[USSOCOM] JUNCTION, Texas -- More than 10,000 miles away from home, four Afghan National Army wounded soldiers sit with their sergeant major and some American men and women in the heart land of America for a weeklong seminar, March 31- April 3, 2015, to learn skills that will better enable them to take care of their Afghan brothers wounded in combat.
A few hours northeast of San Antonio lies 'Eagle's Summit Ranch,' a 250-acre property owned by the Roever Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting the U.S. military, providing assistance to wounded warriors, hosting educational workshops, and providing public speaking opportunities for veterans.
This week, Dave Roever [photo], President and Founder of Operation Warrior RECONnect, along with his staff, provide techniques to help build self-esteem among the warriors through mentoring, team-building, and therapeutic activities. The special operations commandos also receive educational opportunities and tools for overcoming and coping with new physical and mental injuries.
Unlike the U.S., Afghanistan does not have benevolent care centers for their veterans. When injured in combat, Afghan soldiers receive a one-time pension, are forced to retire, and often left to fend for themselves. The goal of Afghan National Army Command Sgt. Maj. Faiz Mohammad Wafa, the top enlisted leader of Afghanistan's National Army Special Operations Command, is to change that.
Somali and African forces aim to drive al Shabaab Islamist militants out of one of the last major tracts of territory in southern Somalia that the group still holds and which it uses to launch attacks, the Somali prime minister said on Thursday.
Omar Sharmarke also told Reuters he was pressing Kenya to reopen Somali money transfer firms that are a lifeline to many in Somalia but whose licences Nairobi suspended after al Shabaab raided a north Kenyan university this month killing 148 people.
Al Shabaab has been driven out of major towns and coastal strongholds since an African Union peacekeeping force and the Somali national army launched an offensive last year. But the group, which wants to topple Somalia's Western-backed government, still holds rural areas, such as the Juba valley corridor that leads to the strategic southern port of Kismayu, where a Kenyan contingent of AU troops is based.
"There is a corridor they use as a launching pad," Sharmarke said in an interview. "There are efforts to close down this corridor which they have been using for the last few years."
He did not give a timeline for any new operation.
Sometime. Real soon now. It's a race to see if the Saudis bomb the Houthis into the stone age, the Paks drive the Taliban out, or the Somalis kill all the Shaboobs...
To keep militants out of Kenya, Somalia's southern neighbour is improving border security, including building new observation posts and barriers, often referred to as a "wall". Sharmarke said rooting out the militants was a better tactic.
Killing the Shaboobs is the best tactic of all...
"We have to close the vacuums they use as a launching pads rather than put a wall between families and communities," Sharmarke said in Nairobi after talks with Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed.
The Somali prime minister also said Kenya was working on new regulations so Somali money transfer firms, known as "hawalas", could be reopened, adding Kenya's central bank was leading the process. He said temporary measures were being considered while permanent rules were being drawn up, but did not indicate when the transfer firms would be permitted to reopen.
"Millions depend on hawalas and there are now efforts to see whether, in the interim, these hawalas could be opened."
Kenya's central bank had no comment on the remarks but referred to an earlier statement that noted concerns about informal remittance firms and "the global challenges of money laundering and terrorism financing."
Many of the remittance firms have also been shut down in the United States and other Western nations because of rules aimed at preventing cash reaching al Shabaab.
Sharmarke said he planned to visit Washington in the next few weeks to discuss the issue, while his government planned to push through new Somali anti-money laundering legislation.
Kenya has also announced a three month timetable to close Dadaab, a camp where some 335,000 Somali refugees are housed.
Sharmarke said any action to repatriate the refugees should be done responsibly and only when it was safe. A botched repatriation would help the militants by alienating people, he said.
"We cannot play into the hands of al Shabaab and other terrorists out there. We should not create political discontent out of this repatriation," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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BOSSASO, Somalia -- Puntland Government in northern Somalia granted private company, Somali Security Service (SSS) a license to patrol territorial waters against illegal fishing during a ceremony held at Bossaso seaport, Garowe Online reports.
Puntland Fisheries Minister Abdinur Elmi Bindo, Bari Governor Abdisamad Mohamed Galan, Bossaso Mayor Hassan Abdale Hassan, security commanders led by Bari-regional police commander and the head of the Private company-allegedly aligned with Puntland President-Abdiweli Ali Taar attended the ceremony.
Blackwater Somali Security Service (SSS) head told journalists at Bossaso port that they will provide Puntland’s Ministry for Fisheries with a ship which will take part in endeavor aiming to fight trawling vessels off the coast of Puntland. He said the move follows calls for increased protection for territorial waters on account of looming national disaster by Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali.
Speaking next to Fisheries Minister, Taar stressed the need for more ships with armed guards on-board in the coming months.
SSS owner headed now-defunct company, SOMCAN that struck agreement with the Clinton Foundation first Puntland leader Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. SOMCAN militias had since 2008 been remaining under the command of the current Bari regional police commander Abdihakin Yusuf Hussein.
As a result of alarming pillage of marine resources and piracy off the East African coast, Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF)-Somalia’s first-ever anti-piracy unit-was set up in 2010. Having launched on-land raids on pirate hideouts, PMPF receives financial support from United Arab Emirates.
Analysts tell GO that the decision to hire private company would cast doubt on the mandate of Puntland Marine Forces.
Insiders familiar with such developments further noted while talking to GO that track record for private patrolling at sea proved failed in Puntland, with trained officers lured into seizure of ships and crewmen for ransom at the peak of high seas crimes.
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04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] Hezbollah denounced the new crime that was committed by the terrorist group of ISIL in Libya and that claimed dozens of innocent Æthiopian citizens, offering condolences to the families of the victims and those who experienced the agonies of that horrible massacre.
In a statement, Hezbollah considered that the crime complements the series of tarnishing the image of Islam and the Moslems and persists on seeking the religious and the sectarian wars in order to serve the malicious plots of the intelligence services in a number of Arab and Western countries.
The statement added that the criminal ideology of ISIL is one of the major dangers that threatens our nation and affects its present and future negatively, what imposes on everyone the responsibility of encountering that ideology which originates in the genocidal Wahhabism that, in turn, inflicted destruction, murder and fire wherever it existed.
The scenes which ISIL broadcast to show the executions of the vulnerable plus the footages of razing the churches and the monasteries and assaulting the Islamic and the Christian sanctities in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Raqaa and other areas must serve as an incentive for all the live forces to eradicate that terrorist group and strike its funders in the region and the world, Hezbollah concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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The Iranians are working on getting the Orthodox Christian world on the side of the Shia. And why not? If they condemn those that murder and oppress "little Russians," they get Big Mother Russia even more firmly on their side. Not a bad deal.
[DAWN] During their visit to 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... on Thursday, the Pak leadership once again assured Riyadh of its support in the prevailing crisis in Yemen.
Pakistain also expressed its deep concerns regarding increasing threats to regional peace and stability in the Middle East and emphasised that there was a dire need to ensure that the region did not get affected by further destabilisation by terrorist groups and other non-state actors.
"Pakistain and Saudi arabia have agreed that this alarming and unacceptable trend will destabilise the Middle East and encourage bully boyz everywhere to challenge the state authority with violence," the Foreign Office (FO) said in a communique following the visit.
The FO also said that Pakistain made it clear to Riyadh that it was not only the responsibility of the Saudi-led coalition to defeat the trend but of the entire international community as well.
The communique said that Prime Minister Nawaz held a detailed meeting with Saudi king Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, which was followed by a meeting with the crown prince Muqrin bin Abdul aziz.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Islamabad reaffirming its vow to protect the KSA's territorial integrity + sovereignty.
[ALMANAR.LB] The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran on Friday to protest against the Arab country's continued blocking of Iran's cargo planes carrying humanitarian and medical aid to Yemen, FNA reported.
In the absence of the Saudi ambassador to Iran, the country's chargé d'affaires was summoned to the foreign ministry after the Saudi warplanes prevented the cargo planes of the Iranian Red Islamic Thingy Society (IRCS), carrying pharmaceutical aids and also the maimed Yemenis who have been treated (in Iran), from entering Yemen's airspace despite obtaining the needed permissions from 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... An Iranian foreign ministry diplomat said that the IRCS had obtained the needed permissions for Oman-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... flights and sent its airplanes carrying pharmaceutical aid and the treated maimed Yemenis to Yemen over the past two days, but unfortunately each time the Saudi warplanes approached the Iranian cargo plane and forced them to return.
Earlier today, the Saudi fighter jets intercepted the second Iranian airplane carrying humanitarian aid from entering Yemen's airspace.
An Iranian cargo plane carrying food stuff and medical equipment for the Yemeni people was shooed away from Yemen's airspace on Friday, the second such event in two days after Saudi fighter jets warned the first Iranian cargo plane that was bound for Sana'a airport to keep away from Yemen on Thursday.
This afternoon, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in a telephone conversation with President of the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) Peter Maurer blasted Saudi Arabia for blocking Iran's humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people.
"The Saudi warplanes have prevented the cargo planes of the Iranian Red Islamic Thingy Society (IRCS), carrying pharmaceutical aids and also the maimed Yemenis who have been treated (in Iran), from entering Yemen's airspace despite obtaining the needed permissions (from Saudi Arabia)," Amir Abdollahian said during the phone conversation.
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04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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Humanitarian? Aid? Is any of this in the Quran?
Riyadh -- Saudi Arabia said Friday it had foiled a bomb plot by the Daesh group and blamed the terrorists for shooting dead two policemen in the capital earlier this month.
A Saudi man arrested at a farm north of Riyadh on suspicion of carrying out the shooting has confessed that he was following orders received from Daesh in Syria, the interior ministry said. He was identified as 23-year-old Yazid bin Mohammed Abdulrahman Abu Niyan.
The authorities offered a one-million-riyal ($267,000, Dh979,466) bounty for a second suspect, another Saudi identified as Nawaf bin Sharif Samir Al Anzi, wanted on twelve systems over several other criminal cases.
During their investigation the authorities seized seven cars, “three of them booby-trapped”, as well as suspected bomb-making materials and tools, said the statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. They also discovered machineguns, ammunition, money and several mobile telephones which revealed an exchange between the attackers and “terrorist elements in Syria”, SPA said.
So they were just heavily-armed elk hunters...
The two policemen were killed in an April 8 drive-by shooting in an eastern district of Riyadh. The ministry said that Abu Niyan allegedly carried out the shooting while his partner, Anzi, drove the car and filmed the attack.
According to Abu Niyan, Daesh supplied them with the weapons, ammunition and money to carry out the shooting through a “third party whom they did not meet”, the statement said.
The shooting was the fifth attack on security forces and foreigners in Saudi Arabia orchestrated by Daesh, according to interior ministry spokesman General Mansour Al Turki.
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04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Tuesday's bank robbery in Ashulia, which left eight people dead, might have been perpetrated by men involved with Ansarullah Bangla Team and Islami Chatra Shibir, Sherlocks have said.
The link between the heist and the involvement of the Islamist organizations became apparent following the interrogation of two suspected robbers -- Borhan Mridha, 35, and Saiful Islam, 25.
Among the arrestees, Borhan had links to the Ansarullah Bangla Team as well as being in good terms with the outfit's chief Jashimuddin Rahmani, said a bigwig of the district police who is involved in the probe process.
Seeking anonymity, the official also told the Dhaka Tribune that Borhan is also suspected to have connections with a murderous Moslem who was behind the Burdwan blast in India.
Borhan, who came from a low-income family and started his career as a bus helper, had a rapid rise to riches since 2008 to become the owner of several covered vans. The police found a passport in Borhan's Gazipur residence and were now "trying to find out why he made a passport as he might have links to the murderous Moslem group responsible for the West Bengal blast," said the police official.
Since Borhan's arrest on Tuesday, his family members have reportedly been on the run.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster... Saiful, the other detainee, has reportedly been trying to mislead the Sherlocks by repeatedly changing his background story and statement.
The investigation official told the Dhaka Tribune that Saiful initially claimed to hail from Munshiganj, but later claimed to be from Joypurhat; however, the police found that both his claimed addresses were false.
The detainees seemed to be trained at dealing with police interrogation, the police official said, adding that both of them were very careful in disclosing information while refusing to speak any word to the police whenever they were placed in the same room together.
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04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[RFE/RL] Chechnya's interior ministry says it has started an investigation into an "abuse of power" by police from the neighboring Stavropol region that resulted in the death of a Chechen. The ministry said that it will investigate actions by Stavropol police carrying out an operation in Grozny on April 19 to detain Jambulat Dadaev. The ministry said Chechen officials were not notified about the operation, which resulted in Dadaev' death.
The event led to an order on April 21 by Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for his law enforcement officers to "shoot to kill" security forces from elsewhere that conduct operations in Chechnya without his consent. The Russian interior ministry on April 23 denounced Kadyrov's order, calling it "unacceptable for the leader of the Chechen Republic."
The Russian ministry also claimed that it had notified Chechen officials in advance about the operation by the Stavropol police.
North Korea may already have 20 nuclear warheads and up to 20 more by next year, according to estimates by China's nuclear experts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
How many are stored in Iran, Malaysia and Pakistain?
This was the first time China's estimates, which are higher than the 10 to 16 nukes estimated by American experts, have been made public.
Chinese experts presented their findings at a closed-door meeting with U.S. nuclear specialists in February. Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear physicist from Stanford University who attended the meeting, said "Chinese experts now believe North Korea has a greater domestic capacity to enrich uranium than previously thought."
The U.S. paper said China is paying more attention to the North's nuclear development as the U.S. has failed to respond properly to the North Korean nuclear issue due to its concentration on nuclear talks with Iran.
Give Obama a break, it's hard to do multiple surrenders at one time...
It added it is possible that Seoul and Tokyo, whose security is under threat from the North's nuclear program, might seek to possess nuclear weapons to defend themselves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
China has nothing to fear from NORK nukes. They could squash Pudgy like a bug. So they are putting on the face of the concerned neighbor and putting SKOR and the US in a more negative light. Sun Tzu and psyops. Not a hard game to play with the Zero. China plays Go with a Tiddlywinks technician.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/25/2015 11:57 Comments ||
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If the People's Republic is being honest with their intell, the next question would be "how long until the NORKs sell one of those things to ISIS or AQ?"
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/25/2015 12:10 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] A Canadian court on Friday granted bail to former Guantanamo detainee Omar Baby Face Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured on an Afghan battlefield in 2002 and sent to the U.S. jail in Cuba.
The Canadian government, however, said it would appeal the bail decision.
Khadr's lawyer Nathan Whitling told AFP the conditions of his release -- granted pending the outcome of the appeal of his U.S. conviction over the killing of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan -- are to be determined at a hearing on May 5, when Khadr is expected to be freed.
"Even though the applicant has pleaded guilty to serious offenses, he should be granted judicial interim release because he has a strong basis for an appeal," the court said in its decision.
The Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta also found that "the risk to public safety is not such that it is in the public's best interest that he remain in pre-appeal detention in a manner that could render his appeal irrelevant."
Now 28, Khadr was sentenced to eight years in 2010 following a U.S. military hearing in which he agreed to plead guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.
He was repatriated to Canada after spending 10 years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba following his arrest as a teenager in Afghanistan.
Another of his Canadian attorneys, Dennis Edney, told public broadcaster CBC he has invited Khadr to stay at the lawyer's Edmonton, Alberta home.
Edney and his wife have also offered to pay Khadr's tuition at a local Christian college.
"He will go to school. He will continue his education. He will probably find some part time employment. He will live a normal life," Edney told CBC.
- U.S. appeal delayed -
Khadr's defenders requested bail pending the appeal of his war crimes conviction before the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review in the U.S. state of Virginia.
According to court documents, the U.S. appeal faces an "indeterminate delay."
Whitling argued in the Canadian court that Khadr had the right to request release the same as any other prisoner.
But the Canadian government argued that granting Khadr's application would undermine public confidence in the justice system, and risked harming Canada-U.S. relations.
The Crown also noted that Khadr waived his right to seek early release as part of a plea agreement with U.S. authorities.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... Khadr has said he only agreed to the deal in order to get out of Guantanamo, where he was the youngest prisoner.
Ottawa is concerned that Khadr reveres his fundamentalist father, who was part of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... 's inner circle. The father was killed in a shootout in 2003 with Pak forces.
The Crown also expressed unease that his mother and siblings living in Toronto, according to a former public safety minister, "openly applauded (the father's) crimes and terrorist activities."
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Ottawa is "disappointed" with the ruling.
"Omar Ahmed Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes, including the murder of American Army medic Sergeant Christopher Speer," Blaney said.
"We have vigorously defended against any attempt to lessen his punishment for these crimes," he added.
[DAWN] Imam of the Ka'aba Dr Sheikh Khalid Al Ghamidi during a sermon at the mosque in Lahore's Bahria Town told the congregation that Islam forbade violence and terrorism.
Addressing the congregation before the commencement of Friday prayers, he said Islam preached peace and tolerance and that believers should respect religious differences and live in harmony with others.
He said people of all faiths should be able to live in harmony in an Islamic country, adding that there was no compulsion in religion. He urged the congregation to be patient, kind and compassionate and practice self-correction.
The Imam also emphasised the importance of seeking knowledge and acquiring an education.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Iraq's health ministry does not have DNA test results from a close relative of Izzat al-Duri that could determine whether Saddam Hussein's long-runaway deputy has been killed, a front man said Friday.
"The ministry does not have any DNA test (results) for any relative of Duri at the present time," ministry front man Dr Ziyad Tareq told AFP.
Tareq said such results are necessary if DNA testing is to be able to positively identify a man killed a week ago by pro-government forces as Duri.
For years, Duri has been the most senior member of Saddam's regime still on the lam.
Killing him would be a major victory for Baghdad, but Duri has previously been reported dead or captured only to resurface in subsequent audio or video messages.
Ketaeb Hezbollah -- one of the most powerful pro-government militias in Iraq -- transferred the body of the man, who bears some resemblance to Duri, to the government amid tight security on Monday.
The group's front man, Jaafar Husseini, told AFP that two men captured by Ketaeb Hezbollah who had seen Duri in the past six months said the dead man was him, but that account could not be independently confirmed.
Husseini said the man was killed near the town of Al-Alam north of Baghdad and his body was later transferred to the paramilitary group.
That squared with an account from Omar Abdullah al-Jbara, a leader in the local forces from al-Alam, who said volunteers and police clashed with a group of men on April 17, killing 12, including one who resembled Duri.
The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order -- known by its Arabic initials JRTN and believed to be close to Duri -- took part in a sweeping holy warrior offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last June.
But little has been heard from JRTN and other groups since, with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group, which led the drive, dominating the conquered territory.
Senior members of Saddam's Baath party, to which Duri belonged, have also reportedly played a major role in IS itself.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey, it's Iraq. Bring in a couple of relatives, bang their heads on the table a few times during questioning, and you've got your fresh DNA.
[Rudaw] Leaders 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.... have decided to establish secret police forces allegedly aimed at thwarting anti-ISIS resistance cells that have reportedly been assassinating the group's emirs and officers, a Kurdish official has told Rudaw.
"Daesh gunnies were organizing a group of secret police during the group's latest meeting," Saeed Mamozini, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party branch 14 in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , said on Friday, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"These so-called secret police will be set out all over Mosul province. They are reportedly allowed to shave their beards and even talk against ISIS, aiming to remain secretive", Mamozini has explained.
"They can even appear as beggars," he added.
A source inside the ISIS-held city of Mosul who spoke on condition of anonymity told Rudaw the force was established to hunt down anti-ISIS fighters who are apparently murdering ISIS leaders.
Most anti-ISIS gangs choose to keep their existence in secret, the source said, but recent reports suggest their role in killing several top jihadist fugures inside Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq which has been held by ISIS since last summer.
An armed anti-ISIS group called the Free Officers Movement (FOM) on Thursday grabbed credit for the liquidation of the military attache of 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... , the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.
The FOM was established in June by 490 former officers of the Baathist regime in order to confront ISIS in Mosul.
Over the past two months, the group has claimed the killing of several ISIS leaders and in November took responsibility for the liquidation of Abu Shahab al Suri, the ISIS leader then in command of the western part of Mosul city.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A front man for 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.... , or ISIS, has denied a Western media report that Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the terror group's self-claimed "caliph," was seriously maimed by an Arclight airstrike, a Rudaw correspondent in Mosul has said.
"The rumors of the Caliph of Moslems, [Abu Bakr] Baghdadi, being injured by coalition Arclight airstrikes have no basis," Abu Assad Ansari, an ISIS front man and holy man reportedly said during a Friday sermon in Mosul.
"He is in Anbar and is commanding the war against Safavids [a term for Shiite fighters]," he added.
The remarks come after a report on Tuesday by the UK's Guardian claimed Baghdadi suffered a life-threatening injury in March during an air attack launched by the US-led coalition. The report alleged that Baghdadi had not yet "resumed day-to-day control of the organization."
Neither claim could has been confirmed.
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04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[Inquirer] Lead peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer received the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security Thursday at Georgetown University, declaring, "We have gone this far in our peace process. There should be no turning back."
"The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro acknowledges a different narrative of our national being, one that would bridge our majority-minority divide toward a shared future where fellow-Filipinos live in peace under one flag in an undivided territory," she said.
Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, received the award from no less than Hillary Clinton herself. Hillary cited Coronel-Ferrer as a concrete example of a woman who has brought to life UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security by being the first woman ever to chair a negotiating panel on behalf of a government in a peace process. She also recognized women as agents of change, drivers of progress, and makers of peace.
Clinton said, "Peace and security are only possible when women have a seat at the table. I’ve seen this in so many different ways in so many different places."
Coronel-Ferrer highlighted the important role women played in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in her acceptance speech. She said, "Three out of six government signatories to the agreement are women, with myself as the chair. The MILF panel was all men. In all, just three of the 12 signatories are women. Still, it’s a big leap: nearly all past negotiations were exclusively done by men.
“These three women were not alone. They were backed up by a strong and active contingent of women outside of the formal table. From them, we got the strength and fortitude to see the process through, a delightful dynamic of women inspiring fellow women."
[AnNahar] The first shipment of French weapons to the Lebanese army under a Saudi-financed deal included double the amount that was revealed to the public, An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday.
Ministerial sources told the daily that the real number of Milan rockets was double the amount revealed, in addition to advanced weapons that were not announced for military purposes.
The first batch also included military armored vehicles, the sources said.
They considered that the aid to the Lebanese army enables it to engage in battles to preserve stability in the country and along its eastern border, when necessary.
On Monday, Leb received the first shipment of $3 billion worth of French arms under a Saudi-financed deal to boost the country's defensive capabilities to combat terror threats, along its northeastern border in particular.
Leb's allies are seeking to bolster the country's defenses 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 and other jihadists pressing along its Syrian border.
In August, the kingdom also offered another $1 billion in funds to allow the army to purchase supplies immediately.
The Lebanese army is generally seen as a unifying force in Leb, and draws its ranks from all of the country's sects.
A Syrian activist and several Lebanese TV stations are reporting that powerful former Syrian army general Rostom Ghazali has died in a hospital in the capital Damascus.
Sepsis or sucking chest wound?
Ghazali, in his early 60s, was the most powerful man in Lebanon during Syria’s long occupation of that country, and is suspected of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
And now he's dead. Excellent!
There was no official government comment and the circumstances of his death remain unclear.
Director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman said Ghazali died nearly two months after he was admitted with a head injury. Reports at the time said he was beaten by the bodyguards of another Syrian general.
Perhaps he said something and there was a "trigger warning"...
[Tolo News] Recent video footage published by the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... shows four Afghan nationals who were captured by the rebels while fighting on behalf of embattled Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... . The four young men say they originally fled Afghanistan and migrated to Iran because of poverty and unemployment before going to Syria to fight.
Seeking to shed light on the subject, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has since announced that there is no evidence indicating these young men were deployed to fight in Syria by Iran. According to officials, the evidence suggests they voluntarily went to fight for al-Assad.
The video was published online by the Amood Horan, a faction of the Free Syrian Army, which has been fighting the regime of al-Assad, as well as the Daesh group, in Syria for three years.
"I am from Afghanistan and I came here because of poverty and unemployment," one of the Afghan hostages incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! by the Free Syrian Army says in the video.
"I came from Afghanistan into Syria," another hostage, reportedly under the age of 18, tells the camera.
In Afghanistan, reactions to the video have been strong, with most decrying the conditions that would force such young men abroad rather than the actions of the men in the video.
"Political instability and poverty force the youth to migrate to Iran and Pakistain," a Kabul resident named Karim said on Friday.
"The youth are tired of unemployment, so they migrate to neighboring countries and are exploited for purposes of war," another resident named Ahmad said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... some Afghan journalists have suggested the four men in the video were likely sent to Syria by the Iranina government. "The government of Afghanistan, mainly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and the National Security Council, must take action and prevent Afghan youth from being burnt by the flames of every country's war," journalist Shah Hussain Murtazavi told TOLOnews.
In response to the video, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said there is no evidence proving the involvement of Iran in sending Afghans to Syria to fight. MoFA front man Ahmad Shekib Mustaghna has maintained Afghan youth choose to fight abroad. "So far, the Afghan government has no evidence that shows Iran sends Afghan refugees to the Syrian war," Mustaghna said.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul has consistently and categorically rejected any claims that the government in Tehran is responsible for sending Afghans to Syria to fight.
Nevertheless, there are also reports of Afghan refugees in Pakistain being sent to Syria to fight against president Assad's forces, whether on behalf of Daesh or the Syrian rebels, who, while embattled amongst themselves, both seek to topple the Syrian government. There are reports that Afghan refugees from Pakistain have also gone to Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2015 00:00 ||
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