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Today: 66 articles and 109 comments as of 11:30.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Syrian Army Advances in Palmyra, ISIL Militants Flee
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dear Forum, [so reads the inscription]
Your Pharaoh just had a conniption!
By Ra, 'tis no fiction --
What heartless Egyptian
Could two dancers joined at the hip shun?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 07/28/2015 4:50 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
ALP commander joins Taliban group along with his 7 men in Sar-e-Pul
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A commander of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces joined the Taliban group along with his seven men in northern Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan.

The provincial police front man Amanuddin Aman said the coppers were serving with the ALP forces in Kohistan
...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns....
at district.

Aman further added that the defected ALP forces had connections with the Taliban group in the past and had assisted them to infiltrate in Kohistan district.

He said sporadic shootout continues between the remaining ALP forces and the Talibs in the area.

Aman also added that additional forces have been deployed in the area to repress the assailant Talibs and clear the district from their presence.

The Taliban group front man Zabiullah Mujahid claimed around 100 ALP forces have joined the Talibs in Kohistanat district.

Sar-e-Pul is among the relatively volatile provinces in northern afghanistan where anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in a number of its districts.

This comes as over 100 members of the Afghan natioanl security forces surrendered to Taliban group in Wardoj district following days of heavy shootout.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Aman further added that the defected ALP forces had connections with the Taliban group in the past and had assisted them to infiltrate in Kohistan district.


Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2015 16:40 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Æthiopian troops seize new area from Shaboobs
The African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) troops from Ethiopia have taken control of Jameco area just 20Km west of Burhakaba town in Bay region.

The military offensive against Al Shabab controlled area was involved by helicopters belonging to AMISOM troops which were hovering over near Burhakaba town.

The Islamist militants of Al Shabab reportedly withdrew from Jameco area where it has been controlling for many years but now it is under control coalition troops, sources said.

However Al Shabaab militants lost strategic towns to Somalia army, along with Kenyan and Ethiopian troops, serving under African Union Mission banner AMISOM in Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


'German-Somali' behind Mogadishu's Jazeera hotel blast
[BBC] A German of Somali origin is suspected to have been the suicide bomber who struck in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday, a Somali intelligence officer has told the BBC. The male bomber was believed to have come from Bonn city, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as investigations were continuing. The attack on the five-star Jazeera Palace Hotel killed 15 people.
"Hey Moishe -- get the extra-hot burning coals and the spikiest iron stool from inventory. Aloysius -- a poker and my special intestine tongs.... and a barrel of mustache wax. We got us one o' them "German" Somalis to play with, down in our little nether pit!"
"But boss! The German government will be mad as hell with us for using extra-hot burning coals and our spikiest iron stool!"
"Don't worry, no one's going to be looking into what happens with little 'Hans' here..."
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  a nice little "Jihadi-Fodder" brand right above the unibrow might make it harder to return home to cause mayhem, as well
Posted by: Frank G || 07/28/2015 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  If'n he was the suicide bomber - he's dead.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/28/2015 20:32 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Fresh deadly fighting in Kufra despite ceasefire promises
[Libya Herald] Despite reports of a ceasefire agreed yesterday in Kufra between Zwai and Tebu fighters, with a promise to hand over prisoners, there has again been heavy fighting in the town today, for the third day in succession.
A hudna may only last as long as needed to be ready for the next attack...
Continued intermittent festivities between the two communities re-erupted into full-scale violence on Friday since when at least 14 people have been killed and two dozen maimed.

"Nine Zwai members and five Tebu people have been killed and the number of casualties is over 25, from both communities" Salah Al-Sanussi, a Tebu elder living in Kufra, told the Libya Herald today.

"Mortar and heavy artillery fire is being exchanged and there is absolutely no safe place left," he said.

Most of the current fighting is around the Tebu district of Gadarfai, which separates the two Zwai areas of Bu-Shoug and Al-Harah, as well as at the Al-Khadrah roundabout in the south of the town.

Tebu fighters are also reported to have fired mortars at the Kufra airport, located at Zwai area of the town, forcing its closure.

A week ago, when five people, including two Bangladeshi workers, were killed in a Zwai-Tebu shootout, the town's National Security Directorate front man, warned of rising tension between the two communities. Lieutenant Mohammed Khalil said that the main streets of the town were closed because of sniper activities by both sides and that the Directorate did not have the power to put a stop to the festivities.

Zwai and Tebu elders and other local leaders were trying their best to contain the situation, he said, but it was deteriorating fast.

A new military governor in Kufra, Al-Mabrouk Al-Guzwey, was recently appointed by the General Staff and, according to Libyan army sources, has called on the former acting interior ministry Ahmed Barka, himself a Tebu from Murzuk, to help mediate a ceasefire.

Two months ago, a truce was signed by both sides following mediation by the Magharba tribe but has gone the way of all the other truces.

Meanwhile life is made even worse as a result of electricity being cut in most of the town. Water supplies have also been disrupted as a result. In the situation, tempers are short and resentment between the adversaries is fuelled.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Clashes in west Tripoli between Libya Dawn forces
[Libya Herald] Heavy festivities in the west 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...
suburb of Siyahiya today between members of the Mobile Forces, based in Janzour, and of the Islamist-leaning Abu Obeida militia from Zawia are reported to have resulted in two fighters being killed and six maimed.

Both groups continue to be members of the otherwise fracturing Libya Dawn
...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar...
alliance.

The fighting appears to have been triggered by an argument between the two at a checkpoint on the roundabout at the end of the Tripoli highway, to the east of Janzour. It is manned by the Mobile Forces. The argument soon degerated into fighting which then spread as far as the Regatta club, until last year controlled by Zintani forces but now in the hands of the Zawians. Roads were closed and local residents rushed to their homes as both sides started using anti-aircraft fire and RPGs against each other.

The maimed were taken to different hospitals in the capital, including Abu Sleem Hospital, but a breakdown of the casualty figures -- who was maimed and from which side -- has not yet been given.

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
in a further sign of the splits within Libya Dawn, Zawia municipal council has accused Misrata and some of its brigades of responsibility for the deteriorating security situation on the coastal road west of the capital. In a statement on Saturday, it said that they had allowed Warshefani and Zintani forces, which it described as being pro-Qadaffy, to take over sections of the road. As a result, it claimed, there had been a rise of criminal attacks on vehicles.

It specifically accused Misrata's Halbous brigade of agreeing a ceasefire with the Warshefana and Zintan and pulling out forces without consulting with its Libyan Dawn allies.

Fighting in Siyahiya was said this evening to have died down.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


IS seizes Khoms judge
[Libya Herald] The abduction of a judge from Khoms while he was driving past the small town of Harawa has been strongly condemned by the Libyan Judges Organisation (LJO).

Salem Mohammed Al-Namli, a member of Khom's Court of Appeal, was seized two days ago by gunnies from 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....
(IS) when he was stopped at the checkpoint manned by them at Harawa, some 70 kilometres east of Sirte. He was apparently seized when the gunnies discovered his identitity.

Harawa was captured by IS in early June.

Why the judge thought he would be safe travelling in the area has not been explained.

The LJO, condemning the abduction as disgraceful and demanding his captors release him, called on government bodies and officials as well as tribal elders and NGOs to exert maximum pressure on IS to get Namli released.

The perpetrators of the crime were "extremist" and "terrorists" and should be brought to account and punished, the LJO said.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram Fighters Behead Three in Cameroon Raid
[ALMANAR.LB] Three villagers had their heads chopped off during a weekend raid in Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
by Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
'jihadist' fighters from neighboring Nigeria, security forces said Monday.

The attacks took place on Sunday in the neighboring villages of Tchebe-Tchebe and Dzaba, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Nigerian border, said a security agent based in the region.

The raiders also set fire to land owned by villagers and a Catholic church, the source added.

Sunday's violence followed a series of Boko Haram suicide kabooms in the far north of Cameroon, which is taking part in a regional military campaign against the krazed killers.

The report was confirmed by another local security source, who said that access to the villages was difficult for troops because of the mountainous terrain.

The cross-border region is frequently attacked by Boko Haram, which launched its armed insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, at an estimated cost of more than 15,000 lives.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  a good way to get a head in life.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/28/2015 14:11 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen fighters take Aden's Tawahi district from Houthis
[YEMENONLINE.INFO] Local fighters and army units backed by Yemen's exiled government have taken control of Tawahi, the last district of central Aden still held 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 and its allies, a front man for the fighters said on Monday.

The fighters, aided by a Saudi-led coalition, broke months of stalemate in Aden last week by suddenly seizing the airport and advancing into other parts of the port city held by the Houthis and forces 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...
Fighters from the Southern Resistance, which wants the former state of south 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 break from the north after 25 years of unification, entered Tawahi, at the tip of Aden's peninsula, late on Sunday after securing the Crater district.

They took control of the television and radio buildings, and army and security bases in violent fighting, the group's front man Ali al-Ahmadi said.

Local fighters and Yemeni army units are also battling the Houthis and Saleh's forces around important military bases in restive Lahj
... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement
province, to Aden's north, and in Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
province, along the Indian Ocean coast east of the city.

Fighting continues between local coalition-backed fighters and the Houthi militia and Saleh's forces in Taiz, a major central city north of Aden, in Marib, a tribal area east of Sanaa, and around al-Dhala, northeast of Aden.

Although the Southern Resistance and other local groups are backed by exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government in Riyadh, it is not clear whether they would eventually support his reinstatement.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Yemen ground fighting rages after airstrikes pause
[RUDAW.NET] Yemeni security officials say Iranian catspaws and their opponents are battling across several provinces hours after the start of a five-day humanitarian pause in the Saudi-led air campaign.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
because they were not authorized to brief news hounds, say coalition planes carried out flyovers Monday but did not drop munitions.

The rebels, known as Houthis, said in a statement that they fired missiles across the border at a Saudi military position in the kingdom's Jazan region.

Security officials say the Houthis are battling their opponents north of the southern port city of Aden, and officials and witnesses say there are sporadic festivities in Yemen's central Marib province.

Ground fighting erupted in multiple provinces within minutes of the start of the unilateral cease-fire late Sunday.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexico search for missing students turns up 129 bodies
[Hurriyet Daily News] The search for 43 missing college students in the southern state of Guerrero has turned up at least 60 clandestine graves and 129 bodies over the last 10 months, Mexico's attorney general's office says.

None of the remains has been connected to the youths who disappeared after a clash with police in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26, and authorities do not believe any will be. Prosecutors say the students were turned over to a narco gang that killed them and incinerated their bodies in a case that has put attention on the huge number of people who have gone missing in Guerrero and other Mexican states where drug violence is widespread.

The number of bodies and graves found from October to May could possibly be higher than in its report, the attorney general's office said, because its response to a freedom of information request from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named covers only those instances in which its mass grave specialists got involved.

Federal authorities began turning up unmarked graves after beginning an investigation into the disappearance of the 43 young men following the confrontation between students and police that resulted in six confirmed deaths in Iguala, a municipality of 120,000 people 200 kilometers (160 miles) south of Mexico City.

More than 20,000 people are listed as missing across Mexico, and there are many "disappeared" in Guerrero, a state that is a major opium producer and the battleground among several cartels warring over territory and drug smuggling routes. The government has said there is no evidence the 43 students were involved in the drug trade, but says they were mistaken for a rival gang.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  In the late '70's I was touristing around in Nuevo Leon (that was when you could do that and expect to make it home). I was stopped by a Federale who spoke English, who asked "Gringo, what are you doing down here?" I told him that I was just looking to see what could be found. He said "Be careful what you look for here, there's all kinds of things around here that you don't want to find."
Possibly the best advice I ever got.
Posted by: ed in texas || 07/28/2015 7:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Search for 43, find 129, quite a return on investment.

And some people wonder why I turned down a 3 yr consulting gig in Mexico and took early retirement.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/28/2015 9:03 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Senior ISIL leader arrested along with three others in Istanbul
[Hurriyet Daily News] A senior 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....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader based in Istanbul, along with three other suspected ISIL members, were nabbed
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
on July 27.
So quick! One is forced to suspect the authorities knew where they were all along.
Halis Bayancuk, a senior ISIL leader based in Istanbul, also known by his jihadi nickname "Abu Hanzala," was arrested on July 27 after being detained on July 24 along with his wife in an anti-terror police operation against ISIL-linked suspects in Istanbul, after a suspected ISIL jacket wallah killed 31 mostly young people in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa's Suruc district on July 20.

Enes Yelgun, Zeki Murat Sakarya and Murat Alincak were also arrested by an Istanbul court, while 10 others, who were also detained in the same raid, were released. Two of the 10 people released were put on probation.

Bayancuk and his wife were arrested as the police raided their home in Istanbul's Bagcilar district and seized a number of ISIL-linked documents, both digital and non-digital.

He was reported to be the leader of an ISIL-linked group based in Istanbul and was under arrest for a time last year, following a police operation against al-Qaeda. Bayancuk also reportedly penned articles for several pro-ISIL media outlets and conducted holy warrior recruiting.
Ynet points out:
Officials in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
say the number of suspects detained in a major anti-terror operation launched three days ago has exceeded 1,000.

Since Friday, Turkey has been carrying out Arclight airstrikes against IS targets in Syria and Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq. It has simultaneously launched a police sweep against people suspected of links to the Islamic State group, the Kurdish rebels and the outlawed HKP-C left-leaning group.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Turkey detains ISIS suspects in new police sweep
[RUDAW.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
says police have raided homes in an Ankara neighborhood, detaining at least 15 people suspected of links to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group as Turkey presses ahead with a major security sweep.

Since Friday, Turkey has been carrying out Arclight airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria and Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq. It has also incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
hundreds of people with suspected links to violent murderous Moslems.

On Sunday, it called for a meeting of its NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
allies to discuss threats to its security, as well as its Arclight airstrikes.

The Anadolu Agency says at least 15 people, including a number of foreign nationals, were detained Monday in an operation in Ankara's Haci Bayram neighborhood. It did not give details of the foreigners' home countries.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Turkish tanks shell Syrian Kurdish village
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Turkish tanks shelled a village held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria overnight, wounding at least four allied fighters, AFP said.

"A number of shells fired by Turkish tanks fell on the village of Zur Maghar, which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Four fighters were maimed," the group added.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the four were members of a non-YPG rebel force fighting alongside the Kurds against 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....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

Zur Maghar lies along the border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, east of the town of Jarabulus, in Aleppo province.

In recent days, Turkey has begun striking ISIS in Syria and arresting the group's sympathizers at home, but it has also targeted the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Kurdish group with strong links to the YPG in Syria.

Turkey considers the PKK a "terrorist organization," and in recent days has hit the group's positions in northern Iraq with the heaviest air strikes since August 2011.

"This shelling comes after Turkey declared war on Daesh [ISIS] and a war against the PKK," Syrian Kurdish activist Mustafa Ebdi said.

"Now the YPG is facing attacks from ISIS and Turkey."

Growing Kurdish sway in northern Syria has alarmed neighboring Turkey, which is worried about separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish minority.

The YPG, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, has taken control of the northeastern city of Hasaka this week.

Full control of Hasaka - which was split between the Kurds and Damascus until last month - would be a major gain for the autonomous Kurdish administration that is fighting Islamic State in Syria in partnership with Washington.

Hasaka is the capital of surrounding province by the same name. Assad has lost control of two other scenic provincial capitals - Raqqa and Idlib. The army and allied militia are fighting two rebel offensives aimed at capturing two more: Aleppo and Deraa.

The YPG and the Syrian government have mostly coexisted in predominantly Kurdish areas of Syria where a Kurdish administration has emerged since the uprising against Assad erupted in 2011. (With agencies)
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Erdogan apparently forsees Assad and ISIS collapsing, and has moved on to endgame.
Posted by: ed in texas || 07/28/2015 8:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistani killed by Indian firing
[DAWN] A civilian was killed in unprovoked firing by Indian troops along the Line of Control, Pakistain said on Sunday.

The incident took place overnight in Chirikot sector on the LoC, Pakistain's military said in a statement.

"A civilian Muhammad Waseem who was severely injured due to unprovoked firing by Indians on LoC in Chirikot sector yesterday (Saturday) has embraced shahadat this morning," it said.

Waseem was taken to a military hospital in Rawalpindi but he succumbed to the bullet injury in his neck, it added.

Abdul Raoof, a police official in the area, confirmed the incident and told AFP that Waseem was grazing his cattle in his village when he was hit by a bullet fired by Indian troops.

Last week, Pakistain said India violated the ceasefire after reporting the death of four civilians in cross-border shelling in Kashmire.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Two policemen, woman killed in Quetta
[DAWN] Two coppers and a woman were killed when unknown gunnies attacked a police brass hat's convoy in Quetta's Sariab road area on Monday.

One attacker was also killed in retaliatory fire, while two female pedestrians received bullet wounds in the crossfire, said Quetta Police Chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema.

One of the injured women later succumbed to her injuries on her way to hospital.

Zahoor Afridi, the Superintendent of Sariab police narrowly escaped the attempt on his life in Sariab's Killi Geo area.

A front man for the police said one assailant was killed when coppers retaliated.

He added that more police personnel were sent to the area to apprehend the culprits involved in the attack. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
no arrest was made.

The bodies of the police constables killed in the attack were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta for postmortem investigations. The two coppers sustained bullet wounds, the hospital's doctors told DawnNews.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army


Gun battle at Indian Punjab police station ends, ten killed
[DAWN] India tightened security on the border with Pakistain on Monday after its military said heavily armed gunnies, dressed in army uniforms, stormed a cop shoppe in the northern frontier state of 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....

killing ten people and wounding several others.

Indian police managed to overcome the heavily armed gunnies after a 12-hour shootout.

Four coppers including the local superintendent and three civilians also died in the operation in the usually calm northern state of Punjab.

"The police superintendent fought them bravely but unfortunately he was shot in the head and was struck down in his prime," said Anand Kumar, part of the special forces team that entered the building.

The assault only ended at around 5pm when security forces finally entered the cop shoppe where the unidentified gunnies had been holed up.

The siege focused on an abandoned building where the attackers were holed up. It dragged on because security forces had wanted to capture at least one of the gunnies alive, a senior government source said.

The group of attackers came in a white Maruti-Suzuki car, dressed in army uniforms, said Harcharan Bains, an adviser to Indian Punjab's chief minister.

The gunnies hijacked a car and then fired at the bus and a roadside eatery before attacking a cop shoppe near Gurdaspur, a border town in Punjab, police said. Eight injured people were hospitalised, seven of them at death's door, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Five bombs were also found planted on a railway track in the state, suggesting an attempted coordinated attack around the time when India is marking the anniversary of a near-war with Pakistain in northern Kashmire in 1999.

Jitendra Singh, a junior minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, alleged Pakistain's involvement. "There have been earlier reports of Pakistain infiltration and cross-border mischief in this area," said Singh, whose constituency in the Jammu region borders Gurdaspur.

However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
director general of Punjab police, Sumedh Singh Saini said, "It is too early to say who the attackers were."

Pakistain has denied any involvement in insurgencies in Indian Punjab and Jammu and Kashmire.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he had ordered increased security on the border with Pakistain, which condemned the assault in a statement.

Singh will make a detailed statement over the attack in Parliament on Tuesday.

"The situation is under control," Singh told news hounds.

Police are investigating whether the gunnies came from the Indian portion of Kashmire, or from across the border.

A number of other Indian states were also reported to be on high alert following the attack in Punjab.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pakistain - failed state exporting it's evil
Posted by: Frank G || 07/28/2015 7:32 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Football Pitch Blasts Kill Four
[AnNahar] Bombs went off during a local football game in Iraq's restive Diyala province on Monday, killing at least four people, security officials said.

"Three improvised bombs went off during the final of a local amateur cup" in Abu Saida, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a colonel in the provincial operations command told AFP.

Provincial council member Ahmed Rubaye and hospital sources in the governorate's capital Baquba said at least 10 people were also maimed in the attack.

Some of the football players were believed to be among the casualties.

"The bombs were planted behind a goal and it seems they were detonated remotely from a nearby orchard," said a spectator who was at the football field at the time of the attack and asked to remain anonymous.

"The blasts sparked mayhem, they have imposed a curfew now," he said.

The area is mostly under the control of the Badr and Asaib Ahl al-Haq Shiite militias.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but 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 has carried out a string of deadly bombings in Diyala lately.

Earlier this month, one of the group's jacket wallah blew up a vehicle packed with three tonnes of explosives in the middle of a crowded market area in the Diyala town of Khan Bani Saad.

More than 100 people were killed in the attack, which came on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy Moslem month of Ramadan and was one of the deadliest such bombings in Iraq's bloody history.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/28/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian suspect killed during West Bank arrest operation
[IsraelTimes] Police say they shot youth who then fell off a roof in attempt to flee; family claims he was tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
and executed

Paleostinian youth fell to his death from a roof early Monday morning after he was shot by Israeli police who were attempting to arrest him, police said. Paleostinian sources denied that he died in a fall and claimed that he was executed.

Border Police forces entered the Qalandia refugee camp near Ramallah in the West Bank to arrest two "suspected terror activists," one of whom was shot in the leg as he was running away across a roof, then fell to his death as he tried to leap to another roof, police said in a statement.

The forces called on the running suspect to stop, before shooting at his lower extremities, police said.

"Despite that, the suspect continued to run and when he attempted to get to the roof of another building, he fell off it and was mortally maimed," the statement read.

A paramedic with the troops attempted to treat him, but was forced to pronounce him dead at the scene, police said.

The youth was identified as Muhammad Abu Latifa, 18.

Abu Latifa's family and local Paleostinian sources disputed the police account, claiming that he was "executed" by police after he was apprehended.

"He was chased at 5:30 a.m., shot in the feet then arrested alive," his uncle Jamal Abu Latifa told the Paleostinian Ma'an news agency. "Surprisingly, the Israeli soldiers shot him in the chest, then tied him with electricity wires and we have evidence that some of his body parts were fractured as a result of the assault by soldiers."

Abu Latifa and a second man were suspected of having planned a terror attack in Israel, police said. Police did not initially say whether the second suspect was arrested.

Abu Latifa was the third Paleostinian to be killed in the West Bank by IDF soldiers during an arrest operation in the past week.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
YPG/YPJ intensifying operations against ISIS in Rojava
[BESTANEWS] Constant military operations conducted by joined forces of the People's Defense Units (YPG) and the Women's Defense Units (YPJ) continue to confront the ISIS gangs attempting occupation efforts near the city of Hasakah, Rojava.

YPG Press Center said that ISIS gangs' occupation on the Western Nashwa district of Hasakah was fully ended last night in an operation conducted by the Defense Units. There, Children Hospital, Central Train Station, Electricity Crossroads, Hasakah University and several other ISIS-occupied sites were secured by the Defense Units, as all paths to the Eastern Nashwa were concurrently sealed off. During severe festivities in the noted area a number of ISIS fighters were killed, and numerous weapons caches of the gangs were seized.

According to the statement, ongoing military operations by combined forces of the People's Defense Units and the Women's Defense Units, alongside fighters from the Burkan al-Firat (Euphrates Volcano -- Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
) Joint Operations Room continue to target ISIS-occupied areas to the south of the city of Kobani.

The joint forces continued a steady advance along the Euphrates River where they completed progress from the village Qaraqozakh to the south and the village Malha to the north. Advancing near Qaraqozaq village, the Defense Units last night managed to liberate the hill Izeaye. While gang groups' possible casualties are yet to be verified, Defense Units led a mop up operation in that location where they could discover and seize 2 AK rifles, 1 PKM, 1 RPG, a pair of binoculars, a piece of thermal scopes, a pair of night vision binos, 1 Radio and a quantity of ammunition and military equipment. The Defense Units quickly started mine clearing activities to secure the region of many IEDs that the gangs had planted there.

Correspondingly, heavy fighting took place between Defense Units and ISIS forces elsewhere by the Euphrates, as the ISIS gangs tried to finalize a suicide car-kaboom in order to obstacle the advance of the Defense Units. The vehicle-borne IED was targeted before any movement was made by the attackers, also, a truck and three cycle of violences were destroyed. There was no immediate word on ISIS' casualties in place near the Euphrates. There, along with 7 ISIS corpses, a piece of 120mm mortar was seized in addition to 12 mortar rounds, a piece of 60mm mortar, 6 mortar rounds, 1 Katuysha rocket launcher, 1 DShK 12.5mm, 1 AK, 1 PKM and 1 RPG-7.

In south Kobani, the Defense Units attacked suspected ISIS gangs between the villages of Geydade and Sina, killed at least 5 members of the gangs, captured 3 AK rifles, 1 PKM and 4 hand grenades.

YPG Press Center said that in southeast Kobani, ISIS forces last night attempted for an attack of three axis, the assault was failed after overnight and this morning festivities, no immediate report was available to provide further details for that battle.

In western Euphrates, an ISIS unit put their efforts to execute an attack on the western village of Shiukh. The Defense Units heavily targeted the group and forced them to withdraw from the place. Retreating from there, that unit of the gangs tried to attack on Qaraqozaq village -- killing one ISIS operative -- the Defense Units were able to repel the second attack as well.

According to the statement, in south Tal Abyad (Gire Spi), the Defense Units faced yet another attempt of the ISIS gangs. Securing their area of authority, a YPG unit spotted the assailants positions and pounded their locations in an ongoing operation.

On the same frontline, 20 ISIS gangs -- riding 2 Van vehicles and a cycle of violence -- were encircled by the Defense Units while trying to infiltrate into YPG/YPJ's controlled lands. Clashes which erupted after that effort resulted in destruction of the three vehicles, as all twenty ISIS members were killed. Seizing a weapons cache of 6 AK, 2 RPG and 3 PKMs, the Defense Units effectively destroyed remaining weaponry of the gangs.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Sirrin cleared from ISIS gangs
[BESTANEWS] YPG/YPJ forces liberated the town of Sirrîn from ISIS as part of the Kobanê Martyrs Revenge Operation that has been going on for the past 18 days. YPG/YPJ fighters killed many gang members and liberated the town after heavy clashes.

YPG/YPJ forces had encircled Sirrîn for several days and ISIS gangs had taken the town’s residents hostage by planting mines around the town. YPG and Burkan El Fırat Forces destroyed 3 ISIS armory trucks yesterday around 17:30 and gangs detonated the town’s wheat silos last night.

YPG/YPJ fighters started sweep and search activities in Sirrîn after the town’s liberation.
An Nahar provides big-picture perspective:
Kurdish fighters seized a key town in northern Syria from 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 on Monday, cutting a supply lifeline from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital, a monitor said.

"The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took full control of Sarrin on Monday after three weeks of intense festivities," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Sarrin lies along the M4 highway, which IS uses to transport fighters and supplies between Aleppo province and the group's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa in the east, Abdel Rahman said.

The town's capture cuts off IS's main access route to parts of Aleppo province, where the jihadists are fighting both Kurdish forces and rebel groups.

"Sarrin was also used as a base for IS to attack the Kurds in Aleppo province, so those attacks will probably decrease as well," he told AFP.

Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish activist from the flashpoint town of Kobane some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Sarrin, said the YPG were still combing through the town to clear it of potential IS jacket wallahs.

YPG forces began their offensive on Sarrin on July 6 with air support from the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq. The capture of the town, which lies on the east bank of the Euphrates river, is the latest victory for Kurdish forces in Syria against IS.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria: Civilian Killed, Others Injured in Mortar Shells, Bomb Attack
[ALMANAR.LB] One Syrian civilian was killed on Monday and at least 17 others were maimed in several attacks across the country.

SANA news agency reported that mortar shells fired by Lions of Islam at al-Zablatani area and Damascus Sheraton Hotel killed a civilian and injured 14 others.

The agency quoted a source at the Police command as saying that Lions of Islam of the so called "Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
" fired three shells landed in al-Zablatani residential area, causing the death of one civilian and injury of 13 others in addition to material damage inflicted upon three cars.

The source added that another mortar shell fell in the vicinity of Damascus Sheraton Hotel leaving a dustman injured. Another mortar shell also landed in Bab Touma neighborhood caused material damage in one of the houses.

Elsewhere in in Qamishli, 80 km to the north of the Eastern Hasaka province, three other persons were maimed when an bomb went in the area.

Terrorists detonated an bomb which they had earlier planted on a bicycle parked in front of al-Bayan school at the center of Qamishli city, a source in Hasaka province told SANA news hound.
AnNahar adds:
Two bombs hit the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Monday, wounding at least three people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The first blast hit a patrol of Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) and maimed three people, the Britannia-based monitoring group said. The second bomb appeared to have targeted Kurdish local security forces, it said, reporting injuries but no precise toll.

State television also reported the two kabooms.

Kurdish activist Arin Shekhmos said the first blast had targeted a YPG car on patrol but that the maimed were civilians. He said the second blast hit a market area and that three civilians had been maimed.

Qamishli is Syria's biggest Kurdish-majority city, and considered by the Kurds to be the capital of Hasakeh province. The city has been targeted by bombings before, 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....
group believed to be behind the attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jaish al-Islam


Syrian Army Advances in Palmyra, ISIL Militants Flee
[ALMANAR.LB] Units of the Syrian army, backed by popular committees, advanced towards the city of Palmyra in central Syria, sources told al-Manar.

The Syrian army captured parts of western mountains in the city, amid collapse in the ranks of the Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
group, ISIL (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....
in Iraq and Levant), who are fleeing amid the progress of the army, the sources said.

A number of bad boyz were potted as the government forces advanced, the sources noted, adding that the army units destroyed two vehicles for the bad boys.

In May 21, ISIL bully boyz overran Palmyra, which is an ancient city on the list of the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s World Heritage sites and is situated about 215 kilometers northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Southern Front kills scores of Syrian regime soldiers in Daraa
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] At least 60 Syrian army members and allied bully boyz have been killed on Saturday in Southern Front's major attack on their stronghold in the southern city of Daraa, field sources told Zaman al-Wasl.

Rebels and al-Qaeda's Syria wing, the Nusra Front, announced Thursday a fierce offensive on Syrian regime forces in Daraa, saying their aim was to "purify" the area, according to AFP.

The mortar and artillery shells of Southern Front have pounded the political and military intelligence headquarters, the government complex and Ash Sharq Hotel in Daraa.

Activists say the regime-controlled Daraa hospital is overcrowded by dead of Syrian army.

In retaliation, regime air force extended its fierce aerial bombardment on rebel-held countryside of Daraa.

Opposition groups already control parts of the city and about 70 percent of the province of the same name, which borders Jordan.

Operation "Storm of Truth" was announced on Twitter by the Southern Front, an alliance of rebel groups, "to purify the province of Daraa from the filth of the gangs of [Bashar] Assad."

The offensive appears to be a continuation of an assault in June, launched by the same groups but dubbed "Southern Storm."

On Friday, activists said number of senior rebel commanders have been killed, including Zakariya al-Abboud, leader of Fallujat Houran Division, Mohammed Abdulrahim al-Ghanem, commander of Ahrar Mzeireeb, Jalal al-Masri, senior commander in Yarmouk Army, and Colonel Hussein al-Heraki.

Syria's southwestern corner is of strategic importance due to its proximity to Damascus and neighboring states Israel and Jordan. It is also the last significant foothold of mainstream rebels, who have mostly been crushed elsewhere in Syria by government forces or jihadist groups.

Syria's regime has already lost two scenic provincial capitals - Idlib in the northwest, which is held a rebel alliance including al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
, and Raqqa in the Euphrates valley, which is held by ISIS.

The "Southern Front", an alliance of rebel groups, has been coordinating operations against Assad from a joint command center in Jordan. It includes groups that have received some support from foreign states that want to see Assad gone, including Gulf Arab governments.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  the area around Daraa is very near the Jordan border and pretty far from Hezbollah influence or the ISIS strongholds in Syria. It could potentially could become a no fly-no Assad-no ISIS zone
Posted by: lord garth || 07/28/2015 12:07 Comments || Top||


ISIS withdraws from last stronghold near Kobani
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] ISIS fighters have withdrawn from their last stronghold in the eastern countryside of Aleppo after a fierce fighting with Free Syria Army and Kurdish People's Protection Units, according to Zaman al-Wasl.

The radical Sunni group dubbed its withdrawal' from the town of Serrin east of Kobani, or Ayn al-Arab, by the tactical retreat, heading Sad Tishreen and al-Najem citadel area near the Turkish border.

The latest victory of FSA and YPG was due to a barrage of U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes that has been pounding ISIS since August 2014.

The Kurdish YPG militia, already a U.S. partner in the fight against 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....
, has shown grit fighting Islamic State but its potency will likely diminish beyond the Kurdish areas.

Serrin capture came after 5 months since the Kurdish fighters and moderate rebels had controlled the town of Kobani after deadly fighting took four months and massive destruction.

The significance of Islamic State's recent setbacks should not be exaggerated, a senior Western diplomat told Rooters once, adding, "There's no doubt that the heady days of ISIS are over."
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Terror Networks
U.S., allies target Islamic State with 26 air strikes in Syria, Iraq
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The United States and its allies staged 26 air strikes against 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 in Syria and Iraq on Sunday, the coalition leading the military operation said in a statement on Monday.

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 13 air strikes using fighter, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft to hit targets near Al Hasakah, Aleppo and Kobani, according to the statement.

In Iraq, the strikes hit multiple Islamic State targets near eight cities, including djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Sinjar and Tal Afar, according to the statement.

Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Note use of "remotely piloted aircraft" in the data. It seems likely that piloted airstrikes have not increased in recent months but drone activity (from Kurdistan) has.
Posted by: Clyde Borgia7976 || 07/28/2015 8:54 Comments || Top||


ISIS chief al-Baghdadi approved beheading of a woman as a 'wedding gift'
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The leader of 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....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murderer to the rest of us...
sanctioned the beheading of a woman as a "wedding gift" to a female sharia judge, it has been revealed.

The female judge had set a precondition requesting al-Baghdadi to allow an infidel woman's beheading in return for agreeing to marry an ISIS fighter.

Identified as Roaa Um Khotaba al-Tunisi, the female judge had lost her husband in a battle and since she was young, the Isis wanted her to marry again, the MailOnline reported quoting Syrian woman Leena (name changed), who managed to escape from the clutches of Isis.

Leena further added that the judge would agree only if she was allowed to behead an infidel woman.

However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
the ISIS chief gave her permission to behead another female Sharia judge, who was accused of being a spy, Leena added.

Leena was recruited to work with the inquisitors religious police, Hisbah -- which rules the so-called Islamic State of around eight million people -- with its own twisted and medieval interpretation of Sharia law.

Initially impressed like many other women in Syria by ISIS fighters who claimed to live a life following the will of Allah.

But she defected from ISIS inquisitors religious police after realising over the months that the ISiS was not only barbaric but was far from Islam.

"They were all after money, gold and slaves and are nothing more than rapists, looters and thieves," she told the newspaper.

She also recounted another incident where a woman was tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
by the Sharia police on charge of sleeping with a man before marriage. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
the Sharia judge did not wait for any clarification and the woman was flogged in public 80 times. Later, the man turned up with a marriage certificate.

Similarly, in another incident, a mother of two was dragged out in public and flogged for complaining about the Isis on WhatsApp to her sister living in Damascus.

Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Government
NSA will destroy millions of American calling records 'as soon as possible'
[Guardian] On Monday, the Obama administration said in a statement phone records would no longer be examined in terrorism investigations after 29 November.

The Obama administration has decided that the National Security Agency will soon stop examining -- and will ultimately destroy -- millions of American calling records it collected under a controversial program revealed by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

When Congress passed a law in June ending the NSA's bulk collection of American calling records after a six-month transition, officials said they were not sure whether they would continue to make use of the records that had already been collected, which generally go back five years.

Typically, intelligence agencies are extremely reluctant to part with data they consider lawfully obtained. The program began shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, but most of the records are purged every five years.

The NSA's collection of American phone metadata has been deeply controversial ever since Snowden disclosed it to the Guardian in 2013. President Barack Obama sought, and Congress passed, a law ending the collection and instead allowing the NSA to request the records from phone companies as needed in terrorism investigations.

That still left the question of what to do about the records already in the database. On Monday, the director of national intelligence said in a statement those records would no longer be examined in terrorism investigations after 29 November, and would be destroyed as soon as possible.

The records cannot be purged at the moment because the NSA is being sued over them, the statement said.

The NSA queried the database around 300 times a year against phone numbers suspected of being linked to terrorism. But the program was not considered instrumental in detecting terror plots.

It later emerged that some officials inside the NSA wanted to unilaterally stop collecting the records, both because they were concerned about the civil liberties information and because they did not believe the program was effective. Many mobile phone records, for example, were not collected.

Still, in the event of an attack, the records currently being stored would allow the NSA and the FBI to quickly map connections going back several years. Without the database, that task will be somewhat harder because the records will have to be obtained. And the top terrorism fear among American officials at the moment is an attack by a disgruntled American who has been radicalized by an Islamic State operative abroad.

"There's a potential reduction in capability that they are accepting under pressure," said Steven Aftergood, who writes about intelligence and secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists.

"Whatever intelligence and analytical value might reside in this data will be eliminated. It's a political choice that they are making, and it shows that at the end of the day they are a law-abiding organization. They are not putting their intelligence interests above external control."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2015 13:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, looks the the Trunks might have a chance to take the office. Quick, Johnson, destroy all the incriminating evidence that can be used against us and the party before they can get their hands on it to do to us what we've been doing to everyone else.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/28/2015 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Stella, please ring up Lois Lerner. This could be good news for her.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2015 13:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm sure the ChiComs will have copies of all this if they don't have it already. We can trade for them in exchange for us not defaulting on all the US Treasury bills they're holding.
Posted by: Raj || 07/28/2015 13:55 Comments || Top||

#4  They already have enough to plot us all in their threat matrix.
Posted by: Lowspark || 07/28/2015 14:24 Comments || Top||

#5  "There's a clean server in Chappaqua - load it up"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/28/2015 14:35 Comments || Top||

#6  If Billery's server was hacked her username/password preferences were probably taken. They were then used to hack "real" government servers. Just a guess..
Posted by: Fillmore2357 || 07/28/2015 20:31 Comments || Top||

#7  If Billery's server was hacked her username/password preferences were probably taken. They were then used to hack "real" government servers. Just a guess..Posted by Fillmore2357


Wouldn't it be interesting if that's the reason she had a non-USG, satellite system. I wonder if there are other 'like systems' out there as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2015 20:39 Comments || Top||


Champ denies sacrificing Kurds to gain Turkey's help in Islamic State fight
[Wash Times] Obama administration officials adamantly deny any special agreement to sacrifice the PKK, or the Kurds in general, to enlist Turkey in the fight.

Brett McGurk, Mr. Obama's deputy special presidential envoy for the campaign against the Islamic State, tweeted over the weekend that "there is no connection between these airstrikes and recent understandings to intensify U.S.-Turkey cooperation against ISIL."

State Department spokesman John Kirby went further Monday. "I understand the coincidence of all this, but it is just that," he said, denying that Washington has ever coordinated with the PKK.

"We have long recognized the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization, and we recognize Turkey's right to defend itself against this group," Mr. Kirby said. "I recognize that in some cases, the PKK have fought against ISIL, but they are a foreign terrorist organization; we've designated them that as an FTO.

"Our fight against ISIL is not in cooperation with, coordination with or communication with the PKK."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2015 04:56 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The Iranians were designated a foreign terrorist organization as well. Yet here we are.
Posted by: Airandee || 07/28/2015 6:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Top YPG Commander releases statement designating Turkey as a facilitator of ISIS terrorism.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 07/28/2015 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Former Canadian Super Model Tiger Sun returns from fighting with the YPG and the YPJ against ISIS jihadists.



The former model, 46, fought jihadist fighters from Islamic State for four months with the Kurdish YPJ (Women's Protection Units), until her legs buckled under the weight of her kit and malnutrition. This finally forced her to return home to Canada.

On March 1 she left behind her grown up daughter from a previous relationship and flew to Iraq where she was smuggled through the country and into Syria.

With no real training other than how to fire a gun, she was thrust straight into battle.
'Did I see violence? Did I see ISIS kill innocent people? Yes, I was in the fight. I saw them trying to kill us. We see Daesh (ISIS), we kill Daesh, and that's about it. It's actually quite simple.

'To be honest, the bodies don't haunt me. The friends I lost do make me sad though, and the unfairness of it all upsets me.

Tiger witnessed death and destruction every day while fighting ISIS.

In June her group seized control of Tal Abyad – in the north of Syria, close to the border with Turkey – a key town used by ISIS to exports goods such as black market oil into eastern Syria.
The person in the trench next to you could be a guy or a girl and it makes no difference. They're soldiers first. Not once did I feel harassed, objectified or in danger when I was around the men.

In battle Tiger fought with a woman who shot 28 jihadists dead – although she never killed anyone herself.

‘They were always just out of range,’ she said. ‘I brought my own pair of binoculars with me because they weren’t readily available, so I was doing a lot of the spotting, which led to kills.
‘I would go and look at the bodies afterwards, but it didn't and still doesn't bother me. I had lunch by a pile of brains once. It was no big deal.

But she’s not scared of ISIS, whom she described as ‘a bunch of little men with crazy beards.’
'All I saw were a bunch of social misfits pretending to be something bigger than they really were. They use fear tactics to scare people, but in reality they're not that intimidating.’

She added: ‘I love the YPJ and all the friends I made. I love the people and I'm worried about my friends. It also turns out that I really like the fighting.’

Daily Mail UK
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 07/28/2015 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Jordan Matheson, American, former US military, fighting with the Kurds for Kurdistan, marries a Kurdish woman.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 07/28/2015 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Official statement from freedom fighters around the world to leaders like Barack Obama who support terrorist states such as Cuba and Iran and Turkey's Erdogan who supporst ISIS jihadists.

"The Kurds shall not be thrown under the bus."

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 07/28/2015 12:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Champ's conflicting emotion's socialism, muslim brotherhood. PKK is socialist tending a bit toward marxist vs lions of islam. It's ... Islam by a camel neck!
Posted by: 3dc || 07/28/2015 12:20 Comments || Top||

#7  officials adamantly deny any special agreement

Nope. No special agreement. Just the usual under-the-table stuff and some finely tuned lawyerly phrasing. Now move along.

Posted by: SteveS || 07/28/2015 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Just luv Sly Stallone's "EXPENDABLES" series.

* See WAFF > TURKMEN ARMY IN SYRIA | [mmedia.ME] SYRIA TURKMEN MOVE TO FORM ANTI-KURD [anti-PKK/YPG] ARMY.

* GROONG > [TERT.AM] TURKEY [alleged ISIS/ISIL "Ally"] UNLIKELY TO TURN INTO TARGET FOR ISLAMIC STATE: RUBEN MEKONYAN.

VERSUS

* BLOOMBERG > IRAN HAS A ROLE TO PLAY IN REGIONAL CRISES [ME + Gulf]: HOLLANDE.

As befitting its new or soon-to-be SSSHHHH ...
CCCCCC "US-style", "US-par" Co-Superpower status, BUT YOUSE DIDN'T HEAR IT FROM THE BAMMER = OWG USoAMERIKA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/28/2015 21:25 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2015-07-28
  Syrian Army Advances in Palmyra, ISIL Militants Flee
Mon 2015-07-27
  13 Die as Bombers Target Swimming Pool in Northern Iraq
Sun 2015-07-26
  Turkey strikes Kurdish militants in Iraq, ends truce of more than 2 years
Sat 2015-07-25
  Two ex-Guantanamo Inmates Charged with 'Terrorism' in Belgium
Fri 2015-07-24
  Senior Al-Qaida Leader Killed by US Airstrike in Afghanistan
Thu 2015-07-23
  Scores of Insurgents Killed as Syrian Army, Hezbollah Advance in Zabadani
Wed 2015-07-22
  Iraqis launch offensive against Islamic State near Anbar military base
Tue 2015-07-21
  Rantburg Exclusive: Kurd Teens Brutally Massacred Istanbul Now a War Zone
Mon 2015-07-20
  Nigerien army kills 31 Boko Haram militants over past week
Sun 2015-07-19
  ‘Hezbollah arrests 175 of own men for refusing to fight in Syria’
Sat 2015-07-18
  Car Bomb Explodes in Riyadh, Suicide Bomber 'Saudi'
Fri 2015-07-17
  Kenya says university massacre mastermind killed in US drone strike in Somalia
Thu 2015-07-16
  LIVE UPDATES: 'Horrific' shooting at Chattanooga recruiting center, 5 reportedly shot
Wed 2015-07-15
  Two Islamic State leaders killed in Syria air strike: Observatory
Tue 2015-07-14
  Stalling Completed - Historic Iranian Agreement!

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