Colonel Tahir on Monday told a media briefing in .jpg)
[DAWN] Five suspected gangsters were killed in two alleged encounters in Malir and 
