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Hafiz Gul Bahadur group targeted in N Waziristan drone strike
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Afghanistan
Afghan official: Insurgents kill 9 police
[Ynet] An Afghan official says hard boyz killed five coppers, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Pashtun-infested Logar, a day after four coppers who were kidnapped in the same region were found dead.

Din Mohammad Darwesh, front man for the provincial governor, says hard boyz ambushed the five men early Sunday in Baraki Barak district, where the Taliban launch frequent attacks on government security forces.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Four killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing
MOGADISHU -- Car bomb attack claimed at killed at least four people and left others wounded in Volatile Mogadishu on Sunday evening according to officials, Garowe Online reports. Sources say national intelligence officers in armored vehicles were targeted in the coordinated terror attack.

A spokesman for Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants said, they are responsible for the attack on US-trained military personnel.

The attacked convoy was racing through a heavily militarized road that leads to Adan Adde International airport.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Six U.N. Peacekeeping Troops Injured in Mali Blast
[AnNahar] Six U.N. peacekeeping troops were maimed in a blast Sunday in northeastern Mali, where four U.N. trucks were also torched by gunnies, military sources said.

The soldiers, who hail from Niger, were hurt when their vehicle rolled over an bomb east of the town of Gao, an officer from the U.N. mission in Mali, MINUSMA, told Agence La Belle France-Presse.

Two of the soldiers were in "very serious condition", the officer said.

MINUSMA confirmed the report.

In October, nine U.N. peacekeepers from Niger, which borders Mali to the east, were killed in an ambush that also took place on the same road east of Gao, between Menaka and Ansongo.

A Malian jihadist close to MUJAO, one of the al-Qaeda-linked militia that controlled northern Mali for nearly a year, grabbed credit for that attack.

Elsewhere Sunday, gunnies intercepted four U.N. trucks carrying materials north of Gao, another U.N. source told Agence La Belle France-Presse.

The gunnies ordered the drivers out of their vehicles and then set light to them, the source said.

Three Islamist bully boy groups took advantage of a coup in the capital Bamako to seize most of northern Mali in 2012. They were routed from most urban areas by French forces in January 2013 but they regularly resurface to carry out attacks against the foreign forces that remained in the country for peacekeeping or counterterrorism operations.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Tunisia Policeman Killed in Suspected Islamist Attack
[AnNahar] Suspected Islamist forces of Evil slit the throat of a Tunisian policeman south of the capital overnight, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

Since the revolution of January 2011, Tunisia has seen a rise in Islamist extremism and tackling it is one of the main challenges facing the country's first freely elected President Beji Caid Essebsi who was sworn in on Wednesday.

The policeman "had his throat slit and was stabbed in the heart in Zaghouan province as he was returning from work in the capital," a ministry statement said.

It said that a preliminary investigation suggested he had been killed by an Islamist Lion of Islam group and that nine suspects had been placed in durance vile
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
Dozens of police and military personnel have been killed in attacks blamed on Islamist gunnies since 2011.

In late November, an off-duty policeman was kidnapped and decapitated in the Kef area close to the Algerian border.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Egypt's Sisi: Islamic "Thinking" is "Antagonizing the Entire World"
Hat tip Roger Simon and the Instapundit, and provided by Raymond Ibrahim's Islam Translated blog. If this speech is what Mr. Ibrahim says it is, then Sisi is being far bolder and courageous than anyone else in the Islamic -- or Western -- world. We at the Burg have occasionally noted that Islam is in need of both a Reformation and a counter-Reformation: the former to require the faith to review and reinvent itself, and the latter to acknowledge the truth of the former and purge those parts of the faith that need to be removed. We don't carry much weight with the Islamic world, but perhaps Mr. Sisi does.

To quote Roger Simon: "Accusing the umma (world Islamic population) of encouraging the hostility of the entire world, al-Sisi's speech is so dramatic and essentially revolutionary it brings to mind Khrushchev's famous speech exposing Stalin."

Ibrahim questions whether Sisi means the world Islamic population or the population of Egypt with the use of 'umma', but either is interesting. If Sisi is playing a nationalist card here (ala Nasser), then he's proposing to reform Islam in a way that makes the Muslim Brotherhood unnecessary, or at least subordinate to the rulers. That certainly plays to what Sisi and the military, and a fair number of 'moderate' Egyptians, believe. I think that's more likely as Sisi doesn't need or want the trouble he'd court if he were to speak to the umma as the entire Islamic nation. We should remember that Sisi is, fundamentally, conservative in his beliefs and upbringing. Despite his attendance at the U.S. Army War College, he is not a democrat but an authoritarian. This speech may well be part of his effort to bend the local clerics to him and away from the Brotherhood and other Salafist movements that would seek power for themselves.

Even with that it's a remarkable speech.
Speaking before Al-Azhar and the Awqaf Ministry on New Year’s Day, 2015, and in connection to Prophet Muhammad’s upcoming birthday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a vocal supporter for a renewed vision of Islam, made what must be his most forceful and impassioned plea to date on the subject.

Among other things, Sisi said that the "corpus of [Islamic] texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years” are “antagonizing the entire world"; that it is not "possible that 1.6 billion people [reference to the world’s Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants--that is 7 billion--so that they themselves may live"; and that Egypt (or the Islamic world in its entirety) "is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands."

The relevant excerpt from Sisi’s speech follows (translation by Michele Antaki):

I am referring here to the religious clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have, in fact, addressed this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!

That thinking--I am not saying "religion" but “thinking”--that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!

Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants--that is 7 billion--so that they themselves may live? Impossible!

I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema--Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.

All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.

I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost--and it is being lost by our own hands.

Note: It is unclear if in the last instance of umma Sisi is referring to Egypt (“the nation”) or if he is using it in the pan-Islamic sense as he did initially to refer to the entire Islamic world.
Extraordinary indeed. I am hoping someone will translate the entire speech and give it wide circulation. In the meantime, Mr. Sisi would do well to ensure that his bodyguards are absolutely reliable.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  His Eyes are open. He has so far done the right things on the World stage, and more than just one Nation.

His counter balance to the void Obama left and the vacuum the MB was filling is a breath of fresh air.

No one in the Moslem world can deny it is dysfunctional at best, and constant bloodshead at worst.

Bless Al Sisi.
He delivered as promised.
Posted by: newc || 01/05/2015 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  I expect that this speech (even if it really happened) will be suppressed, not reported on, ignored by the western MSM.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/05/2015 0:28 Comments || Top||

#3  al-Sisi has made an important step but the next step is up to the gang at al-azhar and the gang at the equivalent institutions in other Islamic states.

despite the fact that al-Sisi probably cleared this speech with the saudi royal family, odds are not good that they will take a decisive action
Posted by: lord garth || 01/05/2015 0:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Speech covered in "Volokh Conspiracy" section of WaPo.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/05/2015 0:44 Comments || Top||

#5  A day late & a dollar short.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/05/2015 2:32 Comments || Top||


#7  Heh, I bet you weren't crazy about Luther either.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2015 7:14 Comments || Top||

#8  It's a beginning. He speaks the truth unless it's a head fake. Head fakes are built into the religion ya know.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2015 8:03 Comments || Top||

#9  newc, "No one in the Moslem world can deny it is dysfunctional at best, and constant bloodshed at worst."

The problem is that you are wrong here. They not only can, they do deny it all.

It's one of the reasons Democrats and Proggies can support them. They are masters of denial no matter how absurd it is. See Orwell, George.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/05/2015 8:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Sisi setting himself up for an Annual Anwar Sadat Military Parade and Review moment?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/05/2015 8:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Authoritarian sure, look at the circumstances. The MB was about to declare war on Israel and Ethiopia. Sisi's government has taken quite a few casualties but perhaps fewer than a passivist.

Even if the speech is pure consumption, those who have laid their cards opposite of Sisi will be forced to respond even if for consumption - or concede.

Speech is right on. I'd think if he referenced the world population, he is talking big umma. Quit trying to out radicool each other is a good statement and goal, whatever the motivation.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/05/2015 9:40 Comments || Top||

#12  Sadat II.
Posted by: RJ45ACP || 01/05/2015 15:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Anwar Sadat delivered also and the muslim brotherhood killed him. Watch your back (and sides, and front)
Posted by: irishrageboy || 01/05/2015 18:10 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram 'Seizes Military Base' in Nigeria Raids
[AnNahar] Suspected Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Lions of Islam have seized a military base in northeastern Nigeria in a series of blistering raids near Lake Chad, sending soldiers and civilians fleeing, witnesses said on Sunday.

Local residents reported that the gunnies killed several people, burnt hundreds of homes and looted scores of businesses in Saturday's attacks, although there was no official corpse count.

The Islamists are believed to control large swathes of land in northeastern Nigeria since launching an uprising in 2009 that has now claimed more than 13,000 lives.

The base outside the town of Baga is used by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which was established in 1998 to battle cross-border crime but whose mandate was expanded to fighting the deadly Boko Haram insurgency.

The gunnies seized the base near Lake Chad after engaging troops in a fierce battle that lasted several hours, witnesses said.

"They (the myrmidons) overwhelmed the troops and forced them to abandon the base which the gunnies took over," local resident Usman Dansubdu told Agence La Belle France-Presse after fleeing to neighboring Chad.

Hundreds of fear-stricken residents from Baga and five other Nigerian towns and fishing villages poured into Chad to escape the Islamist raids on their homes, witnesses said.

Maina Ma'aji Lawan, the senator representing northern Borno where Baga is located, confirmed the attack on the military base and other five locations.

"Boko Haram holy warriors launched attacks in Baga area yesterday (Saturday), destroying six towns and several settlements, forcing the people in the affected places to flee into Chad.

"They came in unbelievably large numbers and overpowered the multinational troops and local vigilantes," he told AFP.

"They took over the multinational troop base in Baga and sent the soldiers fleeing," he told AFP.

The force is made up of troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad, Nigerian army front man Brigadier General Olajide Laleye told AFP.

Residents of Kauyen Kuros, Mile 3, Mile 4, Baga, Doron-Baga and Bundaram fled across the lake in fishing boats and canoes into Chad following the hours-long attacks by hundreds of Lions of Islam from the Islamist group.

"We are now seeking refuge in Gubuwa, Kangallam and Kaiga villages inside Chad near the border with Nigeria," Dansubdu told AFP by telephone from Gubuwa.

The gunnies killed several people, burnt hundreds of homes and looted scores of businesses in the attacks that lasted over seven hours, said Doron-Baga resident Lawan Ajikalumbu who also fled to Gubuwa.

There was no official casualty toll.

Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fishermen's union in Borno state and a resident of Baga, said he received several calls from union members who fled to neighboring Chad informing him of the attacks.

Baga was the scene of the deadliest Boko Haram attack in April 2013 when 185 people were killed and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed in fighting between the Islamists and members of the multinational force.

Suspected Boko Haram gunnies late Saturday also raided the town of Babban Gida, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Damaturu, the capital of neighboring Yobe state, according to residents.

The Lions of Islam destroyed the military barracks, torched a deserted government boarding school and a local administration building after overpowering soldiers in a shootout, they said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Which means they now essentially control a large swath of territory near the Chad border. Possibly as much as 5% of the country.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/05/2015 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Yuuup.

* TOPIX > [HotAir] THE "OTHER ISLAMIC STATE" IS TAKING OVER EASTERN NIGERIA.

Publicly = Officially, that is.

Looks like the Brits + Frenchies work in Central Afriqque has only just begun.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/05/2015 23:18 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Journalist among Four Killed in Yemen Blast
[AnNahar] A bomb kaboom in a mainly Shiite Yemeni city on Sunday killed at least four people including a news hound and maimed 25 others, officials said.

The bombing targeted a gathering of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also known as Ansarullah, in Dhamar which the group controls, a security official said.

Saba, the official news agency, reported that three members of the "popular committees", a local police force created by the Huthi militia, and a news hound bit the dust in the blast.

The journalist was identified as Khaled al-Washli, who worked for the Huthi-owned al-Masirah television channel.

Al-Masirah confirmed Washli's death on its Facebook page.

Saba said that members of the popular committees discovered the bomb at one of their buildings in Dhamar but it went kaboom! as they tried to defuse it.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
a security official in Dhamar told Agence La Belle France-Presse the device had been planted in a vehicle, and gave a toll of six dead and 27 maimed.

This account could not immediately be confirmed from other sources.

The Huthis overran the Yemeni capital unopposed last September and have since advanced across other parts of the country.

They easily took over Dhamar, south of Sanaa, where they have the support of the city's mostly Shiite population, but have met fierce resistance elsewhere from al-Qaeda and Sunni tribal fighters.

On Thursday, almost 50 people were killed when a jacket wallah targeted a religious celebration by Huthi supporters in the mainly Sunni city of Ibb.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  66 journalists killed last year (2014) according to Journos killed in 2014.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2015 14:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Justice and closure sought as Boston Marathon bombing trial begins
21 months after the Boston Marathon bombing, the scars are deep and raw as survivors, witnesses, Americans and Chechens, from Boston and Grozny, have tried to understand the motivations of the Tsarnaev brothers. This story retraces some of the key steps leading up to the bombing, interviewing members of the Chechen émigré community and others close to the Tsarnaev family.

A story emerges of a troubled family buffeted by the challenges of assimilation and by the undercurrents of war and extremism wracking their homeland.

Federal prosecutors have indicated they will seek the death penalty if Dzhokhar is convicted. His defense lawyers are expected to seek leniency, arguing that Dzhokhar was an accomplice, but definitely under the sway of his older brother.

Defense lawyers have also made many last-minute filings, seeking to either delay the trial or move it out of state. A filing last Monday by Tsarnaev’s chief lawyer, Judy Clarke, suggested that the defense was trying reach a deal with the prosecution: possibly a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence.

Clarke wrote, "If the government remains unwilling to relent in seeking death, and the case therefore must be tried, the defense is asking for nothing more than a trial that is fair."

For Chechen refugees, who came to the New England over the past two decades, settling in the U.S. was a chance to rebuild a semblance of peace and prosperity.

Tsarnaev family friend Madina Khadzhimuradova said, "Upon reaching the U.S., “for the first time in my life I felt that I, my kids, my family – that we are safe and happy here. I prayed for America every evening. Now it is all gone. I am living in fear again, just like in the old times in Chechnya. We spoke about moving somewhere else, but where can we go? There is no place for Chechens on this Earth."
Posted by: ryuge || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tsarnaev family friend Madina Khadzhimuradova said, "Upon reaching the U.S., “for the first time in my life I felt that I, my kids, my family – that we are safe and happy here. I prayed for America every evening. Now it is all gone. I am living in fear again, just like in the old times in Chechnya. We spoke about moving somewhere else, but where can we go? There is no place for Chechens on this Earth."

Tell your friends and family not to plant any fecking bombs and you'll do just fine, lady.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/05/2015 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  There is no place for Chechens on this Earth
Yes, there is. Back with the other Chechens.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/05/2015 6:14 Comments || Top||

#3  A story emerges of a troubled family buffeted by the challenges of assimilation and by the undercurrents of war and extremism wracking their homeland.

Reads like a defense lawyers spin.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2015 7:38 Comments || Top||

#4  "Yes, there is. Back with the other Chechens."

Why would they want to live there?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/05/2015 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  The waters?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2015 14:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Guaranteed none of these Chechens have ever worked a dayear in the USA
Posted by: regular joe || 01/05/2015 18:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
ATC issues black warrants for four LJ militants, three others
[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court issued on Saturday black warrants for the execution of seven condemned prisoners, including four hard boyz of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
The court issued warrants for the hanging of four LJ hard boyz ? Mohammad Shahid Hanif alias Mufti Shahid, Mohammad Talha Hussain alias Noman, Khalil Ahmed alias Hassan Jan and Mohammad Saeed ?in two sectarian killing cases.

The black warrants were also issued for Al Qaeda?s Zulfikar Ali for killing two coppers near the US Consulate General in Bloody Karachi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Hafiz Gul Bahadur group targeted in N Waziristan drone strike
[DAWN] A drone strike in North Waziristan tribal region's Shawal valley area killed eight people and wounded two others on Sunday. This is the first drone attack of the new year in Pakistan.

Sources says that the drone targeted a compound belonging to an Uzbek commander of the Taliban's Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The area which was hit is the Wacha Basti village near Alwara Mandi in Datakhel.

Sources added that a high-value target may have been killed in the strike but his identity could not be ascertained yet.

Fear and panic gripped the area as drones were seen flying above in the skies after the attack.

Shawal valley lies on the border of Pakistan's North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areaa.

North Waziristan is among Pakistan?s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with insurgents and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, among others.

Drone attacks are widely unpopular across Pakistan and according to survey conducted in June 2013, 66 per cent of the country's citizens oppose these strikes.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Blast at playground leaves five dead, 10 injured in Orakzai
[DAWN] At least five people were killed and 10 others injured in a blast at a playground in Kadda Bazaar area of Kalya, the agency headquarters of the Lower Orakzai Agency on Sunday.

Official sources told Dawn.com that the blast occurred at Hussainia ground during a volleyball match. However, nature of the explosion could not be confirmed as yet. Political Tehsildar Khiasta Akbar said the blast appeared to be carried out through a planted device.

The political administration said that there was a match going on between Mani Khel and Farangi Kalley teams at the time of the explosion.

The incident appears to be an act of target killing with sectarian motives, they added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Frontier Corps (FC) foils terror bid in Sibi
[DAWN] Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force foiled a major bid of terrorism in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
's Sibi city by defusing a roadside kaboom on Sunday evening, the same day Eid Miladun Nabi (PTUI!) is being celebrated across the country.

FC defused an improvised bomb (IED) planted in a cycle of violence parked on the road where a procession in connection with the religious event was scheduled to pass.

Sources in FC told Dawn.com that miscreants had planted four kilogram of explosives in the cycle of violence to target the Eid Miladun Nabi procession.

?Major terror bid was foiled prior to the arrival of procession,? they said.

Security in Sibi was tightened after the recovery of cycle of violence and bomb disposal squad of FC was called in to defuse the kaboom.

In a separate incident, security forces jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
two Death Eaters and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession in Ziarat.

Security sources said one Frontier Corps personnel was also injured during exchange of fire with the holy warriors. More troops were called in the area to apprehend the fleeing holy warriors.

?The arrested Death Eaters belong to TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain),? they claimed.

Security in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan has been tightened in the aftermath of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
carnage. Forces have also launched a crackdown against the fanatics operating in different parts of the province.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Salman Taseer's commemoration attacked in Lahore
[DAWN] Unidentified miscreants attacked a candlelight vigil organised to mark death anniversary of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer who was murdered by his own security guard Mumtaz Qadri for demanding reforms in Pakistain's blasphemy laws in 2011.

The attack was carried out when members of civil society gathered at Liberty Chowk to light candles in the slain politician's memory.

Qadri, who was Taseer's bodyguard, shot him dead on January 4, 2011 at Kohsar Market in Islamabad over the politician's call for blasphemy laws to be reformed.

An anti-terrorism court had awarded death penalty to Mumtaz Qadri in October the same year.

Qadri was feted as a hero by a wide section of the public, including lawyers, and was even showered with rose petals as he arrived at court for a trial hearing.

The baton wielding miscreants tore apart banners and posters as they attacked members of civil society. Several people were maimed in the sudden attack. The attackers, however, managed to flee before police arrived at the scene.

Civil society activists said that candlelight vigils have been organised in Taseer's memory for the last four year, but this was the first time it was attacked.

Ordering a probe into the incident, DCO Captain (retd) Mohammad Usman has ordered swift arrest of the culprits behind the attack.
They've got photos of the guys in the act, but they'll a.) probably not be found and if b.) they are there won't be sufficient evidence for a conviction.
Other police officials told the media later that the eye witness accounts have been recorded and vowed that the culprits would soon be brought to justice.
Sure they will.
Condemnation poured in soon after the incident was reported on local media with politician and members of civil society demanding arrest of the culprits.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. Drone Strike Targeting Warlord Kills 6 in NW Pakistan
[AnNahar] A U.S. drone strike targeting a Taliban-linked warlord killed at least six Lions of Islam in Pakistain's restive tribal region near the Afghan border Sunday morning, Pak security officials said.

The strike was aimed the stronghold of prominent warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur
...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state..
, as well as the nearby base of an Uzbek commander in North Wazoo, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal districts that border Afghanistan.

"A U.S. drone fired two missiles which hit a compound and a vehicle in Alwara Mandi of North Waziristan... killing six terrorists," a security bigshot told Agence La Belle France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
.

The area has been a hub for al-Qaeda and Talibs since the early 2000s.

Another security official confirmed the strike and casualties.

The area is generally off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to independently verify the number and identity of the dead.

The Pak military launched a major offensive in the area in June and says it has killed more than 1,700 Lions of Islam so far, with 126 soldiers having bit the dust.

Bahadur, once seen as "pro-Pak," is unhappy with the military offensive in North Waziristan. He is aligned with the feared Haqqani network, which is frequently accused of sending fighters and jacket wallahs against U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The latest strikes came after Pakistain ramped up its anti-terror strategy in the wake of a December 16 attack on an army-run school in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
which killed 150 people, 134 of them children.

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...
has announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases in order to accelerate trials, and the premier has also lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
IED goes off in central Baghdad
[IraqiNews.com] About eight persons were killed or maimed due to the kaboom of the Improvised Explosive Device occurred in Karrada area of central Baghdad.

Security source said to IraqiNews.com ?The human casualties due to the kaboom of the IED, that took place in Hurriya Square, reached two deaths and six injuries.?

?The security forces succeeded in dismantling another IED which was nearby the scene without any casualties,? the source concluded.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bomb explodes in central Baghdad
[IraqiNews.com] A civilian was killed while four others were maimed due to a bomb kaboom inside a mini- bus (Kia type) in central Baghdad.

Security source reported to IraqiNews.com ?A bomb went kaboom! inside a mini- bus in Tayaran Square of central Baghdad,? noting that ?The kaboom resulted in killing a civilian and injuring four others.?

?The kaboom also caused material damage for the mini- bus,? the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


MP Shibani survives assassination attempt
[IraqiNews.com] MP Ghazwan al-Shibani of Ahrar Parliamentary Bloc within the Iraqi National Alliance survived an liquidation attempt in central Diwaniya city on Sunday evening.

Security source reported to IraqiNews.com ?An Adhesive Bomb attached to Shibani?s vehicle near his office in Ta?mim neighborhood of central Diwaniya on Sunday evening.?

?MP Shibani survived the liquidation attempt,? the source added, noting that ?The kaboom caused material damage for the vehicle.?

?Police forces started an investigation over the kaboom,? the source concluded.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


ISIL arrests 9 of its elements southern Mosul
[IraqiNews.com] The ISIL placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
nine of its elements in the charge of betrayal of southern djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
Source stated to IraqiNews.com ?The ISIL turbans arrested nine of the turbans of the same group including some Arabs for charging them in betraying the terrorist groups and help the Iraqi Security Forces.?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Security forces, volunteers liberate area eastern Ramadi
[IraqiNews.com] Security source stated that the security forces and the volunteers liberated an area of eastern Ramadi.

The source stated to IraqiNews.com ?The security forces and the volunteers liberated Albu Nasir of eastern Ramadi after killing some ISIL bandidos holy warriors and burning their vehicles.?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Militia elements killed, injured in suicide bombing west of Samarra
[IraqiNews.com] On Sunday, according to a security source in Salahuddin province, a number of elements of the militia had been killed and maimed when a boom-mobile driven by a jacket wallah targeted their headquarters west of Samarra.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, ?A boom-mobile driven by a suicide bomber went kaboom! today; it targeted the militia headquarters near the Fallujah/Samarra road junction, west of Samarra (40 km south of Tikrit), which led to a number of deaths and injuries.?

The source, who requested anonymity, added, ?Security forces cordoned off the scene, while ambulances transferred the dead bodies to the Forensic Medicine Department and the injured to the nearest hospital for treatment.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Having an appointment in Samarra," a metaphor for death. Death is both the story teller and central character, according to W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham didn't want to be a lawyer as were many in his family. Instead, he studied medicine and became a sawbones. His passion, however, was writing and he gave up medicine for writing after a successful first novel. Hw worked for the British Intelligence Service about the time of WWI.

Back on topic, a number of militant elements had their appointment in Samarra--titzup dead.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2015 7:29 Comments || Top||


Border Guards repel ISIS attack on border station between Iraq and Saudi Arabia
The proof that they have Allah's favour is that they keep extending their conquests. Allah's horse is the strong horse.
[IraqiNews.com] On Sunday, a security source in Anbar province announced, that a force of the border guards managed to repel an ISIS attack on a border station between Iraq and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, indicating that the festivities resulted in killing two members of the terrorist organization and wounding four others.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, ?Today, a force of the border guards was able to repel an ISIS attack on Anazh station on the Iraqi-Saudi border west of Ramadi,? noting that, ?Elements ISIS attacked the station after they drove off from the Ratba city.?

The source added that, ?Clashes continued for two consecutive hours,? adding that, ?It resulted in the death of two ISIS elements and the injury of four others, while a border guard was killed and two others were maimed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some Analysts this could be the start or herald of a new redirect by the ISIS agz the KSA.

More ...

* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Telegraph.UK] SAUDI GENERAL "KILLED IN ATTACK ON BORDER WID ISIS-HELD IRAQ".

* OTOH DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ISLAMIC STTAEACTIVITY SPREADS INTO [Asia's] FAR EAST | DEFENCE UPDATE.

Aka SOUTHEAST ASIA, i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Southern Thailand, + Southern PHIL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/05/2015 23:14 Comments || Top||


5 IPs injured southern Tikrit
[IraqiNews.com] A security source stated that a boom-mobile went kaboom! of southern Tikrit to result in injuring five coppers.

The source stated to IraqiNews.com ?A jacket wallah detonated his boom-mobile in the high way of Samara city to result in injuring five coppers.?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Shin Bet arrests Islamic State-linked terror cell in Hebron
[Ynet] Members of cell planned to kill an IDF soldier, settler and use their weapons to commit shooting attack against Israelis; they also threw an bomb at an IDF force.

The Shin Bet and IDF jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
a terror cell in November of last year, which identifies ideologically and religiously with 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....
and whose members planned different types of terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, it was cleared for publication on Sunday.

The members of the Hebron-based global jihad cell, the first known Paleostinian cell linked to the Syria- and Iraq-based Death Eater group, are: Ahmad Shehadeh, 22, Muhammad Zaru, 21, Qusai Masawdeh, 23.

While the Shin Bet described the three as "identifying with" Islamic State, it made no mention of them having left the West Bank to meet with members of the Death Eater group.

A Shin Bet official said this was the first case Israel knew of in which Paleostinians planned attacks in the name of Islamic State, whose bases in Syria and Iraq have drawn dozens of foreign volunteers, including Paleostinians and Israeli Arabs.

In his interrogation, Ahmad Shehadeh confessed to planning to establish an armed Islamic state cell with the other two in order to commit terror attacks.

He also said that he and Qusai Masawdeh produced several bombs, one of which they threw unsuccessfully at an IDF force.

Shehadeh and Masawdeh also planned to murder an IDF soldier and use his weapon and uniforms to commit a shooting attack agaisnt Israelis. The two left to commit the attack, but returned without having committed it.

Both Zaru and Masawdeh admitted to the allegations attributed to them, while Masawdeh also confessed to planning to kill a settler in Hebron and take his weapon.

Zaru was indicted at the Judea military court on charges of membership and activity in a forbidden organization, among other things. The other two will be indicted at the Judea military court in the coming days.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamist group seizes Damascus suburb from rivals
[Ynet] Islamist fighters seized a suburb east of Damascus on Sunday after driving out a smaller rival Death Eater group in deadly festivities, a monitoring group said, the latest example of rebel infighting in Syria's nearly four-year conflict.

Fighters from the Army of Islam clashed with members of the Army of the Nation group in Douma, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for

Human Rights said. Both groups include Sunni Moslem fighters opposed to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
's government, and the fighting is seen as more of a pie fight than a conflict over ideology.

The Observatory, which gathers information from a network of sources in Syria, said several fighters were killed, without giving details. It added that the Army of Islam had detained many of its rival combatants.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Terror Networks
US, allies conduct air strikes in Syria, Iraq against Islamic State
[Ynet] The United States and its allies conducted seven air strikes on 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....
targets in Syria and Iraq, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Sunday.

Six of the air strikes hit Islamic State positions near Kobani, Syria, and one struck near djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Iraq, the task force said in a statement. It said the air strikes took place between Saturday morning and Sunday morning.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/05/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
23[untagged]
6Govt of Iraq
4TTP
3Salafists
3Islamic State
2al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Govt of Pakistan
1Hezbollah
1Houthis
1Hamas
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Palestinian Authority
1al-Shabaab
1Taliban
1Boko Haram

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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.
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2015-01-05
  Hafiz Gul Bahadur group targeted in N Waziristan drone strike
Sun 2015-01-04
  Nawaz puts forward legislation to cover military courts
Sat 2015-01-03
  Report: Islamic State Executes Jordanian Pilot
Fri 2015-01-02
  Pudgy open to inter-Korean summit talks
Thu 2015-01-01
  26 killed in rocket attack on wedding party in Helmand
Wed 2014-12-31
  Suicide bombing outside Libyan parliament in Tobruk wounds 11
Tue 2014-12-30
  41 Militants Killed in Wave of Attacks in Cameroon
Mon 2014-12-29
  Taliban declares 'defeat' of Nato
Sun 2014-12-28
  AirAsia plane with 162 aboard disappears between Singapore and Malaysia
Sat 2014-12-27
  14 ISIL terrorists captured in Ramadi
Fri 2014-12-26
  Pakistani forces kill key planner of Peshawar school massacre
Thu 2014-12-25
  ISIL bombard Baghdadi district with Chlorine gas
Wed 2014-12-24
  Jordan Confirms IS Captured Pilot after Plane Went down in Syria
Tue 2014-12-23
  Pak court suspends conviction of five attackers on Gujrat army camp
Mon 2014-12-22
  Afghan forces launch operation in areas bordering Pakistan

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