Hi there, !
Today Fri 04/24/2015 Thu 04/23/2015 Wed 04/22/2015 Tue 04/21/2015 Mon 04/20/2015 Sun 04/19/2015 Sat 04/18/2015 Archives
Rantburg
531716 articles and 1856007 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 67 articles and 151 comments as of 15:37.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Iraqi security official: heavy fight continues in Ramadi
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 16:56 Mullah Richard [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
4 22:28 JosephMendiola [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 23:38 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 14:55 Pappy [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 18:45 Pappy [] 
1 06:13 Skidmark [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 03:52 g(r)omgoru [] 
0 [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
1 14:24 Betty Protector of the Antelope8245 [1]
0 []
7 14:32 P2Kontheroad []
13 13:37 Bobby []
2 01:36 SteveS []
1 01:32 g(r)omgoru []
14 23:32 JosephMendiola [1]
0 []
0 []
3 04:30 g(r)omgoru []
3 13:26 Glenmore []
0 []
5 18:28 Steve White []
2 04:05 Besoeker []
1 16:17 KBK []
1 02:49 g(r)omgoru []
8 20:19 Bill Clinton []
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 23:47 JosephMendiola []
0 []
5 19:56 Frank G [1]
4 15:24 Rambler in Virginia [1]
4 13:23 Unonter Bluetooth3165 []
11 23:00 rammer []
5 13:14 swksvolFF []
2 13:20 Glenmore []
0 []
8 16:58 USN, Ret. []
3 07:34 ed in texas [1]
3 22:40 JosephMendiola []
Page 4: Opinion
1 14:45 Betty Protector of the Antelope8245 []
0 []
5 10:47 trailing wife []
0 []
1 08:01 JohnQC []
5 08:54 Mike Kozlowski []
0 []
2 06:23 anon1 []
Page 6: Politix
3 15:38 dlr []
4 18:58 JohnQC []
9 18:57 Zorba de Medici9541 []
Afghanistan
Taliban kidnap 19 de-miners in eastern Afghanistan
[Ynet] Afghan Talibs have kidnapped 19 people working for a land mine clearance project in an eastern province, a local official said on Monday.

It was the latest in a string of kidnappings in the violence-weary country, days after four kidnapped ethnic Hazara men were killed by their captors.

Abdul Wali Sahi, deputy governor of the eastern province of Paktia, said the Taliban kidnapped the de-miners on Sunday while they were surveying an area on the outskirts of Gardez, the scenic provincial capital.

The kidnapped de-miners were employees of Sterling Demining Afghanistan, Sahi said. The company holds mine-clearing contracts throughout Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Because clearing mines is 'Un-Islamic'?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/21/2015 16:56 Comments || Top||


7 die in Logar roadside bomb
At least seven people were killed on Friday when a vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province, IANS reported.

Provincial government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish told Xinhua news network that a station wagon set off an improvised explosive device (IED) on a main road in Baraki Barak district at around midday.

The victims were members of one family, Darwish said.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded around 40 others, including a prominent Afghan lawmaker, in an explosion near an anti-corruption protest outside the complex housing the governor of eastern Khost province.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stem Cells for knees, OS.
If you've got the scratch.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2015 6:13 Comments || Top||


18 Afghani soldiers die in Badakhshan
Taliban fighters killed 18 soldiers -- including some who were beheaded -- after storming an Afghan army outpost in the remote mountainous northeast in a major attack before the spring fighting season, officials said Monday.

"Eighteen Afghan soldiers were martyred and eight of them were beheaded" on Friday, Badakhshan provincial mouthpiece Naweed Frotan told AFP, adding that nearly a dozen more soldiers were still missing.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


33 die in Jalalabad bombings
At least 33 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a series of asploshuns in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, according to police and local media.

ISIL has claimed responsibility.

A boom took place outside a local bank, police chief Fazel Ahmad Sherzad told Rooters.

The attacker was aboard a cycle of violence and detonated his explosives while military personnel and civilians were waiting to receive their salaries from the bank, Sherzad said.

Brutal images of the injured and the dead at the scene have been circulating online.

According to some reports, the first explosion was shortly followed by another blast. At least one suicide bomber was reportedly involved. Witnesses heard a third blast, but according to local media reports it was a controlled explosion by authorities, who detonated another suspicious device.

The ISIL extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Afghan Pajhwok news agency, citing the group’s spokesman.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Horn
Somali Shebab Bomb on U.N. Bus Kills at Least Six
[AnNahar] Somalia's Shabaab Islamists killed at least six U.N. workers on Monday when they set off a huge bomb which destroyed a staff bus in the northeastern town of Garowe, police said.

Four of those killed worked for the U.N. children's agency, Unicef, while four other Unicef staff were in a "serious condition", the agency said in a statement.

The head of the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
in Somalia, Nick Kay, said he was "shocked and appalled" by the loss of life, while Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned a "brutal attack".

Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shabaab holy warriors grabbed credit for the attack, branding the United Nations a "colonization force in Somalia".

Local police chief Ahmed Abdulahi Samatar said four of those killed were foreigners and two were Somalis, while seven others were also maimed, two of them foreigners.

"In attacking Unicef, Al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
has also attacked Somali children," Mohamud added. "It is an attack against the future of our country and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

The minibus, marked with the U.N. logo, was ripped apart by a ferocious blast.

"The improvised bomb attack occurred when the staff were traveling from their guest house to the office, normally a three-minute drive," Unicef said in a statement.

No details of nationalities of the foreigners killed and maimed were given.

Garowe, in the northeastern region of Somalia, is capital of the semi-autonomous Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
region.

Shabaab front man Abdulaziz Abu Musab confirmed the Islamist group had carried out the attack.

"We targeted the U.N. in Garowe, we killed some and maimed others. They are part of the colonization force in Somalia," he told AFP.

The Shabaab, meaning "youth", emerged out of a bitter insurgency against Æthiopia, whose troops entered Somalia in a 2006 U.S.-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that was then controlling the capital Mogadishu.

Shabaab rebels continue to stage frequent attacks in their fight to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government, as well as to counter claims that they are close to defeat due to the loss of territory, regular U.S. drone strikes against their leaders and defections.

They have also carried out Dire Revenge attacks across the wider region against countries which contribute troops to the 22,000-strong 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...
force in Somalia, AMISOM.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Egypt Confirms Death Sentences against 22 Morsi Backers
[AnNahar] An Egyptian court confirmed death sentences against 22 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi on Monday over an attack on a cop shoppe in which one officer was killed.

The judgment comes ahead of an expected verdict on Tuesday against Morsi himself on charges of inciting the killing of protesters in December 2012 when he was president.

The attack in the town of Kerdasa on the outskirts of Cairo on July 3, 2013 came on the same day that then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi announced he was overthrowing Morsi.

Since his ouster, the authorities have cracked down hard on Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund movement with at least 1,400 of his supporters killed.

Hundreds more have been sentenced to death and thousands tossed in the slammer
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
, often in speedy mass trials that have been criticised by human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
groups.

Monday's court ruling confirmed the death sentences it handed down against the 22 defendants in March after they had received the statutory approval of the country's highest Moslem religious authority, the mufti.

Fourteen of the 22 defendants are in jug, while eight are on the run, a court official said.

The defendants were convicted of "illegal assembly, vandalism, murder and attempted murder".

Morsi himself is facing five separate trials on charges that carry the death penalty. The verdict in the first of them is expected on Tuesday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Morsi got 20 yrs
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2015 9:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if that sentence works like it would in the US = out in 7 yrs.
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2015 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  No. He'll be luck to live five years in an Egyptian prison.
Posted by: Unonter Bluetooth3165 || 04/21/2015 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  See #1.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/21/2015 22:28 Comments || Top||


Sinai Bomb Claimed by IS Kills Three Egypt soldiers
[AnNahar] A roadside kaboom claimed by 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 killed three Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula on Monday, medical and security officials said.

The blast struck on the Egyptian side of the divided city of Rafah on the Gazoo border, the official said.

"An officer and two soldiers were killed and another soldier maimed when their armored vehicle hit a bomb in the Tawil al-Amir district," the security official told AFP.

Jihadists who have pledged allegiance to IS, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria, said they carried out the attack.

"We blew up an armored vehicle of the apostate army and everyone inside was killed," IS Sinai Province said on its Twitter account.

Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the group has carried out repeated deadly attacks on the security forces in its peninsula stronghold.

Twin kabooms claimed by the group on April 12 killed at least 14 people, 11 of them security personnel.

On April 2, the group launched simultaneous attacks on five checkpoints in the region that killed 15 soldiers and two civilians.

The authorities say more than 500 troops and police have been killed since Morsi's overthrow, most of them in North Sinai province.

The attacks have come despite stringent security measures imposed by the army in the province, including a night-time curfew and the creation of a buffer zone along the Gazoo border to prevent Lions of Islam infiltrating from the Paleostinian territory.
Ynet adds:
Two Egyptian soldiers were killed and seven others maimed on Monday morning after the military vehicle they were driving in went kaboom! after an bomb deton
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula


Africa Subsaharan
Failed Suicide Bomber Targets Shiite Mosque in NE Nigeria
[AnNahar] A botched 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...
suicide kaboom targeting a group of Shiite Moslems injured three people in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
on Monday, witnesses told AFP.

The would-be bomber detonated his explosives a few meters (yards) from an open-air mosque in the Dogo Tebo area of Potiskum shortly after afternoon prayers.

"Three worshipers were hit by shrapnel and sustained mild injuries while the bomber's thighs and legs were blown off," said local resident Mukhtar Ubale in an account supported by two others.

Another resident who witnessed the kaboom, Zakari Kabiru, said the bomber, thought to be aged about 30, was taken to hospital but his chances of survival were slim.

"Only his torso was intact but the lower parts of his body were shattered," he said, blaming the Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram for the attack.

Boko Haram, whose insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 15,000 since 2009, condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.

The group has carried out several suicide and bombing attacks on Potiskum, which is the commercial hub of Yobe state and one of the worst hit by the violence.

Last November at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured from a suicide attack on a Shia Moslem Ashura festival procession, which marks the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Gun attacks by soldiers that followed left several others dead.

‎In July 2014, a blast rocked the same Saqafa mosque shortly after evening prayers, leaving four dead.

A second kaboom went off moments later at a mosque in the town's Anguwar Bolawa area, in the compound of the chief imam, killing at least two worshipers.

A four-nation military offensive of Nigeria and its neighbors has pushed Boko Haram out of captured territory since February.

Security analysts have warned the group would revert to its previous tactics of suicide and kabooms against so-called "soft targets" such as crowded markets and busy transport hubs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  the bomber, thought to be aged about 30, was taken to hospital but his chances of survival were slim

Probably a good thing. He wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/21/2015 14:55 Comments || Top||


Angry yutes kill 11 in Ivory Coast
At least seven people were killed in an attack on a UN-protected displaced persons camp in western Ivory Coast by angry yutes, who torched the site despite the presence of the unarmed targets, sources said Friday.

The United Nations condemned the attack, in which it said seven people were killed and 13 wounded, promising to leave Earlier reports spoke of nine dead at the camp.

The UN secretary general's special representative in the country, Bert Koenders, deplored "this criminal act, a flagrant violation of international humanitarian rights". However, he did not explain why the contingent of UN blue berets charged with protecting the camp had not been able to prevent the killings.
They're pussies?
Send in the mighty Uruguayans!
The deaths came after four people were killed in an attack late Thursday in the Kokoma district of Duekoue, inhabited mostly by ethnic Malinke.

Local sources said youths from Kokoma had later torched the displaced persons' camp at Niambly on the outskirts of town, populated mainly by Guere people, in an apparent revenge attack.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


19 die in Boko attacks in Cameroon
Nineteen people were killed in Thursday night's attack on a Cameroonian village by Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants, a security source said in an updated toll, adding that most of the victims were beheaded.

"The final toll from this attack is 19 dead, with a majority of the victims decapitated," a security source said Saturday on condition of anonymity.

Security sources had previously said 10 civilians were killed in the cross-border raid on the village of Bia in Cameroon's Far North region.

The attack comes after a regional military offensive - which includes Cameroon - has claimed a string of successes in their fight back against the terrorist militants in Nigeria in recent weeks.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Saudi Soldier Killed in Yemen Border Clash
[AnNahar] A Saudi soldier has been killed in a barrage of mortar and other fire along the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The soldier is the eighth to die since warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition on March 26 began air strikes in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
to stop a southern advance by Iran-backed Houthis.

The air campaign has sparked exchanges of fire along the border region between Yemen 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...
, where all the kingdom's casualties have occurred.

Army troops and members of the Border Guards force "were subjected to heavy shooting and mortar shells from inside the Yemeni border" at 11:00 PM (2000 GMT) Sunday in Saudi Arabia's Najran region, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing the interior ministry front man.

"The Saudi side responded and the situation was brought under control," the front man said, adding that two other security personnel were maimed and taken to hospital.

Saudi Arabia has reinforced the border with artillery, tanks and hilltop lookout posts to block the incursion of any Huthis from their traditional highland stronghold just over the border.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Soddy warplanes hammer Sanaa, 30 die
The Saudi warplanes targeted on Monday Faj Attan area, southern the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, claiming 30 deaders and wounding dozens of civilians.

In response, the Yemeni Army and public committees continued striking Qaeda bad guys and their allies in various provinces, including Maareb and Aden.

Saudi Arabia has been hammering Yemen for 24 days now to restore power to Brave Sir Robin Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed over 2,600 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. The attacks have also left thousands of people injured.
Definite fog of war with regard to the casualties, as can be seen in reports from An Nahar and Ynet:
18 Dead, 300 Hurt as Raids on Yemen Capital Spark Blasts

[AnNahar] Saudi-led air strikes on a missile depot in Yemen's rebel-held capital Monday sparked kabooms that left at least 18 people dead and 300 maimed, flattening houses and shaking faraway neighborhoods.

Many more people were feared to have been killed after two strikes hit the hilltop depot, leaving a trail of destruction in the Fajj Attan area of Sanaa which was covered in thick clouds of smoke.

Monday's strikes on Sanaa triggered a series of blasts that sent shockwaves across the city, leaving cars mangled, buildings gutted and streets completely scattered with debris.

Fires broke out at the targeted missile base and a nearby petrol station, witnesses said, and the scorching heat could be felt from a distance.

Medics at four hospitals in the capital said at least 18 non-combatants were killed and some 300 others maimed.

The hilltop base belongs to the missile brigade of the elite Republican Guard, which remained loyal to former 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...
who has been accused of siding with the Houthis in their fight against the government.

Toll of Yemen air strike at least 25 dead, 398 wounded

[Ynet] "Twenty-five citizens were killed and more than 398 were maimed, mostly women and kiddies, according to a preliminary figure after the Saudi aggression's bombing today on the districts of Hadda and Attan in the capital Sanaa," said the state news agency Saba, which is run by the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militia group.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, the humanity!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2015 3:52 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK Police Arrest Boy over Alleged Australia IS Attack Plan
[AnNahar] Police in Britannia said Monday they have jugged
Please don't kill me!
a 14-year-old boy in connection with an alleged 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....
-inspired attack plan in Australia.

The boy was arrested Saturday "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism and remains in police custody for questioning," Greater Manchester Police in northwest England said in a statement.

Australian police arrested five men in counter-terrorism raids in Melbourne on Saturday and charged one of them with conspiring to commit a terrorist act on Anzac Day on April 25, when ceremonies are held to remember Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops who fell in the World War I Gallipoli campaign.

One of the officers working on the case in Britannia, Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, said: "We have uncovered communication between an individual in the northwest and a man in Australia to what we believe is a credible terrorist threat.

"As soon as this information came to light we acted quickly with the relevant authorities here and abroad."

Police said the boy, from Blackburn in Lancashire, northwest England, had previously been arrested on April 2.

Authorities stressed they had not uncovered any evidence of an imminent attack being planned in Britannia.

Australian police said the arrest in Britannia was connected to their operation.

"Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police can confirm a link between the arrest of a 14-year-old boy in Blackburn, Lancashire in the United Kingdom on Saturday with Operation Rising," the state and national police forces said in a joint statement.

"Investigators received information from UK authorities after they allegedly uncovered communications between the teenager and a man in Australia.

"The nature of the communication will form part of the investigation."

Of the five men arrested in Melbourne on Saturday, Sevdet Besim, 18, remains in jug charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

Another 18-year-old, who has not been named, is being held without charge on an interim preventative detention order.

Two other men, aged 18 and 19, have been released pending further inquiries while another 18-year-old was released but is facing weapons offences.

After the arrests in Australia, police in Britannia said they were examining the security measures at events.

"We already have protective security plans in place for major Anzac events in the UK but as a sensible precaution all forces have been asked to review security arrangements at related events," said Scotland Yard's Assistant Deputy Commissioner Neil Basu.

It is understood that the review covers Anzac Day events but also commemorations for the 70th anniversary of VE Day on May 8 being attended by high-profile figures including members of the royal family.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  See also RELATED TOPIX > [ABC News] AL-QAIDA LEADER JAILED IN MAURITANIA FOR "PLAN TO ATTACK AUSTRALIA".

Attack on Aussies to divert US-Allied attention from Islamist destabilization of South + SE Asia, + Philipines.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/21/2015 23:38 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Caucasus Emirate leader killed
[NYT] The leader of the Caucasus Emirate was killed in a counterterrorism operation, according to Russian authorities and Islamic militant websites Monday. Aliaskhab Kebekov, a 43-year old theologian, was gunned down on Sunday near the city of Buynaksk in the Dagestan area, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement.

Kebekov had only led the Caucasus Emirate group for a little more than a year. During that time, Islamist militants launched an audacious assault on Grozny that left 15 policemen dead and 36 wounded last December.

It can be difficult to reliably confirm the deaths of prominent militants in Russia. The authorities announced Mr. Umarov’s death a half-dozen times before, only for him to reappear alive afterward.

It can be difficult to reliably confirm the deaths of militant leaders in Russia, but experts who were interviewed on Monday said that official claims of Kebekov’s death were probably true this time because Russian militant sites like Kavkaz-Center had reported it as well.

Kebekov, a Sharia scholar who lacked military experience, seemed an unlikely choice to lead the Caucasus Emirate. His best-known edict as leader may be his ban on use of "black widow" suicide bombings carried out by women. He led the Caucasus Emirate during a time of decline, as it was undermined by an expanding rival, the Islamic State. Several top commanders defected from the Caucasus Emirate over the last year to join the Islamic State, prompting angry denunciations from Kebekov's lieutenants in online videos.

Grigory Shvedov, editor of Caucasian Knot, said that Kebekov's death was a major blow to the Caucasus Emirate that would probably tip the balance among Islamists farther toward the IS. Shvedov said, "The situation is somewhat paradoxical. The people who have been killed are perhaps the less radical ones, because those who have dedicated themselves to the Islamic State, they are the more radical ones."
Posted by: ryuge || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Again?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2015 2:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Double-tapped him?
Posted by: Pappy || 04/21/2015 18:45 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkish police detain British family thought to be headed for Syria
[Ynet] Turkish police have incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
a British couple and their four young children on suspicion of seeking to travel to a part of Syria controlled 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....
krazed killers, officials said on Monday.

Asif Malik,
...nowadays probably a common, if not traditional English name...
his partner Sara, and the four children - who are aged between less than 12 months and 7 years old - were detained at a hotel in an industrial district in the capital Ankara, a Turkish security official said. British police said on Sunday the family had not been seen or heard from for almost two weeks and was thought to be heading to Syria. They appealed for information on their whereabouts after relatives voiced concern.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: WoT
American Jailed 25 Years for Trying to Join al-Qaida
[AnNahar] An American man from a small community on Long Island was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to join al-Qaeda in Yemen, prosecutors said.

U.S.-born citizen Marcos Alonso Zea, 26, was thwarted in a 2012 attempt to travel to Yemen. He was intercepted by British authorities en route to the Middle East and sent back to New York.

Back home and under FBI surveillance, he then encouraged a friend, Justin Kaliebe, to travel to Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
to wage jihad.

After Kaliebe was tossed in the clink
You have the right to remain silent...
at New York's JFK airport in January 2013, Zea attempted to destroy myrmidon material on his computer, including al-Qaeda's online English-language magazine, Inspire.

He was arrested in October 2013 and has been in jug ever since. Prosecutors said he was sentenced at a federal courthouse in Central Islip close to his home in Brentwood on Long Island.

Attorney Loretta Lynch, who has been waiting months for her confirmation vote as the next U.S. attorney general, said Zea was "a chilling reminder" of the danger posed by homegrown terrorists.

"Born, raised and schooled in the United States, the defendant nevertheless betrayed his country," said Lynch, currently attorney of the eastern district of New York.

Zea pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and obstructing justice.

Prosecutors said he plotted as early as 2011 to wage violent jihad in Yemen, the ancestral home of al-Qaeda founder the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
and the base of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
, which the U.S. considers the most dangerous franchise of the jihadist network.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


India-Pakistan
Bid to attack Pasni radar system
[Dawn] QUETTA: Suspected bandidos faceless myrmidons attacked the air traffic control radar in Pasni area of the Gwadar district late on Monday night.

Official sources said a group of bandidos faceless myrmidons reached the site of the air traffic control and attacked the radar system with rockets. How­ever, personnel of the Air­port Security Force guarding the radar station immediately took position and returned fire. Heavy exchange of fire continued for some time.

"The radar is safe," Qazi Maqbool, general manger of the Civil Aviation Authority, South, told Dawn, adding that the radar had been temporarily switched off after the attack.

"No casualty was reported," the sources said.

The air traffic was affected because of the radar's closure.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Three wanted ‘terrorists’ arrested
[Dawn] PESHAWAR/BUNER: Three alleged holy warriors were on Monday nabbed
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
, two from Buner and one from the outskirts of the scenic provincial capital.

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.
, the counter-terrorism department arrested the suspected terrorist identified as Alamzeb in the limits of Peshtakhara cop shoppe. An official said the hard boy was wanted to law enforcers in different cases of terrorism and had been absconding. Carrying head money of Rs0.5 million, the suspect is stated to be member of a proscribed outfit.

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system...
Buner district police officer Syed Khalid Mehmood Hamdani told media persons at Daggar that police's special operations group arrested two bandidos snuffies identified as Mohammad Rahim and Mohammad Zada. He said explosives, ammunition and the arms looted from Ambela police post in 2009 were also recovered from their hideout in Elum Ghar.

Mr Hamdani said the seizure included two Kalashnikovs, two rifles, 750 gram explosives, eight meters prima card, safety fuses, four magazines and 267 rounds.

Meanwhile in Peshawar, police arrested two men in Peshtakhara area. An official said when police signaled a car to stop, the people on board the vehicle opened fire on police. The police also fired back and managed to arrest the attackers. They were identified as Gul Zaman and Suhail Khan of Regi village. Police also recovered a Kalashnikov from their possession and also seized the car.

A case against them was registered at Peshatakhara cop shoppe.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Banned outfit leader held with ‘hate material’
[Dawn] Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

chapter chief of a banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization
was nabbed while preaching on the New Campus of Punjab University on Monday.

Moslem Town police said the PU administration informed them that a man was motivating its students to join a banned outfit and also distributing 'hate material' among them at the fruit shop between hostels 14 and 15 soon after sunset.

Police reached the spot and locked away
Please don't kill me!
the man who identified himself as Shaheryar, a former student of a private university, hailing from Hyderabad.

During preliminary interrogation, Shaheryar said he had been living in a rented house at Mustafa Town, Wahdat Road. Pamphlets of banned outfit Hizbul Tehreer, urging the youth to wage a struggle against the government besides a laptop containing hate literature were also recovered from him.

Police claimed the arrested man had been one of the major leaders of the banned outfit in Punjab.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi security official: heavy fight continues in Ramadi
[Rudaw] RAMADI, Anbar Province -- Fighting between Iraqi joint forces and forces of Evil of the so-called 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 has intensified in the Anbar lovely provincial capital Ramadi, a security source told Rudaw.

"Iraqi sources are still in heavy fighting against ISIS militias inside the city of Ramadi," a source from Anbar police told Rudaw. "Iraqi forces have been able to fully recapture the central hospital in the Huzzi neighborhood of Ramadi, but the fight is ongoing in the Soufia neighborhood."

US-led coalition Arclight airstrikes and thousands of tribal fighters are reportedly backing the Iraqi army to drive out the bandidos bully boyz from Ramadi, some 115 kilometers from Baghdad. The Anbar Provincial Council announced Sunday the jihadi group controls as much as 20 percent of the city.

"ISIS gunnies have booby-trapped almost everything and everywhere, this is the reason why we are slow in our advance," the police source said.

In a statement released Monday, coalition forces announced they "have conducted 12 Arclight airstrikes in the past 24 hours on ISIS positions and military bases including towns of Baiji, Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
Ramadi and Shingal."

According to Anbar officials, at least 80 percent of the Sunni-majority province was under the control of ISIS prior to the Iraqi military campaign that was launched April 8.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Peshmerga repel ISIS in recaptured areas south of Kirkuk
[Rudaw] KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region -- Peshmerga forces fresh off of retaking areas south of Kirkuk from 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....
forces over the past two days have repelled a series of counterattacks overnight, Kurdish officials told Rudaw.

ISIS forces of Evil have begun attacking Peshmerga forces in the newly liberated villages of Auzeria, Atshana, Shakh and Twella, Peshmerga official Sheikh Jaffar Sheikh Mustafa told Rudaw Monday.

According to Peshmerga officials south of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
at least 15 ISIS fighters were killed in the latest fighting, but the Peshmerga also had casualties, including the death of an officer and seven maimed.

The engagements are taking place after a Peshmerga offensive to retake ISIS-held areas began Saturday in the south of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. Kurdish officials have previously said the southeastern villages of Auzeria and Atshana were of key value to ISIS fighters to link areas under their control to Daquq.

"We found out that the Daesh gunnies who attacked our forces in the villages including Atshana and Auzeria were coming from Hawija," Tariq Ahmed, a Peshmerga official, told Rudaw Monday while using Daesh, the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Hawija is 55 kilometers southwest of Kirkuk and ISIS forces of Evil have been fleeing there following the Iraqi army's capture of Tikrit. Backed by Shiite militias and air support from the US-led coalition, the battle for Tikrit in March was the Iraqi government's first major victory over ISIS in Iraq's Sunni heartland.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Coalition Carries Out 26 Strikes against IS in Iraq
[AnNahar] U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out 26 strikes in Iraq over 24 hours targeting 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....
jihadist group north and west of Baghdad, it said on Monday.

"In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 26 air strikes" using manned and unmanned aircraft from Sunday to Monday morning, the coalition said in a statement.

Thirteen of the strikes were in Anbar province west of Baghdad, where Iraqi security forces are battling to expand their control beyond the pockets of territory they currently hold.

There were eight more near Baiji in Salaheddin province, another contested area, and five in Nineveh, the first province to fall to an IS-led offensive last June.

Iraqi security forces performed dismally in the early days of the myrmidon drive, which overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland.

But Iraqi forces have since managed to regain significant territory from the jihadists with support from pro-government paramilitaries, the U.S.-led coalition and Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Southeast Asia
Top NPA leader nabbed in Mindano

Police and military authorities raided the hideout of Bonifacio Platil, the second deputy secretary of the NPA in northeastern Mindanao. He faces a number of criminal charges and is currently being interrogated in Butuan City.

Platil's capture comes at the same time that NPA leaders were calling for the resumption of the long-abandoned peace talks.

Platil has also been linked to the series of roadside bombings that killed and injured soldiers, policemen, and civilians in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur provinces.

4th Infantry Division commander Major General Oscar Lactao said Platil is one of the masterminds of terror in the Caraga region. Lactao said, "He is a fugitive of the law, and destroyer of hopes of thousand Filipinos in Caraga. For those who were victimized especially those who were killed by this criminal, we are one step closer in achieving justice."
Posted by: ryuge || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Military Court Jails Daftardar 7 Years, Fustoq 3 Years and Sabbagh 2 Years
[AnNahar] Five Islamist bandidos bully boyz were handed jail terms ranging from two to seven years on Monday over terror-related charges.

State-run National News Agency said the Military Court sentenced senior Abdullah Azzam Brigades
... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed...
official Jamal Daftardar to seven years in jail. The Qaeda-linked Death Eater was jugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in the western Bekaa region on January 15, 2014.

He had been charged with belonging to a terrorist group, plotting to carry out terrorist attacks across Leb and forging Syrian, Lebanese and Paleostinian identification papers.
The man certainly kept busy...
The court also handed down a 3-year sentence to radical holy man Sheikh Omar Bakri Fustoq, who was arrested in Aley on May 25, 2014.

Fustoq had been charged with "belonging to armed terrorist groups; training bandidos bully boyz on arms and explosives; seeking to create an Islamic emirate in the North; delivering religious sermons containing insults against the state and the army; and incitement to civil war."

Bakri lived in Britannia for almost 20 years before settling in Leb in 2005 after he was banned from London under government curbs following the underground and bus bombings that year.

The Syrian-born holy man, who also holds Lebanese nationality, had denied having any links to al-Qaeda although he said he believed in "the same ideology."

Also on Monday, the Military Court sentenced prominent 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...
gunman Hussam al-Sabbagh to two years in jail. His bodyguard Shadi Zaylaa received a similar verdict.

Sabbagh was arrested in Tripoli's Abi Samra neighborhood in July 2014.

Known as Abu Hassan, Sabbagh holds Lebanese and Australian citizenships and is wanted by authorities in both countries for belonging to al-Qaeda, most notably the Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred.
group.

Influenced by al-Qaeda's mentality during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he joined the group in fighting U.S. troops in the country.

He also sent members of al-Qaeda through Leb and Syria to fight in Iraq against invading U.S. troops in 2003, according to MTV. In recent years, Sabbagh was heavily involved in the festivities between Tripoli's rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

The Military Court also sentenced Mohammed Bassam Hammoud to five years in jail.

According to NNA, the five men were convicted of "belonging to an armed terrorist group with the aim of carrying out acts of terror as well as the possession of arms and explosives."
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abdullah Azzam Brigades


Syria Army Cuts Key Rebel Supply Route from Jordan
[AnNahar] Regime forces on Monday cut off a vital rebel supply route in southern Syria that opposition fighters used to transport weapons from Jordan, the army and a monitor said.

The armed forces took control of several villages in the southern province of Daraa in the morning, encircling two other villages where rebel fighters were located, an army statement said.

"This new victory... reopens and secures the vital road between Daraa and Sweida (another southern province) and cuts off the supply route for armed terrorist groups," the statement said.

It called the takeover "a fatal blow" for rebel groups.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said government fighters had cut off "a main supply route" that rebels used to bring in fighters and weapons from the Syrian-Jordanian border to their stronghold of al-Lajjat.

The military said the town was a "gateway" for opposition fighters and weapons heading north into Damascus province.

Abdel Rahman said that after fierce festivities and heavy regime shelling, pro-government forces captured villages sprinkled around the rebel-held town of Busr al-Harir.

The fighting killed 18 regime force members and 11 rebel fighters, the head of the Britannia-based monitoring group told AFP.

In its statement, the army said "the special military operation resulted in the deaths of a high number of takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
(extremist Sunni) terrorists."

Rebel fighters have gained two significant victories over the army in recent weeks by taking the main border crossing point with Jordan and the ancient town of Bosra al-Sham.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Washington Post Reporter Faces Spy Trial in Iran
[AnNahar] The detained Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian faces trial for espionage and three other charges including "collaboration with hostile governments," his lawyer told AFP on Monday.

Rezaian, the newspaper's Tehran correspondent, has been in jail for nine months but no date has yet been set for court, Leila Ahsan said, revealing the case against her client for the first time and saying it contained "no justifiable proof."

In a telephone call after meeting Rezaian, she said Rezaian was also accused of gathering classified information and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran.

Ahsan revealed the charges hours after senior judicial official said the file against Rezaian, an American-Iranian citizen, is "thick and contains different aspects."

However Ahsan said: "Jason is a journalist and the nature of his work is to have access to information and to publish it. He had no access to confidential information, either directly or indirectly."

Rezaian, 39, was detained in Tehran on July 22 last year, along with his Iranian wife who was later released on bail.

Rezaian is being held in the capital's notorious Evin Prison, where Ahsan said he was "in good spirits" but had no access to newspapers or media.

His detention has political resonance because of his dual nationality and long-running talks between Iran and world powers, including the United States, regarding Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week said the charges against Rezaian were "very serious" and were a matter for Iran's judiciary, insisting the case was free of political interference.

Zarif's remarks came after the Post accused Iran of thwarting Rezaian's access to legal counsel.

The news hound was among four U.S. citizens that President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
last month urged Iran to return home.

On April 2, Iran and world powers agreed the key parameters for a deal that would end a 12-year standoff about concerns that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists its atomic program is entirely peaceful and meant for civilian energy purposes only.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Syrian Army retakes towns in Daraa
Syrian Army and armed forces continued their successful operations against different terrorist organizations killing scores of ISIL and Al-Nusra terrorists and establishing control over other areas.

Units of the army and the armed forces on Monday established full control over a number of towns in the northeastern countryside of southern Daraa Province, tightening the noose around the remnants of the terrorist organizations.

A military source told SANA that the army established full control over the towns of Msaika al-Sharqiya, Msaika al-Gharbiya, Rasm al-Khawabi, Ashnan and al-Dallasa during a military operation carried out in the northeastern countryside of the province.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
38[untagged]
10Islamic State
3Govt of Iran
3Govt of Syria
2Taliban
2Boko Haram
1Arab Spring
1Abdullah Azzam Brigades
1Commies
1al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula
1Govt of Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Houthis
1al-Nusra
1al-Shabaab

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2015-04-21
  Iraqi security official: heavy fight continues in Ramadi
Mon 2015-04-20
  Clashes, Saudi-led Air Strikes Kill 85 in Yemen
Sun 2015-04-19
  IS claims Responsibility for Deadly Afghan Bombing
Sat 2015-04-18
  ANZAC Day terror plot foiled in Melbourne
Fri 2015-04-17
  Top Saddam aide Izzat al-Douri killed
Thu 2015-04-16
  BIFF names new chief
Wed 2015-04-15
  Syria-bound British councilor's son arrested in UK
Tue 2015-04-14
  Ajnad Al Sham 'declares war' on ISIS south of Damascus: statement
Mon 2015-04-13
  U.S. drones kill 2 leaders in Pakistan
Sun 2015-04-12
  Paks free Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, terrorist behind Mumbai attacks
Sat 2015-04-11
  Fierce fighting in south Benghazi as LNA 'masses forces' outside city
Fri 2015-04-10
  Saudi warplanes pound military airport in southern Yemen
Thu 2015-04-09
  Red Cross Says Situation 'Catastrophic' in Yemen's Aden
Wed 2015-04-08
  Teams Exhume Tikrit Mass Graves Suspected to Hold Bodies of 1,700 Iraqi Soldiers
Tue 2015-04-07
  27 Houthis reportedly killed in S. Yemen ambush

Better than the average link...



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.
184.73.56.98
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (17)    Non-WoT (12)    Opinion (8)    (0)    Politix (3)