[ToloNews] Farah officials said unknown men set fire to a girls' school on Sunday night in the center of Farah province.
Mohammad Sadiq Halimi, deputy head of the department of education in Farah said that nearly 1,000 girls were enrolled in the school.
According to Halimi, so far the perpetrators have been not identified.
"Unfortunately, the Shaid Banafsha girl’s school which is located in the center of Farah province was torched last night and parts of the school was damaged but so far we don’t know who are responsible for this action," Halimi said.
Farah is an insecure province in the west of the country and in recent months the province witnesses an increase in security forces operations.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force has carried out a series of night Arclight airstrikes in southern Uruzgan province leaving at least 30 Talibs dead.
According to the informed military sources, the Afghan Air Force A29’s conducted night air strikes last night killing 30 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... fighters in Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan.
The sources further added "The Afghan Air Force’s night strike capabilities greatly minimize the Taliban’s abilities to move and operate at night."
Uruzgan is among the relatively volatile provinces in South of Afghanistan where Taliban are actively operating in some of its districts and often carry out attacks against the government and security institutions.
[PRESSTV] The Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have held talks with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in 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. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... hours after gunnies from the group killed scores of Afghan cops in central Maidan Wardak province.
Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement on Monday that the Taliban delegation was holding talks with the US representatives in the Qatari capital Doha.
"Talks between Taliban leaders and US officials have started today in Qatar," the statement read.
A source close to the talks also confirmed members of the Taliban's political office were meeting with Khalilzad in Doha, adding, "They will hopefully finalize a timeline and mechanism of the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan."
The latest round of talks came hours after the Taliban killed scores of security forces inside a military compound in Maidan Wardak.
Attackers rammed a captured military Humvee packed with explosives into a training center of the National Directorate for Security in the province, west of Kabul. At least two button men followed up, spraying the compound with gunfire before they were shot down.
"We have information that 126 people have been killed in the kaboom inside the military training center, eight special commandos are among the dead," said a bigwig in the Defense Ministry in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
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01/22/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... attack in central Afghanistan on Monday killed scores of security personnel, officials said, with some estimates putting the corpse count at more than 100, amid government silence about one of the most deadly murderous Moslem attacks in months.
Attackers rammed a captured military Humvee packed with explosives into a training center of the National Directorate for Security in Maidan Wardak province, west of the capital Kabul. At least two button men followed up, spraying the compound with gunfire before they were shot down.
Continued on Page 49
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[Jpost] Kenyan police have thwarted an attack by suspected Somali turbans al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... on a Chinese-owned construction company in an eastern region, an official said on Monday, days after the Islamist group killed 21 people in Nairobi.
The assailants maimed one person while they attempted to hit the site in Garissa county, not far from the Kenyan-Somali border, owned by a Chinese road construction company that is building the Garissa-Modogashe highway.
"The attackers were repulsed since the security officers were very alert. There was exchange of fire before the attackers escaped," county police commander David Kerina told Rooters by phone, adding that the injured person was a watchman's wife.
"I believe the attackers, who were armed, might be Somali holy warriors. They fled, but we have intensified security operations. So far no arrest has been made."
Kerina give no more details about the attack or the site.
[RADIOSHABELLE] More details are coming out of heavy inter-clan fighting erupted in Middle Shabelle region which left several people dead, according to the residents.
The combat broke out in rural areas located on the outskirts of Mahaday district on Sunday afternoon, leading to deadly confrontation between the two warring clan militias. The battle continued for several hours and raged on until the night. At least seven people were kidnapped by the attackers.
The situation is reported to be tense and local residents expressed concerns over the possible renewal of the fighting as both sides are regrouping and could likely to clash.
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[PRESSTV] Sudanese police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters who try to march on parliament, as President Omar al-Bashir insists demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by security forces.
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[CAPITALFM.CO.KE] Four of the eight suspects on a terror watch list have surrendered as police intensify security operations across the country.
Qadaffy alias Munene was the first to be taken into custody in Isiolo County on Monday after he surrendered while in the company of his parents who insisted he is not a terrorist.
Police say the parents persuaded Munene to surrender after he featured in the list of terror suspects being sought by authorities following the 14 Riverside Drive attack in Nairobi that left 21 people dead.
"He has been booked for questioning," a detective privy to the development told Capital FM News on grounds of anonymity.
His parents say he worked at a leading firm on Mombasa Road. Moments later, three others on the list gave themselves up in the company of their parents.
They are Ali Abdi Kachora, Boru Abdi Bidu and Ramadhan Rasho who are also now being questioned by detectives.
Isiolo County is on the spotlight since one of the criminal masterminds of January 15 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Ali Salim Gichunge, was born and raised there.
Tens of youths are said to have left the country for Somalia from Isiolo, where they undergo training and radicalization.
It has already emerged that Gichunge’s wife, Violet Kemunto Omwoyo had planned to flee the country after the 14 Riverside Drive attack.
Detectives have since seized some of her personal belongings from a courier in Mandera Town.
She had sent them from Nairobi days before the attack was staged by the five slain attackers.
Gichunge is said to have coordinated the attack.
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01/22/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Egypt's Court of Cassation commuted on Sunday death sentences to life imprisonment for six defendants convicted of forming a terrorist cell in Giza in a 2014 case.
The court also upheld life imprisonment sentences for 14 others in the same case, and a minor was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison.
The court's verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
The defendants were charged with forming a cell that aimed to carry out attacks on members of the judiciary, on public and private property, and illegally protesting.
The original verdict was issued in October 2018, sentencing 11 to death, five of whom were in absentia, and 14 were sentenced to life in prison.
That’d be the group that fondly thought of themselves as the bold lions of "ISIS state in Giza.”
Prosecutors said that the defendants established a group that aimed to violate the provisions of the constitution and the law, prevent state institutions from carrying out their activities, and attack personal freedom.
The prosecution also charged members of the cell with attempting to kill a police officer in Giza in 2014.
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01/22/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
"Egypt's Court of Cassation commuted on Sunday death sentences..."
[Libya Observer] Bani Walid social council brokered Monday at Bab Albahr Hotel a ceasefire agreement between Supreme Council of Reconciliation of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and Tarhouna Elders Council to end festivities in southern Tripoli.
The signatories told news hounds in a presser earlier that the agreement says an immediate ceasefire must take effect, and all fighting groups must withdraw 15 kilometers away from their current positions so that the area from Fam Mulgha checkpoint in Tarhouna to southern Tripoli is secured by security departments in each of the districts and towns.
"We disown all criminals and runaways who are wanted by both sides, we will exchange bodies and captives and resolve the displaced civilians' issues and then we will form a committee to oversee the ceasefire implementation." The agreement reads.
In the meantime, identical sources reported that during the ceasefire signing, there were festivities in Souq al-Khamis Emsehel district and both parties exchanged accusations of violating the truce.
Fighting erupted last Wednesday in southern Tripoli after a similar one took the lives of over 100 people in last August and September.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Five demining experts killed in a weekend kaboom in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... were from South Africa and several European countries, King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) in charge of the project said on Monday.
The KSRelief said two South Africans, a Croatian, a Bosnian and a Kosovan were killed on Sunday when a vehicle carrying mines to be destroyed went kaboom! in the central province of Marib.
A British national was injured in the kaboom, KSRelief said without naming the casualties.
The Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias have been accused of the widespread and indiscriminate use of landmines.
Yemen is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, an international pact which came into force in 1999 and aims to eliminate landmines and clear up vast tracts of affected land.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi civilian was killed on Monday in an armed attack that was launched by unidentified button men in the capital Baghdad, a security source said.
"Unknown attackers shot up a civilian while passing by Abu Gharib district, west of Baghdad, leaving him dead," the source told al-Madar news website.
The source added that a security force sealed off the area and carried the body to the forensic medicine department.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Three 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.... Lions of Islam were locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... Monday on charges of targeting security forces and citizens in Anbar province, a security source was quoted as saying.
"A security campaign was launched after receiving intelligence reports on the presence of three Lions of Islam implicated in targeting security forces and citizens with explosive charges in al-Karma district, east of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... " Almaalomah news website quoted the source as saying.
"The Lions of Islam were moved to a lock-up amid high security measures for interrogation," the source added.
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[IsraelTimes] Report says Paleostinian operatives tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! a ’collaborator’ who planted spyware near the home of Qassam Brigades deputy chief
Paleostinian operatives in the Gazoo Strip have disassembled spyware equipment planted by a "collaborator" with Israel in a home adjacent to that of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of the group’s military wing, the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources in terror groups in the coastal enclave.
The equipment was intended to capture audio emanating from Issa’s home in the Bureij refugee camp and subsequently transmit it to Israel, the sources told the paper, adding it was part of an attempt to circumvent a recent change in the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, leader’s use of communication devices.
The sources also said that gangs had arrested the Paleostinian "collaborator" who planted the equipment near Issa’s home, and later uncovered a wider network of spyware he had installed in other places in Gazoo.
In early January, Iyad al-Bozm, the front man of the Hamas-run interior ministry, said security forces in Gazoo arrested 45 "collaborators" with the Jewish state since an Israeli raid in the Strip went awry late last year.
[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian man attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Monday evening against Israeli troops near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The soldiers subsequently shot the assailant at a junction outside Nablus, near a military base, the army said.
There were no Israeli casualties in the incident. The IDF said it was investigating the attempted attack and sending forces to the scene.
Reports in Hebrew-language and Paleostinian media said the assailant was killed. Official Paleostinian Authority news agency Wafa identified the Paleostinian as 36-year-old Mohammad Adawi.
The IDF said that according to an initial investigation of the incident, the Paleostinian suspect was driving a car from the direction of Nablus. After a brief security check, soldiers told him to turn around. He then exited the vehicle with a large knife and charged at a soldier standing guard and tried to stab him. Another soldier then shot the assailant, according to the army
[Bangkok Post] Two Buddhist monks, including an abbot, were killed and two others wounded after a group of ten men sprayed bullets into their cubicles at a temple in Narathiwat province.
A joint team of police, soldiers and the district chief arrived at the scene at Wat Rattananuparb in Sungai Padi district after being alerted Friday night. Phra Kru Prachote Rattananurak, the chief monk of the district and abbot of the temple, was found dead along with another monk. Two other monks were also wounded.
Local residents told investigators they saw a group of men in black dressed like soldiers riding motorcycles in the direction of the temple. Upon entering the gate, they shot several rounds into the cubicles and escaped.
The atrocity capped a day of violence in Ban Poh Deng. A bomb was detonated at 7:30am in Ban Poh Deng when a soldier and five paramilitary rangers were on patrol. No one was hurt. The second bombing. in the afternoon, injured five members of a security team on patrol along a railway track.
Violence has been escalating almost daily in the three southernmost provinces, particularly Narathiwat, since late last year, even as officials say they hope to pursue negotiations with insurgents. The death toll in the South dropped to a record low last year as the government tightened its security web, but violence has boiled over in recent days.
In the past, Buddhist monks have been targeted only infrequently. But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in the three southern provinces, and security officials have been asked to step up protection of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk.
In a rare public statement dated Jan 4 the main Malay-Muslim rebel group — the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) — which has control over most of the rebel foot soldiers, swore to “keep fighting”.
“Siam can’t hold out,” the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: “Do not help and support Siam.”
Security analyst Don Pathan said the uptick in violence was connected to efforts from Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitators across the border to “pressure the BRN ruling council to come to the table without offering possible concessions”.
[IsraelTimes] A suicide car kaboom on a military convoy in northeastern Syria Monday killed five members of a Kurdish-led force accompanying US troops in an anti-jihadist coalition, a monitor says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says five fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are killed in the attack, which occurred on a road in Hasakeh province.
The attack, on which there was no immediate comment from the coalition, came less than a week after another attack on the US-led force and its local partners in the strategic city of Manbij.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iranian labor protest leader, Esmail Bakhshi, has been incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... for the second time, state media reported Monday, after the judiciary denied his claim that he was tortured in jug late last year.
Bakhshi "was arrested last night in cooperation with security and law enforcement forces," Mansour Mohammadi, the prosecutor general of Dezful, in Khuzestan province, told the judiciary’s news website Mizan Online.
Bakhshi was one of the organizers of weeks of protests at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in the city of Shush in November and December, over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by new private owners.
State TV on Saturday broadcast a program claiming that Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian, another activist who supported the Haft Tapeh strikers, had connections with Europe-based activists who "aim to topple the state".
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israel’s military said on Monday it struck Iranian Quds targets inside Syria and warned Syrian forces not to attack Israeli territory or forces.
Israeli air strikes and ground-to-ground missiles killed at least 11 fighters including two Syrians, a Britannia-based war monitor said.
The bombardment hit Iranian and Syrian targets around Damascus as well as near a military airport to the south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian military air defenses also destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs during Israeli air strikes on Sunday, Russia’s defense control center was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
Israeli air strikes targeting an airport in southeastern Damascus killed four Syrian soldiers and maimed six, the military center was quoted by RIA news agency as saying on Monday.
Syrian state news agency Sana said its military air defenses had thwarted "hostile targets" and shot down several of them, without elaborating.
Witnesses in Damascus said loud kabooms rang out in the night sky.
"We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory," Israel’s military said in a statement.
The overnight strikes followed cross-border attacks on Sunday in which Syria said it repelled an Israeli air attack. Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired at the Golan Heights.
"We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier.
The Israeli army also said a popular winter tourist site on Mount Hermon in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It added that otherwise things remained "routine" along the frontier with Syria.
Netanyahu last week acknowledged an Israeli attack on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, where Tehran provides Damascus with vital support.
He told his cabinet Israel had carried out "hundreds" of attacks over the past years of Syria’s war to curtail Iran and its ally Leb’s Hezbollah.
Usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets near its frontier, Israel has lifted the veil this month, a sign of confidence in a campaign waged amid occasional tensions with Syria’s big-power backer Russia.
Israeli fighter jets targeted Iranian weapons storehouses, intelligence facilities and a training camp near Damascus during a massive overnight bombardment, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday, accusing Iran of firing a missile at Israel a day earlier.
In addition, the Israeli Air Force bombed a number of Syrian air defense systems that fired on the attacking fighter jets, including a Russian-made Pansir S-1 battery, the military said.
"During the attack, dozens of Syrian surface-to-air missiles were fired, despite the clear warnings expressed [by Israel] to refrain from attacking. As a result, a number of Syrian air defense batteries were also attacked," the IDF said in a statement acknowledging the attack.
According to Russia, four Syrian servicemen were killed in the Israeli strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least seven other pro-regime fighters were killed, likely Iranian or Shiite militia troops.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Monday that the Syrian surface-to-surface missile, fired by an Iranian militia at the Golan Heights a day earlier and intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery, carried a nearly half-ton warhead.
In response to the missile attack, according to the IDF, jets bombed weapons warehouses, including at least one at the Damascus airport, an intelligence facility and a training camp, all belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Israel and the West accuse of trying to gain a military foothold in Syria.
All of the targets, including the Syrian air defense batteries, were located around Damascus, according to the IDF.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights initially reported the death toll from the Israeli strikes to be 11. But on Tuesday, the war monitor said the number had risen to 21, making it one of the deadliest attacks by Israel in Syria.
According to SOHR, 12 of those killed were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; six were Syrian military fighters; and the other three were other non-Syrian nationals.
On Monday morning, the IDF also released video footage of its airstrikes on Syrian air defenses, including on social media.
According to Conricus, the Iranian retaliatory strike aimed at the northern Golan was “not a spur-of-the-moment” response, but had been planned months in advance, based on intelligence collected by the IDF.
The spokesman said Iran was directly responsible for the launch, and disputed reports that the projectile had been fired by pro-Iranian militias or by the Syrian regime.
Conricus said the location from which the missile was fired was “an area that we have been promised that the Iranians would not be in.”
That assurance appeared to have been made by Russia — Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s prime ally in the civil war — but Conricus said he “won’t go into who made the promise.”
Israel has reached a number of understandings with Russia about the permitted location of Iranian troops in Syria, mostly about their deployment along the Golan border with Syria.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An ISIS-claimed suicide car kaboom on a military convoy in northeastern Syria killed on Monday five members of a Kurdish-led force accompanying US troops in an anti-extremist coalition, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in the attack, which occurred on a road in Hasakeh province.
"A suicide kaboomer driving a bomb-laden car targeted a convoy of American forces accompanied by the SDF on the Hasakeh-Shadadi road," the Observatory said.
The head of the Britannia-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the attacker’s vehicle hit an SDF vehicle.
Shadadi lies to the south of Hasakeh, capital of the eponymous province, which has been relatively spared by the war that erupted in Syria nearly eight years ago.
The attack, on which there was no immediate comment from the coalition, came less than a week after another attack on the US-led force and its local partners in the strategic city of Manbij.
Four Americans -- two members of the military, a Pentagon civilian and a contractor -- were killed in a blast that targeted a restaurant in the city center on January 16.
The Manbij attack cost Washington its worst combat losses since it deployed in the war-torn country to combat ISIS.
Ten civilians were also killed in the attack, as well as five fighters from the local force that was patrolling the city alongside the coalition.
The attacks targeting the US-led coalition and its allies on the ground come a month after US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s shock announcement that he had ordered a complete troop pullout from Syria.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...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. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A 
the personification of Somali state failure...
[RADIOSHABELLE] More details are coming out of heavy inter-clan fighting erupted in Middle Shabelle region which left several people dead, according to the residents.
[PRESSTV] Sudanese police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters who try to march on parliament, as President Omar al-Bashir insists demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by security forces.
[CAPITALFM.CO.KE] Four of the eight suspects on a terror watch list have surrendered as police intensify security operations across the country.
...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...
... 
[Bangkok Post] Two Buddhist monks, including an abbot, were killed and two others wounded after a group of ten men sprayed bullets into their cubicles at a temple in Narathiwat province. 
