[Tolo News] Urozgan provincial council members on Friday warned that four districts in the province facing the threat of collapse.
The council members said that in the past few weeks, routes in to Trinkot, the capital of the province, have been closed and bad boy activity has increased.
Meanwhile provincial security officials accept that insecurity has increased in the province.
Deh Rawud, Khas Urozgan, Gizab and Charcheno districts of Urozgan have all witnessed heavy festivities recently, officials said.
The provincial council raised its concerns and said if attention is not paid to the situation, these districts will collapse to bad boys.
"The security situation is deteriorating day by day and the road to Khas Urozgan district has been closed for the past year, and the roads to Shaheed Asas and Deh Rawud have been closed for nearly three months - only military convoys can pass through there," said Abdul Karim Khadamzai, the provincial council head.
"Our districts are in trouble, like Shaheed Asas, Khaz Urozgan, Chinartoo and Deh Rawud districts. Police and army are fighting but in a technical way. One day they go forward and then they retreat,"said Nadiri, a provincial council member.
Meanwhile Urozgan governor also raised concerns over the increase of insecurity.
"We have districts in Urozgan that for three or four moths the roads have been closed and operations have been ongoing to reopen them, such as Deh Rawud. Once the roads are open then we have programs for other districts," said Mohammad Nazir Kharotti, the provincial governor.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, Agent 49 felt gingerly for his head. It was still there. He had been hoping differently... the provincial police chief said bandidos bad boys came from Zabul and Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... to fight in Urozgan.
"Whenever the enemy is defeated in Kandahar or Helmand then they came to Urozgan and for the past year they tried a lot to increase their activity in the province and conduct attacks on government institutions but they failed because government forces are able to defend government institutions," said Ghulam Sakhi Rokh Lewani, the provincial police chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Afghan Ambassador to Pakistain Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal has said the Taliban has chosen war over peace talks with Afghanistan as the group believes this will help them reach their goals.
He said: "Taliban believes in war and they [Taliban] think by continuing the war they can reach their goals in Afghanistan, especially in the upcoming war season, which is a big hindrance to peace," said Zakhilwal.
His comments come after Pakistain's national security advisor, Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... , recently voiced concern over the rejection of peace talks by the Taliban. He said Pakistain can play a vital role in Afghanistan's grinding of the peace processor but cannot directly order the Taliban to join the negotiations.
In reaction to Aziz's remarks the Afghan government said if the Taliban does not join the peace talks the group will face the full wrath of the security forces.
"Our request from Pakistain is that on the basis of agreements bring Taliban to the table and if this does not happen we, on the basis of quadrilateral meeting agreements, have fully prepared ourselves for military operations against the Taliban," said President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. 's deputy front man Dawa Khan Menapal.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... there are still skeptics who claim Pakistain is not being honest in its dealings with Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... "Afghanistan also reaches the conclusion that waiting for Pakistain's commitments is a mistake and Pakistain's promises are false and waste time," said deputy speaker of the senate Abdullah Qarloq.
Meanwhile Pak analysts believe that the new stance of the Taliban is a sign that they are not interested in peace talks.
"Taliban are worrying about their disparities and if they go for peace talks the disparities will be increased," said Rahimullah Yousofzai, a Pak political analyst.
It was hoped that the Afghan delegation and the Taliban would meet in direct face-to-face talks in early March. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the Taliban refused to join the process ‐ resulting in the current deadlock.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
He said Pakistain can play a vital role in Afghanistan's grinding of the peace processor but cannot directly order the Taliban to join the negotiations.
"we have a facade to maintain"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2016 9:06 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The number of ISIS gunnies in Libya has doubled in the last year or so to as many as 6,000 fighters, with aspirations to conduct attacks against the US and other nations in the West, the top US commander for Africa said Thursday.
Army Gen. David Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command, said that local Libya militias have had some success in trying to stop the ISIS from growing in Benghazi and are battling the group in Sabratha. But he said that decisions to provide more military assistance to the Libyans await a working national government.
The latest numbers for ISIS in Libya make it the largest ISIS branch of eight that the bully boy group operates outside Iraq and Syria, according to US defense officials. The officials were not authorized to provide details of the group and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The US has conducted two Arclight airstrikes in Libya in recent months targeting ISIS fighters and leaders, but Rodriguez said that those are limited to gunnies that pose an "imminent" threat to US interests. He said it’s possible the US could do more as the government there takes shape.
The US and its allies are hoping that a UN-brokered unity government will be able to bring the warring factions together and end the chaos there, which has helped fuel the growth of the ISIS. The US and European allies would like the new government to eventually work with them against ISIS.
The US, La Belle France and other European nations have sent special operations forces to work with Libyan officials and help the militias fight. In February, American Arclight airstrikes hit an ISIS training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing more than 40 bully boys. And last November, a US Arclight airstrike killed top ISIS leader Abu Nabil in Libya. He was a longtime al-Qaeda operative and the senior ISIS leader in Libya.
Rodriguez said, however, that it will be a challenge for the ISIS to become as big a threat as it is in Iraq and Syria because of resistance from local Libyan fighters and the population, which is wary of outside groups.
He said the militias in Libya have fought Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... gunnies in Benghazi and Derna with some success, and fought hard in Sabratha with more limited gains. Efforts to battle the group in Sirte have not worked as well, he said. Their biggest problem, he said, is that often the militias fight among themselves.
"It’s uneven and it’s not consistent across the board," Rodriguez told news hounds at a Pentagon briefing. "We’ll have to see how the situation develops, but they are contesting the growth of ISIS in several areas across Libya, not all of it."
Asked if waiting for the new government to form will allow the ISIS more time to gather momentum, Rodriguez downplayed the risk.
"It’s going to be a challenge for them to get to that point because of the Libyan population, people and militias that are out there," he said. "It could be a bigger fight and everything. But again, we’re watching that very carefully and taking action as we see those threats develop."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[FRANCE24] Saudi King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... announced Friday an agreement with Egypt to build a bridge over the Red Sea connecting the two countries, on the second day of his visit to Cairo. It'll make a spectacular target when completed.
The Saudi monarch made the announcement in televised comments after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
"I agreed with my brother, his Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to build a bridge connecting the two countries," Salman said.
"This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels," he added.
A beaming Sisi, who had minutes before presented the king with the ceremonial Nile Collar, suggested they name the bridge "King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge".
Following the announcement, representatives of both countries signed 17 investment deals and memorandums of understanding.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Is this like the one from Gaza to the West Bank?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2016 8:42 Comments ||
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[IBTIMES] Some 800 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... fighters have allegedly surrendered to the Nigerian military in the past three weeks. The director of defense information Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar apparently revealed the information Wednesday in an interview with Nigerian newspaper the Punch, one day after the Nigerian military announced the establishment of a rehabilitation camp for the former terrorists. How do you rehabilitate someone after he's spent a few years raping and pillaging?
"I can confirm that about 800 of the Boko Haram members have surrendered to the military," Abubakar reportedly told the local newspaper. They've fallen on hard times. Shekau was looking all skinny and peaked in his surrender video.
The new rehabilitation camp is for those turbans who have surrendered and are repentant. The camp will provide vocational training to help reintegrate them into society and contribute to economic growth. In an online statement released Tuesday, the Nigerian military urged other Boko Haram members to abandon the Islamic insurgency and warned "that the final onslaught against the remnant group of the gunnies would continue unabated and would not relent until the power of evil forces in the northeast is completely neutralized." The cross-border thingy isn't working that well. Cameroon and Chad are both taking a no-nonsense approach.
The army also said its troops have rescued 11,595 civilian hostages during raids on Boko Haram territory in the mountainous border regions between Nigeria, Niger, Chad and 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... since Feb. 26. Previous statements from the Nigerian military said dozens of Boko Haram members, including women and kiddies, had surrendered earlier this year and that many appeared emaciated and begged for food. The cannon fodder's demobilizing itself now that the plunder's run low. The big turbans are being unobtrusive someplace. They're not done yet. The "demobs" will contain a proportion of saboteurs and secret agents.
Food shortages among Boko Haram’s members could indicate the Nigerian military is successfully choking supply routes of the Sunni holy warriors, who have expanded their rampages into neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the past year. Since launching its Islamic insurgency in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... in 2009, Boko Haram has killed about 20,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has made the war against Boko Haram a top priority. In the 11 months since he took office, Buhari has resupplied soldiers, replaced the entire military’s top brass, and moved its command center for the fight from the West African nation’s distant capital, Abuja, to the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency in Maiduguri in Borno state.
The Nigerian military has made repeated claims of recapturing territory, winning skirmishes against Boko Haram and recovering weapons and equipment. In December, Buhari claimed Nigeria had "technically won the war" against Boko Haram because it could no longer mount "conventional attacks" against security forces or dense cities, and the turbans were reduced to fighting in their last stronghold, Sambisa forest.
But there is evidence against the military’s claims that Boko Haram is losing the war and that the turbans no longer hold any territory in Nigeria. Earlier this year, a Nigerian senator representing Borno told local journalists that Boko Haram still controls about half of the troubled state. The turbans have returned to hit-and-run tactics and suicide kabooms, which have proved extremely deadly and could indicate the terrorist organization is simply regrouping.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/09/2016 12:13 Comments ||
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#3
ARCLIGHT!!!!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2016 14:51 Comments ||
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#4
I think that is a long overdue deployment.
Boy Howdy, I can still remember the first Arc Light I ever saw. I was over 3 clicks away from the fun and I could feel the concussion force in my chest and my ears...and the rumbling that seemed to go on forever. Reminding me of a good Texas thunderstorm only louder.
So could we stitch a couple together and just do the entire road from Raqqa to Mosul?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2016 17:34 Comments ||
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#5
I wonder how an Arc Light would compare to a MRLS bombardment I saw.
We were about 15ish miles away and the 155s were making little poofs. Poof, poof, poof. Then stopped. The Lt. told us the MRLS would be doing a live fire next. Literally the whole fucking horizon went up. BRAAAAHOOOOOOM! Very impressive.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Once driven to near irrelevance by the rise of ISIS abroad and security crackdowns at home, Al Qaeda 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... now openly rules a mini-state with a war chest swollen by an estimated $100 mln in looted bank deposits and revenue from running the country’s third largest port.
If ISIS’ capital is the Syrian city of Raqqa, then Al Qaeda’s is Mukalla, a southeastern Yemeni port city of 500,000 people. Al Qaeda gunnies there have abolished taxes for local residents, operate speedboats manned by RPG-wielding fighters who impose fees on ship traffic, and make propaganda videos in which they boast about paving local roads and stocking hospitals.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Western media is largely ignoring that the US allies Saudi King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians.... and UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed are directly implicated in hiding millions of dollars in assets and wealth.
Both those countries are considered key allies of the United States on military and financial levels. Most Western media seems to focus on other figures included in the leaks such as Russian President Vladimir Putin
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Long analysis. The important part would be the physical departure of Saleh.
[Al Ahram] The replacement of Khaled Bahah as both prime minister and vice president suggests a resolution to the Yemeni crisis is closer to hand and may entail the exit of 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... .
[DISPATCH] Police in Bangladesh on Thursday identified the victim of a gruesome slaying in the capital as a 27-year-old student and secular writer, making him the latest person to be killed in the South Asian nation allegedly for criticizing fundamentalist Islam.
Authorities said the victim was Nazimuddin Samad, 27, who was attending law school in the evenings at state-run Jagannath University. In online writings, including on his Facebook wall, Samad criticized religious extremism. On his profile page, under religious views, he wrote: "I have no religion."
Despite domestic outrage and international concern, Bangladesh seems unable to prevent the grisly killings of secular voices, apparently at the hands of religious fundamentalists. In this overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 160 million people, which has long been described as favoring moderate Islam, at least four secular bloggers and one publisher of secular writings have been killed since 2015, allegedly by Muslim Lion of Islams.
The assailants in the Samad slaying, who were still on the lam, intercepted him as he was walking along a road with a classmate in Old Dhaka around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Nurul Islam.
Witnesses said a half-dozen gunnies surrounded Samad at an intersection and began hacking him with machetes, in a similar fashion to the bloggers who were previously killed. Samad fell to the street and the attackers shot him before fleeing. Police said they recovered a bullet shell from the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A young Afghan boy saved his life and that of 14 adults by texting for help from inside a refrigerated truck in which they were being smuggled to Britannia, a charity worker who helped him said Friday.
Ahmed, who is aged six or seven, used a mobile phone given to him by a British aid worker in a French migrant camp to warn her that they were running out of oxygen.
Volunteer Inca Sorrell was attending a conference in New York when she received his texts and contacted a colleague in Britannia, Tanya Freedman, who alerted police.
Officers traced the phone and stopped the truck, taking all those inside into the care of immigration authorities.
"It’s an extraordinary story. It’s a global network of people who came together to save lives, led by this young boy," Freedman, who works at British charity Help Refugees, told AFP.
Sorrell had met Ahmed in a children’s center in "The Jungle" migrant camp in the French port of Calais, where thousands of refugees and economic migrants colonists live while waiting to travel to Britannia, often illegally.
As the camp was being demolished last month, she gave the boy a phone with credit and her number on, with instructions to call her if he found himself in danger.
"He texted me to let me know that he'd made it to England," Sorrell told delegates at the conference.
"Then he told me that he was stuck in the back of the lorry and the driver wouldn’t stop, that it was a refrigerated lawyer and he had no way of getting out."
The text read: "I ned halp darivar no stap car no oksijan in the car no sagnal iam in the cantenar. Iam no jokan valla."
This means: "I need help, driver no stop car, no oxygen in the car, no signal, I am in the container. I am not joking, Wallah (I promise)."
A police spokeswoman confirmed a truck was stopped at a motorway service station in Leicestershire in central England on Thursday, and 14 people were placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on suspicion of being illegal migrants colonists.
She said one man was arrested on suspicion of smuggling them into Britannia, while "safeguarding measures were put in place for a child who was found in the truck".
Ahmed was travelling with his older brother, estimated to be aged around 20.
Around 40 migrants colonists a day were detained after crossing the Channel from La Belle France to Britannia last summer, according to an official report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Australia’s immigration minister announced Friday that "well over" 100 Australians have left the country to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq while almost 200 have been identified as actively supporting terrorist activity from their hometowns. Seems like if you're going to be a citizen of the Islamic State you shouldn't be a citizen of anyplace else.
At a presser in Melbourne, Peter Dutton warned that those thinking about travelling overseas to conduct terrorism would face very severe consequences on their return.
Australia passed legislation early Dec. 2015 to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are convicted or suspected of terrorism offences, or found to have fought with banned groups in an effort to increase anti-terror measures.
"This is a very significant piece of legislation that the Government negotiated through the Parliament, and over the coming months we will see individual cases considered and if people are dual nationals they’ve been involved in terrorist activities, then they have the potential to lose their Australian citizenship," the Australian News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported him as saying.
Dutton added that the number of people who had left Australia to fight for ISIS in Syria had climbed to "well over" 100, and highlighted government concerns that terror groups represented a "very significant threat" -- especially to young people who were being "indoctrinated online".
"We aren’t going to render people Stateless, but we are going to look at individual cases so that we can realistically deal with a threat that we face in this country," said Dutton, confirming that the legislation is being treated carefully.
The legislation does not apply to children under the age of 14, however children whose parents have had their citizenship revoked are not allowed to remain in Australia either.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Australian Liberty Alliance - launched by far right Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders - has platform of anti-Muslim immigration, as does US Republican presidential front-runner
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Danish government said on Friday it will seek to toughen laws on affiliation with terrorist organizations and stop its citizens from entering areas where such groups are in armed conflict.
The proposed bill follows the arrest on Thursday of four men suspected of having been recruited by the holy warrior group ISIS and two others accused of breaking Danish weapons law.
"With the new entry ban, we address one of the biggest threats to our domestic security," Justice Minister Soren Pind said in a statement.
He also proposed increasing the maximum jail sentence for people "who let themselves be recruited for terrorism or promote terrorism in connection with armed conflicts," the ministry said.
The government lacks a majority in parliament, but last year politicians approved an amendment to Danish passport law, making it possible to stop citizens leaving the country if suspected of activities compromising state security.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini was arrested on April 8, a police source told AFP after a Belgian television station said he was detained in a Brussels district. The police source gave no details about the location or circumstances of Abrini's arrest but VRT television said it took place in the Anderlecht district of Brussels, home to several other suspects linked to the Paris attacks.
Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was seen at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks with key suspect Salah Abdeslam, who drove one of the vehicles used in the Nov. 13 assaults across Paris that killed 130 people.
The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said they would provide more details later about the arrests in connection with the Brussels attacks.
More details from The Times of Israel at 12:15 p.m. ET:
Belgian authorities said the remaining fugitive suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was arrested in Belgium on Friday, after a raid linked to the deadly March 22 Brussels bombings yielded five detentions in all.
The suspect, Mohamed Abrini, could be the mysterious “man in the hat” who escaped the double bombing at the Zaventem airport, but federal prosecutors said they still needed further verification.
“We are investigating if Abrini can be identified as the third person at the Brussels national airport, the so- called man with the hat,” said prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt.
Another man arrested on Friday, Osama K., alias Naim al Ahmed, was seen with Brussels subway bomber Khalid El Bakraoui just before the March 22 attacks, the prosecutor said. Osama K. was also filmed by security cameras in the City 2 shopping mall when the bags were bought that were used by the suicide bombers who attacked Brussels Airport the same morning.
Belgian prosecutors said fingerprints and DNA from Abrini had been found in a Renault Clio used in the Paris attacks, and in an apartment in the Forest area of the Belgian capital that was used by Salah Abdeslam, another Paris suspect, as a hideout until police stumbled upon it.
Friday’s arrest of five suspects came a day after Belgian authorities released photos and video of the “man in the hat” airport suspect. Five hours after the initial detentions, authorities were still carrying out a raid in the same Anderlecht area of Brussels.
Abrini’s precise role in the Paris attacks has never been clear, as is his full link to the Brussels. He is a 31-year-old Belgian-Moroccan petty criminal believed to have traveled early last summer to Syria where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic State group’s notorious francophone brigade. He had not resurfaced since the emergence of surveillance video placing him in the convoy with the attackers headed to Paris. He had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the ringleader of the Paris attacks who died in a police standoff on Nov. 18, and is a childhood friend of brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam.
He went multiple times to Birmingham, England, last year, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity, a European security official has told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide details on the investigation. He said the meetings, including one later last summer, took place in several locations, including cafes and apartments. He was traveling with Salah Abdeslam, who is in jail in Belgium for involvement in the Paris attacks, in the convoy headed to Paris in the 36 hours leading up to the attacks.
The man in the hat was with the two suicide bombers who killed 16 people at Brussels airport on March 22. A second arrest could also be linked to the Maelbeek subway bombing that killed another 16 people during rush hour that morning.
On Thursday, authorities released photos and video of a man wearing a dark hat, leaving the airport on foot, walking to the nearby town of Zaventem and then into Brussels, where all traces of him were reportedly lost.
Swedish media said Osama K. was Osama Krayem, 23, who grew up in the southern city of Malmo, and published photographs of him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle in front of an IS flag said to have been taken in Syria.
Osama Krayem is the product of a "now classic cocktail of social marginalization, ideological radicalization" and criminality, Magnus Ranstorp, an expert on radical Islamic movements at the Swedish National Defense College, told AFP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Greece deported a second batch of migrants to Turkey on April 8 under an EU-Turkey deal to stem mass migration to the bloc, as Germany announced a sharp drop in asylum claims. Greek officials said two boats carrying 124 migrants – most of them Pakistani men – had been sent back across the Aegean Sea where hundreds have lost their lives in a quest to reach Europe.
A small group of activists leapt into the water, clutching onto the anchor of the first ferry in an unsuccessful bid to stop the deportation, while a group of protesters chanted “EU, shame on you” and “Freedom for the refugees.”
Send them to Turkey as well. They'll then understand the educational value of Midnight Express...
Hours later, the boats arrived in the Turkish harbor town of Dikili, where security officials escorted the downcast migrants, clutching blankets and with small backpacks on their shoulders, off the vessels.
A Greek government statement said the migrants included 111 Pakistanis, four Iraqis, citizens of Bangladesh, India, Morocco and Egypt, as well as a man claiming to be of Palestinian origin.
Not a single one other than -- possibly -- the four Iraqis are true refugees. The Paks in particular are either colonists or looking for the gravy train. Those possibilities, of course, are not mutually exclusive...
Given that all those Iraqi Christians chose to give up asylum in the Czech Republic in order to return home, possibly these Iraqis are also not committed refugees...
One of the Pakistanis was not accepted by Turkish authorities at Dikili for undisclosed reasons and was returned to Lesbos, the statement said.
In a separate operation, another 97 people – mainly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis – were returned to Turkey via the land border, Greek police said.
The deportations are taking place under a deal between Turkey and the European Union, which is straining under the pressure from the unprecedented flow of migrants into its territory. Turkey has promised to take back all irregular migrants entering Greece since March 20 while Europe has agreed to resettle one Syrian refugee directly from camps in Turkey for each Syrian deported.
The deported migrants arriving in Dikili underwent health checks and registration before they are due to be sent by bus to the northwestern province of Kırklareli on the Bulgarian border, from where they are expected to be deported back to their home country.
The threat of deportation is aimed at discouraging people from making the often deadly crossing in flimsy boats. The transfers began April 4 with some 202 migrants returned to Turkey, but then stalled after a last-minute flurry of asylum applications.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Italy’s coast guard said on Thursday it had rescued more than 300 migrants from a packed boat in which they had traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Egypt to the Strait of Sicily.
People fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have been arriving in southern Italian waters for years, usually from Libya, where they pay smugglers for the passage. A spokeswoman for the Italian coast guard said migrants had arrived from Egypt in the past, but much less frequently than from Libya, which is about half as far away by boat.
Italy’s coast guard and a Spanish aircraft working for European Union border agency Frontex went on Wednesday to the aid of the boat, rescuing 156 men, 51 women and 107 minors. The migrants were from Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Palestinian territory, Libya, Sudan and the Comoros Islands, the coast guard said in a statement.
The rescued migrants are due to arrive in the southern Italian port of Crotone, about 770 nautical miles from the coast of northern Egypt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Paging Professor James Harrison, Portland Community College. Professor Harrison to the white courtesy phone please.
[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.... Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said on Thursday the government would not allow anyone to run a parallel judicial system in the province.
Speaking to a TV channel on ’Shariah Court’ set up by a religious party, Mr Khan said the government was going to look into the matter within 24 hours and would take appropriate action.
He said cases would be registered against people involved in running the parallel judicial system. He said the government had not received any report or complaint in this matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] India is in talks with the United States to purchase 40 Predator surveillance drones, officials said, a possible first step towards acquiring the armed version of the aircraft and a development likely to annoy Pakistain.
India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned technologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its firepower along the vast land borders with Pakistain and China. It also wants a closer eye on the Indian Ocean.
New Delhi has already acquired surveillance drones from Israel to monitor the mountains of Kashmire, a disputed region .
As defence ties deepen with the United States, which sees India as a counterweight to China in the region, New Delhi has asked Washington for the Predator series of unmanned planes built by privately-held General Atomics, military officials said.
"We are aware of Predator interest from the Indian Navy. However, ars longa, vita brevis... it is a government-to-government discussion," Vivek Lall, chief executive of US and International Strategic Development at San Diego-based General Atomics, told Rooters.
The US government late last year cleared General Atomics' proposal to market the unarmed Predator XP in India. It was not clear when the delivery of the drones would take place.
The Indian navy wants them for surveillance in the Indian Ocean, where the pilotless aircraft can remain airborne for 35 hours at a stretch, at a time when the Chinese navy is expanding ship and submarine patrols in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
a development likely to annoy Pakistain
I was already sold on doing this, you don't have to lay it on so thick
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2016 9:33 Comments ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Pak political leader has said they feel proud to support the Afghan Taliban group, emphasizing that the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Sami (JUI-S) still support the group.
Maulana Yousaf Shah, the party’s chief for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , said leaders had always raised their voice against the western powers, according to the media reports.
This comes as the Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistain for harboring and supporting the Taliban group who are staging deadly attacks in Afghanistan.
The remarks by Shah come as Pakistain’s foreign affairs adviser Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... earlier said Pakistain has influence on Taliban group.
The rare admission by Aziz followed amid ongoing efforts to revive the Afghan peace talks.
According to Aziz, the Taliban group are using certain facilities in Pakistain which according to him could be used as a leverage to encourage the group to participate in talks.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the Taliban group has rejected to join peace talks as the Afghan security officials believe the group will pursue violence during the summer with the full support of Pak intelligence ‐ Inter Services Intelligence.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[VOA News] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... , visiting Baghdad Friday, said Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces have made gains 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.... group in Iraq, and he vowed to increase the pressure on terrorists.
In the coming weeks and months, Kerry said, "the coalition will work with Iraq to turn up the pressure even further."
Kerry flew to Baghdad from Bahrain, for his first visit to the Iraqi capital since 2014. He held meetings Friday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the Kurdistan regional government's prime minister, Nechrivan Barzani.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
So, when they started killing people wholesale wasn't a good time?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/09/2016 4:01 Comments ||
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#2
and he vowed to increase the pressure on terrorists.
Time to crank up the strongly worded memo machine AND the hashtag generator.
Of course. In that part of the world Christians are a natural resource, like wheat fields and sheep, and must be regularly harvested lest they forget this fact.
[ARA News] ISTANBUL – Amid intensifying western airstrikes on positions of the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS), and after the group imposed a new batch of restrictions on civilians in Syria’s northeastern city of Raqqa, dozens of civilian families, including Christians, have reportedly left the city into more stable areas, local sources reported on Friday.
This comes after the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces–which include the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and allied Arab and Assyrian groups–have gained much territory at the expense of ISIS in Hasakah and the areas bordering the group’s main bastion, Raqqa.
Speaking to ARA News in Raqqa, media activist Salim Raqqawi said that ISIS officials have appointed dozens of brokers to collect an estimated amount of US $ 1,000 as a fee for anyone would choose to leave the group’s controlled areas.
Raqqawi stressed that a number of civilian families, mainly Christians, have paid the designated amount and left the city into relatively safer areas in the northern suburbs of Raqqa, especially with the approaching battles on its border from both northeast and southwest of the province.
“ISIS extremists have recently banned dozens of Christian families from leaving Syria’s northeastern city of Raqqa, especially after the U.S.-led coalition forces intensified their airstrikes on the group’s headquarters in the region,” Raqqawi told ARA News.
The group has been using the Christians, who were stranded in Raqqa along with other minority religious groups, as human shields in its battles with rival forces, according to local activists.
“ISIS extremists would have been eliminated for a long time ago unless they hide among civilians,” Raqqawi argued.
“However, the hardline group is still using civilians as human shields despite the announcement of this kind of taxation on people,” eyewitnesses told ARA News, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
In the meantime, the ISIS-led Hisba Police intensified patrols across the city’s neighborhoods “looking for an argument to impose fines on people,” according to locals.
Imposing $1000 on people indicates that ISIS suffers from plenty of economic problems, and its inability to cover its expenses and military operations.
According to reports, ISIS has recently stopped paying salaries to many fighters in its ranks due to the remarkable deficit in its budget.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Lebanese security forces disrupted a network of human traffickers who were kidnapping and forcing women into prostitution.
Security forces moved to dismantle the network this week, saving 75 women. Most of the females were identified as Syrians, who fled the war-torn country. The incident has sparked uproar in Leb.
Imad al-Rihawi and Ali Hassan, both Syrian nationals, were the ringleaders of the network. The women were held captive in a basement and forced to perform sexually explicit acts in a nightclub in the city of Jounieh. Police have identified the club owner as Lebanese business man Maurice Geagea. A local physician who performed illicit abortions for the abused women was disqualified from medical practice by the Lebanese health ministry.
Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... , leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, said on social media that "the network has been working for years in collusion with brass hats".
Abused women told Anadolu Agency that police raided the club because of "licensing violations". Shortly after his arrest, ring leader al-Rihawi identified himself as a customer and was later released. The women were also allowed to leave, only to be kidnapped again.
Forced into sex slavery by al-Rihawi, the women were tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in basements under strict guard.
Sally, a 27-year-old Syrian woman, was captured by the network and held captive for more than two years.
"He [al-Rihawi] told me that I have to work as a waitress for three months to help finance the home we were going to live in once married. The first evening when we went to his restaurant I was surprised to see the clothing of the female workers and I said that I did not want to work there," Sally said. "Imad [al-Rihawi] wanted me to stay the night. The doors were closed when I wanted to leave. His guards told me that I need permission from Imad to get out."
After 15 days in captivity, she was lashed until she was forced to say that she no longer wanted to leave.
"I planned to escape with a number of girls, but the guards caught three of us, including me. Five managed to escape. Imad tied me to the bed and started lashing me. He didn’t lash me as much as the previous time because he said we had to work on Saturday. He taunted me by saying, ’I will beat you on Monday’, but on Sunday, the police raided the house. During my captivity, I had forgotten [the sight of] sunlight and how the streets look."
Rana, a 24-year-old Syrian refugee in Leb, met al-Rihawi after being referred to him during her search for work. He initially promised her a job at his restaurant, but when she later learned the true nature of the work she was getting herself into, she refused.
"After being hit and tortured I accepted," she said. "Later, I became pregnant and they refused to send me to an abortion clinic. Four months later, they gave me medicine that killed the fetus and then they took it out. When police raided our place, I had just had the abortion. I was fainting inside the cop shoppe."
Syrian women in Leb continue to suffer at the hands of sex traffickers who exploit their vulnerable position as refugees.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2016 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
[Tolo News] Afghan Ambassador to Pakistain Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal has said the Taliban has chosen war over peace talks with Afghanistan as the group believes this will help them reach their goals.
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Danish government said on Friday it will seek to toughen laws on affiliation with terrorist organizations and stop its citizens from entering areas where such groups are in armed conflict.
Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini was arrested on April 8, a police source told AFP after a Belgian television station said he was detained in a Brussels district. The police source gave no details about the location or circumstances of Abrini's arrest but VRT television said it took place in the Anderlecht district of Brussels, home to several other suspects linked to the Paris attacks. 
Italy’s coast guard said on Thursday it had rescued more than 300 migrants from a packed boat in which they had traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Egypt to the Strait of Sicily.
[VOA News] U.S. Secretary of State 
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
