Burundi’s president on Friday threatened to pull out almost 5,500 troops contributing to the African Union mission in Somalia over nearly a year of unpaid allowances, in another sign of tensions with the force’s largest donor, the European Union.
If there is no payment by January, Burundi will recall the more than 5,400 troops from the 22,000-strong regional force protecting Somalia’s weak government from al-Shabab extremist attacks, President Pierre Nkurunziza said.
Soldiers not getting paid is bad. Bureaucrats not getting paid is worse. Mr. Big not getting paid is worst of all...
Burundi’s troops have not been paid allowances for 11 months amid a standoff between Burundi’s government and the EU after the EU accused Burundian authorities of human rights abuses.
Burundi has faced widespread international criticism over the deadly political turmoil that followed Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term last year, which many in the country called unconstitutional. Hundreds of been killed.
Burundi is scheduled to rotate three battalions of soldiers into Somalia in January, military spokesman Col. Gaspard Baratuza said in a statement earlier this week.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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You lived in Somalia under alarming conditions. What changed?
An estimated 4,000 Somali refugees are living in alarming conditions in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and their living situations have worsened since the civil war erupted early last year between dominant Shiite Houthi group and exiled government of internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The refugees face extreme poverty; no jobs, no food security, no rent-free shelters nor health facilities to receive them. Many have been struggling to pay their rent of insanitary rooms, while few families can afford payment and instead sleep on some backstreets or join others in small rooms.
In other words, it's like Mogadishu...
The refugees also have s shortage of water, electricity and integration into labor market. The refugees have no alternative as their living situations have worsen because of the ongoing economic crisis following the eruption of the civil war in March last year.
“We (the refugees) have no rent-free accommodation or shelter in Sanaa as most of Yemenis have recently hesitate to rent us rooms or houses because we cannot afford payment,” explained 55-year-old Abdel Rahman al-Zaylaiee, the chairman of the Somali refugees’ community in Sanaa, who came to Yemen nearly 16 years ago.
“How do you see a man with no job or any source of income crowded with his 11-member family in a small room or sleeping on the street?” he asked. “That is our months-long tragedy… and no one care about us.”
“About four thousand Somali refugees, mostly women and children, have been living here in Sanaa for years with no rent-free shelter or enough food, and our situations got poorer especially after the war,” al-Zaylaiee said.
Their sad faces and tattered clothes tell untold stories. The refugees live in a poor quarter, known as al-Safiyah in the southeast part of Sanaa. They enjoy a small clinic in the area supported by the UNHCR.
They could go back to Somalia. Lower Shabelle couldn't be as bad...
The clinic lacks emergency section and almost empty from any kind of medicine or essential medical equipment due to the war and economic crisis. The patients have to go to private hospitals and buy medicine on their own.
The refugees’ chairman al-Zaylaiee complains of stopping aid from humanitarian agencies, particularly after war.
“Since the war began in March 2015, we received financial aid only one time in the beginning of each year from the UNHCR,” al-Zaylaiee said. “If you have a family, you received 150 USD, but if you are a single you got only 50 dollars… only one-time payment a year,” al-Zaylaiee said.
Abdel Malik Mohammed, a 23-year-old refugee said that before the eruption of war the young refugees had work in the popular markets and used to wash cars to earn money. “But now no one asks you to wash his car, except very few rich people,” he said.
“We have no clothes, blankets or enough food to warm my mother and sisters during this harsh winter weather… I have not paid the rent for four months and the owner has vowed to drop us out to the street if I do not pay it,” he added.
Somali refugees fled conflicts in their homeland and made very dangerous journeys through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to seek a better life in Yemen or neighboring oil-rich Gulf countries.
An estimated 200,000 Somali refugees are living in several Yemeni cities, according to the latest 2015 statistics by the UNHCR. UNHCR says that more than 26,000 Somali refugees have fled violence in Yemen and returned to Somalia, mostly to Mogadishu.
Many refugees have taken Yemen as a crossing road to Saudi Arabia, but after the war erupted in Yemen-Saudi joint borders between Houthi fighters and Saudi government army, which backed the Yemeni government, the borders were closed and most infiltrators lost their lives during shootings between Saudi border guards and Houthi fighters.
“We have been trapped here,” said 28-year-old Omar Abdel Kadir, who refused to be pictured.
“Before the war, many of us, including me, went to Saudi border cities through Yemeni and Somali smugglers and found work there… and when there were no work we returned back to Sanaa to wait for other chances,” said Abdel Kadir who came to Yemen nearly seven years ago.
“Nowadays the situation has totally changed. If you risk traveling to Saudi border you will be shot dead either by Yemeni fighters or Saudi border guards … dozens of my friends have been killed near the joint borders since the beginning of war,” he said.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] The Benghazi Shura Council (BSC) denied any ties whatsoever with any political party or entity inside and outside Libya with no exceptions.
In a statement dubbed "Hear from us, don’t hear about us" on Friday, the Benghazi Shura Council said they had no ties nor links to IS, Moslem Brüderbund Group, al-Qaeda, and the Libyan Fighting Group as well as others, adding that it remains unassociated with any of the political and regional conflicts, which have so far wrecked the country’s stability and plunged it into chaos.
The BSC said that there is a desperate campaign by the "enemies of the revolution" with the aims of dragging the country backwards and toss it under the military and tyranny rule, pointing out that those enemies are supported by a massive media coverage from the region and overseas.
"Attacking the Benghazi revolutionaries’ camp in Tamina district in eastern Misrata and the shutdown of Misrata port are part and partial of the desperate campaign, which wants to terminate all of the honest revolutionary fighters." The statement reads.
The BSC accused Misrata Municipality, the UN-proposed government and what it called "Madakhla" of closing in on the Benghazi revolutionaries and pressing them into revealing some information to please certain parties, without naming those parties.
"This statement wasn’t issued to enlist empathy or sympathy, but it was issued to soothe the wounds and the pain of our fellow residents and to deny all of the rumors about our youth." The statement concludes.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
"We're...umm...something else"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2017 13:01 Comments ||
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[Libya Observer] The front man for Bunyan Marsous ...(al-Bunyan al-Marsous, Solid Base) An operation carried out by Misratan forces loyal to the Libyan Goverenment of National Accord to dislodge ISIS forces from Sirte. 2,500 turbans were reported killed in the operation, which lasted from May through December.GNA's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj officially announced the end of military operations on 18 December 2016... , Mohammed al-Ghasri, warned Barak al-Shatti’s residents about letting the terrorist groups succeed in controlling the airport and military base of the district, saying it would pose a grave threat to their forces.
"IS snuffies are receiving support from Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... ’s forces because they and IS gunnies are two sides of the same coin." al-Ghasri said in a press statement.
"We have reliable information that proves that some snuffies beat feet from Sirte into other districts, especially in the South, and some of them were seen in Barak al-Shatti." He added, pointing out that those bandidosforces of Evil obtained weapons and ammunition from Mohammed Ben Nayel ‐ a leader of pro-Haftar militias in southern Libya ‐ and his supporting gangs.
Al-Ghasri said their forces are combing through the areas suspected of being new IS hub or a shelter for other terrorists, hinting at the pro-Haftar forces of Brigade 12, led by Ben Nayel.
"The forces in Zilla are a mixture of Haftar’s forces and Chadian rebels as well as IS Sirte escapes, so we urge Haftar’s forces to pull out in order to remain safe because they are Libyans, though investigations with IS captives proved they had been supported by Haftar’s forces by securing their post-defeat withdrawal from Derna and their arrival in Sirte." He indicated.
"Libya’s air force will carry out target-oriented Arclight airstrikes on terrorists’ positions in Barak al-Shatti after a coordination with the ground forces, who will then take up combing through those air attacked spots, so we urge the residents to cooperate with our forces." al-Ghasri concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The Egyptian army has completed the renovation of a church in central Cairo that was the scene of a kaboom that killed 27 people earlier in December, a military front man announced on Saturday.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered that St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church be renovated after the attack on 11 December, which was claimed by a local ISIS affiliate, before Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 January.
"The Armed Forces Engineering Authority was able to restore the church’s destroyed areas while preserving the church's architectural heritage in 15 days to be ready to receive Christians for Christmas," read a military statement.
Twenty-four people were killed and 49 injured after a jacket wallah detonated their explosives inside the church on 11 December, one of the deadliest krazed killer attacks on Egyptian Christians in recent years.
Three more people shuffled off the mortal coil in the weeks following the attack.
The kaboom caused severe damage to several parts of the church, which is attached to the Coptic Orthodox cathedral complex in central Cairo.
President El-Sisi named 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mostafa as the suicide bomber.
Four other people suspected of involvement have been tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! , including one woman.
[THEEAGLEONLINE.NG] As part of proactive measures to curb security challenges, the Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has enjoined citizens to be vigilant and wary of fleeing 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... members who might want to seek refuge in the state.
In a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace, Governor Bello urged citizens to be watchful and not harbor unknown persons.
He said security is a collective responsibility of everyone.
He said the capture and fall of Sambisa Forest, the last stronghold of the bad boys, posed a serious challenge to other states because the Boko Haram members have no other hiding place than to spread all over the country and regrettably mix with and disguise as good people.
He said: "We are aware of reports that some of these fleeing miscreants have been placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in some states therefore, it is our collective duty as citizens to keep our eyes open and report any suspicious character within our midst."
The Governor disclosed that the state government has directed and mobilized all the security apparatus in the state to proactively intensify effort towards ensuring that Niger State is not infiltrated by fleeing Boko Haram members or any criminal element.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[VANGUARDNGR] Factional National Chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Modu Sheriff has said the dreaded Bomo Haram sect was not his creation.
He maintained that those linking him with the sect were cowards who were scare of his political prowess and towering profile.
Sheriff who spoke in Makurdi where he addressed his supporters and selected PDP stakeholders said he also lost loved ones and political associates to the activities sect.
Alimodu-Sheriff He said, “those who feared my political prowess were those who turned around to say I created Boko Haram which is obviously not true, because my brother, loved ones and political associates were also kill by members the sect. “I therefore couldn’t have had a hand in a group that turned around to kill my own people, so those allegations were unfounded and baseless."
The former Governor of Borno state who commended the Nigeria military for routing and defeating the sect said the success had given the people of the area new lease of life.
“I am obviously happy with the success recorded by the military in the operation which ensured the defeat of the sect, they deserve the commendation of all Nigerians because they have made us proud.”
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Kuwait’s first Christian pastor Amanuel Benjamin Ghareeb remembers sitting down for a test on an Islamic subject during his secondary school years and being surprised that he outperformed his young Moslem peers.
That was more than 50 years ago and now the 66-year-old Ghareeb says times have changed.
Kuwait is the only GCC country besides Bahrain to have a local Christian population who hold citizenship. They number around 200 citizens in Kuwait while Bahrain has nearly 1,000.
"Most of the Christian families in Kuwait and Bahrain have their roots from southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... while some came from either Iraq or Paleostine. The numbers decreased since there was a change in Kuwait’s citizenship law in 1982 after they excluded Christians from naturalization," Ghareeb told Al Arabiya English.
By some estimates, there are 12 families who identify as Christian-born Kuwaitis and are believed to have had equal rights compared to their Moslem countrymen.
Christian-Gulf social, political representation
Still, it is rare for there to be talk about the trials and tribulations of non-Moslem minorities who are citizens of the Arab Gulf states as the widely-portrayed image of Gulf citizens is usually as either Sunni or Shiite Moslems.
A landmark event in Kuwait’s Christian community took place on January 8, 1999 when Ghareeb himself was ordained as priest and pastor of the country’s National Evangelical Church, making him the first and only Gulf-Arab Christian with that title.
"We all feel proud of being Kuwaitis," he said at the time. "We were among those who stayed here during the Iraqi occupation [in 1990]."
But for Christian representation in Kuwait’s political scene, the same cannot be said. No Christian has ever been elected to the country’s National Assembly, which recently saw the return of the country’s Moslem Brüderbund group after years of boycott.
Still, Ghareeb said Kuwaiti Christians deny that their community is barred from enjoying certain civil and political rights.
When asked whether the idea of implementing a quota of Christian representation should be allowed in parliament, similar to Leb, Ghareeb replied with a resounding rejection.
"Our constitution clearly states that any Kuwaiti Christian is free to nominate him or herself and run for local elections. And if one day the general population accepts to elect one of us, then great. But we do not want an enforced representation without an election," Ghareeb said.
Do Kuwaiti Christians feel safe? Moslem-Christian relationships have been tested in recent years given the rise of Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... in the west amid krazed killer attacks by groups such as ISIS targeting Christians in the east.
Earlier this month, a bombing at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people and maimed 49, many of them women and kiddies attending Sunday mass, in the deadliest attack on Egypt’s Christian minority in years.
This event has caused some concerns for Kuwaiti Christians, the pastor said.
"With the latest developments in the region in regards to the religious polarization, some of us have been affected obviously. But we thank God that we have wise leadership that understands and protects the internal situation in Kuwait. We’ve seen our ministry of interior increase protection around our churches during Christmas and soon for New Year’s as well."
Under educational laws in Kuwait, non-Moslem students at both government and private schools in Kuwait are exempt from attending Islamic classes.
Should Kuwaiti Christians have equal opportunities to study their religion as part of education?
Ghareeb doesn’t think so: "Under the current situation, both in Kuwait and in the region, the answer is ’no.’ This is unfavorable at the moment."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Stowaway 'illegal immigrants' are seized at a former top-secret nuclear missile base which featured in a Star Wars movie after hiding in the back of a lorry
30/12/16
The delivery truck stopped at Greenham Business Park in Berkshire - a former top-secret nuclear missile base which featured in a Star Wars film.
Jeremy Corbyn REJECTS calls for Labour to back immigration controls despite warnings from his party's northern councillors that they face being wiped out by Ukip
29/12/16
Jeremy Corbyn defied warnings from northern Labour councillors who said they face being wiped out under Ukip's new leadership. The Labour leader insisted their fears were 'exaggerated'. He insisted that rather than setting targets to reduce immigration the Government should tackle undercutting of pay and conditions in the workplace, saying Britain must not become a 'bargain basement economy'.
EXCLUSIVE PICS: London on Terror Lockdown for New Year’s Eve
31 Dec 2016
[Breitbart] London will be guarded by record numbers of police and certain areas fortified with concrete barriers ahead of New Year’s Eve to guard against Islamist attacks.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A video of children in the Netherlands being taught how to pray in a mosque went viral after parents furiously demanded changes to the curriculum that teaches praying.
In the video, a holy man is seen explaining how Moslems pray.
The children, most of whom are thought to be Christians, can be seen preforming the traditional prayer stance.
Harm Beertema, 64, an MP for Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party, urged parents: 'Refuse to allow your child to participate in such "away-with-our-culture" excursions. You are deciding, not the school.'
On social media hundreds of parents reacted, some sharing their own stories of 'politically correct school curriculum.'
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Swedish court has ruled out deportation of five Afghan teens after convicting them of gang rape of a fellow minor refugee, it has been reported.
The prosecutors have reportedly asked for the deportation of the five teens charged with the rape of their fellow refugee hailing from Afghanistan.
The district court in Uppsala, north of Stockholm awarded a one year and three months of detention to each of four convicts while the fifth convict was awarded a 13-month jail term.
They were convicted of forcing the victim, who was under age 15, into a forested area on the outskirts of Uppsala where they raped the individual at the end of October.
They were convicted of forcing the victim, who was under age 15, into a forested area on the outskirts of Uppsala where they raped the individual at the end of October.
Part of the assault that included a beating was recorded on a mobile phone, according to EBL newspaper. The victim was also threatened with a knife.
The five were ordered to pay damages of 250,000 kronor (27,600 dollars) to the victim whose identity was shielded by the court.
According to the paper, the defendants had consumed alcohol and several said they were too drunk to remember the incident prior to the assault.
The court ruled that the deportation of the convicts was stopped considering the age of the defendants and the deteriorating security situation of Afghanistan.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The United Nations Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution endorsing a ceasefire in the Syrian civil war brokered by Russia and Turkey.
Russia and Turkey announced the ceasefire this week, the third truce this year seeking to end the nearly six years of war in Syria.
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Leaders of Kurdistan Region’s three main Islamic parties gathered in Sulaimani city on Saturday to discuss a joint platform of political work, especially ahead of next year’s general elections.
Salahaddin Bahaddin of the Islamic Union (KIU), Ali Bapir of Islamic League (Komal) and Irfan Abdulaziz of the Islamic Movement (IMK) met to discuss the possibility of forming a united front, party officials told Rudaw.
"The Islamic parties have realized that unless they create a strong front they will just dissolve in Kurdistan Region’s polarized politics without any influence"
The idea of the three groups coming under one umbrella especially to increase their votes in next year’s elections and subsequently their seats in parliament has been mentioned on various occasions in recent months.
"All three parties have prepared projects on joint work which may in the end unite these parties or perhaps there will only be a decision on ballot," IMK official, Shwan Qaladizayi told Rudaw.
This is the second such meeting between the leaders and bigwigs of these three Islamic parties, the first being a similar gathering last July.
Researcher and expert on Islamic parties in Kurdistan, Abdullah Reshawi believes that this is an effort by these Islamic parties to offer their people something new.
"Basically, this is to offer their members and supporters a new version of themselves," Reshawi told Rudaw TV. "They know that their old versions have expired and disappointed their fan base."
Reshawi believes that what makes this gathering possible is the fading of differences between these Islamic parties, especially between the KIU and Komal "though there is always a clique of conservatives in each party."
"The Islamic parties have realized that unless they create a strong front they will just dissolve in Kurdistan Region’s polarized politics without any influence," Reshawi explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] A djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... citizen underwent a rare surgery in Erbil after a bomb detonated near him, severing one of his hands.
Haidar Adnan, a 28-year old man lost his hand to an ISIS bomb on December 20 in Mosul where Iraqi forces have liberated some 40 neighbourhoods on the city’s east side.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Rare indeed! My respects for the Kurdish doctors went way up! Clearly they are not locally trained, but went elsewhere for their training!
I still think local trained doctors are not much better than witch doctors.
[Ynet] Jordan's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mahmoud Freihat, warned in an interview with the BBC in Arabic on Saturday that ISIS fighters on the Jordan-Syria-Israel border in the Golan Heights have anti-aircraft missiles.
"This faction is a constant and close threat to Jordan. Some of the areas its fighters are in are a kilometer away from the border," Freihat said.
"They have tanks, armored vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles and machineguns that can hit the military posts on the frontline."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/01/2017 07:17 ||
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[IsraelTmes] Among recommendations for global operatives: avoid sharing information with confidants, stay away from unknown individuals.
Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, has issued new safety guidelines to its operatives around the world, following the liquidation of a Tunisian engineer said to have led Hamas’s drone program -- an incident the Paleostinian terror group has blamed on Israel.
According to a report on the Ynet news website Saturday, Hamas issued a list of recommendations to its agents over the weekend, intended to decrease the likelihood of their exposure.
Suggestions include covering one’s tracks and keeping information private even from one’s closest circles. Operatives are advised to stay away from suspect and unfamiliar organizations or people, working only with those contacts who can provide certified credentials.
Agents are also urged to take the utmost precautions while traveling, never using their real identities and choosing meet-up locations carefully. Finally, the organization warns that routine is dangerous, and recommends changing travel habits often in order to make surveillance difficult.
Israel has not responded to the accusation by Hamas that it was behind the death of Mohammed al-Zoari.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman played coy last week when speaking about the killing of Zoari.
"If someone was killed in Tunisia, he’s not likely to be a peace activist or a Nobel Prize candidate," Liberman said at an event at the Zionist Organization of America House in Tel Aviv.
Tunisian Interior Minister Hedi Mejdoub said that journalists hired by individuals posing as a media company were entangled in the murder of Zoari, 49, outside his house in the port city of Sfax on December 15. He was hit by 20 bullets at the wheel of his car.
Mejdoub told news hounds that "at least two foreigners" were involved in the shooting. The killing, he said, had the hallmarks of a foreign espionage agency’s handiwork.
According to Mejdoub, a Tunisian journalist told local Sherlocks that she was hired by foreigners posing as a media company planning to make documentaries in Tunisia for a Malaysian TV channel, including one about the aerospace industry in Arab states, and asked her to contact Zoari as one of the interviewees for the movie.
Paid 100 euros per day, plus expenses, the woman traveled to Tunis, filmed Zoari, and gave the footage to the company. In all, she received 2,000 euros for her work. Besides filming Zoari, she also rented a number of cars used in his liquidation, Mejdoub said, adding that planning for the killing took place over months, since at least June.
Three days before Saturday’s hit, the interior minister said, a foreign man working for the media company contacted her and asked her to rent two cars, and told her to then leave the country the next day.
The journalist was in Budapest during the hit, and only returned to Tunis after it was carried out.
The prosecution has said that 10 suspects, all Tunisians, have been detained for questioning, including a female journalist, and that authorities have seized four vehicles and two weapons.
Mejdoub said two Tunisian nationals living in Sweden were also involved in the operation. The two rented an apartment in Sfax to tail Zoari and rented four cell phones.
"The organizers prepared two plans for two teams, in case one failed or was caught. The hit was planned meticulously and thoroughly," he said.
Tunisian authorities have yet to identify who was behind the shooting.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas that controls the Gazoo Strip, told AFP that Zoari was a drone expert who had worked for the "resistance" for 10 years, and that he was killed by "Zionist treachery."
[Hurriyet Daily News] Osama Abou Zaid, a representative from the Syrian opposition’s truce negotiating team, told news hounds late on Dec. 29.
The agreement, that is two-page-long and consists of five articles, covers all regions in Syria and applies to all opposition groups, he said.
"All group commanders in Syria approved the agreement. There were 13 opposition factions on the ground, in which they all signed," he said.
Continued on Page 49
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01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... said foreign support provided for 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... terrorist has been prolonging the Syrian crisis.
"You cannot talk about the war being over until you get rid of the hard boyz in Syria," Assad said in a Thursday interview with Italian TG5 channel.
"And those hard boyz unfortunately still have formal support from many countries including The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... , Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , and many Western countries," the Syrian leader said, noting that hard boyz are inspired by Wahhabi dark ideology.
President Assad slammed European countries for supporting terrorism and imposing embargo on Syria.
Assad stressed that the Syrian people, especially the refugees in Europe, don’t need the European countries’ humanitarian aids but what they need is to stop supporting terrorism and to halt the embargo imposed on Syria.
"They don’t need your support in your country; they need your support in our country. They need to stop supporting terrorists, they need to lift the embargo that pushed many Syrians to go to Europe because of the embargo, not only because of the terrorism. Because of the embargo, they cannot live anymore in their country," the Syrian leader addressed the European countries as saying.
Assad meanwhile, said that the European governments are working against interests of their own people.
"They are working against the interest of their own people. They are supporting the terrorists. How can I help them if they are supporting the hard boyz in our region, in order to halt terrorism attack in Europe?"
On the other hand, President Assad stressed that Syria have a wide spectrum of religious diversity, calling Syrians to unite and to learn from the lessons of the war.
"This war has brought many Syrians together. They learned the lessons ‐ so many lessons ‐ that if we don’t accept each other, if we don’t respect each other on every level of this word, you cannot have unified society. Without this unified society, Syria cannot be reborn. So, I think, not only to talk about the rebirth of Syria, I can feel today that if you don’t have terrorism, the social society is going to be much stronger than the society that you knew before the war, because of the lesson that we’ve learned."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
OK, Bashy, we will if you will, and you agree to take all your 'citizens' back.
(The toothpaste back in tube solution.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/01/2017 12:01 Comments ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian rebel groups said on Saturday they would consider a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... "null and void" if the Damascus government's forces and their allies continued to violate it.
Russia, which supports Bashir al-Assad, has urged the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to give its blessing to the fragile ceasefire, the third truce this year seeking to end nearly six years of war in Syria.
Clashes and air strikes have persisted in some areas since the ceasefire began on Friday, though the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said on Saturday the truce was still largely holding.
"Continued violations by the regime and bombardment and attempts to attack areas under the control of the revolutionary factions will make the agreement null and void," a statement signed by a number of rebel groups said.
It said government forces and their allies had been trying to press advances, particularly in an area northwest of Damascus.
Russia and Turkey, which backs the armed opposition to Assad, brokered the ceasefire agreement in the hope of preparing the way for peace talks in Kazakhstan in the new year.
In their statement, the rebels said it appeared the government and the opposition had signed two different versions of the ceasefire deal, one of which was missing "a number of key and essential points that are non-negotiable", but did not say what those were.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Pentagon said Friday it believes that ISIS chief 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... is indeed alive, despite repeated efforts by the US-led coalition to take out the bad boy group leader.
Baghdadi has kept a low profile, despite having declared himself the leader of a renewed caliphate, but last month released a defiant audio message urging his supporters to defend the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... It is not clear if he is in the besieged city, where he declared his caliphate in 2014 after the ISIS group seized territory covering much of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
"We do think Baghdadi is alive and is still leading ISIS (ISIS) and we are obviously doing everything we can to track his movements," Pentagon front man Peter Cook told CNN.
"If we get the opportunity, we certainly would take advantage of any opportunity to deliver him the justice he deserves," he said.
"We're doing everything we can. This is something we're spending a lot of time on."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
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.
Burundi’s president on Friday threatened to pull out almost 5,500 troops contributing to the African Union mission in Somalia over nearly a year of unpaid allowances, in another sign of tensions with the force’s largest donor, the European Union.
[Libya Observer] The Benghazi Shura Council (BSC) denied any ties whatsoever with any political party or entity inside and outside Libya with no exceptions.
...(al-Bunyan al-Marsous, 
[THEEAGLEONLINE.NG] As part of proactive measures to curb security challenges, the Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has enjoined citizens to be vigilant and wary of fleeing 
[IsraelTmes] Among recommendations for global operatives: avoid sharing information with confidants, stay away from unknown individuals.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Syrian 
