[Dawn] At least 17 civilians have been killed in multiple attacks in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday, underscoring increasing insecurity for ordinary people as foreign forces complete their withdrawal next year.
An bad boy attack on a road construction workers' camp in Karukh district in the western province of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... left nine workers dead overnight.
"The Taliban attacked their camp along the Herat-Badghis road while they were asleep last," Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, provincial police front man, told AFP.
The workers were employed by a government-owned road construction company, he said.
A provincial governor front man confirmed the deaths, blaming "enemies of Afghanistan", a term used to refer to the Taliban.
A roadside kaboom also killed five civilians, including women and kiddies, and maimed three others in the southern province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province on Saturday morning.
"A van hit a roadside kaboom in the Marjah district of Helmand killing five civilians and wounding three," Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor's front man, told AFP.
They were on their way to Lashkar Gah, the scenic provincial capital, for shopping, he said.
Also in Helmand, an IED (improvised bomb) killed three women in Musa Qala district on Friday, a police front man said.
IEDs are the Taliban's weapon of choice in their battle against the US-backed government and foreign forces, but they often kill and wound civilians.
According to recent United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... report, civilian casualties in the Afghan war rose 23 per cent in the first half of this year due to Taliban attacks and increased fighting between hard boyz and government forces.
The increase reversed a decline in 2012 and raised questions about how Afghan troops can protect civilians as US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... soldiers withdraw from the 12-year war.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Karzai condemns US in 5...4...3..
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2013 11:15 Comments ||
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#2
raised questions about how Afghan troops can protect civilians as US-led NATO soldiers withdraw from the 12-year war
They won't. The current Afghan government will collapse in the aftermath, albeit at a slightly slower pace than did the Soviet-back one.
[An Nahar] An attack blamed on Somali Islamist forces of Evil left four people dead in eastern Kenya and prompted hundreds to flee into the bush, authorities and the Red Thingy said Saturday.
"There was an attack (near) Garissa," a high-ranking interior ministry official, Mutea Iringo, told AFP. "Heavily armed Shabaab carried out a raid on a police post in Galmagala. A police officer died."
A police source in Garissa, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the border with Somalia, said another three people were killed in the Friday evening attack.
The Kenyan Red Thingy also said there were four dead, and that a fifth person was rushed to Garissa's hospital at death's door.
"Hundreds of people were displaced," the Red Thingy said on its Facebook page. "They took refuge in the bush and spent the night there fearing a new attack."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Two gunniesrubbed out a technician employed at Somalia's state-run broadcaster Radio Mogadishu on Saturday, the sixth media professional killed in the country this year, officials and a colleague said.
"Two men armed with pistols shot Ahmed Sharif and escaped the scene. He was rushed to hospital, but he died instantly," said colleague Mohamed Sacid.
Sharif was bumped off near his home in the capital Mogadishu just hours after Somalia publicly executed the only person to be convicted to date of killing a journalist in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
HOW DARE YOU TELL THE TRUTH.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/18/2013 13:54 Comments ||
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#2
Doubled again, Mods please remove one.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/18/2013 13:56 Comments ||
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MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The Somali Federal Governments Military Court has executed a man convicted of killing radio journalist, Hassan Yusuf Absuge in Mogadishu on Saturday, Garowe Online reports. The convicted murderer-Adan Sheikh Abdi, who was tied as a blindfolded to a pole at Mogadishu Police academy was executed by the Federal Governments firing squad.
Speaking to the media at the spot shortly after executing the journalists killer, Somali Military court spokesman, Abdullahi Muse Keyse said, after three witnesses including a policeman, who apprehended the perpetrator of the killing crime proved that Adan Sheikh Abdi deliberately shot dead journalist, Hassan Yusuf Absuge, the military court decided to carry out this execution act.
Late Absuge was assassinated in Mogadishus Yaqshid district in September 2012 and he had been working with a Mogadishu based radio station called, Radio Maanta.
It is first time, to be executed a criminal identified as Al Shabaab member by Mogadishu-based Federal Government.
Somali Police Chief, Gen. Sacid previously expressed concern over Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab groups increasing clouts in the security agencies and called for in depth overhauls of federal intelligence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[NEWS.YAHOO] After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Moslem woman offered them refuge. Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Moslem majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... from power, emboldening myrmidons. But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund.
Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly festivities nationwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 11:50 ||
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#6
No outrage from the media. Silence from Rome. Where are the do gooders? Or are all the do gooders just frauds paid for by American haters??? I know, rhetorical, but sometime I just have to say it...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/18/2013 20:50 Comments ||
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[USATODAY] It looked more like a fortified military zone than a top tourist attraction that draws millions of visitors: Metal barricades, tan-colored tanks and men in army fatigues blocked the way to the Giza pyramids on Saturday.
"This is the street of the pyramids?" asked Sabr Agaya, who offers camel and carriage rides, in a rhetorical tone. "I can't believe this is the street. Sometimes my head spins."
Tourism in Egypt was devastated this week as museums and archaeological sites shut down and violence erupted, propelling looting and sinking the industry.
"My business died," said Agaya, standing among a pack of men with no work and a throng of emaciated horses. "No one comes."
Violence clawed through the country this week, killing more than 800 people since Wednesday, when security forces cleared two protest camps. At least 173 were killed in street battles that started during Friday protests and took place on major roads across the capital.
"We cannot accept any reservations until next Saturday," said Mohammed Sabry, who works in the reservations department at the Cairo Four Seasons, "because as you know, there are bad circumstances around the hotel."
Many reservations were canceled at the Mena House Hotel -- built in 1869 as a hunting lodge for Egyptian royalty at the foot of the pyramids -- said deputy hotel manager Ahmed Salem. He blamed the government-imposed nightly 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and the fact "there is no clear idea about what will happen in the next few days."
Last week, two major German tour operators canceled all trips to Egypt after the nation's foreign ministry warned Europeans against visiting popular beach resorts. Other European countries followed suit and on Thursday, the U.S. State Department renewed a warning urging Americans to avoid traveling to the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 10:22 ||
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[Ynet] Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip shot up Egyptian army soldiers deployed in the border along the Strip, the Paleostinian news agency Maan reported. According to the report, no one was hurt in the exchange.
According to the sources cited in the report, it was Paleostinian smugglers who opened fire.
[An Nahar] Two Irish women were placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... Saturday after being trapped with hundreds of people in a Cairo mosque surrounded by Egyptian security forces, one of them told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
Brigid and Mary Clair, perhaps, dear tourists that they are?
The pair are children of the imam of Ireland's biggest mosque in Dublin and were on holiday in the Egyptian capital with a sister and a teenage brother who were also in the mosque.
Ah. No, probably not.
The family took refuge in the Al-Fath mosque after dozens of people were killed in violent festivities between supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and the security forces in Cairo on Friday.
Omaima Halawa, 21, and her sister Fatima, 23, were taken into custody by the Egyptian security forces when they left the mosque.
Although their mobile phones were taken from them, they managed to borrow one and called relatives in Dublin saying they had been arrested, RTE reported.
The whereabouts of their sister Somaia, 27, and brother Ibrihim, 17, are unknown.
Omaima earlier said that security forces had thrown tear gas at them inside the building.
"We are surrounded in the mosque both inside and outside," she told RTE. "The security forces broke in and threw tear gas at us."
The four had gone to Egypt with their mother for a holiday while their father, Hussein Halawa, remained in Ireland.
Another of the family's children, Nasaybi, said from their home in Dublin that her siblings were enduring a horrifying experience and she felt helpless.
She said: "We are really worried. We do not know how to help them. We are just trying to support them by calling and giving them some hope that they will get home safely."
A front man for Ireland's foreign ministry said embassy staff had contacted the four and were working with the Egyptian authorities to try to secure their safety.
Egyptian police cleared Islamist protesters from the mosque on Saturday after a standoff that included exchanges of fire, as the corpse count from four days of violence surpassed 750.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Since the Irish Halawa women were arrested in the company of a number of hardcore Muslim Brotherhoodlums, would it be a good guess that their home mosque in Dublin, where their Daddy is imam, is also home to hardcore Muslim Brotherhoodlums? Like maybe Daddy and brother Ibrihim? If I was Ireland I doubt I would try hard to get these people back.
#4
Omaima O'Halawa, tell me why you hurry so
Bismillah, hush and listen, and her cheeks were all aglow
(Though of course I couldn't see 'em, there beside the peaty dune,
For all of her besides her eyes was hid by a cocoon.)
[Chorus:]
By the rising of the moon, by the sigh of the simoom,
For the scimitars must glitter by the rising of the moon
And do tell, Hussein Halawa, where the gatherin' is to be
At the mosque down by denial, quite well known to you and me
Allah' akbar for the signal, whistle out some Um Kalthoum,
With your powder in your drawers, by the rising of the moon
[Chorus:]
By the rising of the moon, smite the infidel baboon
With your powder in your drawers, by the rising of the moon
Out from many a shuttered harem eyes were watching through the night
Many a manly heart craved one last buggery before the fight
Muezzins sang down the valleys like the banshee's lonely croon
As the faithful stuffed their underwear with stuff that goes kaboom
[Chorus:]
By the rising of the moon, by the sigh of the simoom
And the faithful stuffed their underwear with stuff that goes kaboom
By that ululating river that black mass of men was seen
High above their shining scimitars flew Al's beloved green
Death to every pig and monkey! Let our martyrdom be soon
Inshallah, me boys, for freedom, when our drawers go kaboom
[Chorus:]
'Tis the rising of the moon, soon we'll sigh like the simoom
And hurrah, me boys, for freedom, when our drawers go kaboom
You're most welcome. One of my favorite tunes. Thought I might piss people off with this one. I'm not the sharpest judge of humor in person, let alone in writing, so I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one to get a laugh out of it.
[An Nahar] A bomb went kaboom! Saturday in front of Egypt's consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, causing no casualties but some damage, a security official said.
"Unknown assailants in a vehicle threw an bomb at the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi without causing casualties," said security front man Abdallah al-Zayedi.
The blast caused part of the outer wall of the building to collapse and damaged cars parked outside the mission, he added.
"The security services have a description of the vehicle and are pursuing it," said Zayedi.
The attack came as dozens of people protested outside the consulate against a deadly police crackdown Wednesday on supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
A security source said, meanwhile, that the protesters were members of Libya's Moslem Brüderbund and that "they were the target of the attack".
The Libyan government said Saturday it has adopted a policy of neutrality regarding the situation in neighboring Egypt.
"Libya believes that what is happening in Egypt... is strictly an internal Egyptian affair in which the Libyan government will not interfere," the government said.
The statement said 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... supported moves to ensure consensus building, safety and security in Egypt, while expressing "deep regret and pain for lost lives and bloodshed".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Egyptian security forces stormed a Cairo mosque on Saturday after firing tear gas at hundreds of Islamists barricaded inside, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[ALLAFRICA] The Joint Task Force(JTF) in Kano tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... a suspected Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... member at the residence of the son of late former Head of State Sani Abacha, Mohammed, Daily Trust reliably gathered.
It was gathered that the suspect who is a domestic aide of Abacha's son at his residence located on Magajin Rumfa road at the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Nasarawa local government area of the state was trailed to the house following the arrest of a suspected Boko Haram member in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Security forces comprising men of the Nigerian Army and those of the State Security Service (SSS) went to the residence at around 1pm on Wednesday.
A source close to the family told Daily Trust that the security operatives arrived the house at a time when the aides of Mohammed were saying their Zuhr prayers.
"They came during the Zuhr prayers; in fact the people around in the house were observing the prayers. The coppers alighted from their cars and about 10 of them who were well-armed entered the building and waited till the end of the four raka'at prayers.
"After the prayers, they asked all the people around to lie down. In fact some coppers who were among those people praying were also asked to lie down because they were in mufti. When the coppers among those people that were lying down indentified themselves, the JTF members asked them to stand up," he said.
According to the source, the JTF operatives then brought out a suspected Boko Haram member who was handcuffed to identify the suspect in Mohammed's house.
"As the suspect was trying to identify the one in Mohammed's house, he started running and jumped a fence but the security operatives arrested," he said.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... when our correspondents went to the residence of Mohammed around 1pm yesterday, security guards stationed there denied knowledge of the military operation and the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram member.
But a trader near the residence said he heard about the arrest of the suspect from a friend. "I was not around when the operation took place but I heard that a suspected Boko Haram member was arrested in the house yesterday (Wednesday)," he said.
When contacted by telephone, Mohammed Abacha said nothing like that happened.
Spokesman for JTF in Kano state, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the operation but declined further information, saying investigation was still on.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Authorities say a kaboom has maimed at least five coppers in the restive Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.
The Interior Ministry on its official Twitter feed said the homemade bomb went off Saturday evening in the al-Diar area on the island of Muharraq, northeast of the capital, Manama.
IFor a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Three men were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in southern Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news accounts.
A news account which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Juarez news daily said that three men were shot to death in two separate incidents.
In Guadalupe y Calvo municipality two men were found shot to death near the village of La Joya Meza.
The victims, identified as Navarrete Agapito Flores, 39, and Daniel Bojorquez Juan Navarrete, were both shot in the chest.
A second dead body was found also in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, according to a separate news account which appeared on the website of Tiempo news daily.
Guillermo Alfonso Gonzalez Ramos, 56, was dragged out of his residence in the village of Yerbitas in the course of a home invasion by six armed suspects, and taken away along with his Ford Lobo pickup truck. He later was found near El Ocote shot to death with a 9mm weapon.
According to a third news account in El Diario de Juarez, last Friday, August 16th, is the fifth anniversary of the bloody Creel massacre which took the lives of 14 individuals.
On that date a group of armed suspects descended on a gathering of residents holding an impromptu block party. Many of the participants were Tarahumara Indians, colloquially known as raramuris. The assault group, numbering 12 opened fire on the group, which numbered 25. One of the victims was a year old infant.
Despite protests from local residents and the Catholic church, the killers have never been brought to justice, according to the news report. Then Chihuahua Governor José Reyes Baeza detained three men in connection with the massacre. One of them was subsequently released, while the others had no direct ties to the shooting.
According to the report, the Juarez Drug cartel enforcement wing, La Linea, was responsible for the massacre.
Separately, another news report, which appeared in El Diario de Juarez said that certain classes of crime were down from 2012 in Chihuahua city, the capital of Chihuahua state.
According to that news report, director of the Chihuahua city Seguridad Publica Municipal (DSPM), Heliodoro Araiza Reyes Friday said that non-violent burglaries were down with a total for the calender year of 153. A total of seven violent burglaries were reported in July. Also business robberies without violence were below the April, 2013 mark of 90. A total of 79 of those robberies were reported.
A total of 25 carjacking incidents were reported with 10 cases of auto theft. A total of 64 violent muggings were reported with 22 robberies without violence.
According to the report, all violent crime is down in Chihuahua city for 2013.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
[Dawn] Law-enforcement agencies on Friday tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... 120 people, mostly Afghans, after seizing wireless sets and arms during a raid on Shamshato Refugee Camp in the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
According to a police source, the raid was conducted jointly by police and Frontier Constabulary and that 11 wireless sets, five walky-talkies, three chargers of electrical receivers, four batteries, one bag of potassium chloride, five rifles, two pistols and hundreds of cartridges were recovered from the arrested men.
Among the arrested man was proclaimed offender Ghuncha Gul, an Afghan resident, who is wanted by Paharipura police in a murder case.
The source said snuffies had spread all over Peshawar district and the raid had proved that thorough checking of every locality was a must.
He said police had very limited resources and could not reach every place on their own unless the paramilitary troops offered special support.
The source said many snuffies had shifted to the villages close to tribal and semi-tribal regions as they could easily move in case of any possibility of operation against them.
Referring to a recent operation at Adezai, he said two snuffies had been killed in the village infuriating terrorists, who had tried in vain to attack police.
The source said in the Shamshato Refugee Camp, there were people from tribal areas, who seemed to have involvement in terrorist acts in the capital city.
When contacted, deputy superintendent of police Shaukat Khan said the arrested men were being interrogated.
"We have information that there are some people associated with terrorist groups. Most of them belong to Afghanistan, while some are hailing from Bara and Tirah Valley," he said.
The DSP said the law-enforcement agencies had cordoned off the area since Thursday morning and thoroughly checked movement of the people on the roads and streets and later conducted a raid on the camp.
"The relevant officials are interrogating the arrested men and names of those found guilty of criminal activities will be made public very soon," he said.
Mr Shaukat said a case against the arrested men had been registered.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
One usually holds a person by seizing their arms. That would mean two-hundred arms were seized. Maybe less if some were missing one. How did they hold those with no arms?
[Dawn] Armed festivities between forces of Evil and security forces continued for second consecutive day on Saturday in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's mountainous troubled district of Bolan in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on a passenger train that killed four and injured around 30 on Friday.
A Frontier Corps official, who did not wish to be named, told Dawn.com that two armed forces of Evil were killed in Dozan area of Bolan district.
He said a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, loaded on three donkeys, was also recovered from Death Eaters' possession. "Fierce festivities took place between forces of Evil and security forces," he said, adding that two forces of Evil were killed after exchange of fire.
Armed forces of Evil fired rockets at Rawalpindi bound Jaffar Express and killed four passengers and injured another 27 in Dozan area of Bolan district on Friday. Women and children were also among the injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Gunmen killed four coppers and three soldiers in Iraq on Saturday, the latest attacks in a surge in violence that authorities have failed to curb despite wide-ranging operations against bad boys.
Security forces have in recent weeks carried out some of their biggest operations since the 2011 withdrawal of US forces, but analysts and diplomats have said authorities have failed to address the root causes of the violence.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has nevertheless vowed to press on with the campaign in a bid to combat Iraq's worst violence since 2008, and on Saturday the interior ministry announced the killing of an alleged senior Al-Qaeda-linked bad boy.
In Saturday's deadliest attack, gunnies killed four police, who were buying ice near Tikrit, north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
Security forces often purchase large blocks of ice to distribute to nearby checkpoints in order to cope with Iraq's sweltering summer heat.
Also north of the capital, gunnies killed three soldiers in an attack on a patrol in the restive Muqdadiyah area of Diyala province.
In the far south, a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to a truck went off in the parking lot of the port of Umm Qasr, a local official said.
A port front man said the kaboom did not cause any casualties.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the attacks, but Sunni snuffies linked to Al-Qaeda and opposed to the Shia-led government frequently carry out attacks against security forces.
Attacks have killed more than 3,480 people since the beginning of 2013, according to figures compiled by AFP.
Analysts and diplomats attribute the increased violence to anger in the Sunni Arab community over its alleged ill treatment at the hands of the Shiite-led authorities.
Security forces have been carrying out wide-ranging operations in multiple provinces including Storied Baghdad, after brazen July assaults on two prisons, claimed by an Al-Qaeda front group.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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A truck bomb exploded at Iraqs main commodities port near the oil-exporting southern city of Basra, wounding four people on Saturday, but officials said shipping traffic at the Umm Qasr docks was not affected.
Umm Qasr port, near Iraqs border with Kuwait, sits at the top of the strategic Gulf waterway and does not export oil. Imports handled there include grain shipments and heavy equipment used in the energy industry. The site is close to the city of Basra, about 420km southeast of the capital Baghdad.
The blast damaged an out-of-service Iraqi ship anchored there and wounded four porters, the head of the Basra provincial security committee, Jabbar Al Saedi, told Reuters.
Its a serious breach to the port security and a terrorist act targeting Iraqs economy, he said. The truck had been parked near one of the ports unloading berths, he added.
Shipping movements and unloading operations at the port were not disrupted by the explosion, said Mahdi Askar, an official with the state-run General Company for Maritime Transport.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre.
Most of those killed were Christians, activists and residents said. Some were from the National Defense Army, a militia that fights alongside Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's soldiers, and others were civilians, they said.
#3
Clearly US Congressional demands that the Bammer Admin place closely monitored conditions on US Aid to the Syrian Rebs were absolutely positively categorically undeniably ....
...@etc. adhered to - NOT!
[Al Ahram] Al-Qaeda loyalists attacked a mainly Kurdish town in northeastern Syria sparking fighting in which 17 people were killed, two of them ambulance crew, a watchdog said on Saturday.
How long before Iraqi Peshmerga 'volunteer' units come over the border to assist their brothers and sisters?
The assault on the strategic border town of Ras al-Ain, from which the jihadists were expelled by Kurdish militia last month, sparked an exodus of civilians into neighbouring Turkey, an activist said.
The attack on the town was part of a wider offensive by Al-Qaeda against several Kurdish majority areas of northern and northeastern Syria that began on Friday and was continuing on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Four Kurdish forces of Evil and 11 jihadists made up the rest of the dead, the watchdog said.
Syrian Kurd activist Havidar said civilians had fled "in waves into villages in Turkey."
"Intermittent festivities are continuing to take place till now, in the Asfar Najjar area and the outskirts of Tal Halaf," Havidar told AFP via the Internet.
Government troops pulled out of majority Kurdish areas of Syria last year, leaving Kurdish militia to fend for themselves.
Elsewhere in Syria, rebels attacked a pro-regime militia checkpoint in a majority Christian area of Homs province, killing six civilians and five militiamen, the Observatory said.
State news agency SANA said all those killed were civilians, and described the attackers as "terrorists".
Homs has seen some of Syria's worst violence since the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Kinnison began his slow infiltration of the sewer system... Amnesia Amnesty International said prominent Syrian artist Youssef Abdelke and another opponent of the Damascus regime had been "subjected to enforced disappearance."
Abdelke and Adnan al-Dibs were tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! on 18 July in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tartus and have not been seen since.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Poor Kurds: no matter who fights whom in ME, they get run over.
[An Nahar] The Israeli army fired into Syria after shells from the neighboring country hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights on Saturday, a military front man said.
"Today, several shells fired from Syria landed in the central Golan heights, adjacent to the Israel-Syria border," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Israeli military "forces carried out a pinpoint strike, targeting the source of the shooting. A hit was confirmed."
The front man said at least three shells were confirmed to have hit Israel. He could not say whether the army considered the incidents cases of stray fire spilling over from the conflict in Syria.
Army radio reported the Israeli attack demolished a Syrian military position.
A defence source told AFP the Israeli response took place after the Jewish state filed a complaint to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, which monitors the 1974 ceasefire line between Israel and Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau carried out on Friday night three raids in Beirut to arrest suspects linked to Thursday's Dahieh blast, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Saturday.
It revealed that Lebanese national, Syrians, and Paleostinians were enjugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in a raid in the Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood without specifying the number of the detainees.
The arrests were based on the telephone calls they had made, said al-Rai.
Judicial sources later on Saturday told MTV that no suspects have so far been arrested in connection to the attack.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... leading security sources from Hizbullah told al-Rai that it was likely that a jacket wallah carried out Thursday's attack given that the crater created by the blast was located in the middle of the road.
They added that the explosive used may have exceeded 100 kilograms and included gas and benzene or highly-flammable chemicals seeing as a blaze immediately broke out at the blast site.
Sources from the investigation meanwhile told An Nahar daily on Saturday that the explosives were not C4 or TNT, but a more potent substance.
They estimated that the bomb weighed about 60 kilograms and created a crater of a depth of 60 centimeters, length of 340, and width of 240.
The Hizbullah sources told al-Rai that it was likely that a nearby conference hall that frequently hosts Hizbullah political and religious events, including a speech by party chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... who appeared in person at the facility on August 2, was the target of the attack.
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08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Explosive materials and devices were found on Saturday evening in a car parked near the municipality building of the Naameh neighborhood in Mount Leb's Shouf district.
"Five barrels of TNT, kaboom, fuses and detonators were found in the car," the state-run National News Agency reported, noting that the weight of the explosives is estimated at 250 Kgs.
The NNA detailed: "The car was parked on the main road in Naameh, specifically near the town's municipality building. It is an Audi and has a fake number plate."
"The car was set to be remotely detonated," it said.
Security forces asked civilians and news hounds to stay away from the scene as it is still being inspected by experts, according to the same source.
Later, MTV said the experts dismantled the explosives that were planted in the car's door.
Earlier on Saturday, the NNA said security forces cordoned off the Naameh region after suspecting that a car parked in a building's parking is booby-trapped.
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08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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The death toll from a car bombing that ripped through a Beirut stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah has risen to at least 27, the health ministry said on Saturday. The toll is the highest in Lebanon since a massive car bomb attack on the Beirut seafront killed then prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.
At least 27 people died and 336 others were wounded in the car bomb attack that targeted the Rweiss neighbourhood on Thursday, the office of Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said.
An earlier toll on Friday said at least 22 people had been killed when a car packed with explosives blew up in the densely populated district in Beiruts southern suburbs. But Khalils office said three people died of their injuries overnight Friday while two more bodies were found, raising the death toll.
A previously unknown group, the Battalion of Aisha, said it carried out the attack because of Hezbollahs involvement in the Syria war.
You, the pig Hassan Nasrallah, we send you our second powerful message because you havent understood yet, a member of the group said referring to the head of Hezbollah.
I wouldn't mind if they just killed Nasty and his henchmen, and left the innocents alone...
A defiant Nasrallah said on Friday he himself was ready to go and fight in Syria, and accused radical Sunni takfiri Muslims of being responsible for the car bombing.
Sure you will. More likely you'll eat a goat in their honor...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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 Nahar] An attack blamed on Somali Islamist 
[Al Ahram] Two 
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The Somali Federal Governments Military Court has executed a man convicted of killing radio journalist, Hassan Yusuf Absuge in Mogadishu on Saturday, Garowe Online reports. The convicted murderer-Adan Sheikh Abdi, who was tied as a blindfolded to a pole at Mogadishu Police academy was executed by the Federal Governments firing squad.
[USATODAY] It looked more like a fortified military zone than a top tourist attraction that draws millions of visitors: Metal barricades, tan-colored tanks and men in army fatigues blocked the way to the Giza pyramids on Saturday.
[An Nahar] A bomb 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
