[DeutscheWelle] In a report just released, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said that two years ago 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... was being attacked 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... murderous Moslems on an almost daily basis. But since September 2016, the number of attacks has fallen to between six and eight a month.
Back in 2014-15, as many as 1,000 Boko Haram fighters, with heavy weaponry and armored vehicles, joined attacks in Cameroon's Far North Region, the ICG said.
Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined Boko Haram and some were given bonuses of up to $2,000 (1,870 euros) and a cycle of violence. Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, ICG said.
In the meantime, Boko Haram has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced, partly because of the formation last year of 10,000 strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined Boko Haram and some were given bonuses of up to $2,000 (1,870 euros) and a cycle of violence. Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, ICG said.
DW has been talking to one of the report's authors, Hans De Marie Heungoup, who said that Cameroon and other Lake Chad countries should now be planning for the post-Boko Haram era. Abdullahi Tanko Bala began by asking him about the difficulties in fostering effective regional cooperation in the fight against the Islamist insurgency.
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11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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DUBAI/CAIRO: Human Rights Watch accused Yemeni rebels on Thursday of arbitrarily detaining, torturing and forcibly disappearing opponents since they overran the capital in September 2014.
The group said it had documented two deaths in custody and 11 cases of alleged torture, one of of a child.
It said they were among hundreds of reported cases of arbitrary detention by the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies — renegade troops loyal to ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The rebels are battling government forces who are backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, which intervened in March 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile.
The New York-based group also urged the Houthis to release the detainees and hold officials accountable.
“The authorities (in Sanaa) should free those wrongfully held immediately, end detention without access to lawyers or family members, and prosecute officials responsible for mistreatment,” HRW said.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the Mideast director at Human Rights Watch, said the war between the Houthis and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition "provides no justification for torture and 'disappearance' of perceived opponents."
The United Nations says more than 7,000 people have been killed and nearly 37,000 wounded since the coalition intervention started. Millions more are in desperate need of aid.
[Ynet] German prosecutors say they have charged a 41-year-old Syrian man with committing war crimes and carrying out kidnappings. Federal prosecutors say the man, identified only as Ibrahim Al F., in line with German privacy laws, was a commander in the group Ghurabaa al-Sham. The group was part of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , which took up arms against the army of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2012.
[AnNahar] A Swedish TV journalist is to face trial over human smuggling after helping a Syrian boy migrate from Greece to the Nordic nation, an offense punishable by imprisonment, a legal source said Thursday.
In the spring of 2014, Fredrik Onnevall was filming a documentary about European nationalist parties' response to the migration crisis when he met the 15-year-old Abed in Greece. Along with two colleagues, Onnevall helped Abed enter Sweden.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said on Wednesday that Onnevall and his colleagues had "during the period of May-June 2014 intentionally helped a foreigner pass through Greece...(to) Sweden despite the fact that the person was missing a passport or any other permission required to enter these countries."
The journalist, a program host for the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, who along with his two colleagues could face up to three months in prison, has pleaded not guilty.
"I regret absolutely nothing! I know what we did and I would have done the same today," Onnevall told SVT in March when he was called for questioning over human smuggling. "How can I regret helping a terrified boy begging for my help?"
Broadcast nearly two years ago, the documentary sparked a wave of sympathy among Swedes as well as anger, prompting complaints over the Syrian boy's entrance to Sweden.
[DeutscheWelle] The self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (IS) caliphate has "pretty much no power left to draw in" recruits from Germany, the police and intelligence services say, according to reports first published on Thursday. In the reports, German state broadcasters and the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung cited a study which is allegedly set to be discussed in late November.
The IS offensive in 2014 and establishment of what it calls a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria and had initially "mobilized and emotionalized" the Islamists in an unprecedented measure, the officials said. Also, the developments in the Middle East motivated thousands of Europeans to join the IS and similar militias. At its peak, nearly one hundred people left Germany every month to take part in the fighting, officials say.
However, the numbers dropped quickly and reached an average of "fewer than five travelers per month" between the summers of 2015 and 2016.
Although reasons for the plunge are not completely clear, they may include tougher travel controls and seizure of passports, officials claim. Other motives could be "violence and brutality" of living in the self-proclaimed caliphate, as well as current military pressure on the IS.
At the same time, the IS itself urged its supporters "not to travel to the caliphate, but to commit attacks in their home countries." The officials said they could not determine whether this recommendation also helped drive the numbers down.
In general, the security situation in Germany has grown more dangerous, according to the study. Alongside returning jihadis, the country also faces "radicalized people who have stayed in Germany and whose number is difficult to estimate," officials say.
[DeutscheWelle] Around 12,500 Afghan migrants to Germany are to be repatriated despite the civil war still raging in parts of their home country, a newspaper report said on Thursday.
According to the report in the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung," which cited a German government document, the Interior Ministry estimates that 5 percent of the almost 247,000 Afghans who had reached Germany by the end of September will probably have to leave.
The government statement justifies the planned move by saying that security was guaranteed in Afghanistan's larger cities. "A worsening of the security situation in the entire country cannot be confirmed," the newspaper cited the document as saying.
The document said the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) would, however, handle applications for asylum by Afghans on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the risks faced by each applicant. Some migrants were expected to return of their own accord, it said, but noted that other removals might be by force.
The document is the response by the government to a question posed by the hard-left Left party.
At the start of October, the EU and Afghanistan signed a much-criticized agreement that would make the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers easier. In the past few years, there have been few Afghan deportations owing to the civil war there. The "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" reported in its article that just 27 rejected Afghan asylum-seekers had been deported so far this year, and only nine in 2015.
However, the rate of acceptance of Afghan asylum applications fell in 2016 to 52.4 percent as compared with 77.6 percent the year before.
#1
In the spring of 2014, Fredrik Onnevall was filming a documentary about European nationalist parties' response to the migration crisis when he met the 15-year-old Abed in Greece. Along with two colleagues, Onnevall helped Abed enter Sweden.
Just a few weeks after the Norwegian authorities said they will send refugees back to Somalia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Norway to change its mind.
The Norwegians don't have to send ALL their refugees back to Somalia. Just the Somali ones...
In October, Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said that the Norwegian government had concluded that the situation in Somalia has settled down and that 1,600 Somali refugees living in Norway should have their refugee status revoked.
In a letter dated November 7th, but first reported on Wednesday night, the UNHCR wrote to the Norwegian government and said that the security situation in Mogadishu was far too unstable to warrant Norway’s decision.
Mogadishu is no worse than Chicago...
Just two days before the letter was sent, a car bomb attack near the Somali parliament building in Mogadishu killed at least two police officers, with some reports indicating that up to 20 people were killed.
Okay, we haven't seen that in Chicago. Yet...
The agency encouraged the Nordic nation to not take refugee status from Somali citizens, Dagbladet wrote.
Unaccompanied minor and families with small children were among the first 120 Somalians to have received notification of their repatriation.
The UNHCR’s letter pointed out that there is a difference between those who choose to go back voluntarily and sending people back by force.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[Jihad Watch] The Columbus, Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is soliciting the public for any perceived instances of Islamic hate, with assurances of support from the local media and city lawmakers.
The appeal comes on the heels of a landslide electoral victory for Donald Trump, whose administration CAIR believes will be "packed with anti-Muslim bigots." "Anti-Moslem" is CAIR-speak for "non-Moslem."
CAIR Columbus has stated that verbal assaults against Muslims have risen exponentially since Trump became the president-elect.
The allegations of Trump-inspired hate, coordinated and reported directly by CAIR and often without any corresponding police reporting, come as Trump indicates support for a bill that will ostensibly name the Muslim Brotherhood, with which CAIR has been linked, as a terrorist group.
CAIR enjoys the complicity of the city of Columbus in its campaign to highlight Islamophobia. City council members did CAIR’s bidding by passing a resolution condemning Islamophobia.
Even Ohio State University, the pride of Columbus and a huge influence on local politics, has bowed to prevailing trends and added its support to CAIR. When CAIR complained of two incidents in which women wearing head scarves were allegedly threatened on campus, Ohio State President Michael Drake responded by publishing an open letter condemning such assaults. Yet criminal charges were not filed in either case, and it appears that only one of the victims was an actual student at the university.
A virtual immigration nexus exists between Columbus and Somalia that has led to the fact that now the Midwestern town houses the country’s second largest concentration of Somalis. Since then, Columbus has been no stranger to terrorist activity.
CAIR Columbus supporters have expressed outrage over the conviction and imprisonment of local Muslims who in 2002 plotted to bomb a Columbus-area mall. Nuradin Abdi, Iyman Faris, and Christopher Paul are known al-Qaeda operatives who each served time for their participation in plots that targeted a variety of public gathering places around the country and in Ohio.
On February 11, 2016, local Somali Mohamed Barry attacked four people at a Columbus establishment, the Nazareth Restaurant. CBS News and many other media outlets were quick to call the assault a "lone wolf terrorist attack" in an attempt to distinguish Barry from other violent Islamic jihadists. Journalists refused to name a motive for the attacks, even though Barry returned to the restaurant and began attacking customers with a machete after he was told, upon inquiring, that the owner hailed from Israel.
CAIR has been extremely successful in Ohio and elsewhere at dissuading the public from associating Islam with terror attacks. Barry was given the benefit of the doubt by the media regarding his intentions, though the same cannot be said of allegations of attacks initiated by Muslims. These receive the weakest attention and scrutiny from not just the mainstream media, but also from the the highest political office in the land. President Barack Obama urged the nation to show restraint to Muslims following the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 Americans in December of 2015. Con't.
#2
An unfortunate decision. As you recall CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial. Maybe some of this will be cleaned up in a new administration.
[IsraelTimes] Social media companies’ detailed user data allows easy access to audiences susceptible to bad boy propaganda.
Social media has long been a key battlefield in the war on Islamic extremism.
But the US has found this year that online ads on media like Facebook, rather than posts, are a cost-effective way to fight the jihadist propaganda 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.... and other such groups.
Michael Lumpkin, the State Department’s point man in the "soft power" fight against Islamist bad boys, said Thursday at the Defense One Summit in Washington that Facebook’s detailed metrics for advertisers helps the government campaign reach its targets -- people who might be groomed online by jihadists.
"Using Facebook ads, I can go within Facebook, I can grab an audience. I can pick country X, I need age group 13 to 34, I need people who liked 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 murder to the rest of us... or any other set, and I can shoot and hit them directly with messages," he said.
"In some places in the world, it’s literally pennies a click to do it," he said.
Lumpkin is the Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center at the State Department, a unit focused on both conducting its own campaigns against gunnies and coordinating with other groups to the same end, especially in on-line and mobile spaces.
He said that the detailed user data that social media giants collect is crucial in identifying his target audience, on the social media that they prefer.
"That’s why these Facebook ads that I mentioned are kind of a fundamental change for us: for very low investment we can be highly targeted towards the enemy."
Facebook, he noted, offers the government access to affordable amassed and collated user data for singling out target groups and individuals for the anti-extremism ads the US government runs.
"The best I can do right now is to have access to big data and to use the analytics tools on the social media platforms, the Facebooks and the others," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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...the probably Taliban-trained Afghan-"American" whose various bombs in New York and New Jersey caused havoc in late September...
28, is the only suspect in al-Qaeda-inspired bombing in Manhattan in September in which 31 were maimed.
The suspect behind a bombing that maimed 31 people in New York in September pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to terrorism-related charges Thursday in a Manhattan federal court.
Ahmad Khan Rahami pleaded not guilty to all eight counts of the indictment, a front man for the prosecutor said.
All counts are linked to homemade bombs he is suspected of planting in Manhattan and New Jersey. The charges include the use of a weapon of mass destruction, the inter-state transportation and receipt of explosives, and the bombing of a place of public use.
One bomb went kaboom! in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, lightly wounding 31 people. Police found five additional pipe bombs in Rahami’s hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey and a second device in Chelsea that was defused. Most of the other bombs did not explode and no one was killed.
Rahami, 28, an American of Afghan descent, was unable to appear before a judge until last week because he was recovering from multiple gunshot wounds sustained during a shootout with police that led to his arrest in New Jersey on September 19.
Police found a handwritten journal in which Rahami lauded the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... and US-born al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... , and criticized US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Officials say he traveled extensively to Afghanistan and spent around a year in Pakistain, where he married and his wife became pregnant.
The FBI believes Rahami acted alone and is not connected to any myrmidon groups. The only suspect in the New York case, he faces life in prison if convicted.
Rahami faces other charges in New Jersey in connection with his shootout with police, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
[DAWN] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... addressed a joint presser in Islamabad alongside Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Thursday where he announced the Turkish government is determinedly taking on what he termed the Fethullah Terror Organisation (Feto).
He said, "We are in the process of warning all of our friends and countries across the globe with whom we have solidarity" against Feto ─ what The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... calls an alleged terrorist organization headed by US-based self-exiled holy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... who President Erdogan accuses of instigating a botched coup to remove him from office earlier this year.
Pakistain had earlier promised Turkey it would look into the affairs of the Pak-Turk education network that Ankara wanted shut down for its alleged links with Gulen.
"It is now certain that behind the [July 15] coup attempt we have the Gulenist terrorist organization and its leader residing in Pennsylvania," Erdogan alleged.
"It is necessary to dismantle this evil network... The terrorist organization is a threat to the security and public order of Pakistain," he claimed.
The Turkish president claimed Feto "has been hiding behind the facade of acceptable concepts and terms such as delivering service, education and dialogue... But we saw on July 15 that they would not refrain from aany methods, including bloodshed to gain their purposes."
Pakistain confirmed Wednesday it had ordered the deportation of 130 teachers along with school staff and their families -- some 450 people in total -- by November 20.
The private PakTurk International schools are allegedly backed by U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... 's Hizmet group.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart] As the reality of President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s dramatic victory began to sink in around the world, at least one region’s leaders popped open the champagne ‐ if only metaphorically speaking, as they are Muslim.
The Kurdish People -- America’s steadfast allies in Iraq -- also feel taken for granted by President Obama’s foreign policy, and long for a course correction.
During the primaries, candidate Trump declared his solidarity with the Kurdish people on at least three separate occasions, establishing his position early on. Trump allies recently elaborated, expressing openness to the idea of an independent Kurdistan.
Secretary Hillary Clinton paid lip service to the Kurds during general election debates, but laced with nuanced caveats. She mentioned the intention to "consider" arming the Kurdish forces, but within the context of a united Iraq. As Kurdish participation in liberating areas from the Islamic State draws to a close, the issue would become politically and practically irrelevant by the time that her Pentagon would start assessing a change in policy.
There are very compelling recent and historic reasons that the Kurds hold hope that President-Elect Trump represents an opportunity to break from a status quo of neglect and betrayal.
Writing as someone who has been on the front lines on multiple occasions, it is an injustice to see the Kurdish forces endure years of ambush suicide attacks by ISIS jihadists emboldened with captured American equipment once provided to the Iraqi Army. Holding a 600-mile front against the deadliest terrorists in the world isn’t easy when lacking the essentials: vehicles, munitions, night vision, medical supplies. Ironically, the Kurdish forces sometimes get an upgrade when they capture American equipment from the Islamic State. Con't.
#1
During the primaries, candidate Trump declared his solidarity with the Kurdish people on at least three separate occasions, establishing his position early on. Trump allies recently elaborated, expressing openness to the idea of an independent Kurdistan.
Let's hope he sticks to it. The Kurds deserve it, and would I believe be staunch allies. With the 3-for of screwing the Turks, Iranians and feckless Arabs all at the same time.
[RUDAW.NET] Peshmerga forces should be based in Tal Afar to prevent "sectarian tensions" once ISIS has been driven out of the predominantly Turkmen town of Tal Afar north of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , an Iraqi MP suggests.
Nabil Harbo, a Turkmen himself, also said that another possible way to avoid possible sectarian or ethnic festivities is to divide the town into two zones, one for Sunni Turkmen and the other for Shiite Turkmen.
"Tal Afar should be divided into two zones between the Sunni and Shiite Turkmen," Harbo said Monday at a panel titled "The Future of Mosul," which was organized by the Rudaw Research Center.
"There was also a similar proposal in 2007 and 2008 to place concrete barriers between Shiite and Sunni Turkmen neighborhoods and each side administers itself independently, militarily and socially," he explained.
Harbo believes that after ISIS is pushed out of Tal Afar there is great likelihood of sectarian conflict there. He said that stationing Peshmerga forces there could guarantee security.
"We want an international protection force to be based in Tal Afar after its liberation. This move is to find a proper solution for the town," he said. "If that idea does not work, then we want the Peshmerga to be stationed in the town in order to prevent one sectarian force from attacking another."
He also warned of Dire Revenge and destruction at the hands of Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi forces, against the town’s population, who are now just a few kilometers away.
"We are in the midst of the liberation of Nineveh province and in this context Tal Afar is going to face several challenges. One of them is the central government’s insistence that Hashd al-Shaabi and federal force have to liberate Tal Afar," he said.
"This means Tal Afar will suffer Dire Revenge by the conflicting parties, mass killings, destruction of houses, temples and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violations," he warned, adding that this would ultimately lead to "long-term hostility" between the rival parties.
Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi assured a delegation of tribal leaders from the Turkmen town that Hashd al-Shaabi forces would not enter the town. He said official Iraqi forces will take that responsibility, according to an Iraqi MP who attended the meeting.
The Shiite militia launched an offensive to the west of Mosul earlier this month with the aim of liberating areas west of the city from ISIS, in particular the town of Tal Afar.
Habro also warned that any conflict in Tal Afar "will lead to instability, not in Nineveh province alone, but the whole of Iraq, as it might become the center of sectarian and ethnic conflicts."
Another challenge that the population of Tal Afar is going to face is a possible return of the Sunni Turkmen who had joined ISIS and committed crimes against Yezidis and Christian residents of Mosul, he said.
The third challenge that the Turkmen are afraid of is that "the city may be turned into a battlefield by the regional powers, including The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Iran, especially if the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Hashd al-Shaabi enter the town."
That way, he warned, "the Turks could justify their military interventions in Tal Afar."
He further warned that "the central government of Baghdad will most probably connect Tal Afar directly to Baghdad, separating it from Mosul, as it had initially planned long before the town fell to ISIS."
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11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] In what appears to be a Sunni endorsement of referendum in the disputed Nineveh Plains, Iraq's Vice President Osamah Nujafi, a Sunni, announced Wednesday his support for the long anticipated public vote to settle the territorial disputes in the vast areas north of the country.
Speaking to Rudaw TV, the influential Sunni leader also said he would support the formation of a semi-independent region in Nineveh after the ISIS war.
"The solution is a referendum in which the people are given a chance to decide their future, but this should be done in a stable environment and away from military rule," Nujaifi said adding it would take place in accordance to previous agreements with Baghdad and Erbil governments.
Heading a large Sunni delegation, Nujafi is in Erbil for talks about post-ISIS djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and the return of refugees to their homes in Nineveh Plains after the war.
Nujaifi "expressed gratitude" towards Kurdistan Region for embracing a half a million displaced families from Mosul since 2014, according to a statement by Kurdish presidents office Monday.
The Iraqi VP also showed support for an autonomous region in Nineveh with Mosul as its capital, something the Sunnis have long been championing.
"The majority of people in Nineveh believe that the province should become a region encompassing several provinces, 6 to 7 provinces, according to the population makeup of these areas," Nujaifi said.
"Shingal could become a province, as well as Tal Afaar, the Nineveh plains, the Mosul city and South Nineveh and all of these within the Nineveh Region," he added.
Nujaifi said the referendum and formation of a region would be in line with the country's constitution.
"The people of the provinces then will have a say about their future and that should be respected, if not, then the constitution has not been respected," he added
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has openly supported the formation of a Sunni region but Erbil also demands the return of Kurdish territories in Nineveh in case of a "yes" vote at the referendum.
Kurdish President Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... has said Peshmerga forces will not enter Mosul city as the operation advances, but he has publicly announced that the Peshmerga will refuse to retreat from Kurdish areas which they recapture from ISIS.
The Nineveh Plains, with Mosul as its scenic provincial capital, is home to Iraq’s largest mixture of populations with different ethnic and religious backgrounds. In most of these villages Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and many other groups have lived together for centuries. The area also has been one of the most volatile regions in Iraq where rivalling groups share territorial claims.
After the collapse of the Baathist rule in Iraq in 2003, these areas came under a new constitutional article which determined their status as disputed territories whose fate should depend on a referendum.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] This is the main road to the town of Qayara. It is no longer used by travelers because the bridge that connects the city to the nearby villages was permanently destroyed by ISIS holy warriors. By cutting off the town, ISIS hoped it could prolong its rule in Qayara.
The holy warriors' control was temporary as the Iraqi army marched into the city on August 2016 despite the broken bridge, ending the brutal rule of the Islamic fanatics.
When we arrived in Qayara, security conditions were still largely fragile, forcing us to wear bulletproof vests for safety reasons.
Villagers greeted us and began their heartbreaking stories of the time they had endured under ISIS rule.
The thick smoke from oil wells that the group set on fire is still rising. As we enter the gates of the city, the magnitude of the destruction becomes evident. It is like the remains of a total war or as if a big earthquake has just struck the city.
But the destruction is mainly the outcome of allied forces' intense bombings of holy warrior targets. Judging from the many dead ISIS bodies lying around the city streets, one can imagine that the group has put up stiff resistance before losing the town.
Now, the only reminders of the ISIS rule in Qayara are the group's infamous black signs and slogans written here and there on the walls.
During its two-year reign in the city, the ISIS put into practice nearly all its principles. In the end it managed to turn the town into a giant prison for the residents who were living under constant fear and surveillance.
The group also had a new administrative planning, creating a new province called the Tigris containing Zab, Shargat and, of course, Qayara itself.
What separated Qayara from the rest of other cities under ISIS rule, is that only Sunnis lived in the town which had an estimated 89,000 people when the group arrived. These people have directly witnessed the atrocities committed by the group and suffered just as any other religious community.
The people here have horrific stories that depict a dark age in the recent history of the town.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
But there are no horrific stories, here *or* at the link!
Come to think of it, I got a pretty good idea what those horrific stories are.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/18/2016 10:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
forcing us to wear bulletproof vests for safety reasons.
[RUDAW.NET] A prominent Iraqi Sunni holy man on Thursday blamed former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki for allowing ISIS to take over djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and accused him of now following an "outside" agenda.
Dr. Rafi Rofaai said that Maliki, a Shiite backed by Iran, there was not a party in Iraq that that the former prime minister had not criticized, including his own Dawa party. The mufti, or holy man, accused him of bearing a grudge against the country’s Kurds and Sunnis.
"Maliki is a shedder of blood and a dictator who is promoting sectarianism and holding grudges against every party, including his own," Rofaai said in an interview with Rudaw.
He noted that when Kurdish President Masoud Barzani "defends the national rights of the Kurdish nation, Maliki opposes that. When Sunnis defend themselves, he also opposes them."
Tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government under Maliki peaked in February 2014 as Baghdad froze the Kurdish share of the national budget.
The KRG has since struggled to finance its staggering public servant salaries and the war against ISIS through international loans, austerity measures and its own oil exports.
Responding to a question about whether Kurds can have their own state, Maliki had stated: "No one has the constitutional right to exit Iraq."
Rofaai said, "There is no party in Iraq that Maliki has not attacked." He accused him of "implementing an outside agenda," a reference to neighboring Iran, which wields immense power in Iraq.
He said there are even "people within the Dawa party and State of Law coalition who are attacked by Maliki. So for the time being he does not have a clear and good agenda."
Referring to comments Maliki has persistently made in support of the Iranian-backed Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces that are fighting alongside Iraqi Army in the battle for Mosul, Rofaai said it was under Maliki’s own premiership that ISIS ‐ or ISIS in Arabic ‐ had taken over Mosul.
"Maliki is saying that he fights ISIS with Hashd al-Shaabi forces. Who brought ISIS into Mosul? Maliki and his men pulled out a number of Lions of Islam from prisons and sent them to Mosul," Rofaai charged.
In June 2014, Iraqi forces turned and fled ‐ leaving massive caches of arms that were taken by ISIS ‐ when the snuffies stormed across Iraq and took over Mosul without much of a fight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Families of ISIS "criminals" have been separated from those who fell victim of the holy warrior group in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, by placing them in "separate camps," a sheikh has told Al Arabiya English.
"We need to separate families of ISIS criminals from the victim families, to avoid friction and confrontation between them," Sheikh Abdulwahab Sarhan al-Dulaimi, head of the Anbar Tribes Council Against Terrorism, said.
"This is to protect [ISIS suspects’ families] their lives and to prevent Dire Revenge acts," he added, emphasizing "there is no vengeance taking place between tribes [in Anbar]."
In February 2016, Iraq announced Ramadi city, Anbar’s capital, had been liberated from ISIS holy warriors. ISIS captured Ramadi in May 2015 in the largest defeat for Iraq’s military since the fall of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in 2014.
Many observers were fearful that Anbaris, who supported ISIS, would be targeted by families who lost family members at the hands of the holy warrior group.
But US-based al-Hurra TV recently reported that rustics in Anbar were taking Dire Revenge against ISIS culprits and sympathizers by bombing their homes.
In an interview with al-Hurra, Sheikh Omar al-Alwani said if a home belongs to one of the ISIS criminals, "we take 10 signatures from tribal notables and destroy their homes."
Speaking to Al Arabiya English, Major-general Hadi Irzij, head of Anbar police, dismissed the claims.
"We do have cases of homes being blasted, but these residential places were already booby-trapped by ISIS, and sometimes animals enter these homes and the bombings take place," he said.
"Intentionally destroying homes by people is not happening," he added, describing local authorities as being "in control of the security situation."
Irzij also vowed to arrest take to trial would-be vigilantes, if they took the law into their own hands. "We cannot allow this to happen," he said.
He said the security apparatus had a data bank, which has a "a security indicator." "Those who have no security indicator will be allowed to return home."
Irziju said "there is a memorandum of understanding signed by sheikhs, which state those who committed a crime against innocent lives will not be allowed to enter at the moment," leaving them stuck at their camps.
He said about 51,000 families have returned home to their homes in Ramadi, and 59,000 returned back to another city in Anbar called Fallujah.
"Each family has approximately five members," he said. "This is a big number." The population of Anbar is approximately 1.561 million.
The sheikh, meanwhile, reiterated that Iraqi courts, local authorities and the central government are the "ultimate deciders" over the "crimes committed in Anbar" by ISIS holy warriors.
He said tribal customs ushered in and became fortified following the weakening of the central government in Baghdad following the 2003 invasion of Iraq that saw the toppling of late President Saddam Hussein’s government.
"Some security sides were not competent in administering investigations, that’s why tribal customs came in continuation for the law to protect societal peace," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Ynet] Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, wants to ban the sale of Israeli SIM cards in Gazoo amid fears that they pose a security risk and that they undercut local providers; Paleostinians use Israeli SIMs to save money and access internet content that is deemed 'unacceptable.'
Israeli security sources say Israel has long been able to eavesdrop on any conversations in the Paleostinian territories, whatever the network, especially among suspected bad boys.
Hamas-run authorities in Gazoo are trying to stop the sale and distribution of pre-paid SIM cards from Israeli cellular providers, arguing the cards pose economic and security risks and allow users to access "immoral" content.
Officials from the Paleostinian telecommunications and interior ministries, which are overseen by Hamas, said there have always been restrictions on the use of Israeli SIMs in the territory, but now they are determined to stamp them out entirely.
Continued on Page 49
Geneva – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday condemned attacks on five Syrian hospitals –including two trauma centres and an emergency obstetric centre as well as a mobile medical clinic. The UN health agency demanded that all parties to the five-year conflict in Syria “respect the neutrality of health workers, health facilities and medical supplies”.
“The pattern of attacks indicates that health care is being deliberately targeted in the Syrian conflict – this is a major violation of international law and a tragic disregard of our common humanity,” WHO said in a statement.
“These attacks have seriously reduced the availability of health services in northern Syria and resulted in a major disruption of referrals of critically injured and ill patients,” the agency added.
The WHO statement comes one day after the Syrian Air Force launched several airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, targeting rebel-held districts. A major children’s hospital was repeatedly hit along with an adjacent blood bank.
“Assad’s air force bombed al-Bayan Children’s Hospital in Aleppo, causing dozens of casualties,” local media activist Ahmed Halwani told ARA News.
At least 26 civilians, including children, were killed. Halwani said that “many others remained trapped under the rubble.”
Such attacks in the war-ravaged country have increased in both frequency and scale, according to the UN health agency. The United Nations has documented 126 such attacks across Syria thus far in 2016.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/18/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
Massoud Barzani
