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01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Patricia Velásquez (Venezuelan) aka Meela Nais / Anck Su Namun in "The Mummy (1999) - The Mummy Returns (2001)" aka Nicole Willis in "Mindhunters (2004)" aka Carmen in "Committed (2000)" aka Pendra in "Beowulf (1999)" (age 41)
Al-Shabab militants have shut down food aid distribution by the Red Thingy Cross permanently because they say the organisation is distributing spoiled food.
A statement said, "Despite being offered unrivalled access to all the regions governed by the mujahideen in south and central Somalia, the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross has repeatedly betrayed the trust conferred on it by the local population."
The militia said it had made a "thorough inspection" of the aid group's warehouses and food depots and that up to 70% of the food was "unfit for human consumption, posing a considerable health hazard and exposing the vulnerable recipients to acute illnesses".
The Red Thingy Cross had earlier said some of their trucks were stuck on bad roads for several weeks in the rainy season and the food they were carrying was spoiled. That food was publicly burned after the militia had photographed of moldy beans.
[An Nahar] South Sudan on Monday accused its former foes in the Khartoum government of arming gunnies who killed over 40 people in a cattle raid, as the U.N. warned tensions between the two sides risk regional peace.
"A militia group from Unity state penetrated into Warrap state... and attacked people in a cattle camp, killing over 40," said Interior Minister Alison Manani Magaya, the latest wave of violence in the world's newest nation.
"This militia group was armed by the government of Khartoum," he added.
South Sudan seceded peacefully from Sudan in July after decades of war, but both countries have since repeatedly exchanged allegations that each side backs proxy rebel forces against the other.
Oil-rich but grossly impoverished South Sudan was left awash with guns after years of conflict, and brutal tit-for-tat raids by rival ethnic groups to steal cattle from each other are common.
United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Sunday tensions and a furious row over oil between the former enemies has become a major threat to regional peace and security.
"The situation in Sudan and South Sudan has reached a critical point. It has become a major threat to peace and security across the region," Ban told an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.
Key issues unresolved at independence have escalated into bitter arguments, including a row over pipeline transit fees to transport the landlocked South's oil to port in the rump state of Sudan.
Juba said Sunday it had nearly completed a shutdown of its oil production -- the decampedgling nation's top revenue source -- after it accused Khartoum of stealing $815 million of its oil, and AU-mediated talks stalled.
In addition, tensions have been raised by their still un-demarcated border, parts of which cut through oil fields.
The South's oil-producing border state of Unity is a base for a number of rebel groups that Juba claims are backed by Khartoum to destabilize the decampedgling nation by attacking civilians and laying landmines.
Magaya could not name the specific group responsible for the attack, which took place over the weekend, but claimed that rebel groups in Unity state were collaborating with one another.
"The number of maimed is still not clear, but they took a lot of cattle with them," he said, added that the gunnies were from the Nuer ethnic group, while those attacked were Dinka.
He said government teams had been sent to investigate and that the corpse count could rise as local officials "were still counting the bodies."
South Sudan is reeling from an kaboom of ethnic violence, notably in Jonglei state, where a militia army of up to 8,000 armed youths attacked a rival ethnic group earlier this month affecting 120,000 people, according to the U.N.
The attacks were a dramatic escalation of centuries old tit-for-tat cattle raids, with aid workers reporting horrific killings, including babies beaten against trees and women hacked by machetes.
The U.N. has warned South Sudan faces massive challenges as the world's newest nation struggles to support hundreds of thousands of fleeing violence.
Last year, over 350,000 people were forced from their homes due to violence, according to U.N. figures, while since June South Sudan has also taken in over 80,000 refugees fleeing civil war in north Sudan.
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01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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Bedouin in Egypt's Sinai region kidnapped 25 mostly Chinese cement factory workers on Tuesday, demanding that authorities free fellow tribesmen from prison, sources from the tribe said.
"We will not release the Chinese until our demand for the release of these sons of Sinai are met," said one of the Bedouins who wanted to remain anonymous.
The workers were kidnapped on their way to a Sinai cement plant. They are being held in a tent near a road the Bedouins have blocked to press their demand, the sources said.
They said the jailed tribesmen were arrested between 2004 and 2006 as part of an investigation into bombings at the Taba resort on Sinai's Red Sea coast in which 31 people were killed.
Security officials were negotiating for the release of the Chinese workers, a security source said.
Residents of Sinai say they are neglected by Cairo and have attacked police stations and blocked access to towns, villages and industrial sites to show their discontent.
#5
Actually, it would be very interesting if the Chinese tried some unconventional force projection for this, with maximum bloodletting to send a message.
Their people would learn all sorts of interesting and practical information, and everyone else would learn about Chinese unconventional warfare.
Unfortunately, China probably has a "Meh, there are more where they came from" attitude.
[An Nahar] Gunmen have attacked two more cop shoppes in Nigeria's second city of Kano, killing at least two people amid a wave of escalating violence blamed on Islamists.
One of the attacks occurred at dawn on Monday, setting off a gunbattle with police, residents said. On Sunday night, gunnies stormed another cop shoppe near a bus station, leaving two civilians dead.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence, but Kano, the main northern city in Nigeria, has been targeted in recent weeks by attacks claimed by Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... The violence has included coordinated bombings and shootings on January 20 that left at least 185 people dead -- the worst attack yet attributed to the group in Africa's most populous country.
Monday's attack was the second in three days against the cop shoppe in the Mandawari neighborhood, underlining the apparent inability of the authorities to halt the violence.
"It was crazy. These guys came on cycle of violences and opened fire on the cop shoppe but they met tough resistance from the police, and it lasted around 20 minutes," Jamilu Muhammad, who lives across the Mandawari station, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris confirmed the raid but said the gunnies "could not get access to the station," and were "repelled by officers." He made no mention of casualties.
"From my house I heard gunshots at exactly 5:50 am (0450 GMT) coming from around the cop shoppe," said a local journalist who lives in the neighborhood.
He said cycle of violences were racing up and down his street as the sound of gunfire rang around the cop shoppe.
The attack occurred during Moslem morning prayers near the palace of the emir of Kano, the most important traditional leader in the city.
Dozens of soldiers went on patrol in the neighborhood immediately after the assault but most later left, leaving only a truckload with seven soldiers outside the cop shoppe.
In Sunday's attack, a large group of gunnies converged on a cop shoppe in the Naibawa district, sparking a shootout with police that lasted more than 30 minutes, residents said.
"Two civilians were rubbed out in the attack on the Naibawa cop shoppe," Idris told AFP on Monday.
He said the gunnies threw an explosive inside the police building, causing damage, but said no officers were hurt.
Kano remains under a dusk to dawn curfew following the series of bombings and shootings on January 20 that mainly targeted cop shoppes and killed at least 185 people.
Monday's attack was the fourth on police buildings since then.
On Saturday, a purported Boko Haram front man ruled out dialogue with Nigerian authorities and instead warned it would spread its attacks to another northern city in Africa's most populous country.
In leaflets distributed around Kano over the weekend, Boko Haram warned residents that it would continue to target the security services in northern Nigeria's main city.
Kano had previously beat feet the worst of Boko Haram's violence, and the brazen January 20 attacks highlighted the group's renewed strength.
The sect has been blamed for the deaths of more than 900 people in roughly 160 separate attacks since July 2009. It has claimed attacks that have killed more than 200 people since the start of 2012.
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At least 12 al Qaeda militants, including four local leaders, were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen, a tribal chief said in what he called one of the biggest U.S. strikes against the group.
Residents said the unidentified drone attacked the militants overnight who were travelling in two vehicles east of the city of Lawdar in Abyan province.
The tribal leader in the area told Reuters that at between 12 and 15 people were killed in the attack, including at least four leaders or prominent figures in a local Yemeni branch of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Residents said no civilians were hurt in the strike.
"This can be considered as one of the biggest American strikes because it targeted a large number of al Qaeda leaders at the same time," the tribal leader, who declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone.
"Unlike in previous attacks, this one seems to have achieved its goals and, unlike previous attacks, it did not result in civilian casualties."
[Yemen Post] Six kabooms rocked the southern Yemeni province of Thaleh late on Sunday night, some 245km south to the capital Sana'a, triggering a state of panic among the residents.
Local sources told Yemenpost that unknown attackers assaulted the army
brigades in the town using Rocket Propelled Grenades(RPG) and that fierce clash ensued between army troops and the unidentified attackers.
Different kinds of weapons were used in the festivities, said the local sources.
No accounts of deaths or causalities have been released.
Residents in the province blamed the remnants of the former regime for the latest escalations.
Al-Qaeda and other unidentified organizations have stepped their offensives on army personnel and brigades lately, apparently taking advantage of a distracted and undermined government.
Separately, the car of Shalal Ali Shai, a high- profile figure in the Separation Movement, was attacked by army units after a quarrel with his guards, leaving one of his guards killed.
Shalal allege that it was an liquidation attempt and the troops were targeting him because of his activities. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the army denied that saying it was his guards who initiated the clash.
Massive popular protests combined with Shiite rebellion in the far north and al-Qaeda insurgency in the south has shaken Yemen to the bone, leaving thousands killed, pushing the economy to the brink of collapse, and triggering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Yemeni outgoing President has signed a deal in the Saudi capital of Riyadh under which he transferred power to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections due to take place on Febraury21, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] A bomb has gone off on Monday in one school used as a camp for refugees coming from a nearby trouble-torn province, in the southern port city of Aden, injuring at least 8 internal refugees.
A bomb has went kaboom! in al-Qadisia school, which is like many schools in Aden used as camps to shelter refugees fleeing the festivities between al-Qaeda hard boyz and security forces in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan.
The initial accounts indicate that 4 maimed children are in a very serious condition.
The bomb was carried by one refugee, who brought it from his hometown Zinjibar, the bustling provincial capital of Abyan, and that he did not mean to explode it, local sources told Yemen Post.
Abyan has witnessed fierce festivities between the army troops and al-Qaeda bully boys, leaving hundreds killed and forcing as many as 100000 to flee their homes and seek shelter in neighboring provinces.
Al-Qaeda has took over Zinjibar in May and declared it an Islamic emirate, but their emirate hasn't last long as army troops assisted by local tribes men forced the hard boyz out of the town.
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01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... activist was killed and around 80 others, including 19 cops, were maimed in festivities between law enforcers and Jamaat-Shibir men in the city's Hatim Khan area yesterday afternoon.
The dead man, Shafiqul Islam, son of Abdur Rahman Sheikh of Basua Achintola in Rajshahi, worked at Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited Hospital. He was the father of a child.
The 30-year-old was already dead when he was taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. He was shot in the back near the neck, said Habibur Rahman, an emergency medical officer of the hospital.
The BNP-led four-party alliance will enforce a half-day hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in the city today to protest the killing.
Mizanur Rahman Minu, president of Rajshahi city BNP, announced the programme at a press briefing in the evening.
Witnesses said Shafique was hit by a bullet when police, under attack, opened fire on the violent activists of Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... around 4:45pm.
M Obaidullah, commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said they were yet to know how the man was killed. He claimed that police fired rubber bullets and shotgun shells only to scatter the rioting party men and that they had targeted nobody.
"Moreover, the killing took place when the law enforcers already started falling back," he added.
The RMP commissioner also claimed that gun-wielding Jamaat-Shibir activists fired at police.
Following the festivities, some 53 people were nabbed from different parts of the city.
At least 19 copperswere maimed as Jamaat-Shibir men hurled brick chips and lobbed cocktails, witnesses and RMP officials said.
The injured, including inspectors Tofazzal Hossain of Detective Branch and Khan M Shahriar of Boalia Police Station, were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Yesterday, huge contingents of police were deployed at different points, including Saheb Bazar, Rajshahi College and Shah Makhdum College, in the city from 3:00pm as the four-party alliance was set to hold agitations.
Around 4:00pm, BNP leaders Mizanur Rahman Minu and Nadim Mostafa brought out separate processions from Lokhnath School and Rajshahi College points.
Police soon intercepted Nadim's procession while Minu and his men marched to Bhubon Mohon Park and held a rally there.
Later at about 4:30pm, a big procession of Jamaat and Shibir marched from Hatim Khan to Lokhnath School but was stopped by police at the northern corner of the school.
Enraged, Jamaat-Shibir men started pelting law enforcers with brick chips and stones. The area was engulfed in smoke as they went kaboom! three cocktails.
The activists chased the cops twice up to the Rajshahi College point.
After reinforcement, police chased the Jamaat-Shibir men, firing rubber bullets and teargas canisters.
At one stage, Shafiqul was found lying "unconscious" on the road and minutes later, a police van took him to hospital, witnesses said.
Shafiqul was seen throwing brickbats at police moments before a bullet hit him, they added.
The disturbances lasted till 5:00pm when the law enforcers brought the situation under control.
"Hatim Khan area is a bastion of Jamaat-Shibir. Police had to retreat thrice during the festivities as they ran short of teargas canisters and bullets", said Additional RMP Commissioner M Moniruzzaman.
Tension ran high in the city with shops keeping their shutters down and roads being almost empty.
Emaj Uddin Mondol, the city unit Jamaat assistant secretary, said some 60 Jamaat-Shibir activists were maimed in police action and many of them were bullet hit. They were taken to Islami Bank Bangladesh Hospital and different clinics.
Law enforcers had shot into the Jamaat procession without any provocation, he claimed.
Islami Chhatra Shibir, a pro-Jamaat student body, condemned the killing and also "police brutality".
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[Bangla Daily Star] Police sued some 6,000 activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... for shooting two dead, attacking coppers and vandalising public property in Laxmipur on Sunday.
In a similar move, Chandpur police filed two cases that day accusing at least 6,000 BNP and Jamaat activists of attacking on-duty coppers and using explosives during their demonstrations.
Four persons died in Laxmipur and Chandpur towns on Sunday when police fired on agitating BNP activists and supporters.
Over 450 people including 100 police sustained injuries as the law enforcers attempted to foil scheduled marches of the opposition in different districts on the day.
In Laxmipur, BNP's youth wing Jubo Dal activist Rubel Hossain, 25, and BNP supporter Abul Kashem, 50, died of bullet wounds while two rickshaw-pullers Abul Mridha, 50, and Limon Soiyal, 25, died in Chandpur.
Our Noakhali correspondent reported that Enamul Kamal, a sub-inspector of Laxmipur Sadar Police Station, filed the case Sunday night blaming opposition activists for the killings of Rubel Hossain and Abul Kashem.
In the case statement, the SI named 181 people including district BNP unit general secretary Sahab Uddin Sabu, district Jamaat ameer Foyez Ahmed and president of district Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal ...student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)... unit Harunur Rashid.
Rubel was buried at Dalal Bazar graveyard Sunday night while Kashem at his family graveyard at Charmonsha village in Laxmipur sadar upazila yesterday morning.
A correspondent from Chandpur reported that Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Chandpur Model Police Station, had identified 59 local BNP, Jubo Dal and JCD leaders in the cases. The OC in one case accused them of an attack on police, violence and murder and in another of using explosives.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... local BNP units observed a half-day hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... peacefully in Chandpur and Laxmipur yesterday, protesting the deaths of four people in the police firing the day before.
No long-distant buses were running in the town for six hours since the strike began at 6:00am, a Chandpur correspondent reported.
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01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
How did that work? Didn the police surround the entire crowd and herd them, sheep-like, to the police station?
(Speaking of which, I hope Fred has copyrighted Thugburg. He might throw in a few bogus but realistic sounding names like map companies insert a few fake locations, to better prove theft).
[Dawn] Armed assailants on Monday carried out a grenade attack in front of a cellular-phone shop in Bloody Karachi's ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Lyari, DawnNews reported.
At least three people were reported injured in the attack in the Bahar Colony area of Lyari.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... at least three people bit the dust after suffering from gunshot wounds as unidentified armed attackers opened fire in North Bloody Karachi.
The incident happened at the Power House Chowrangi area of North Bloody Karachi on Monday night. One of the victims was struck down in his prime while two others succumbed to injuries at the hospital.
The identity of the dear departed was yet to be ascertained.
Earlier in the day, a young man named Taseer Abbas was also bumped off near Ancholi while another bullet riddled body was found from Baldia town.
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[Dawn] SAHIWAL: Farid Town police have captured 13 Afghan children from a private seminary in a rented residential house at Bashir Colony at noon today. The building was taken on rent by an Afghan national having a Pak passport and CNIC.
Police claimed that all the children were from Badakshan, Afghanistan and have been living illegally in Pakistain, Dawn has learnt.
Muhammad Saiee, Sub Inspector, Farid Town Police station said that police raided the private house in Bashir Town after being given a tip off. Neighbors disclosed to police that the children were getting a religious education from a Madrasah, which was being run by two religious teachers named Bashir Ahmed and Ihsanullah.
Qalib Abbas, SHO, Farid Town disclosed that not a single child has any legal documents showing their Afghan identity.
The police have incarcerated Bashir Ahmed, the seminary teacher. He ran all the seminary affairs including providing food to the children in the rented house. Dawn learnt from police sources that Ihsanullah, the head teacher of the seminary has not been incarcerated.
"We have been told that he has gone to Afghanistan from the last 25 days" the SHO further added.
The police has registered FIR (55/12) under Section 14, Foreigner Act. The names of the children are...Gul Ahmed, Najeebullah, Wajhiullah, Habibullah, Ihsanul Haq, Faizul Hasan, Abdul Tawab, Kifayatullah, Sibghatullah, Islamuddin, Mukhtar Ahmed, Muhammad Saddiq and Shahabudin.
Children are in jug with the Farid Town Police. Ihsanullah is the brother-in-law of the incarcerated Bashir Ahmed.
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[Dawn] A jacket wallah killed a cut-thoat commander in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar who had beat feet two previous liquidation attempts and three other people on Monday, police said.
The attack damaged a house that commander Haji Akhunzada was building in Pakha Ghulam on the outskirts of Peshawar.
He was considered a significant force within Ansarul Islam, a homegrown group based in the lawless tribal district of Khyber, and had moved to Peshawar after escaping two other failed attacks in the past.
"It was a suicide kaboom, four people have been killed. Haji Akhunzada is among the dead," Imtiaz Shah, a police brass hat, told AFP.
A bomb disposal official said it was a suicide attack.
"Evidence collected from site shows that a suicide bomber was involved," Hukam Khan told AFP.
Pak officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , blamed rival cut-thoat group, Lashkar-i-Islam for Monday's killings. Lashkar-i-Islam is another homegrown cut-thoat group in Khyber led by warlord Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... Ahmad, the top government official in Peshawar, told AFP that Akhunzada and his son-in-law were among the dead.
The bomber was dropped off by a motorcyclist, then walked to the house under construction and detonated his vest, Ahmad added.
Ansarul Islam and Lashkar-i-Islam have a history of killing each other's fighters, police said.
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#1
So will the Hatfields - er, Ansarul Islam - retaliate against the McCoys Lashkar-i-Islam? On the surface this looks like a potential long-term serial, worth plenty of popcorn, but maybe I'm missing something.
The IDF arrested a Palestinian member of Hamas early Tuesday morning, three months after he was released as part of the prisoner swap for Gilad Schalit. anybody surprised?
Indictments were filed with the Jerusalem District Court against five Palestinian teens from east Jerusalem over incidents in which they hurled Molotov cocktails at security forces in the Silwan neighborhood.
#1
Those weren't Molotov cocktails; they were just bottles of cleaning fluid the kids were using to scrub down those dirty security force vehicles. You know, like the way they squeegee your windshield at stop lights. Security folks shouldn't smoke - it's unhealthy. The yoots didn't do nothin wrong, nope, nothin.
An approximately twenty-year-old resident of Qalansuwa, in the Wadi Ara region of central Israel, was charged Monday with planning a shooting attack against IDF soldiers near Nablus.
A Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigation revealed that the suspect, Muhammed Abu Ali, is originally from Tul Karem in the West Bank, but was granted Israeli residency as part of the Family Reunification Act.
Abu Ali used his Israeli residency to shuttle between Israel and the West Bank in order to aid three members of an Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror cell to plan the terror attack against IDF soldiers.
Four villagers were killed and four others wounded when gunmen attacked a pickup truck in Pattani province on Sunday night.
The police chief of Nong Chik district, Pol Col Chonvee Chamarerk, said the attack on the pickup occured about 10 p.m. after an M79 grenade was fired at the operational base of a ranger unit. The grenade blast slightly injured a ranger.
The rangers at the base contacted patrol units to set up checkpoints on Highway 418 to check vehicles traveling on the road. At Ban Kayi, about 2 km from the base, an pickup truck heading against the flow of traffic was attacked by an unidentified group of armed men and an exchange of gunfire followed.
Four people in the pickup were killed and four others injured. A team of police and defense volunteers which examined the scene found 26 spent AK47 shells and 30 spent M16 shells on the road. An AK47 rifle was found in the pickup.
Ya Dueramae, the driver of the pickup, told police he was taking nine passengers to the funeral of a former village chief. At Ban Kayi, they saw a number of defense volunteers. At that moment the pickup came under attack from many directions, killing and injuring the villagers. The vehicle was full of bullet holes.
Mr Luechai, the district chief, said he has ordered district officials to arrange a funeral for the victims and told relatives that the police would investigate the incident and make sure there would be justice.
Former defense minister Yutthasak said initial investigations did not support the claim they were innocent villagers. He said that according to a report he received a pickup truck and a motorcycle were involved in the attack on the ranger base. The motorcycle from which the grenade was fired managed to escape, but the pickup slid off the road while fleeing and came under fire.
Gen Yutthasak said that anumber of weapons were found in the pickup. He said the pickup driver's account to police that the people in the vehicle were on their way to a funeral might not be true. People going to prayers did not need to carry weapons. It appeared they were fleeing after the M79 attack.
He said, "Authorities are sceptical that those in the pickup truck were ordinary villagers."
[An Nahar] Security forces have executed Free Syrian Army colonel Hussein Harmush, a founder of the rebel group made up of soldiers who defected, the Syrian League for Human Rights said on Monday.
"An air force intelligence unit last week carried out a sentence to shoot dead officer Hussein Harmush," the non-governmental group said in a statement.
The report could not be immediately confirmed.
In June, Harmush became the first Syrian military officer to publicly declare his opposition to the regime's deadly crackdown on protesters while speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse in the Turkish village of Guvecci.
Months later, his "confessions" were aired on Syrian national television after his return home in unclear circumstances. Many refugees are convinced he was kidnapped by Syrian agents from a refugee camp.
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[Iran Press TV] Syrian troops have regained control of some suburbs in the capital, Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , which were held by terrorist groups, reports say.
The Syrian army on Monday retook control of the eastern suburbs of Damascus, including Kfar Batna, Saqba, Jisreen, and Arbeen, days after terrorist groups fighting against the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... attacked the area and took up positions there.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, dozens of civilians were maimed during the exchange of fire between Syrian troops and terrorists.
A front man for the anti-government forces of the terrorist ''Free Syrian Army'' confirmed the withdrawal of the gunnies from the Damascus suburbs.
Activists say gangs had come as close as 8 km to Damascus and that they were launching attacks on government troops.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Russia's Foreign Ministry has announced that it has invited Syrian officials and the opposition to meet for talks in Moscow, and that the Syrian authorities have agreed to negotiations.
The Syrian National Council, however, has said that it will not join the talks aimed at ending months of unrest in the country.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March. Many people have bit the dust in the country over the past 10 months. Damascus says over 2,000 security forces have been killed in the unrest.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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#1
This is a very important event. Instead of being "proactive", on the offense, the Syrian army has been forced to be "reactive", counterattacking to regain lost ground.
This change is militarily significant, and signals a shift in momentum.
[An Nahar] At least 95 civilians, six members of the security forces, and two deserters were killed in violence across Syria on Monday, activists and a rights group said.
Security forces killed 95 people, including eight children and a woman, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Seventy-two people were killed in the central opposition bastion Homs, fifteen in the southern cradle of the uprising Daraa, six in the restive countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and two in the flashpoint northwestern province of Idlib, the LCC said.
Near the capital, meanwhile, troops penetrated Rankous, 40 kilometers north of Damascus, after shelling the town which had been encircled for the past six days, the Observatory said.
Security forces also stormed the flashpoint city of Homs, killing a family of six and a young girl, who was hit by gunfire from a checkpoint in the Karm al-Zeitoun district, according to the Britannia-based rights group.
Another civilian was killed by gunfire in Karm al-Zeitoun, and one in the neighborhood of al-Khalidiyeh, also in Homs.
Four civilians were reportedly killed in the Qussour district, while another was hit by machinegun fire in Baba Amro and a man was rubbed out by sniper fire in the city's Wadi Iran quarter.
A young man was rubbed out in town of Qusseir in the Homs province, the Observatory said.
It claimed that person or persons unknown killed a doctor in Shammas, also in Homs, while the state news agency said. ... and if you can't believe the state news agency who can you believe? Dr. Mustafa Safar was rubbed out by a "terrorist group."
Separately, rebel soldiers "attacked a minibus carrying six security officers on their way to make arrests in Hirak, killing all of the passengers," said the Observatory, in statements received by Agence La Belle France Presse.
Government forces responded by deploying two tanks which opened fire and killed three civilians in the southern city of Daraa, it said.
Elsewhere in the province of Daraa, cradle of the 10-month uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike... 's regime, a civilian was killed by indiscriminate gunfire in the town of Saida, the watchdog added.
Near the capital, the Observatory and activists at the scene said deserters pulled out of Rankous as the army moved in. The military assault reportedly claimed the lives of two deserters and left dozens of civilians maimed.
In the eastern suburbs of Irbin and Hammouriyeh, snipers were "shooting at everything that moves," the watchdog said.
Armed festivities also erupted between the army and mutinous soldiers in Hirak, further south in Khirbet Ghazaleh and Saida, as well as in Nassib, a village on the border with Jordan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... the Syrian state news agency reported a "terrorist group" attacked a gas pipeline in Homs province, near the border with Leb.
"An armed terrorist group has targeted a pipeline between Homs and Banias, near the town of Tal Kalakh, in a sabotage operation," SANA reported, without elaborating.
Syrian cities have been subjected to energy shortages for several weeks, which the authorities blame on "armed terrorist groups."
The opposition says the regime carries them out to punish protest hubs.
Since mid-March, Assad's regime has faced an unprecedented protest movement. The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... estimated at the start of January that more than 5,400 people had been killed in the ensuing crackdown on dissent.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Syrian authorities have agreed to an offer by Russia to have informal talks in Moscow with opposition representatives to resolve the crisis in the country, the Russian foreign ministry said Monday, an offer swiftly rejected by the opposition.
Russia had suggested to both the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... and the opposition that they should meet in Moscow for "informal contacts" without any preconditions, the foreign ministry said.
"Our offer has already received a positive response from the Syrian authorities. We are expecting that the opposition will also give their assent in the next days and put the interests of the Syrian people before any other ideas," it said.
But the head of the Syrian National Council said later on Monday that the opposition rejects all talks with the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... regime until President Bashir al-Assad steps down.
"The resignation of Assad is the condition for any negotiation on the transition to a democratic government in Syria," Burhan Ghalioun told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Moscow's diplomatic moves come at a time of mounting concern that the festivities between the opposition and regime forces have become even deadlier with 80 people killed across Syria on Sunday alone, according to activists.
This is on top of what the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... said at the start of January already amounted to 5,400 deaths in the standoff.
Russia also appears keen to prove it is playing a constructive role to defuse the crisis, amid mounting Western frustration over Moscow's refusal to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime.
The foreign ministry said that the talks in Moscow were "acutely necessary for the immediate cessation of all violence in Syria and preventing a bloody split in society."
They would also help ensure the "success for profound democratic changes in the country, in line with the hopes of all Syrians."
Russia said its offer to host talks was motivated by its desire to see an end to the crisis "through a peaceful mechanism worked out by the Syrians themselves, without international interference."
Moscow still maintains close ties with the secular regime in Damascus that were cultivated under Assad's father and strongman predecessor Hafez al-Assad and extend to having a naval base in the country and supplying arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Fig leaf for Assad and perhaps Russia itself. Russia has to be taking a hit for blocking Security Council resolutions on Syria.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/31/2012 18:12 Comments ||
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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.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Gunmen have attacked two more 
[Bangla Daily Star] A 
Armed assailants on Monday carried out a grenade attack in front of a cellular-phone shop in 
[Dawn] SAHIWAL: Farid Town police have captured 13 Afghan children from a private seminary in a rented residential house at Bashir Colony at noon today. The building was taken on rent by an Afghan national having a Pak passport and CNIC.
[Dawn] A 
The IDF arrested a Palestinian member of Hamas early Tuesday morning, three months after he was released as part of the prisoner swap for Gilad Schalit.
Indictments were filed with the Jerusalem District Court against five Palestinian teens from east Jerusalem over incidents in which they hurled Molotov cocktails at security forces in the Silwan neighborhood. 
Four villagers were killed and four others wounded when gunmen attacked a pickup truck in Pattani province on Sunday night.
[An Nahar] Security forces have executed Free Syrian Army colonel Hussein Harmush, a founder of the rebel group made up of soldiers who defected, the Syrian League for Human Rights said on Monday.
[Iran Press TV] Syrian troops have regained control of some suburbs in the capital, 
[An Nahar] At least 95 civilians, six members of the security forces, and two deserters were killed in violence across Syria on Monday, activists and a rights group said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
