[CNN] A suspect got onto a U.S. air base in Japan on Saturday "with a suspicious package," prompting a temporary lockdown and investigation, the base said.
Security forces from the 374th Airlift Wing "apprehended [the] suspect who gained unauthorized entry into at Yokota Air Base," according to a post Saturday on the base's Facebook page.
That person was not identified, nor did authorities say what was in the "suspicious package."
Still, the fact the suspect is in custody was enough for officials to issue an all-clear and lift the shelter-in-place order at 8:50 p.m. (6:50 a.m. ET) Saturday.
[DanielPipes] Nor is the Ibrahim case unusual. I have compiled long lists of other potential instances of jihadi violence (here, here, and here) in which the Establishment has colluded to sweep the Islamic dimension under the rug, treating the perpetrators as common criminals whose biographies, motives, and connections are of no interest and therefore remain unknown.
This silence about possible jihad has the major consequence of lulling the American public (and its counterparts elsewhere in the West) into believing jihadi violence is far rarer than is the case. If the body politic understood the full extent of jihad in America, the alarm would be much greater; the percentage of those calling terrorism a critical issue would rise much higher than the current 75 percent. That, in turn, might push the Establishment finally to get serious about confronting jihad.
#2
...What it's going to take, sadly, will be a WWIII-casualty-level attack that also takes out the people who insist on hiding this. Then and only then will we see a change, because the survivors will be in no mood for mercy or understanding.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/26/2015 11:34
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#3
Mike, even then, unless the attack TRULY catastrophic - casualties in the millions - people will quickly forget and forgive, just as they did after 9/11.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/26/2015 12:05
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#4
I think even after a nuked city (explosive or Dirty) the establishment might well try to hide, or misdirect (see Benghazi) what is responsible. Remember, within hours of 9/11 the media was full of the question: What have we done? And they still refuse to believe that Islam was a component.
#5
A city will have to disappear before anyone admits it is ongoing here.
Of course, the media discourse will all be about "why do they hate us?" and maybe we should try to understand what we have done to them.
All we have ever done to them is to be of some other ethnic or religious affiliation. It is solely the fact that we are not Muslim. Nothing more nothing less.
The media does not and will not understand that we are the target for our lack of faith in Islam.
AND why does the media and the liberals feel the need to run cover for Islam? Why do they criticize Christianity at the drop of a hat but seem concerned we don't ruffle any feathers among Moslems?
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12/26/2015 14:25
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#6
"AND why does the media and the liberals feel the need to run cover for Islam? Why do they criticize Christianity at the drop of a hat but seem concerned we don't ruffle any feathers among Moslems?"
Because they're cowards, Bill.
They know Christians won't behead them, but you-know-who will.
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12/26/2015 19:14
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[IsraelTimes] Ahead of self-imposed deadline to defeat jihadists, President Buhari says holy warrior group can no longer carry out attacks
In remarks issued days before his self-imposed deadline to defeat the jihadist group expires, President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria has "technically" won the war against 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... though jacket wallahs remain a threat.
In the remarks, the leader of Africa's most populous country worked to reassure Nigerians that the jihadists now were unable to mount effective "conventional attacks" in the country's volatile north.
"Boko Haram has reverted to using improvised bombs (IEDs)," he said in an interview posted by the BBC on Thursday.
"But articulated conventional attacks on centres of communication and populations... they are no longer capable of doing that effectively," said Buhari. "So I think technically we have won the war because people are going back into their neighborhoods."
Buhari was voted into power earlier this year on a platform that included a promise to stamp out the Boko Haram insurgency.
The former military ruler set a self-imposed deadline of the end of December to defeat the turbans, vowing to invest in education to deter dissatisfied youth from becoming radical.
In contrast with his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau.Other than that he's pretty useless as the Boko Haram debacle shows.. , Buhari has been able to win back territory from Boko Haram and the country has seen a decrease in the number of deadly raids that decimated towns and villages.
But the jihadists in response have increasingly resorted to suicide bombers -- many of them young children -- to wage war for an independent Islamic state in the country.
Boko Haram recently has staged suicide kabooms in neighboring countries Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , Chad and Niger, prompting fears that the radical group is gaining traction outside Nigeria.
Since taking up arms against the Nigerian government in 2009, the faceless myrmidons have razed towns and killed over 17,000 people.
According to the Global Terrorism Index, a report released by the New York-based Institute for Economics and Peace, it "has become the most deadly terrorist group in the world."
Boko Haram has destroyed swathes of what little infrastructure existed in the country's impoverished north at a time when Nigeria's coffers are empty as a result of the plunging price in oil.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/26/2015
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#1
I guess future massacre victims will be "technically" still alive?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2015 8:24
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#2
Same technical parameters Obean used to declare victory and pull out of Iraq.
They are indeed, g(r)omgoru. I forgot to put a :-) in my previous post, or to mention that I enjoyed it. My apologies. I hadn't thought of you as a Larry Correia fan, though you'd introduced me to both Sarah Hoyt and Latma.
"On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth-story window."
It's Christmas Eve in Japan. Little boys and girls pull on their coats, the twinkle of anticipation in their eyes. Keeping the tradition alive, they will trek with their families to feast at ... the popular American fast food chain KFC.
Christmas isn't a national holiday in Japan--only one percent of the Japanese population is estimated to be Christian--yet a bucket of "Christmas Chicken" (the next best thing to turkey--a meat you can't find anywhere in Japan) is the go-to meal on the big day. And it's all thanks to the insanely successful "Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!" (Kentucky for Christmas!) marketing campaign in 1974.
#1
another interesting Japanese custom, since the 60s, is that the national symphony plays Beethoven's 9th with a huge choir - as many as 5000 - and yes, they sing in German
this is a custom for the civil new year
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/26/2015 19:08
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h/t Instapundit The date of the report is 11/20/15.
Police on the campus of a taxpayer-funded university in central Michigan have arrested a man for posting a threat against black people on Yik Yak, the anonymous social media app.
The threat declared: "I'm going to shoot every black person I can on campus. Starting tomorrow morning."
The man who police arrested, Emmanuel D. Bowden, is black.
Turkey is demanding that Israel permit unfettered access to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as one of the conditions before a formal renewal of diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Ankara, according to a report in Saturday editions of the Hurriyet Daily News. Ok. No Renewal. We like Kurds better anyway.
[Jpost] An IAEA report shows that Iran was lying about its military nuclear program, but the deal continues.
THE US administration is concerned about the possibility of a new confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest report on Iran's nuclear shenanigans. "We hope it won't happen," a senior US official tells The Jerusalem Report, "but if it does, it will be a completely different ball game. The administration will not sit idly by this time and it will be vindictive."
The terminally oblivious will be shocked when it happens again.
#6
These people don't play fair. O will use every dirty trick in the book to sanction Israel. We are no longer the ally of a fellow democratic country. The world knows he has no gravitas. He and his minions walk step over the cliff and drag us along.This is not the end and it is not even the beginning of the end. Seemed to sum up my thoughts for things to come.
[Rudaw] The bodyguard of a high-ranking and famous Iranian holy man has been killed fighting in Syria, according to news reports.
Muhsin Faramarzi was killed while fighting in Syria alongside Shiite militia and Syrian government forces. According to Tasnim news agency, Faramarzi had traveled to Syria as a volunteer fighter under the Iranian militia group known as Defenders of the Shrine.
Faramarzi was the personal bodyguard of Muhammad Imami Kashani, the Friday preacher of Tehran.
Since the start of the Syrian war thousands of Iranian nationals have traveled there to fight with the army against rebel groups.
The shrine of Sayda Zainab, the eldest daughter of Prophet Muhammad is located in Damascus. She is highly regarded by the Shiite sect.
Scores of other Iranian soldiers and high-ranking military advisors are believed to have been killed in Syria, mostly in recent fighting around the northern city of Aleppo.
Faramarzi's death could be considered high-ranking due to his closeness to the preacher of Tehran, a position also held by the Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself.
[Hurriyet] The Turkish government believes it must complete ongoing military operations in the southeastern Anatolia region against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) by spring at the latest if it does not want to lose support for its actions.
The issue was discussed at a meeting of the highest decision-making body of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK), on Dec. 20 and in a cabinet meeting on Dec. 21.
The top item on both of the meetings was ongoing curfews declared in the southeast during operations and the results of these curfews. The siege tactics that have been employed in strongholds of the PKK's youth wing are purportedly designed to avoid harming civilians, meaning the operations have so far been conducted slowly and carefully, sources said.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... officials also said disturbing images of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses by police during the operations should be prevented and that the regional people's support for the struggle against the PKK should be put to good use.
Accordingly, government officials have maintained that the operations should be completed within a few months and that by the spring of 2016, a new page should be opened with reforms appealing to the region's people and compensation for damages incurred by civilians. Such action is likely to also form part of a resumption of the long-stalled resolution process that could including nabbed Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Government sources believe that they have support against the PKK because of the progress attained during the resolution process and a cease-fire between the government and the turban group.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... concerns were also raised during the MKYK and cabinet meetings, with officials and party executives saying that in the event of a prolongation of the operations, the current support from the people could be jeopardized.
The stance of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was also put under the microscope during the meetings. At the moment, the government has not been involved in dialogue with the HDP other than some unofficial contacts.
Officials drew attention to the fact that the HDP was under pressure by the PKK, which called on the party to abandon parliament where it has a presence as a political party group after passing the 10 percent threshold in the Nov. 1 elections.
The government's eyes will be on messages to be delivered at a convention of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) scheduled to be held on Dec. 26-27 in order to make a projection on the future of relations with the HDP, as well as the messages to be delivered by the HDP at the convention, during which a series of decisions are expected to be made. The DTK is a multi-party based group that brings together a number of Kurdish groups and democratic organizations.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke... officials also highlighted the need to urgently cover the damages of victimized civilians to prevent the PKK from exploiting the situation. Accordingly, aid will be provided to families who have been dislocated during curfews with ongoing efforts already being ostensibly coordinated by governors and district governors.
[Hurriyet] Four students and two library personnel have been maimed in a kaboom at a cultural center in the southeastern province of Sirnak.
Masked holy warriors of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) entered the cultural center's boiler room at 9 a.m. on Dec. 25 and placed some improvised bombs inside while security forces were working to remove trenches and barricades erected near the Sirnak Environment and Urban Planning Directorate adjacent to the center.
A fire erupted inside the building in Sirnak's central Yeni Mahalle neighborhood as a result of the kaboom and accompanying Molotov cocktails attacks.
Reports indicate 17 students were studying in the library, which is connected to the provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate, at the time of the attack.
While all students were evacuated alive, four students and two personnel were maimed in the fire. Reports indicate PKK holy warriors shot up security forces during the evacuation, which quickly precipitated festivities as police returned fire.
The fire was brought under control with the use of water cannon after firefighters failed to appear at the scene.
[Ynet] As the world's eyes are focused on the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Syria and its activity in Europe, the organization's branch in Sinai - Ansar Bait al-Maqdis - is gaining strength, and the Russian plane bombing may be just the beginning of its integration into ISIS's international war. Ronen Bergman outlines the profile of one of the most threatening and intriguing challenges faced by the Israeli and international security community, only a few kilometers south of Eilat.
Long piece lays out what has been discovered about Ansar Bayt al Maqdis going back to the early days in Gaza at the beginning of the millenium.
#1
"...intelligence information that Sinai Province managed to recruit a local worker at the Sharm al-Sheikh Airport, likely a Bedouin from one of the peninsula's large tribes, who helped get the bomb on the plane." The beduin tribes are not large, and the Egyptian military has made important recent efforts to enlist them as allies. In fact, the major problems exist in the towns along the Med coast where gangsters and Islamists intermingle.
[Dhaka Tribune] A Dhaka court has granted six days of remand for each of the three JMB men who were tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! from a den of the banned myrmidon group in Mirpur on Thursday.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mazharul Islam granted the bail after DB produced the JMB men before the court on Friday afternoon.
The remanded JMB men are Abu Sayeed alias Rasel alias Salman, 22, Md Elias alias Omar Faruk, 23, and Mohsin Ali, 20.
Earlier in the day, a case was filed against five JMB men and five to six unnamed people over the busting of JMB den. DB Inspector Md Shafiuddin filed the case with Shah Ali cop shoppe.
Police, RAB and SWAT team, in a join drive, arrested seven people from the JMB den on Thursday.
The law enforcers also seized at least 17 hand-made grenades.
DB said the recovered grenades were similar to those used in the Tazia attack.
In addition, they also recovered a "suicide belt," three crude bombs, two pipe bombs, a computer casing, a pipe drilling machine, several electronic circuit boards, wires, explosive substances and Jihadi books.
The drive was conducted on the basis of a tip off from another Tazia attack suspect arrested on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Paleostinian security forces say they enjugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! two suspected Islamic turbans in the burning of a Christmas tree in the northern West Bank.
A Paleostinian security officer said Friday the suspects set fire Wednesday to the tree in Zababdeh, a Christian majority village near Jenin. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak to news hounds.
He says both suspects are under investigation for possible ties to holy warrior Islamist groups. He also says Paleostinian security forces arrested Wednesday about a dozen suspected radical Islamists in Bethlehem.
Christians make up about 2 percent of the West Bank population.
Paleostinian assailants attacked Israelis in three West Bank incidents Thursday as visitors flocked to Bethlehem for a subdued Christmas Eve. The attackers were shot and killed by Israeli security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Unidentified men lobbed two hand grenades at the Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and anti-smuggling operations.... camp here on Thursday morning, but there was no damage as the devices went kaboom! in open area.
Security officials said that the attack was carried out from the Shalman gate side of the camp at around 5:00am. They said that two hand grenades landed at an empty compound inside the camp and thus no damage was caused.
Security forces immediately cordoned the area and also conducted a search operation in the nearby localities. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... it could not be ascertained if any arrests were made in the search operation.
The attack was second of its type on the FC camp in last two weeks. The previous attack also had not caused any damage to the buildings.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart... Khasadar force in Jamrud foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of urea to Afghanistan. Officials said that over 200 bags of urea were being transported in a truck which was intercepted at Prang Sam checkpost. They said that driver of the truck had been taken into custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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[Libya Herald] The Derna Mujahidine Shura Council (DMSC) has announced that it will support "any" government that supports Islamic Sharia as the basis of law.
''We are not part of any political conflict taking place now in the country'', they said in a statement released yesterday.
''Our position in any dialogue or any government is full support as long as (Islamic) Sharia law is the only source of any legislation, and anything in the form of legislation, laws or rules that contravenes sharia is rejected'', the statement said.
It will be recalled that the DMSC had succeeded in ejecting the more turban IS forces out of the city in June this year and into the city's outskirts.
The statement of conditional support from the DMSC to the Government of National Unity (GNA) agreed on 17 December in Morocco's Skhirat and supported by yesterday's UN Security Council resolution 2259, comes on the same day that the militias of the capital 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... , the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigades also gave their support to a government of national unity.
It will be recalled that the DMSC had on 14th December invited foreign contractors to re-enter their city and resume stalled projects, promising them security.
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BEIRUT: Some 4,000 people, half of them fighters, will leave three besieged districts south of Syria’s capital at the weekend as part of a landmark cease-fire, sources told AFP Friday. Daesh and its rival, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front, will reportedly quit the districts of Qadam, Hajar Al-Aswad and the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmuk.
“An agreement was reached whereby 4,000 fighters and civilians, including members of Al-Nusra and Daesh, would leave” the neighborhoods on Saturday, one government official close to the negotiations said.
They would then be transported to the northern cities of Raqa, held by Daesh and Marea which is controlled by extremists and Al-Nusra, the official said.
It would be dreadful if the team busses went to rival campuses...
The second phase of the deal would see government institutions reopen in the neighborhoods and “the necessities of daily life would be secured,” the official said.
It will be the first time in more than two years that market goods have been able to be sent in to the three southern districts, which have been under a crippling government siege.
Daesh attacked the Yarmuk Palestinian camp in April, fighting Al-Nusra units there for control. The militants then overran parts of Qadam in August after launching an attack from their base in nearby Hajar Al-Aswad. Their advance into Qadam had brought them closer than ever to central Damascus.
The cease-fire deal comes after two months of intense negotiations between Syria’s government and district leaders, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one local leader in Qadam said: “Every fighter will be allowed to leave with his family and one suitcase and his personal weapon.”
The areas are already in the process of being demilitarized. Eighteen buses had also crossed into the neighborhood in preparation for Saturday’s evacuation, which would include “2,000 combatants, mostly fighters,” he added.
Mohammad Al-Omari, a representative of Syria’s reconciliation ministry, told AFP that the “first phase of the deal will have a positive effect on Yarmuk and all of the southern areas.”
He said he hoped a “larger reconciliation process” would allow some 1.8 million people to return to the southern suburbs of Damascus.
A UN representative in Damascus told AFP the UN had no role in the negotiations or developments in the southern suburbs of the capital.
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[Libya Herald] The 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... Revolutionaries' Brigade (TRB), representing Tripoli's militias have announced that they will not support either of the conflicting political Libyan parties but will support one government of national unity.
The TRB have had to in practice live and co-exist in a Tripoli ruled since July 2014 by the National Salvation government representing the General National Congress (GNC) and its allied militias.
The TRB had called for a meeting yesterday evening at their Ostrich farm headquarters on the outskirts of Tripoli and released their statement just before the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council passed resolution 2259 supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA) brokered by the UN and signed on 17 December in the Moroccan city of Skhirat.
''We are not for personalities or political parties or groupings. Our work is confined to the safety and security of citizens and the protection of the country from all who threaten its security and expose its safety to danger'', the TRB statement opened.
''We announce to all political parties and streams, east and west, internally and externally, that we are not standing with any of the divided politicians conflicting over the seat of power and who are clinging on to sovereign positions''.
''We will not help to victory one party over the other'', they declared clearly sending a message to both minority and majority parties in the House of Representatives (HoR) and the General National Congress (GNC).
''We are with consensus and comprehensive peace-making that spreads peace and stability for our country and our people who have suffered wars and divisions internally and externally''.
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[BUSINESS-STANDARD] Following a state-wide hue and cry over the reported visit to Odisha secretariat by tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! al-Qaeda suspect Abdur Rahman, the state police today made it clear that he did not do so.
"The person who visited the state secretariat was A Rahman, a peon in the office of the chief district medical officer (CDMO), Cuttack and not the suspected al-Quaeda terrorist Abdur Rahman as alleged," Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissioner of Police R P Sharma said.
Opposition Congress and BJP had demanded a high level investigation into the incident in which the terror suspect allegedly visited the secretariat on October 7.
"We have verified and found that one A Rahman, a peon in the office of the CDMO, Cuttack was given pass to enter the state secretariat on October 7 at 11.15 am. The person who actually visited the secretariat was a peon and not a suspected terrorist," Sharma told news hounds here.
The Odisha Police team which is camping in Delhi has also verified the matter with Abdur Rahman, who was arrested from Cuttack on December 16 and is presently lodged in a special cell in the national capital, he said.
"Rahman informed us that he has never visited Odisha secretariat in his life," the CP said.
Sources said the police are also verifying the CCTV footage of the secretariat to ascertain whether the Cuttack CDMO's office peon actually entered it on October 7 or not. "We are also checking whether the same person (A Rahman) visited the secretariat or some one else entered it in his name," an officer said.
Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra had yesterday ordered a probe into the allegation made by the opposition.
Opposition Congress and BJP leaders had accused the state government of allowing terror elements to freely roam in the high security secretariat area.
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[Beirut Daily Star] Nine Hezbollah fighters were killed in the last 48 hours during battles in two rebel-held towns near Syria's capital Damascus, a security source told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity Friday.
The combatants were killed in the Eastern Ghouta region east of Damascus, which has been devastated by fighting since the outbreak of Syria's conflict in March 2011, as well as in the town of Daraya southwest of Damascus, the source added.
Hezbollah is taking part in a number of offensives launched recently by the Syrian army against rebel-held positions in various districts across the country, backed by the Russian air force.
Air raids by Syrian government warplanes on Hammuriyeh and Irbin in Eastern Ghouta, the largest rebel stronghold in Damascus province, killed 28 civilians, including 10 children, an activist group said Thursday.
At least 60 others were also maimed in the raids, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
The town of Daraya has been under siege by Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... 's government forces since 2013.
Hezbollah has officially announced its support for Assad, saying that its decision is aimed at preventing Syria from falling into the hands of turbans and protecting Leb from krazed killer groups.
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[WSJ] Iraq's military said it was closing in Friday on a former government compound in Ramadi that remains the only area of the city still under 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.... control.
Iraqi forces were less than a mile from the compound where about 100 bully boyz are holding out, the government said. Though Iraqi troops greatly outnumber the Islamic State fighters, they have struggled to advance in a landscape dotted with land mines and improvised bombs.
"Our preparations to attack the government compound are still on and we are approaching step by step," Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Bilawi, commander of the Anbar province emergency police division, said Friday.
"Still the IEDs and booby-trapped houses have made the biggest delay for our forces," he said. "The engineering teams are doing most of the work now just to defuse explosives and whenever they are done with them we can attack the government compound."
Iraqi forces backed by U.S-led Arclight airstrikes started a new push earlier this week to retake Ramadi, the thriving provincial capital of Anbar about 60 miles west of the capital Baghdad.
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Israel’s government has given the go ahead to begin exporting natural gas to Egypt, signaling a potential improvement in relations between two countries which have been at loggerheads over energy supplies.
Israel will be able to sell 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Egypt in the coming seven years from the Tamar site off its Mediterranean coast, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement on Thursday.
“After years of delay and debate, we are starting to move forward and to position Israel as a regional natural gas power,” he said.
Israel, long an importer of gas, has seen its fortunes transformed by big gas discoveries such as the Tamar field.
Egypt had been selling gas to Israel under a 20-year agreement, but that collapsed in 2012 after months of attacks on the pipeline by militants in Egypt’s remote Sinai Peninsula.
An international arbitrator this month said Egypt should pay nearly $2 billion in compensation from the halt in the gas supply, leading to tensions between the two neighbors. Egypt said it would appeal the decision and freeze talks to import gas from Israel. It was unclear whether the Israeli government’s decision to approve exports meant the two countries have made progress in resolving their differences.
Earlier this year, the Tamar partners signed a seven-year deal for Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings - a firm that represents non-governmental, industrial and commercial consumers - to buy at least $1.2 billion of natural gas in a deal that calls for a minimum of 5 bcm of gas to be sold in the first three years. The agreement to supply gas to Egypt still hinges on regulatory and other approvals.
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Anglican leader Justin Welby on Friday said Christians faced “elimination” in the Middle East by ISIS, labelling the group a modern-day version of the tyrannical biblical king Herod.
ISIS has attacked Christians, Yazidis, Shiites and other minorities across the region, killing thousands and uprooting ancient communities from ancestral lands.
“They hate difference, whether it is Muslims who think differently, Yazidis or Christians, and because of them the Christians face elimination in the very region in which Christian faith began,” the archbishop of Canterbury said in his Christmas Day sermon.
“This apocalypse is defined by themselves and heralded only by the angel of death.”
Great. Thanks for the insight. Now then, what you will do about this?
He likened ISIS to Herod, who according to historical accounts killed several members of his own family and in the Bible massacred Bethlehem’s male infants to prevent the prophesied rise of Jesus.
“To all who have been or are being dehumanized by the tyranny and cruelty of a Herod or an ISIS, a Herod of today, God’s judgement... promises justice,” Welby said, using another acronym for ISIS.
The Middle East is home to ancient Christian and other minority communities, but their numbers have diminished rapidly in recent years amid war and mounting religious intolerance.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2015
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#1
I thought that Anglicans were neutral when it came to Christians...unless they were gay.
Russian Foreign Minister Snidely Whiplash Sergei Lavrov will meet Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Khaled Al Attiyah on December 25, and the conflict in Syria will be high on their agenda, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Separately, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia said his government was striving to maintain Syria as a unified nation inclusive of all sects, according to the Twitter account of the Saudi Shura Council on Wednesday.
The king also blamed the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad for the rise of militant groups in the region, saying terrorist organisations would not find fertile ground without the Syrian government’s policies, the council said. Salman officially inaugurated a new session for the consultative body earlier on Wednesday.
In a related development, the UN Security Council renewed a resolution facilitating the cross-border delivery of aid to millions of Syrians, while complaining previous such measures were not seen through on the ground. The text was adopted unanimously by the 15 member-states, which include Syrian ally Russia.
The resolution extends authorisation for UN humanitarian convoys to cross into Syria without the consent of the Damascus regime, in line with a previous text adopted in July 2014 and due to expire in January.
The document said the Security Council was “gravely concerned at the lack of effective implementation of its resolutions” calling for greater facilitation of aid deliveries.
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[NDTV] A Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... (LeT) terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces in north Kashmire's Bandipora district, police said today.
Omais Ahmad Sheikh alias Hamza, a resident of south Kashmire Pulwama district, was killed in a shootout with security forces in Sumbal, 30 kms from here, a police official said.
The security forces had launched an anti-militancy operation in the north Kashmire town last evening following information about presence of ultras there, the official said. He said Sheikh's body was recovered from the encounter site late last night and handed over to his family in Chatapora area of Pulwama district.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier... a shutdown was observed in Pulwama town and adjoining areas of Jammu and Kashmire.
The police official said a heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel has been carried out in Pulwama for maintaining law and order.
Minor incidents of stone-pelting by youths on police personnel have been reported from Pulwama chowk and Murran chowk but there were no reports of anyone getting injured in the incidents so far, the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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[DAWN] KARACHI: Police formally launched on Thursday an inquiry into the death of a 10-month-old girl apparently caused by tight security cordon for Pakistain Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari when he opened a trauma centre at the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... (CHK) a day earlier.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah ordered the South district police to investigate the events and circumstances that led to the death of Bisma, who could not survive due to complications from measles when her father failed to reach the hospital in time.
The shocking images flashed on TV screens of a young man from Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... running in panic to the CHK with a child wrapped in sheets in his arms as the PPP leader inaugurated the state-of-the-art trauma centre caused countrywide outrage and controversy.
The incident was followed by sharp criticism by the media and opposition political parties and the situation got even worse when certain indifferent statements came from some provincial ministers who, by highlighting dangers to the life of their leader, seemed to belittle the tragic death of the infant.
The trauma on the face of the father, later identified as Faisal Hussain, turned into immense grief when he was informed by doctors at the hospital that Bisma was no more and that the child could have been saved if she had arrived a few minutes early. Officials in the provincial home ministry and police department told Dawn that the inquiry got under way on Thursday and several statements had already been recorded.
Sources said the most important of them all was the statement of the girl's father, which was recorded by senior police officials at his house near Gabol Park in Lyari.
A source in the home department said that Mr Hussain's statement had 'several aspects' which were different from his initial interviews to the media. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... he did not elaborate the claim.
Some sources further claimed that statements of doctors and staff at the emergency department in the CHK had also been recorded. Besides, they added, the inquiry officials had also got hold of some relevant documents.
These papers, said an official at the hospital, pertained to the visitors who arrived at the emergency facility 'before and after' the girl's arrival. The girl was also provided medical aid before her death, he added.
"The hospital's record shows that a number of visitors arrived at the emergency, which makes it even puzzling why the girl's father was denied access [to hospital]," said a provincial government official.
He claimed the emergency department's gate was open and not shut as Mr Hussain had said in his statement after doctors told him his child was dead.
Officials said the report would be submitted to the chief minister on Friday [today].
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... a front man for Bilawal House said Mr Bhutto-Zardari's visit lasted just between 15 and 20 minutes and the road to the trauma centre was 'separate from that of the CHK'.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari, soon after the media reported the incident, showed his 'anguish over Bisma's death and said he was personally inquiring into "this heart-breaking incident to ascertain what went wrong". He also ordered the Sindh government to conduct an 'impartial inquiry'.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Demonstrators ransacked a Muslim prayer hall and tried to set fire to copies of the Koran on the French island of Corsica Friday, police said, in an attack condemned by the government. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls wrote on Twitter that the break-in in the city of Ajaccio was “an unacceptable desecration.”
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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#1
yet more push back. this is not going to end well.
[NEWS.VICE] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... authorized the harvesting of human organs in a previously undisclosed ruling by the group's Islamic scholars, raising concerns that the violent holy warrior group may be trafficking in body parts.
The ruling, contained in a January 31, 2015 document reviewed by Rooters, says taking organs from a living captive to save a Muslim's life, even if it is fatal for the captive, is permissible. It justifies the practice in part by drawing an analogy to cannibalism in extreme circumstances, a practice it says earlier Islamic scholars had allowed.
"Saving a Muslim from death or deterioration is an Islamic legal duty that should be performed with every legitimate way or financial means," says the document, which is in the form of a fatwa, or religious ruling, from the Islamic State's Research and Fatwa Committee. "The jurists of the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools and others permitted, when necessary, the killing of the infidel combatant or the apostate should one need to consume their flesh for the purpose of saving his own life."
"The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity," the translation continues. "Organs that end the captive's life if removed: The removal of that type is also not prohibited."
Rooters couldn't independently confirm the authenticity of the document. US officials say it was among a trove of data and other information obtained by US Special Forces in a raid in eastern Syria in May.
The document does not offer any proof that Islamic State actually engages in organ harvesting or organ trafficking. But it does provide religious sanction for doing so under the group's harsh interpretation of Islam -- which is rejected by most Muslims. Previously, Iraq has accused Islamic State of harvesting human organs and trafficking them for profit.
The document does not define "apostate," though the Islamic State has killed or imprisoned Shia Muslims, non-Muslims, such as Christians, as well as Sunni Muslims who don't follow its holy warrior views.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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#1
I suppose that's why the beheading thing is so important now? They are saving the organs for sale. Anything else, sure, but a transplanted muslim head, no thanks.
#4
they do not need that much tech. in a major iraqi hospital if they have surgeons capable of performing a transplant then they can do it
they have some advantages with no respect for human rights.
they can keep the donor victim alive, put them sedated in the operating room then take the organ direct from the live body once the recipient is open and ready
they do not have to care if the donor survives
that is a fresher organ than one that has to be refrigerated and shipped on ice in the West, from a willing donor
it does not mean they have the tech or are doing it now
it is a ruling so that one day when the caliphate has the tech to do it, they know that they can
kind of like how Hizb ut-Tahrir have an entire foreign policy position drafted in their caliphate constitution even though they do not yet control territory
harsh interpretation of Islam -- which is rejected by most Muslims
Assertion without evidence. The only Muslims who oppose ISIS are those whose gravy trains are threatened by it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/26/2015 13:40
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#7
I mean Shia Ayatollahs publicly hanging gays from hydraulic cranes is totes moderate compared to Sunni ISIS publicly throwing them off the buildings
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2015 14:16
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#8
Sell what's left in the meat markets of IS-controlled territories.
[ALMANAR.LB] Spokesman of Iraqi organization taking part in fighting Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... gunnies said Terrorists are freely crossing the Turkish border back and forth with Ankara providing gunnies with logistical support.
Karim al-Nouri, front man for the Popular Front's Badr Organization, cited crystal clear" evidence gathered from prisoners and on the battlefield.
He said Bard forces were able to secure enough data from the dead ISIL (so-called 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.... in Iraq and Levant) terrorists' bodies to directly implicate The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in involvement with affairs of the Takfiri Lion of Islams, RT reported on Friday.
"Recently we found a few of their phones which have messages of their orders, coordinates and data on movement of their people," Nouri told RT.
"The problem of ISIL did not just appear out of the blue, somebody is allowing them to freely cross borders... I want the audience to know the extent to which Turkey openly supports ISIL."
Among the evidence which Nouri says is now in possession of Iraqi intelligence are photos showing Turkish President Erdogan's son doing business with ISIL representatives.
"We have photo material and comments on Erdogan's son, material where he meets with ISIL heads," Nouri said. "There is nothing fabricated in this case, there is no photoshop. These shots are real. They were made public by ISIL commanders themselves."
Nouri hopes that Iraqi special forces will eventually come across audio recordings directly implicating the Turkish leadership in shady ISIL deals. The data collected is also being analyzed by Iraq's intelligence to the "degree of participation of the Turkish secret services and their involvement in ISIL affairs."
Turkey, Nouri is certain, is responsible for treating ISIL gunnies on their territory and offering them safe havens and transit points for jihadists to move freely and even go back to their home countries.
"From the contents of these conversations it becomes clear that, for example, a specific field commander says that such and such [militant] should be sent to Turkey for treatment," he explained to RT.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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#1
If NSA were worth a dam (and have they ever once proved that they are worth the billions we have poured into the organization since its founding?) they would be monitoring this traffic. If it were worth the money we pay for it, they would release information to inform the public of the true state of affairs along the frontier between Iraq and Turkey. Of course this would depend on a US government whose president would have the best interests of the USA at heart and who would reject the existing White House-Ankara (Obama-Erdogan) alliance.
[ALMANAR.LB] Russian intelligence has spotted up to 12,000 tankers and trucks on the Turkish-Iraqi border, the General Staff of Russia's armed forces reported.
"The [aerial] imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho (a city in Iraqi Kurdistan), there were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border," Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday.
"It must be noted that oil from both Iraq and Syria come through this [Zakho] checkpoint," General Rudskoy said, according to RT.
Heavy-duty trucks loaded with oil continue to cross the Turkish-Syrian border as well, Rudskoy said. At the same time, the number of tankers on the northern and western routes used for transporting oil from Syria is declining, the general added.
"According to satellite data, the number of oil tankers moving through the 'northern route' towards the refinery in the [Turkish] city of Batman has considerably diminished," Rudskoy said, adding that the number of tankers using the 'western route,' between the Turkish cities of Reyhanli [on the Syrian border] and the city of Iskenderun, has decreased to 265 vehicles.
The Russian Air Force in Syria has destroyed about 2,000 tankers used by the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... turbans for oil transportation. In the last week, Russian warplanes eliminated 17 convoys of oil tankers and a number of installations used by gunnies for oil extraction and processing.
The Russian Air Force's effective strikes in Syria have forced the gunnies to look for new routes for crude oil transportation. Today, tankers loaded with oil in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province, under ISIL (so-called 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.... in Iraq and Levant) control, are moving towards the Iraqi border in the direction of Zakho and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... "However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... despite a considerable diversion, the finishing point of the trafficking route remains The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ," Rudskoy said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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#1
I suppose all of this represents an 'intelligence gap' for USI. [sarc off]
Housekeeping Note: Quarterly price reports are next week.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition and for rifle ammunition were steady.
Prices for used pistols and for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Quality Made Cartridges, Store Brand, FMJ, Brass, Reloads, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Blok Tactical, Store Brand, TMJ, Reloads, .24 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Bone Frog Gun Club, TMJ, Aluminum Cased, .20 per round (From Last Week: -.01 After Unchanged (6 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf Polyformance, FMJ, Steel Cased, .17 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Rush Creek Ammo, Store Brand, FMJ, Factory Seconds, .15 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (3Q, 2015))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Surplus Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Vizards Guns and Ammo, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Wolf WPA, steel case, FMJ, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: TrueCaliber.com, Wolf WPA, steel case, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammomen, Federal, RNL .08 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds (5 Box Limit): Target Sports USA, Aguila, RNL, .08 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $520 Last Week Avg: $556 (-) ($616 (37 Weeks), $476 (13 Weeks))
California (205, 211): Anderson Arms: $520 ($650 (47 Weeks), $400 (16 Weeks))
Texas (248, 241): Anderson Arms: $500 ($700 (42 Weeks), $350 (37 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (155, 122): Del-Ton $600 ($700 (36 Weeks), $300 (24 Weeks))
Virginia (153, 159): Del-ton: $480 ($750 (42 Weeks), $480 (2 Weeks))
Florida (327, 318): Ruger Model 8500: $500 ($650 (26 Weeks), $380 (38 Weeks))
With Christmas falling this year a day after Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, the city of Baghdad is holding Christmas celebrations in a sign of brotherhood with Iraq’s hard-pressed Christian community.
Fireworks will illuminate the Tigris river every night of the week and a 25-metre (82 feet) Christmas tree has been set up in Zawraa public park. In Zayuna camp, in the east of the city, children listened to Christmas carols on Wednesday and danced with Santa Claus to Iraqi songs.
But, though grateful, many Christians say the gesture comes too late to improve their lot in Iraq, their homeland for nearly 2,000 years, but where ISIS is making their future increasingly bleak.
“I saw some nice gestures from many people on Facebook and this made me happy, to be honest, that people are celebrating Christmas together with us in defiance of Daesh,” said Mariam, a 29-year-old school teacher in Baghdad, referring to ISIS.
“But is it real? I don’t think so,” she said.
“Christians who left Iraq don’t wish to return and some of them are even nagging us to leave, saying that even if we make it through this ordeal, the next one will be the end of it,” she added, asking to be identified only by her first name.
ISIS, which swept through a third of Iraq in 2014 in its drive to build a caliphate, has displaced more than 200,000 Christians from the northern region of Nineveh, the cradle of the eastern Assyrian church, according to Iraqi Christian MP Imad Yohana.
So uncertain has become the fate of Iraq’s Christians that some reminisce about days of Saddam Hussein, the dictator whose rule of a quarter century ended in 2003, when a U.S.-led coalition invaded the country.
“There wasn’t any discrimination back in the previous regime, things changed afterwards,” said Abu Fadi, a 51-year- old father of three who works in Zayuna camp set up especially for Christian refugees fleeing ISIS.
A key figure of Saddam’s regime, Tariq Aziz, who was his foreign minister, was a Christian. He died in prison in June. Saddam was hanged at the end of 2006.
“The toppling of the regime allowed the previously suppressed extremists to surface, from both sects,” added Abu Fadi, referring to Shiite Muslims who rose to prominence after Saddam’s removal, and Sunni Muslims to whom the dictator belonged and who now feel marginalized.
That didn't make removing Saddam and his wood chippers wrong. It does mean we could have been smarter about how we managed Iraq afterwards...
While the persecution by ISIS is the worst since the modern Iraqi state was created in the last century, scores of Christians have been kidnapped or killed, or had their churches bombed and been forced to leave their homes since 2004. Iraq’s Christian population has dropped from 1.3 million people in the 1997 census to about 650,000 now, said lawmaker Yohana. Their number ought to have been around 2 million by now under normal circumstances, he said.
Western countries make it easier for Christians in the Middle East to obtain visas on human rights grounds, unwittingly contributing to depletion of their numbers, he said.
Except the U.S., which doesn't grant visas to Christians in the Middle East the way we should...
The Women of Baghdad Association, a multi-religious organization focused on fighting abuse against women, on Wednesday organized a gift distribution in Zayuna camp, where the children listened to a Christmas carol service.
“Christmas is in our hearts religiously, but I am depressed because it is not the same socially,” said Said Jalal, 31, a volunteer worker at the camp. “Most of my family and acquaintances are either displaced or have left.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia and the United States have common understanding on major groups which should be considered terrorist ones in the Middle East, RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
A Reuters snippet with no substantive info on this "common understanding." Although Russia has the Muslim Brotherhood high on its hit parade, Obama seems ill-disposed to defecate on the MB and thus on his half-brother who is a big man in the MB-dominated Islamic Dawaa organization.
[ALMANAR.LB] A bomb went kaboom! Friday at a mosque of the minority Ahmadi Muslim group in Bangladesh's northwestern town of Bagmara leaving the suspected jacket wallah dead and three other people injured, police said.
Police said the kaboom occurred when the small Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat mosque at Bagmara, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, Dhaka,was packed with worshippers during Friday prayers.
"One person was struck down in his prime and three other people were maimed. It seems he was carrying the bomb and it looks like it was a suspected suicide kaboom," local police chief Motiar Rahman told AFP.
Ahmad Tabshir Choudhury, a front man of the Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat in Bangladesh said there were two unknown people who came to the mosque where nearly 100 people including women joined the Friday prayers.
"The bomb exploded during the prayers. One of the two unknown people died. It appears that he was a suicide bomber," Choudhury told AFP.
He added that four Ahmadis were maimed including one whose condition is serious.
No group has grabbed credit, but in recent months, homegrown outlawed myrmidon group, Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and the so-called '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.... of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group grabbed credit for kabooms on a top Shiite shrine and a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh.
Members of other minority groups, including Sufis have also been attacked and killed, and two Christian priests have survived attacks claimed by myrmidons.
Ahmadis are a tiny Muslim group in Bangladesh. In the past, they have often been barred from setting up mosques.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2015
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
SEOUL -- South Korea's intelligence sources said Friday that North Korea is capable of producing a nuclear weapon with less than 6 kilograms of plutonium, revising down its earlier estimate.
Multiple government sources said while it usually takes 6 kilograms of plutonium to produce a nuclear weapon, the amount could be lower considering the development of technology in North Korea, implying that Pyongyang is capable of producing such a weapon with 5 kilograms.
South Korea estimates the North currently holds around 40 kilograms of plutonium, which can produce around eight nuclear weapons. Other sources added North Korea may have increased its holding of plutonium over the past months.
The sources added that North Korea is struggling to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU), although the details were not disclosed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2015
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Again, NOKOR desires formal reunification wid SOKOR, which Beijing won't allow until Mainland China first gets back + reunifies wid Taiwan.
NOKOR = Pudgy is fighting the clock agz NOKOR-specifc collapse, protecting Kim Family-Regime ruling power intact or potent, espec in any Post-reunification Korea, + China takeover most likely via annexation.
AT LEAST RUSSIA + IRAN BFF BABY ASSAD IN SYRIA CAN CLAIM HIS REGIME IS MILITARILY FIGHTING MAJOR HARD BOYZ E.G. AL-QAEDA/NUSRA + ISIS + ALIGNED - WHATS PUDGY'S EXCUSE FOR NOKOR'S LACK OF SERIOUS DOMESTIC REFORMS, AS THE UIGHURS + ISIS , ETC. ARE STILL TOO FAR AWAY FROM DE FACTO MILITARILY THREATENING BEIJING IN THE NT???
#2
Iff NOKOR can't beat the clock, + it appears the Kims will lose power, don't underestimate Pudgy's penchant to find a way to unilaterally or "asymmetrically" start a MAJOR US-CHINA WAR.
Not that far from Aintkushuban.
Heavy fighting between Pro-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters and Al Shabaab militants has raged in Bari region village of Timirshe of northeastern Somalia according to residents, Garowe Online reports.
Heavily armed Al Shabaab militants on Thursday tracked a group of fighters loyal to former ideologue Abdulkadir Mumin, subsequently engaging in fierce gun battle that resulted in unknown casualties.
Most excellent black-on-black fight...
Timirshe is agricultural village that lies a few kilometers away from Iskushuban, a town just 150 south of Bossaso port city.
Gunfire was ringing out around the village as of Thursday afternoon, residents said by phone from Timirshe.
Abdulkadir Mumin whom more than two dozen militants accepted his loyalty to self-proclaimed ISIL caliph, abu-Bakr Al Baghdadi has been on-the-run since late October when a long running merger crisis furthered with Mumin’s defection. Garowe Online has learned that Mumin had since been expecting arms consignment by Yemeni Daesh due to mounting Al Shabaab pressure.
Officials tell GO that no go ahead has been given to Puntland Defence Forces (PDFs) for subdueing Timirshe infighting.
Somali militant group is languishing in damaging dissension which in recent weeks degenerated into open confrontations over whether to switch allegiance to ISIL.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2015
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Zahran Alloush, head of the powerful Jaish Al Islam Syrian rebel group, was killed on Friday east of Damascus, a monitoring group and Syria's opposition said.
His death "stands as one of the most significant opposition losses" of Syria's nearly five-year uprising, analyst Charles Lister said on Twitter.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Alloush and five other commanders were killed "in an air strike that targeted one of their meetings in Eastern Ghouta."
Whose aircraft? Rooshun? American? Ruritanian?
The death of Alloush, 44, was confirmed on Twitter by the head of Syria's opposition National Coalition, who posted a message of condolence.
Syria's state television channel also reported the death by air strike, but did not say who had carried out the raid.
Jaish Al Islam is the most prominent rebel faction in the Eastern Ghouta region, an opposition bastion east of the capital, and was recently represented at landmark opposition talks in Saudi Arabia. The Syrian government regularly refers to the group as "terrorists".
The group returns the description...
Alloush's death comes after Syria's army announced a massive operation to retake rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. The regime's forces have been backed by Russian air strikes since September 30.
Jaish Al Islam was known to have extremist views and to have supported the establishment of Daesh before recently moving towards a more moderate position.
Alloush spent at least two years in Syrian prisons before being released in a general amnesty in June 2011.
A senior member of Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... confirmed Alloush's death to AFP, saying three planes targeted a "secret meeting" of commanders.
In a statement carried by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, Syria's army command said it had conducted the "special operation" that killed Alloush as part of its "national mission."
A Syrian security source told AFP "dozens" of rebel fighters were killed in the raids, carried out by Syria's air force with newly-provided Russian missiles. The jets launched two rounds of strikes on the meeting with four missiles each, the source said. At least 12 Jaish al-Islam members and seven from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... group were killed.
Backed by Riyadh, Jaish al-Islam recently took part in landmark opposition talks in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... It was known to have bully boy views and to have supported the establishment of an Islamic state before recently moving towards a more moderate position.
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Iraqi forces dodged sniper fire, car bombs, roadside bombs and booby traps as they battled on Friday to root out militant hunkered down in a strategic compound in central Ramadi.
Elite forces from the counter-terrorism service (CTS) faced limited resistance when they punched into central Ramadi four days earlier, in a final push to retake the city they lost to the Daesh group in May. Militants concentrated their defence around the main government complex in the Hoz neighbourhood and now Iraqi forces are struggling to break in.
"We are facing many obstacles, mostly snipers and car bombs," said one CTS fighter, 1st Lieutenant Bashar Hussein, from a position in Dhubbat neighbourhood, just south of Hoz.
The terrain allows a small number of determined men to hold off a larger force.
Iraqi soldiers were around 500 metres away from the compound on Thursday and had only inched a little closer by Friday.
Definitely a time to bring in an Arclight. B52s with laser-guided weapons would fix this.
Oh, and drinks in the O-Club on me...
"Daesh resistance got stiffer as Iraqi forces moved closer to the government compound," said an army brigadier general. "Our forces are now just over 300 metres away from those buildings," he said.
The number of fighters still holding out in the city was estimated at fewer than 400, with reports of some retreating from the front by using civilians as human shields.
"Operations to liberate Ramadi need time. It isn't easy to retake it quickly," said Ibrahim Al Fahdawi, the head of the security committee for nearby Khaldiya district.
"Booby-trapped houses, suicide attacks, improvised explosive devices, snipers, mortars, rockets: Daesh is using everything it's got to stop the progress of the security forces," said Fahdawi. Daesh posted several statements online over the past two days claiming to have inflicted serious losses in multiple attacks across Ramadi.
Iraqi security officials only admitted to limited casualties and said they were able to repulse suicide car bomb attacks.
The loss of Ramadi, which lies about 100km west of Baghdad, was Baghdad's most stinging defeat in the war against Daesh since the militants took over a third of the country last year. A key component of Daesh's victory in May was the use of dozens of massive suicide car bombs to blitz government positions but, more than six months on, the security forces came prepared.
"They've tried but they've had less success for several reasons," said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led coalition that has been carrying out daily air strikes. "Both Iraqis and the coalition have become much better at identifying these threats earlier on," he said.
"The Iraqis have been equipped with AT4 shoulder-fired anti-armour rockets, so the coalition has trained them on how to deploy these weapons, provided them with 5,000 of them and the Iraqis have used them to great effect," Warren said.
Also slowing the security forces' advance was the presence of civilians trapped in their homes. Dozens of families that had stayed in central Ramadi, many of them prevented from leaving by Daesh when the security forces launched their big push on Tuesday, have managed to flee.
But Fahdawi said dozens remained trapped, mostly in the neighbourhoods of Al Thaylah and Al Jamaiyah. "Daesh detained all the men and left the women and children in their homes... It may be because they want to prevent a revolt against them from what's left of the male population," he said.
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[Beirut Daily Star] An Assyrian group says ISIS holy warriors have released 25 more Assyrian Christian hostages they had held captive in Syria for 10 months.
The 25 Christians were part of about 230 Assyrian Christians that were captured by the hard boy group after it overran Assyrian communities on the southern bank of the Khabur River in the northeastern Syrian province of Hassakeh.
The Stockholm-based Assyrian Human Rights Network said the 25 arrived in the Christian town of Tal Tamr on Friday. It said the released included 16 children and their mothers.
It says the release brings the number of Assyrian hostages that have so far been released to 148.
Osama Edward, the network's director, said the release was the result of mediators who negotiated between the church and ISIS.
"Woo hoo! Tell the boys the ransoms came through and we're gonna par-tay tonight!"
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and attended his granddaughter’s wedding in a surprise visit to Pakistan on Friday, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said, Sputnik reported.
The last time an Indian leader visited neighboring Pakistan was in 2004. Modi and Sharif met informally on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Paris this month and at a regional economic summit in central Russia in July.
"Infusing a positive spirit in the neighborhood. [Modi] departs from Pakistan after a few hours in Lahore," official spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.
A series of accompanying photographs depicted Modi walking on the tarmac alongside Sharif.
Earlier, Swarup said the Indian leader discussed bilateral relations with his Pakistani counterpart 25 miles to the south of Lahore in Raiwind, where he also visited the wedding ceremony of Sharif’s granddaughter.
Ties between the neighboring countries have been strained for decades and exacerbated further over the summer amid renewed violence in the disputed border region of Kashmir and Jammu administered by India. The exchange of fire postponed national security level talks into early December.
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[THEBLAZE] In the latest episode of the popular podcast "Serial," Bowe Bergdahl revealed the quirky details of his captivity with the Taliban, including two attempted escapes.
While imprisoned, Bergdahl said it was a "high honor" among the guards to watch over him. To pass the time, Bergdahl said the guards would make videos of him, staging fake interrogations consisting of ridiculous questions, while shaving his beard into amusing shapes.
One time, Bergdahl said the guards even asked him if President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... is "gay."
"They ask you, 'Is Obama gay and sleeps with men?'" he recalled.
Other questions Bergdahl received from his young guards included inquiries about how U.S. military members got their hookers, alcohol and drugs. He said they were also obsessed with American soft drinks -- especially Mountain Dew.
"They love Mountain Dew," he said. "If you want to piss people off in that country, all you do is cut off their sugar supply."
Bergdahl said his first opportunity to escape came shortly after his capture. While his captors were distracted by a water delivery, Bergdahl said he was able to release himself from his restraints. He ran barefoot on rocks before climbing onto a roof and covering himself with mud in an attempt to hide himself. He said he was only free for 15 minutes before the guards caught up with him and beat him with a rubber hose.
The second attempt was more thought out, practiced and successful.
After collecting a few items -- an 8-inch piece of PVC pipe, a key, an empty soda bottle, a nail and a wooden slat -- Bergdahl climbed from his second-story cell using a makeshift rope from his bedding and restraints. But just a few hours into his escape, he fell from a cliff, badly injuring himself. Unable to walk, he said he crawled out of the mountains and made a makeshift shelter out of sticks. He stayed at the shelter for more than a week, eating grass and drinking unclean water to survive.
He was captured eight days later.
"That escape was the last time I saw stars since until the night Special Forces picked me up," Bergdahl concluded.
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#1
"Captured" by SPECFORS, as opposed to being "found", "discovered", or even "liberated".
[NDTV] Indonesian police said today they have enjugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! two men, including a member of China's Uighur minority, allegedly involved in a planned New Year suicide kaboom in Jakarta.
Police arrested an Indonesian, named as Arif Hodayatullah, near the capital for driving a car without a licence plate and found several books about bomb-making inside the vehicle, according to a document seen by AFP.
An anti-terror squad raided his house in West Java, where they arrested a Uighur, identified only as Alli, and confiscated a boom jacket and material to assemble a bomb.
"We also found a design (of where the attack would be carried out), but we have only found one, we need to investigate more," national police front man Anton Charliyan said late Thursday.
The arrests come at a time of heightened alert after police arrested several other suspected Lion of Islams.
On Monday police in Java arrested five suspects from a cell linked to the ISIS, and four from one linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, responsible for several major attacks in Indonesia.
The country is deploying more than 150,000 military and police personnel during the Christmas and New Year period and has increased security at its airports after a threat was directed at one serving Jakarta.
A police source, who declined to be named, said Alli was believed to be a bombmaker and was chosen to carry out the suicide attack.
Hodayatullah told police he was instructed by a man named Bahrunnaim, a holy warrior residing in Syria, to help Indonesians wishing to join the ISIS group.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major kabooms by Islamic bully boyz between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
But a crackdown has weakened the most dangerous Lion of Islam networks.
However the emergence of ISIS has sparked alarm that Indonesians returning from battlefields in the Middle East could revive them.
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#1
As per NET Artics, INDONESIA is ascribed as struggling internally or politically wid "TWO ISLAMS" - one peaceful, "moderate", and pro-status quo; the other for the Country to blow + be more assertive + aggressive, i.e. "radical", on the International or Geopol stage as many Indonesian Locals, both Muslims + Non-Muslims, desire their Country to be a [Muslim/Islamic]
"Great Power" includ Global Superpower.
Russia’s air force has made 5,240 sorties since it started the strikes in Syria on Sept. 30, including 189 sorties on Thursday alone, Russia’s defence ministry told reporters on Friday.
I suspect that each Rooshun aircraft dropped at least one bomb...
Russian long-range strategic bombers have carried out 145 sorties since Sept. 30, Sergei Rudskoi, a department chief at the General Staff of the armed forces, told a news briefing in Moscow.
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#1
It's like they take this all thing seriously, or something.
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck northeast Afghanistan around midnight near the country's borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake, which measured 203.5 kilometres deep, struck about 280 kilometres northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul at 11:44 pm (1914 GMT), the USGS said on its website.
It caused buildings to sway in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, an AFP journalist said, and Twitter users as far away as New Delhi said they felt the quake's impact.
A Pakistani official said that a strong earthquake struck the region, rattling buildings and forcing sleeping residents in the capital, Islamabad, out of their homes. A Twitter user in Peshawar tweeted over a dozen people are hospitalized in the Pakistani city.
In October, a 7.5-magnitude quake ripped across Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing almost 400 people and flattening buildings in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.
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[NDTV] A counter-terrorism expert has warned that British cities could be a target of an 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.... (ISIS) terror attack on Boxing Day, marked the day after Christmas, according to a leading specialist.
Will Geddes, head of global security firm International Corporate Protection, believes Boxing Day, which is today, would provide the ideal situation for the terrorists, the 'Daily Express' reported today.
"I don't think Christmas Day will be a target for ISIS, even though it's a Christian holiday, because there won't be big crowds which is what they want for maximum impact. But Boxing Day could be as lots of people will be out for the sales in cities across the UK, all gathered in big crowds," he told the newspaper.
His comments come as Britannia's security service, MI5, has put the UK terror threat from international terrorism at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.
Unlike other terrorist organizations which have come before, such as Al Qaeda, it is hard to predict what ISIS will or will not do, he said, but crowded places on a poignant day are a target.
The leading counter-terrorism specialist praised the number of attacks the British security services have foiled but said the constant cuts by the UK government to policing and security staff levels will begin to affect how much Britons are protected.
He said: "We're not going to see the end of this threat by the end of this decade."
"A lot of the time you're looking at the radicalised individual, not just groups, which is very difficult to deal with."
"If you look at the number of successful times attacks have been prevented it's impressive - it amounts to one a day this year. We have to be grateful for how well our security services are doing but it won't be their fault if their funding is slashed but the public will no doubt suffer then."
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#1
It all started with Palestinian terrorism---now guess who invented "The Palestinian People"?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The loyalists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Afghanistan have released a new propaganda video which purportedly shows the extreme violent acts of the terror group in Afghanistan.
The authenticity of the video has not been verified but it was released by the affiliates of the terror on Friday morning having a title of "Khurasan, The Graveyard of Apostates".
Although the loyalists of the terror group have released numerous videos in the past which purportedly shows the execution of prisoners.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... the latest video purportedly shows the operational capability of the terror group which was in an emergent stage until a few weeks earlier.
The video shows suicide kaboom on a check post apparently belonging to the Afghan cops using a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) and roadside kaboomings targeting the government vehicles as well the non-government organizations.
In other parts of the video, the fanatics of the terror group are shown beheading a man and execution of two other men by firing from a close range.
The video carrying subtitles in Pashto language claims that the violent acts took place in central Pashtun-infested Logar, eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. and southeastern Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... provinces.
An ambush on a vehicle convoy of the Pak security forces and fierce shootout has also been included in the new video.
This comes as the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter warned regarding the emergent threat of the terror group during a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday, however he said the threat posed by the terror group is being tracked very closely as they have started creating 'little nests' in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was wondering if Buck was okay. He suspected he wasn't... he commander of the US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Campbell earlier said the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to establish a regional base in Jalalabad, the capital city of eastern Nangarhar province.
In an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, said Tuesday that foreign bully boyz from Syria and Iraq had joined the loyalists of the terror group in eastern Nangarhar province and are trying to consolidate links with the leadership of the terror group based in Syria and Iraq.
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#1
Time to bite the bullet and go hat in hand to the Rooshuns. Cut a deal, we'll finance a new "tsar bomb" + costs. We can drop it or they can drop (flip a coin?). But the target is 10k ft. Above the Khyber pass.
A Palestinian woman tried to ram a car into Israeli border guards in a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, before being shot dead, the police said.
"An attempted attack to ram a car into border guards deployed in the village of Silwad (northwest of Ramallah) failed. The border guards spotted the terrorist... fired on her and killed her," a police spokesman said in a statement.
The attempted car ramming came shortly after a Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, said a spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
Around 40 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes that took place at several points along the barrier that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokeswoman reported that "hundreds of Palestinians" took part in the clashes.
The Palestinians were "attempting to damage the security fence by throwing rocks and hurling burning tyres at it. Forces on the site responded to the immediate danger of infiltration (into Israel) asking them to halt and firing warning shots," the spokeswoman said.
"But because of the ongoing violence and the threat to nearby (Israeli) communities they fired towards the main instigators," she said.
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SEOUL -- North Korean leader Fat Bastard Kim Jong-un inspected joint drills conducted by the military's two units, ordering the Korean People's Army to intensify combat drills, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday.
Pudgy Kim observed "actual maneuvers" between the KPA's large combined units 526 and 671, expressing satisfaction over their flawlessness in defensive and offensive capacities, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It did not specify the date of His Enormity's Kim's visit.
"Practical drills should be conducted so often to cope with the hardest and severest war," Kim was quoted by the KCNA as saying.
The North's leader called for the military to beef up their combat readiness in a bid to greet the upcoming congress of the Workers' Party of Korea with achievements, it said.
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Turkish banks reported sporadic disruption to credit card transactions on Friday as hackers stepped up a two-week barrage of cyberattacks, believed to be the worst the country has seen.
Local media have suggested that the bombardment of public and financial websites could be coming from Russia, after a sharp worsening of tensions between Moscow and Ankara, or staged by hacking group Anonymous. But no clear evidence has emerged, and authorities have avoided pointing the finger.
Officials at several Turkish banks including Isbank, Garanti and state lender Ziraat Bank confirmed the attacks, saying they had caused intermittent disruption. Bank shares were unmoved by the news.
“The attacks are serious,” said Onur Oz, a spokesman for Internet provider Turk Telekom. “But the target is not Turk Telekom. Instead, banks and public institutions are under heavy attack,” he said.
“A majority of Turkish institutions use Turk Telekom as the service provider, therefore we are the ones doing the defence against these attacks.”
A government cyber security unit was taking precautions and the incident was under control, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier this week. He did not comment specifically on the targeting of banks, and his ministry was not available for comment on Friday.
“These attacks began two weeks ago but have intensified over the past two days,” said Burak Atakani, a network specialist from Istanbul Technical University.
He said that the service provider used by some universities, police academies and the research department of the military had also come under attack.
Nic.tr, a non-government body that administers addresses for websites using Turkey’s “.tr” domain, including ministries, the military, banks and many commercial sites, said earlier this week that the attacks originated from “organized sources” outside Turkey.
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[SWISSINFO.CH] China is set to pass its controversial new anti-terrorism law on Sunday, the largely rubber-stamp parliament said on Friday, despite U.S. criticism about its cyber provisions and concerns over human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... The draft law, which could require technology firms to install "back doors" in products or hand over sensitive information such as encryption keys to the government, has also been criticised by some Western business groups.
U.S. President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... has said that he had raised concern about the law directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In a brief statement, China's National People's Congress said it would hold a news briefing on Sunday to talk about the law, following the end of parliament's latest law-making session.
Parliament does not challenge or block legislation proposed by the ruling Communist Party, meaning it is certain to pass.
This week, the U.S. State Department said it had expressed "serious concerns" about the law which it said would do more harm than good against the threat of terrorism.
China's Foreign Ministry hit back, saying technology companies had nothing to fear and the U.S. had no right to intervene.
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Unidentified gunmen shot dead a colonel in Yemen’s southern resistance in Aden on Tuesday night, a local official said, the latest in a string of assassinations in the city often carried out by militants. The gunmen opened fire on a car containing resistance leader Jalal Al Awbali in the Dar Saad district of northern Aden, killing him immediately, the official said.
Militants from both Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Yemeni wing of the Baghdadi militia
...an interesting description of ISIS...
have staged attacks throughout southern parts of Yemen, including in Aden, for years.
The rate of attacks in Aden has accelerated since July, when local forces backed by the government of President Abd Rabuh Mansour Hadi and a military alliance recaptured the city from the Houthi militia after months of street fighting.
Insecurity in Aden, the biggest prize yet won by Hadi in Yemen’s nine-month civil war, threatens to undermine the campaign waged on his behalf against the Houthis and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
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[TODAYSZAMAN] Speaking on condition of anonymity to the UK-based Rai el-Youm news portal, a senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official has expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's possible limitation of Hamas' activities in the country for the sake of improving ties with Israel.
The anonymous Hamas official was also worried about the prospect of Turkey agreeing to only a partial lifting of the blockade on Gazoo. Turkey's preconditions for normalization of ties with Israel had included the complete removal of the Gazoo blockade.
During the meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... last weekend, Mashaal demanded that Turkey not put a limitation on Hamas' presence in Turkey, according to the anonymous Hamas official.
Recent efforts to normalize Turkey's relations with Israel after five years of estrangement face a hard road ahead with a number of issues yet to be solved, with Israel pressing for the expulsion of all elements of Hamas from Turkey and a halt to its activities on Turkish soil as a precondition for rapprochement, according to media outlets.
Observers of the talks between Turkey and Israel say Tel Aviv is now in a stronger position and has put forward a demand for the total expulsion of Hamas from Turkey.
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[TODAYSZAMAN] Iraq's armed forces will move to retake the major northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) once they capture the western city of Ramadi, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Friday.
Capturing Mosul would deprive the Death Eater group of its biggest population center in both Iraq and Syria, effectively abolishing the state structure of ISIL in Iraq, depriving it of a major source of funding and dealing a blow to its influence.
The capture of Ramadi would give the army a major psychological boost in its move toward Mosul.
The cities are about 420 kilometers (260 miles) apart by road.
Iraqi forces started an attack on Tuesday to dislodge ISIL holy warriors from the center of Ramadi, the last district under their control in the city they had captured in May.
ISIL seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in 2014, in an offensive that forced government forces to abandon a third of Iraqi territory.
The group declared a caliphate over the Iraqi and adjacent Syrian Sunni populated territory it controls.
"The liberation of dear Mosul will be achieved with the cooperation and unity of all Iraqis after the victory in Ramadi," Abadi said in a statement on the state media website on Friday.
Army commanders said on Wednesday that the battle for Ramadi would take several days.
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One Administration Police officer was Friday morning killed when a vehicle they were travelling in drove over an explosive suspected to have been planted by Al-Shabaab militants along the Hindi-Bodhei road in Lamu. The officers were said to be heading to Bodhei, which is at the border between Lamu and Garissa when the incident happened at around 8am.
Confirming the incident, Linda Boni Operation Director Mr James ole Serian said nobody was injured and that police were pursuing the suspects responsible for the attack.
Mr Serian dismissed earlier reports which had indicated that one AP officer was killed while three others were critically injured and others reported missing in the morning attack.
“It is true. One police officer died while the rest of the officers that were in the vehicle came out safely. Nobody is critically injured. No one is missing. We are pursuing the suspects responsible for the attack,” said Mr Ole Serian in a text sent to the Nation.
Sources who talked to the Nation, however, claimed that the vehicle was also burnt to ashes by the suspected Al-Shabaab militants before they escaped into the expansive Boni Forest.
The incident comes just weeks after two people were killed at Milihoi in Lamu County when over 20 suspected Al-Shabaab militants attacked a lorry that was heading to Hindi form Mpeketoni to deliver building blocks.
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[Hurriyet] One soldier was killed while two others were maimed in festivities with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Sirnak, Turkish Armed Forces has announced.
"Three of our brothers in arms were maimed during an operation in Sirnak's Cizre district at 8:34 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2015," the blurb said, adding the wounds of one of the soldiers were critical.
While all injured soldiers were transferred to a hospital, one succumbed to his wounds during treatment.
The Armed Forces claimed that six PKK Lions of Islam were "neutralized" during the festivities, a euphemism used by the military to indicate they were either killed or captured.
A curfew has been in force in Cizre since Dec. 14 as upward of 10,000 soldiers attempt to remove trenches and barricades. The curfews imposed on southeastern towns have forced locals to remain inside their homes, where many have run out of water, electricity and even food.
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.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Beirut Daily Star] Nine Hezbollah fighters were killed in the last 48 hours during battles in two rebel-held towns near Syria's capital Damascus, a security source told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity Friday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Anglican leader Justin Welby on Friday said Christians faced “elimination” in the Middle East by ISIS, labelling the group a modern-day version of the tyrannical biblical king Herod.
[NDTV] A 
SEOUL -- South Korea's intelligence sources said Friday that North Korea is capable of producing a nuclear weapon with less than 6 kilograms of plutonium, revising down its earlier estimate.
ISKUSHUBAN, Somalia -- 
Zahran Alloush, head of the powerful Jaish Al Islam Syrian rebel group, was killed on Friday east of Damascus, a monitoring group and Syria's opposition said.
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
Russia’s air force has made 5,240 sorties since it started the strikes in Syria on Sept. 30, including 189 sorties on Thursday alone, Russia’s defence ministry told reporters on Friday.
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck northeast Afghanistan around midnight near the country's borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake, which measured 203.5 kilometres deep, struck about 280 kilometres northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul at 11:44 pm (1914 GMT), the USGS said on its website.
Turkish banks reported sporadic disruption to credit card transactions on Friday as hackers stepped up a two-week barrage of cyberattacks, believed to be the worst the country has seen.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a colonel in Yemen’s southern resistance in Aden on Tuesday night, a local official said, the latest in a string of assassinations in the city often carried out by militants. The gunmen opened fire on a car containing resistance leader Jalal Al Awbali in the Dar Saad district of northern Aden, killing him immediately, the official said.
