#3
It's interesting to read something from the New Republic - "a mission-driven media organization. We promote novel solutions for today's most critical issues."
Novel, progressive solutions - like Cruz is much crazier than Trump.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2016 14:57
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#4
I'm not arguing with you g(r)om. It's to let the tl:dnr crowd know that it's not what one would call 'legitimate media.'
h/t Instapundit
Space is expensive. To generate more power and more thrust, rockets need to carry more fuel, increasing the amount of weight the same rocket engine needs to lift. It’s a vexing equation, which might explain why much of recent spaceflight is about putting objects into orbit, where they can earn their keep by relaying communications on the ground below. Maybe what interplanetary travel needs is just a better engine to take people there. Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, Russia’s nuclear agency, thinks nuclear engines are just the ticket to get to Mars. USA wants to curb carbon emissions
h/t Instapundit
Set aside for a moment all the controversies over illegal immigration--the wall, deportation, amnesty, Donald J. Trump, "comprehensive immigration reform," etc. Instead, contemplate what happens in a social, cultural, and economic context when several million immigrants arrive from one of the poorest areas in the world (e.g., Oaxaca) to one of the most affluent (e.g., California). For guidance, think not of Jorge Ramos, but of the premodern/postmodern collision that is occurring in Germany, Austria, and Denmark.
#1
If me of the folks that are Trump-aphobic were to read this article - I know it has a lot of words, and some of them are big words, too - they might develop an understanding of Trump's popularity.
You don't have to agree with Trump to understand his appeal.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2016 13:16
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#2
It's very simple, Bobby. I want a guy who will secure the damn border. Trump is the only candidate who is even talking about it. Apart from that I want a guy who is not beholden to the Chinese and the Soddies. Is that really too much to ask?
#4
VDH is spot on. The idea to not only tolerate and to some degree encourage lawlwssness amongst non-citizens is beyond "weird". Unless there's a Clowerd-Piven type strategy at work it's counterintuitive to believe that poverty stricken cultural enclaves are in anyway benificial. And BTW, Trumps fantastical "solutions" do nothing to address this dynamic.
#5
Trumps fantastical "solutions" do nothing to address this dynamic.
Maybe. Maybe not. But, like he said in one of the first debates, if he hadn't started talking about it nobody else would have. If nothing else he lit a fire under some big fat asses. I like that. Here in San Diego, on the border, I've seen my fill of what illegal immigration can do. I'm sick and tired of Bush-Clinton trying to ignore it.
#7
I would be happy with someone who will will call it what it is - a border security issue - instead of what it isn't - an immigration issue.
You want to make a change in the immigration forms, requirements, processes, and/or fees - that would be an immigration issue. You want to grant 20+ million people amnesty for violating federal law and violating our borders - that is a border security issue.
#8
that is a border security issue No. I call it a "unilateral abdication of national sovereignty issue". For the DL-DNR crowd, call it "national suicide".
h/t Instapundit
Will Quigg, a grand dragon of the Klan's California chapter and responsible for recruitment in the western United States, is less keen to give Mr Trump the dubious benefit of his support. Does he look like a grand dragon to you?
"We want Hillary Clinton to win," Mr Quigg told The Telegraph. "She is telling everybody one thing, but she has a hidden agenda. She’s telling everybody what they want to hear so she can get elected, because she's Bill Clinton's wife, she's close to the Bushes. [But] once she's in the presidency, she's going to come out and her true colours are going to show.
#3
You're welcome, g(r)omgoru. You forgot to tick the page before hitting post, I suspect.
The KKK is not what it was. National membership is only a few thousand, if I recall correctly.
I found this bit from the article interesting, given that Mr. Duke used to be something important in the KKK:
Mr Quiggâs declaration of allegiance to Mrs Clinton sounds unconvincing - and contradicts earlier statements.
Last year, he sent a tweet to Mr Trump reading: â@realDonaldTrump. You Sir are the only hope we have of getting WHITE AMERICA BACK! We all will be voting for you!â
But that, Mr Quigg insists, âwas before we found out about what Hillary Clintonâs main agenda was. David Duke, we found out, was supporting Donald Trump and we have nothing to do with David Duke.â
#6
[channeling=liberals]If Hillary hasn't disavowed this by now, she's obviously for the KKK. And even if she has. A dozen times. And her kid and husband has disavowed him, too. She's still for the KKK. [/channeling=liberals]
A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators’ questions about the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server — marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers.
Where there are two there are three. Or more...
John Bentel, a now-retired State employee who managed IT security issues for the top echelon at the department, declined to be interviewed by GOP staff on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
The chairmen of both committees, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), are now threatening to consider other ways to compel him to discuss the matter.
[Reuters] Organizers of the South by Southwest (SXSW) arts festival said on Sunday they apologized to U.S. Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad after a volunteer said she must remove her Muslim headcovering to receive credentials to the event in Austin, Texas.
The Olympic fencer was picking up an identification badge at the interactive, film and music event on Saturday when a volunteer told her she must take off her hijab before her photograph could be taken.
"Even after I explained it was for religious reasons, he insisted I had to remove my hijab," she said on Twitter.
SXSW organizers said on Sunday in an email to Reuters that they have since removed the volunteer for the duration of the event.
"We are embarrassed by this and have apologized to Ibtihaj in person, and sincerely regret this incident," SXSW said in the statement.
Muhammad, 30, will make history in Rio de Janeiro as the first Olympian to represent the United States wearing a hijab. Muhammad has become an outspoken critic of presidential candidate Donald Trump, who called for a ban on Muslims from entering the United States.
"I feel like I owe it to people who look like me to speak out," Muhammad told reporters on Wednesday. "When I hear someone say something like, 'We're going to send Muslims back to their countries,' I say, 'Well, I'm American. Where am I going to go?"
After the incident was resolved at the event, Muhammad said that she was issued the wrong identification.
"I was given the wrong ID! From now on my name is Tamir & I work for Time Warner Inc" she tweeted.
#4
At this point, it's more like Mexico City 1968.
Still, it's silly to sweat the small stuff (that's generally what they are looking for -- Izlammophobia and all that rot). Let her wear the damn thing.
#7
I would think they have to identify the athelete to make sure they haven't slipped Errol Flynn under the Hajib to win on her behalf.
Since a number of Muslim countries don't use the Hajib (and those that due tend to prevent women from doing thing such as athletics) I can't help but see this as a way to knock down barriers until eventually bad guys can use Hajibs to move around anywhere in anonymity.
[Jpost] Three Palestinian terrorists were shot and killed during the course of two separate attempted attacks that took place within 30 minutes of each other Monday morning near the Kiryat Arba settlement located just outside of the West Bank city of Hebron.
In the first incident, two suspected terrorists tried to target hitchhikers in an attempted vehicular-ramming attack at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, according to initial reports.
During the incident, a Palestinian vehicle containing two armed terrorists enters Kiryat Arba, did a U-turn and came to a sudden stop. The gunmen exited their vehicle and opened fire, lightly injuring an IDF soldier.
The two attackers were shot dead in IDF return fire.
...During the second attack, a Palestinian vehicle traveling from Bnei Naim rammed a bus. An IDF soldier who was near the bus narrowly escaped injury. A terrorist attempted to exit the vehicle, but soldiers on the scene shot him dead.
The incident came 30 minutes after the first vehicular-ramming attack of the day.
The two soldiers who were lightly wounded from shrapnel from the car ramming attack received treatment on the scene from army medics.
Authorities are now trying to determine whether the attacks were coordinated by the assailants.
Update on 3/17: According to The Times of Israel one of the Palestinians in the first car ramming was a long-time member of Hamas.
#1
Ynet reports that the gunmen in the first car were armed with a "Carl Gustav" submachine gun and a pistol. In other words, their guns were locally produced, as reported in the article below this one.
[IsraelTimes] Kerry says Sunday that 600 fighters 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.... group had been killed in Syria in the last three weeks.
"In Syria, over the last three weeks alone, Daesh [Islamic State] has lost 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles) and 600 fighters," Kerry says after talks with European allies in Gay Paree, using another name for Islamic State.
That's better than the reverse, I suppose.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2016
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#1
I'd expect "I was in Vietnam" to know that body counts worth.
[ARA News] KOBANE – Syrian Islamist rebels renewed attacks with chemical weapons on the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, northern Syria, local sources reported on Sunday.
The bombardment caused dozens of casualties among civilians, including women and children.
“The injured have lost consciousness after they inhaled the poisonous gas,” a medical source in Sheikh Maqsoud told ARA News.
The source confirmed that the rockets included phosphorus and chlorine agents.
Speaking to ARA News in Aleppo, Rezan Hiddo, member of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said that the Islamist groups of Sultan Murad brigade, the 16th brigade, Noureddin Zanki and Ahrar al-Sham Movement resumed their attacks on the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud, launching shells filled with chemical agents.
Hiddo, who is close to the Kurdish leadership of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), pointed out Islamist groups are directly attacking civilians and from several sides.
“The bombing is still ongoing on the Sheikh Maqsoud district,” he stressed.
“The attack was conducted by several Syrian Islamist armed groups, including the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham, the Levant Front, Sultan Murad Brigade, Sultan Fatih group, Fastaqim Kama Umirt Brigades, Nour ad-Din Zanki militia, Brigade 13 and 116, the First Regiment and Abu Amarah Brigades,” the YPG ‘s leadership confirmed in previous statements.
Last Tuesday, the Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo was attacked with chemical weapons. Radical groups launched dozens of rockets filled with yellow phosphorus element on the district, according to the YPG’s leadership.
The Islamist rebels have reportedly taken advantage of the current ceasefire to attack the Kurdish region.
“We have announced our full commitment to the ceasefire. But we will not remain silent as our areas are being exposed to deadly offensives by the Islamists. If the bombardment continues, our forces will respond,” a Kurdish official told ARA News.
The U.N. Security Council approved last Friday a US-Russian draft resolution endorsing the Syria ceasefire. A cessation of hostilities started across the war-torn country. However, several violations have been documented, especially at the hands of Islamists in the Kurdish region in northern Syria.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A murky security operation on Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan on March 5 brought attention briefly back to an area that for nearly 25 years has rarely seen an entire week pass without some sort of incident taking place, Radio Liberty reports.
The reported firefight between Tajikistan’s security forces and an gang from Afghanistan that left a Tajik border guard and one of the Afghan combatants dead comes as the situation on both sides of the frontier is changing -- and as warmer spring weather heralds the likely start of increased hostilities in areas of northeastern Afghanistan that border Tajikistan.
There is a lot in play at the moment along Tajikistan’s frontier with Afghanistan’s border provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar, and Kunduz.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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[Law Newz] An intelligence source close to the FBI investigation into Clinton’s private unsecured email server told Fox News that former IT specialist Bryan Pagliano‘s has become an important source for investigators. Last week, it was reported that Pagliano, who helped set-up and maintain Clinton’s private server, struck an immunity deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. For the first time, we are getting details about what his testimony to investigators might entail.
The source who is not authorized to speak on the record told Fox’s Catherine Herridge that the information is helping investigators ‘ knit together the emails with other evidence.’ What is particularly interesting is that investigators are using that testimony as well as those famous photographs of Clinton using her blackberry on the road as part of their investigation. This could be further indication that the FBI is zeroing into Clinton’s official conduct as Secretary of State as it relates to potentially classified emails.
Earlier this week, Clinton scoffed off a question by debate moderator Jorge Ramos from Univision about whether she would quit the race if indicted.
"Oh, for goodness, it’s not going to happen. I’m not even answering that question," Clinton said during the CNN debate. As for Pagliano, Clinton continues to maintain she is pleased he is cooperating with investigators "This is a security review, I am delighted he has agreed to cooperate as everyone else had," Clinton said on CBS this morning. We reported last week that the immunity deal with Pagliano was a significant step in the investigation.
#3
I am delighted he has agreed to cooperate as everyone else had
Really, Hilly? Was everyone else granted immunity from prosecution? What the significance of that, Ms. I-used-to-be-an-attorney? Maybe it's grandstanding by the vast-right-wing-conspiracy-controlled FBI?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2016 7:43
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#4
If I know our "make the job last" FBI, the road map will definitely take the scenic route.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/14/2016 9:52
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#5
It took the FBI decades to round-up the Mafia. It will likely take centuries for this Clinton business to play out.
#6
What a choice: Staying out of jail or ending up dead in Ft. Marcy Park! Maybe the Feds should put Pagliano in the Witness Protection Program as well as providing immunity.
#8
Just looking at that hurts, dear junkiron. And I'm about to discover if it causes nightmares.
It is the evil personage of Hillary Clinton herself that conjures up the nightmares, TW.
I can assure you it has precious little to do with my own scratching and scribbling.
#9
Stating the obvious - this is a case of criminal negligence that boggles the mind. The road that brought Hillary to this point is paved with arrogance, laziness, and incompetence. This fits the definition of negligence perfectly...behavior that grossly deviates from the normal standard expected from the ordinary person. Her vanity has indeed proven to be a deadly sin...for any number of sources compromised...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] People gather around a tank used by pro-government fighters in the Bir Basha neighborhood, after they took the area from Houthi fighters in Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz March 11, 2016
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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#2
So the old Arab fear of the Persians has finally taken hold again. Good. About time they realized the real enemy. Too bad our idiot President does not.
A top Somali army official says Kenyan air-force jets have carried out an airborne attack against Al shabaab stronghold in the country’s south-western Gedo region on Saturday. Col Mohamed Hassan, a senior military commander in Gedo region said the Kenyan warplanes pounded Rays-Qode, targeting a key Al shabaab base near the strategic town of Garbaharey town.
Mr Hassan said several Al shabaab combatants were killed in the KDF airstrike, which was the latest in series of retaliatory bombing on Al shabaab bases in southern Somalia since El Adde attack in January 15.
At least two civilians were wounded in Kenyan airstrike on Rays-Qode area, according to the Somali army commander. Al shabaab and Kenya did not comment on the attack so far.
The Al-Shabaab has launched several deadly attacks against KDF and AMISOM military installations, including Leego, Janale and El Adde attack in southern Somalia within the last several months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] General Aminullah Amarkhil, police chief of central Ghazni province says several districts of his province are under severe threat which may fall if central government does not take necessary measures to suppress myrmidons.
Gen. Amarkhil added that security situation in Ghazni province has been tense and that Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... has been informed about it.
According to the General, eight districts of Ghazni province are on the verge of collapse but there are not enough security forces to avoid that.
The police chief further said that about 240 kilometers of Kabul-Kandahar highway pass through his province which makes it a prime target for bully boys.
Gen. Amarkhil who has not even completed five months in his new position threatened to quit in case reinforcement is not sent there to prevent fall of large areas to the bully boys.
He was appointed as the police chief of Ghazni in October last year as violence was on the raise there.
Gen. Amarkhil is a veteran warrior who has commanded police in several provinces and so far has good achievements.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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[The Nation] At least seven rangers were wounded when Muslim militants launched three simultaneous attacks against soldiers and police in Narathiwat province before some of them fled inside a hospital and exchanged gunfire with security forces there.
In the first attack, four insurgents on two motorcycles fired at a police unit guarding the Joh I Rong district railway station. The militants also fired two M79 grenades at police and rangers who pursued them, but no one was wounded.
In the second attack, about ten militants fired grenades at a ranger post near the hospital, wounding seven rangers. The militants then fled into the hospital and exchanged gunfire with security forces for over an hour before they fled by hiding themselves among the fleeing patients.
In the third attack, militants detonated a roadside bomb, but there were no casualties.
[Inquirer] The suspected leader of a kidnap-for-ransom gang behind the abduction of an Irish priest and an Australian ex-soldier was gunned down by security forces Sunday. Waning Abdusalam was killed after he resisted arrest by a combined military and police team. The suspect was killed in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Maj. Filemon Tan said Abdusalam was implicated in the kidnapping for ransom of numerous people in Mindanao, including three Filipino teachers in 2009, Irish missionary Father Michael Sinnott, also in 2009, and Australian Warren Rodwell in 2011.
While Sinnott was released after about a month with the help of a larger Muslim militant group, Rodwell spent 15 months as a hostage and was only freed after ransom was paid. Other sources describe Waning Abdusalam as a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander who was later disowned by the group.
Posted by: ryuge ||
03/14/2016
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[AFP] Indonesia does not want one of its most notorious terrorists, Hambali, returned home should the United States close Guantanamo Bay detention center, according to a senior minister.
Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was captured in Thailand in 2003 and spent the next three years being flown between secret prisons until his transfer to Gitmo. At the time of his capture Hambali, was thought to be Al-Qaeda's top operative in Southeast Asia and head of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, and plotting other attacks on U.S. airliners and foreigners.
Indonesian security minister Luhut Panjaitan said, "It's very clear that we do not want to add any more problems in our country," when asked about Hambali.
Panjaitan said an urgent revision of Indonesia's anti-terrorism laws is needed as authorities are currently powerless to stop would-be militants heading abroad to fight with extremist groups.
The government has submitted to parliament new draft measures to bolster Indonesia's fight against extremism, including broader powers to detain suspects. Panjaitan said, "This new terrorism law stipulates the state is authorised to revoke their citizenship if they join foreign fighters."
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A child has lost life and three others sustained injuries in a kaboom in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, an official said on Sunday.
Omar Zwak, spokesperson for the governor told Azadi Radio that the incident took place in Khanashin district late yesterday.
He said two of the three children maimed in the blast are at death's door.
According to the governor’s spokesperson, the bomb had been planted by armed opponents for security forces but it went off on civilians.
When Helmand officials say armed opponents they usually mean Taliban.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the group’s spokesperson has not yet commented on the report.
Taliban group has a strong presence in Helmand province and currently there are heavy festivities between them and security forces in part of this restive province.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – The leader in al-Hashd al-Shaabi Jabbar al-Mamouri revealed on Sunday, that Hawija Hospital southwest of Kirkuk received more than 40 bodies belonging to ISIS militants, in additions to dozens of ISIS members that were wounded in the attack on Alas and Ajil oil fields.
Mamouri also pointed out that the dead ISIS members included the two prominent leaders Abul-Qaqaa al-Masry and Abu Osama al-Ansari.
Mamouri said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Yesterday, Hawija Hospital received more than 40 dead bodies belonging to the members of the so-called ISIS incursions battalion in Nineveh and dozens of wounded members, after being defeated in the battle of Alas and Ajil oil fields north of Salahuddin.”
“The dead ISIS members included 6 prominent leaders in Nineveh. The dead leaders included Abul-Qaqaa al-Masry, Abu Osama al-Ansari and Talha al-Iraqi,” Mamouri added.
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk province said on Sunday, that 14 ISIS elements had been killed during an aerial bombardment south of the province.
The source, who requested anonymity, said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The [army’s] air force bombed sites for ISIS in the village of Albu Mafraj and Qasaba Bashir (30 km south of Kirkuk), resulting in the death of 14 [ISIS] elements.”
The source added, “The bombardment resulted in destructing 4 tactical sites for ISIS.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The acting provincial governor of northern Balkh province Ata Mohammad Noor has confirmed that the Afghan forces confronted 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 during clearance operations in this province.
Following the conclusion of clearance operations in Koshindih and Zareh districts, Noor said the snuffies cleared during the operations were connected both the Taliban and ISIS terrorist group.
Noor further added that the Afghan forces recovered both Taliban and ISIS flags during the operations which led to the clearance of the two districts.
He said at least 7 snuffies were killed, around 10 others were maimed and at least 20 others were nabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! by the security forces during the operations.
According to Noor, the snuffies were looking to destabilize Balkh and infiltrate into northern Sar-e-Pul and Samangan provinces.
Noor said the snuffies were looking to start their operations from the mountainous terrai of Tanj and move towards the bustling provincial capital city, Mazar-e-Sharif and were their strategy was to move further towards Sholgara and then into Samangan and Sar-e-Pul provinces.
This comes as Noor said last week that the snuffies were looking to establish an operational base in Sizda village in the mountainous terrain of Balkh province, under the leadership of Mawlavi Abdul Bari in Sizda village which is a strategic area from the military point of view.
He said the group had started terrorizing the local residents as they were establishing the base, killing and torturing the residents and torching the houses in the area.
The operations were jointly conducted by the Afghan national security forces who were receiving close-air support by the Afghan Air Force, Noor added.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The Turkish General Staff has announced that a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft has begun surveillance in Turkish airspace as part of assurance measures for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , while noting that NATO’s mission would be conducted "periodically" in the coming months.
"In line with the Syria crisis and developments taking place in the region and within the content of reassurance measures for Turkey, a NATO AWACS plane has begun conducting [surveillance] duty in Turkish airspace from March 12 to March 15," the General Staff said in a written statement posted on its official website late on March 12.
"These duties are planned to be conducted regularly and within certain periods in the coming months too," the General Staff added.
In December, after tensions flared between Turkey and Russia, the U.S and other NATO allies decided on a package of assurance measures for NATO member Turkey in view of the volatile situation in the region. Alongside an increased AWACS presence, the package also included an increased naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
"We agreed with Turkey on Feb. 11 to intensify [and] to increase surveillance of [the] border between Turkey and Syria. We are in the process of establishing [this] with Turkey in the best possible way," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on March 10.
NATO’s ongoing mission in Turkish airspace is being conducted within the framework of the alliance’s main duty of collective defense and of the principle of indivisible security of the alliance, the Turkish General Staff said. The mission aimed at "displaying NATO’S support to Turkey and the alliance’s unity and solidarity and providing deterrence vis-à-vis potential hostile threats against the alliance’s territorial integrity," it said.
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#1
The cynical me says this is less about 'collective defense' and more about keeping the Turks from dragging NATO into something it wants no part of.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will do anything to stay in power, including committing political murder, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s main opposition leader has said.
"Turkey is step by step sliding towards an authoritarian regime," Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told a group of news hounds late on March 12 in the Seferihisar district of Aegean Izmir province.
"The AKP is currently in a position that it may do everything not to leave power, including [committing] political murder," he said, adding, "Because the party knows the cost of dropping out of power."
Kilicdaroglu has been criticizing the AKP, and especially President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , over the diminishing fundamental rights and freedoms in the country and their efforts to shift the country’s current parliamentary system to a presidential one.
"Turkey is on the verge of grave danger. This is a problem not only for the CHP but for everybody," the main opposition leader told news hounds. "I’m deeply concerned with the path the country is headed down, and I can say this here freely because I personally shared my concerns with [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu. Turkey is being administrated by third class cadres; the merit system in the state has been destroyed. I have serious concerns about who holds the power within state institutions. The Turkish Republic, unfortunately, has turned into an AKP state."
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At 12 years old, Shaheen Hashmat left her family home in Scotland to escape the threat of forced marriage to a stranger in Pakistain. At 13, she attempted suicide.
Hashmat, who now campaigns against forced marriage and "honor-based" violence, says Britannia urgently needs better mental health services for girls and women escaping these situations.
"There needs to be far more training about the increased risk of suicide and the impact of family estrangement," said Hashmat, who won the True Honor 2016 award on Thursday for her bravery in standing up to honor abuse.
Experts say thousands of girls and women in Britannia are subjected to honor abuse every year as a way of controlling behavior perceived as bringing shame on their family.
Hashmat, now 33, grew up in a strict Pak family, in which every aspect of her life was policed, from the TV she watched to the people she spoke to, even the way she sat.
She was beaten and saw others in her family beaten, too. Her two older sisters were forced into marriage as teenagers after being sent "on holiday" to Pakistain.
As she grew up she started to challenge what was happening around her. "If I had stayed the physical abuse would have increased because I was seen as being out of control and becoming too westernized," she told Thomson Rooters Foundation.
"Forced marriage is a way of disciplining a woman who wants to make her own life choices. I was seen as having an attitude problem so I’m sure I would have been put on a plane, like my sisters were, and made to marry a stranger." Hashmat’s escape was organized by her sisters with the help of police and social services.
Over several weeks she smuggled her few possessions out of a back window at the family home into a waiting car. One day she told her parents she needed to visit a relative for help with her homework. She never returned.
But the shock and difficulty of adjusting to her new life and the estrangement from her family took its toll. One year later she took an overdose and ended up in hospital for a week.
"The suicidal feelings have been a regular experience throughout my life, and that’s a huge part of the reason why I’ve started doing the work I’m doing now," said Hashmat who now lives in London.
She cites a survey that indicates Asian women are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as women from other backgrounds in Britannia, with family violence seen as a key factor.
Hashmat has since written about her experiences in a blog, challenging the taboos around mental health which are particularly strong in Asian communities.
Hashmat’s dream is to set up a mental health service for women who have fled forced marriage and honor abuse.
"Estrangement from the people with whom you have created many of your most important memories -- wonderful as well as awful -- can be overwhelming," she said.
"You are also often leaving behind a whole community and trying to make a new life in a completely new culture. That’s incredibly difficult." The True Honor awards are made by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization (IKWRO), a British charity that supports victims of honor abuse and forced marriage.
Britannia’s Forced Marriage Unit said this week it had dealt with 1,220 suspected forced marriage cases last year -- a slight fall on 2014. But Hashmat said the figures don’t convey the real extent of the problem and that police need better training.
"If you can’t absolutely rely on the authorities to help you when you may have just one chance to get out, that may well be the difference between life and death," she said.
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[DAWN] Jamaat Ulma-e-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has said the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... government is willing to bring amendments to the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016.
"Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... had telephoned me and told me that the government is ready to bring amendments to the women protection bill," Fazulr Rehman told news hounds here on Saturday.
He said he had told the chief minister that things had gone beyond just amending the bill, which he added was "un-Islamic" and was passed in a haste.
The religious parties had opposed the bill and demanded the government should withdraw it.
The Maulana said the prime minister’s comment on the performance of the National Accountability Bureau should be taken seriously.
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[Prensa Latina] The National Investigative Committee identified an individual from Dagestan as the being behind an explosion near a mosque in the capital of the Republic of Ingushetia. According to various sources, a car exploded near the Nazir-Kortskoj mosque in Nazran. The bomb left five injured, one of them was the imam. According to the Investigative Committee, the car belonged to a Dagestani man, who resides in Stavropol.
The incident took place on Friday after the traditional Muslim prayers and two days after an attack against journalists and human rights activists. After the violent incidents, the president of Ingushetia called an extraordinary meeting of the operational headquarters and Security Council of the Republic.
The head of the Ingush parliament, Mujarbek Dekazhev, believes that the two incidents are related, referring to a plan of destabilization by terrorist groups.
Tripoli- Capital city and largest city of Libya, Tripoli has become no short than a grazing land for militias, military arsenal, western intelligence agents, and some private security companies coming from countries like the U.S., Britain, France, and Italy.
Security companies are managing to coexist together and are collecting data on developments. Doubts indicating the West soon intervening in Libya to fight ISIS, are rising.
Starting March 13, Asharq Al-Awsat will launch a series of investigations in Tripoli, Libya. With all the spread militia and warlords, the Libyan largest city seems to have become the capital for terrorism. Based on documents, observations, and testimonies, a case of rage and confusion among warlords and anti-army leaderships was exposed. The off-board militants, leaders, groups and factions all fear a soon-coming international intervention.
After convening, a number of groups and leaderships went as far as resorting to cooperate with ISIS.
Western security companies have assumed their work, centering themselves in villas resting on the coasts of Tripoli. From within the housing units rose the sound of light music and the scent of Libyan cuisine cooking. The residents allegedly are retired Western officers who formerly worked for Western armies and intelligence.
In contrast, all militias are cooperating and saving no effort in guarding the newcomers. With no significant impact, it seems that for the time being militias and security agents are coexisting with each other.
For four years now warlords occupied Tripoli, and have rendered hopeless on achieving any victories with the national army is continuously advancing and ISIS growing influence across the capital. Even factions formerly belonging to the late Col. Muammar Gaddafi are participating in the war against militants.
The current status forced families belonging to military, political, and security leaders to evacuate the city. They have also left neighboring cities like Misurata, which is situated 187 km to the east of Tripoli.
QUETTA: The security forces in Balochistan claimed on Sunday to have killed five suspected militants in Balochistan's troubled Dera Bugti district, DawnNews reported.
A suspected militant was also arrested during the security operation carried out by Frontier Corps personnel in Dera Bugti.
The spokesperson for FC, Khan Wasey, aid forces launched an operation against suspects allegedly involved in carrying attacks at security forces and important national installations in the area.
Wasey claimed “the security forces also destroyed the sanctuary of miscreants during the targeted operation”.
He said a sanctuary of miscreants was also demolished during the targeted operation. Wasey stated that the dead miscreants were involved in attacks at security forces and vital national installations including gas pipelines in Balochistan's Dera Bugti district.
In another operation, FC personnel acted on a tip off and defused an improvised explosives device near a railway track in Sibi.
The train service was temporarily suspended as result of the bomb, however, it was restored following the security clearance from the authorities.
Mukachevo is not just a backwater in the Carpathians. It is a rest stop for smuggling operations between Ukraine and the rest of eastern Europe, east and west bound. Also, this happened in Mukachevo last summer.
An unidentified prosecutor was detained by police in Mukachevo after his blood alcohol test indicated he was 10 times over the legal limit, according to a Russian language news account in korrespodent.net.
According to the police the unidentified man tried to sway police from arresting him by pointing out his high office.
The report said the man tested 1.098 ppm. Shoulda tested him for blood content. Hey, it could help!
The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized bases and weapons from a Western-backed rebel group in overnight fighting in northwestern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, said the Nusra Front had also detained dozens of members of the 13th Division rebel group, one of the factions that has received foreign military aid, capturing U.S.-made anti-tank missiles.
The 13th Division, which is led by the prominent rebel commander Ahmed al-Seoud and fights under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, said on Twitter that Nusra Front fighters attacked its bases and seized weapons, but gave no further details.
Nusra Front accused the rebel fighters of launching surprise attacks on its own bases in the town of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province in northwest Syria. It said some Nusra fighters had been captured.
The clashes came two weeks into a cessation of hostilities in Syria and on the eve of peace talks in Geneva between President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition.
The halt in fighting, agreed by government forces, rebel groups and their international backers, excludes Nusra Front and ISIS militants.
Nusra Front fighters have often taken part in offensives alongside other rebel groups. But they have also fought them for territory, defeating groups such as the Western-backed Syria Revolutionaries Front and the Hazzm group last year.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, the clashes left at least six combatants dead, four of them identified as Division 13 fighters.
"Al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa kidnapped at least 40 members of Division 13, whose commander has gone missing," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
He said the jihadists had cleared out Division 13's depots in Maarat al-Numan and three nearby towns, seizing U.S.-made anti-tank TOW missiles.
Speaking to AFP from neighboring Turkey, Division 13 commander Ahmad al-Saoud denied that any TOW missiles had been seized.
"They only took light weapons and ammunition," he said.
ISIS recruiting efforts suffer a setback as recruiting plans bomb
[ARA News] QAMISHLI – U.S.-led coalition forces conducted Sunday several airstrikes in the Iraqi province of Anbar, killing and wounding a number of militants from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS), including prominent jihadi recruiter, official sources reported.
“The operation targeted Mohammed Khalaf al-Satouri, a senior official in Daesh, along with four of his companions in the western district of Hit in Anbar province,” a spokesman for the Iraqi army told ARA News, using an acronym for ISIS.
Al-Satouri was head of ISIS recruitment department in Anbar, according to the source—who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In the meantime, the U.S.-led coalition fighter jets conducted eight airstrikes against the hardline group in Mosul, Ramadi, Hit and Tal Afar, killing dozens of ISIS militants as well as destroying several armored vehicles led by the group, according to the coalition’s General Command.
The radical group is paying up to $10,000 to each recruiter in European countries for recruiting people to join the alleged jihad in Syria and Iraq, UN experts said in previous statements. ISIS also relies on informal networks and social media for recruitment of western jihadis.
Also, spokesman of the U.S. Department of Defense expected last Tuesday the death of the so-called ISIS war minister, Abu Omar al-Shinshani, in an airstrike on the group’s headquarters in Hasakah province, northeastern Syria.
However, local sources confirmed that al-Shinshani is alive, but suffering from serious injuries.
The coalition’s airstrikes have recently killed dozens of prominent leaders of the radical group across Syria and Iraq, besides hitting tactical units and oil fields held by the group in both war-torn countries.
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[IsraelTimes] IDF and Shin Bet confiscate weapons, ammo and equipment in crackdown on homemade guns used in terror attacks
When the yoots aren't rampaging, there's time for this kind of thing.
The Shin Bet, together with the IDF, has seized dozens of homemade weapons and gun-making equipment in Paleostinian cities in the West Bank over the past few months, the security service announced on Sunday.
During one raid on Saturday, Shin Bet officers confiscated 15 rifles that had been hidden in the Yabad village, outside Jenin.
The officers learned of the weapons’ locations after interrogating a gunsmith they had placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... and questioned earlier, the service said.
On March 1, security forces conducted a similar raid in Nablus, seizing guns, bullets and weapon-making equipment.
"The IDF and the Shin Bet are constantly carrying out operations to thwart the creation and sale of weaponry in the West Bank," the Shin Bet said this month.
Improvised submachine guns, based off the Carl Gustav design, have been used frequently and to devastating effect in the ongoing wave of violence.
Most recently, two Paleostinian faceless myrmidons opened fire with two Carl Gustav submachine guns at a city bus in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem and then at coppers near the Old City. During the firefight, an elderly Arab Israeli man was maimed.
The day before, a Paleostinian gunman shot and seriously injured two coppers with a Carl Gustav-style submachine gun in a drive-by shooting in East Jerusalem.
Three faceless myrmidons armed with such guns also shot and killed 19-year-old Border Police officer Hadar Cohen in February.
Some 68 shooting attacks have been carried out in the West Bank and Jerusalem since October 1, many of them with this kind of fabricated gun, the IDF said in a statement.
KARACHI: The counter-terrorism department of the city police claimed on Saturday night to have killed two suspected militants in an encounter in Quaidabad area.
The CTD personnel, helped by an intelligence agency, conducted a raid on a militant hideout during which they came under attack. In an ensuing battle, two suspects got killed.
A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that the killed militants belonged to the Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS). The officer described those killed as “high-value target”.
Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2016
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Cairo- Houthi and pro-Saleh (ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh) were jumbled and in shock after their defeat in Taiz. The Insurgent militias had lost due to a swift unpredicted military action conducted by the National Army and Popular Resistance supported by the Saudi-led Arabian coalition. The battle also determined that the, formerly imposed by insurgents, barricade being broken down and lifted off of Taiz.
Upon Houthis defeat, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi confirmed that current developments are of utmost significance. He pointed out that the National Army forces are approaching Sana’a.
Al-Mekhlafi also described the relationship joining both Houthis and ousted President Saleh to resemble a love affair among serpents, which is bound to end with disaster.
In an Interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, FM al-Mekhlafi said that “Taiz is wining, and the besiegement has been lifted off of its western gates, and it is well on its way to be completely freed.
“The reason behind its liberation being delayed is because of Houthi and pro-Saleh militants being committed towards the clashes carrying on; since they know that the battle of Taiz is an outcome defining one. Seeing that, they sent large numbers of brigades and forces to barricade the zone, however, they failed. As for Sana’a, increased efforts are being spent for its liberation… pro-legitimacy forces are approaching the capital city and battles continue.”
The Yemeni FM revealed that the insurgents’ states of affairs, and their chances of enduring on battlefields, are over. With all that being said, the militias have been forced to attempt on deluding Saudi Arabia and the international community by promoting alleged negotiations.
However, FM al-Mekhlafi said, “We are prepared to resume negotiations which the U.N. special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed sets their date before the end of this month.”
He also exposed the extent of Iranian intervention in Yemen, confirming that evidence condemning its involvement and support to the insurgency shows up on a daily basis. Iran has been granting Houthi and pro-Saleh combatants with both financial and artillery provision.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Kurdistan Democratic Party announced on Sunday, that 12 ISIS elements had been killed in an artillery shelling by the paramilitary Peshmerga force north of Mosul.
Saeed Mamouzini, the spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The artillery of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces shelled a convoy belonging to the ISIS in the village of Bahzany in the district of Ba’shiqah (22 km north of Mosul), resulting in the death of 12 [ISIS] elements.”
Mamouzini also added, “The shelling resulted in the complete destruction of the convey which had consisted of three military vehicles.”
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The Libyan army has said it will evacuate families trapped in Benghazi’s Gwarsha district, scene of continued fighting between itself and Islamist militants. The south Benghazi area, along with neighbouring Garyounis and Tika, are the militants’ last stronghold in the city.
The army says that it will supervise the evacuation but that all males over 15 years of age who leave will be investigated.
The announcement follows a call by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya for a ceasefire in Benghazi to ensure that civilians unable to leave areas where there is fighting can do so if they wish. In his call, the coordinator, Ali Al-Za’tari, specifically named Gwarsha as one area where families were trapped.
He pointed out that both sides in the fighting, the army as well as the militiants, had a legal obligation to respect international humanitarian human rights laws “at all times”.
For his part, Thinni government spokesman Hatem Oraibi questioned whether those being allowed to leave Gwarsha were civilians. He suggested that some would be militants trying to escape. Claiming that the army had told civilians some time ago to leave battle zones, he called on United Nations and all interested in combating terrorism to visit Benghazi and see for themselves how she it had become.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia has evidence that the Turkish army is on Syrian territory, Russian news agency Interfax reported the Kremlin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday.
The top diplomat also claimed on Sunday Turkey's actions on Turkish-Syrian border were ‘creeping expansion.’
Tensions between Moscow and Ankara have been high since Turkey shot down a Russian military jet on the Syrian-Turkish border in November last year.
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#2
Well, there are Kurds on that side of the border and we know what the Turks think and does about Kurds. Who cares if the Kurds are actually fighting ISIS?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] An Afghan Air Force aerial gunner communicates with the pilot of an Mi-17, owned and operated by the Kandahar Air Wing, before an engine run-up at Kandahar Airfield, March 2, 2016. Members of the AAF work closely with Train Advise Assist Command -- Air, a U.S.-run functional command, that assists our Afghan partners to develop a professional, capable and sustainable force. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Robert Cloys)
At least 26 anti-government armed turbans were killed in the air and ground operations of the Afghan national security forces in the past 24 hours.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the operations were conducted in the various parts of the country, involving securit personnel from different security institutions, including the Afghan Air Force.
According to an operational update by MoD, at least 12 of the turbans were killed in air and ground offensive in Shindand district of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province and 7 others were maimed.
MoD further added that 6 turbans were killed during the clearance operations in Nad-e-Ali district of southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province.
At least 7 turbans were killed during a seprate operation in Charchino district of Uruzgan province, MoD said, adding that several villages were cleared of the turbans during the ongoing operations in Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shahabuddin in Baghlan province.
MoD also added that various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives were seized after an explosives cache was seized from the residence of a Taliban capo in Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shabauddin where 7 safe havens of the turbans were destroyed.
A Taliban capo identified as Rohani was also killed during an operation in Nejrab district of Kapisa province and two of his lover companions were maimed, MoD added.
The anti-government armed Death Eater groups have not commented regarding the operations so far.
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As loyal reader Deacon Blues titled it in a similar post, "Hellfire and Damnation"...
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon.
Not sure if that's Portland Maine, Portland Oregon, or some other Portland...
Source is Oregon Live, so I'd say it's Oregon.
N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport.
Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland. The Serbian state news agency Tanjug reported that the missiles had been packed in wooden coffins and unloaded at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where they were inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs.
This type of missile was originally designed to be fired from a helicopter and was named Helicopter Launched, Fire and Forget Missile -- later shortened to Hellfire. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms against multiple targets.
The AGM-114 model is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. It weighs about 100 pounds and costs about $110,000 apiece. Most models use laser to home in on their targets, although one version of the AGM-114 relies on radar.
The FBI in Portland said it is looking into the reports.
"We don't have any information on that yet," Jennifer Adams, an FBI spokeswoman, said Sunday afternoon.
"We will say no more!"
N1 reported Sunday that Air Serbia is helping in the investigation. The Serbian flag carrier says "security and safety are the main priorities for Air Serbia."
#6
So, we've given the Lebanese Hellfires for their Cesna Caravans and Super Turcanos (assuming they get delivered one of these days). So I guess the question is, is this common Arabic corruption, or is someone in the Lebanese Air Force playing footsie with a terror group with people in place in the States? Hrm. Portland is apparently host to fairly large Lebanese and Syrian community - not Dearborn or Toledo big, but good-sized.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/14/2016 11:47
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#7
Oh, you conspiracy nuts!
These were just training units, like were shipped to Cuba!
DIYARBAKIR: Turkey on Sunday slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military “cleanup” operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir.
Turkish troops have been waging a major — and controversial — offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since December, imposing strict 24-hour curfews in a number of towns and cities in the southeast.
Ankara has repeatedly imposed curfews for military operations in southeastern urban centers, and on Sunday said restrictions would be slapped on two more towns — Yuksekova, near the Iranian border, and Nusaybin, on the frontier with Syria.
The aim was to “restore order and security” following an increase in “terrorist activity,” local authorities said.
Ankara has vowed to wipe out the PKK, classed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, and said “clean-up” operations in Yuksekova, Nusaybin and Sirnak, a third Kurdish city, are imminent.
As the new restrictions were announced, Turkey eased the curfew in part of Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish majority city, which has been under lockdown since December.
From 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday, residents of part of the city’s historic Sur district were allowed back onto the streets, where some buildings have been badly damaged in the operation, an AFP correspondent said.
Residents forced from the area by the clashes and the curfews returned to inspect their damaged homes, carrying belongings in suitcases and pushcarts.
Other parts of Sur, a UNESCO world heritage site, remain under curfew to allow the authorities to “capture terrorists” and “clear explosives and booby-traps,” according to the local governor.
The police and army launched an operation in the narrow streets of Sur in early December aimed at retaking control of areas seized by armed PKK activists, who dug trenches and put up barricades.
Critics say the clashes have caused major damage and forced nearly 50,000 people in Sur from their homes since the start of December. Up to 70,000 people were living in the area before the violence erupted.
Army high command said this week its operation in Sur had killed 279 members of “the separatist terrorist organization,” the PKK, but gave no toll for security forces. Local media have put the figure in the dozens.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) says dozens of civilians have also been killed.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Syria’s warring sides prepared on March 13 for fresh peace talks after locking horns over the fate of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , with the regime insisting his ouster was a "red line" while the opposition vowed to see him go - dead or alive.
The U.N.-brokered indirect negotiations are due to start on March 14 in Geneva, the latest international push to try to end Syria’s five-year conflict, which has killed more than 270,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
Government negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari arrived on March 13 in Geneva, where delegates from the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) are already preparing.
Analysts have said much has changed since the last round collapsed in February as fighting raged, but that the huge regime-opposition divide will complicate a settlement.
A fragile February 27 truce brokered by the United States and Russia has largely held despite each side accusing the other of violations, a development U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said was "very significant."
But key obstacles remain, including the fate of Assad, the holding of elections within 18 months and the shape of any new government.
"We will not talk with anyone who wants to discuss the presidency... Bashir al-Assad is a red line," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in Damascus on March 12.
"If they continue with this approach, there’s no reason for them to come to Geneva."
The HNC has repeatedly called for Assad’s departure as a prerequisite for any deal.
"We believe that the transitional period should start with the fall, or death, of Bashir al-Assad," chief opposition negotiator Mohammad Alloush told AFP in a joint interview in Geneva.
"It cannot start with the presence of the regime, or the head of this regime still in power."
U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura has said the Geneva meetings, opening on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict in March 2011, would not last more than 10 days.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will launch six key cultural projects in the central Bamyan province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office said the projects will be launched in the next Afghan calendar year which includes construction of a cultural center, reconstruction of the historic Gholghola city, strengthening the porches for Buddhas located in the west, awareness regarding Hajigak iron ore exploration and its effects on historic monuments, research on local tradition and public awareness regarding the historic monuments.
According to the local officials, UNESCO’s cultural chief in Afghanistan Mr. Masanori Nagaoka informed regarding the launch of the projects during a meeting with the provincial governor Mr. Tahir Zahir.
Nagaoka welcomed Mr. Zahir’s recommendation to include the destruction date of Bamyan Buddha as a cultural catastrophe day in the world calendar and promised to share his recommendations with UNESCO chief.
This comes as an event was organized to mark the 14th anniversary of Buddhas destruction by the Talibs which was attended by bigwigs, including UNESCO’s cultural chief for Afghanistan Mr. Nagaoka.
The Bamiyan ...a place in Afghanistan that used to have some historically interesting statues of the Buddha carved into a mountainside. Then the holy men showed up and now all they have is some big holes... Buddhas were destroyed after the Talibs group blew up the world’s two largest standing Buddhas -- one of them 165ft high, earlier in 2001.
Among the Afghanistan’s historical remains, Taliban’s biggest targets, literally and figuratively, were the two monumental Buddha statues carved out of the sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan. The destruction work concluded in almost three weeks period which sparked global objection.
Taliban group tried to destroy the Buddhas by firing artillery rounds towards the Buddhas but later used explosives after they did not achieve any results by firing artillery.
One stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other about 120 feet high and together they had watched over the dusty Bamyan Valley since the sixth century, several centuries before Islam reached the region.
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated 230 km (143 miles) northwest of Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft). Built in 507 A.D, the larger in 554 CE, the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art.
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[DAWN] The Sindh government has identified 53 seminaries having ‘leaning towards militancy’ against which security agencies have been ordered to take ‘appropriate action’, it emerged on Saturday.
Officials of the home department said they had got reports from intelligence sources which found 53 madressahs with ‘leaning towards militancy’ and a majority of them were in 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... In a previous report that was compiled last year, the government had identified 49 madressahs ‘having links with terrorist organizations’.
Sources said the government did not name holy warrior groups to which the seminaries had ties with in the latest report after it had received strong reaction from several religious parties and representatives of different madressah boards to its previous report.
The latest report, which has been submitted to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, used the term "leaning towards militancy" unlike the previous report that stated "links with terrorist organizations", the sources said.
While the holy warrior groups had not been named in the updated report, relevant information had been shared with the Sindh police and the Rangers to take ‘appropriate action’ against them, the sources added.
The report, however, did not explain what happened to a similar order that had been given for action against the previously identified 49 madressahs.
According to the latest report, more than half of the seminaries with holy warrior leanings were situated in Karachi, while a dozen others were in Hyderabad. The rest of the seminaries were functioning in Sukkur and Larkana divisions.
The officials reiterated that they were planning to take legal action against the madressahs. A similar claim they had made months ago.
12,000 seminaries in Sindh
As the authorities updated figures related to madressahs in its report, it emerged that their number increased threefold in Sindh during the past one year.
More than 4,000 seminaries had been recorded until April last year, while their number jumped to 9,590 in October and around 12,000 according to the latest report.
In all, 6,711 madressahs had registered themselves with the government, as the rest were still unregistered, the officials said.
The report said more than 600,000 students were enrolled with the seminaries.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
After heavy rains in Dec 2015 and Jan and March 2016, Folsom Lake in Central California has reached levels allowing power generation. Not only that, but water is also being released for general flow.
Lake Oroville as well as some smaller lakes are also rising quickly.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/14/2016
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#8
When I was in High School (in the SF Bay Area) it rained for 4 years and they called in El Nino. Then I went to college and it was dry for 4 years and they called it la Nina. Then it went dry again for 4 years. Then it went wet again. Then dry again for 4 years.
I'm not a rocket scientist (not a scientist at all) but I figured out the pattern. Now I'm wondering how they can turn 4 years of rain into the fault of climate change.
For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The continuing artillery battle between Ukrainian forces and Russian backed separatists around Yasinovataya has shut down water for 400,000 residents in Donetsk and Gorlovka, according to Ukrainian and rebel media.
The battle for Yasinovataya, now in its seventh day, has forced the rebel government in Donetsk to shut down a water filtration plant in the area due to Ukrainian shelling.
However, Ukrainian military officials say it was the unsighted 82mm mortar attacks by rebel gunners which have threatened the local water supply. Their statement is the first admission in six days that fighting has even taken place in the area, despite repeated news releases by rebel military officials.
An unidentified spokesman for the Ukrainian ministry of defense antiterrorist operation -- the Ukrainian command effort in dealing with the rebel insurgency -- said that rebels have mounted 82mm mortars onto trucks in order to move them rapidly from one point to another. The 82mm mortar is normally transported by truck, then moved to firing positions by its crew, just not aboard vehicles.
The latest from the Donetsk ministry of defense for the situation near Yasinovataya is that Ukrainian forces continue to pound rebel positions on the road junction, effectively shutting down road communications between Donetsk city and Gorlovka.
According to rebel news statements, Ukrainian forces hit the Yasinovatskiy checkpoint for 40 minutes on Saturday and again on Sunday for 20 minutes. Both times Ukrainian forces used 82mm and 120mm mortar fire, as well as some tank gunfire on those positions.
Ukrainian media said that rebels hit Ukrainian positions near Yasinovataya with 122mm artillery deployed to Krutaya Balka on Sunday. In a news account which appeared in Gorlovka Pravda on Saturday, rebel officials claimed Ukrainians were using 152mm artillery on the Yasinovatskiy checkpoint.
Rebel military officials claim a total of four riflemen have been wounded defending the road. Rebel media also says that Ukrainian forces have lost more than 30 dead and 70 wounded. Ukrainian officials say their losses total seven wounded, all in Lugansk, a fair distance away from Yasinovataya.
Rebel officials say that Ukrainian forces have violated the ceasefire along the Donetsk line of contact more than 200 times in 24 hours. Targets hit by Ukrainian forces include at Spartak, the Donetsk airport, western districts of Donetsk city and at Zaitsevo, which is north of Gorlovka. Among the localities hit by Ukrainian fire in southern Donetsk is Kominternovo.
Ukrainian military officials say that rebels have violated the ceasefire a total of 20 times, including at Zaitsevo and Mayorsk, in northern Donetsk. Kamenka, south of Donetsk has also been hit by rebel artillery fire.
Ukrainian media said that rebel used 122mm artillery in some attacks.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraine by clicking here.
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – The commander of the Federal Police Raed Shaker Jawdat announced on Sunday, that the security forces repulsed an attack launched by the so-called ISIS in northern Salahuddin, while pointed out that the Federal Police forces also seized 19 hell (Jahanam) rockets south of the province.
Jawdat said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The Federal Police forces repulsed ISIS attack in Makhoul Mountains and detonated a booby-trapped bulldozer,” adding that, “The 3rd commandos brigade killed four ISIS members and destructed their vehicle northwest of al-Siniya vicinity east of Tikrit.”
Jawdat also pointed out, “The bomb squad detonated 88 improvised explosive bombs, a booby-trapped vehicle and six C4 explosives containers west of al-Siniya Airport,” indicating that, “The 5th brigade forces seized a cache belonging to ISIS west of Samarra, containing 19 local-made rockets called hell rockets.”
Posted by: badanov ||
03/14/2016
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[FOXNEWS] A deadly attack on a popular Ivory Coast beach resort Sunday that killed at least 16 most likely targeted a U.S. delegation led by the assistant commerce secretary, who was visiting the country, a diplomatic source in the region told Fox News.
Now this makes sense. Qaeda hard boys hitting a beach in subsaharan Africa doesn't make sense. But if a U.S. delegation is going to be there? Major score...
There was no indication any Americans had been killed or maimed in the attack, according to the source.
Assistant Secretary of Commerce Marcus Jadotte was leading a group of Americans in Grand-Bassam, including college recruiters from the University of Florida. U.S. embassy officials from the capital city of Abidjan were also included in the group, according to the source. The delegation was supposed to arrive at the scene of the attack, Etoile du Sud, a hotel popular with Westerners. The delegation had not yet made it to the hotel when the attack occurred.
A jihadist group called Ansar Dine, or "defenders of the faith," linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was suspected of the attack, according to the source.Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb later grabbed credit for the attack, according to a Jihad monitoring website cited by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The US Embassy in Ivory Coast instructed all Americans to "shelter in place."
The U.S. ambassador to the Ivory Coast was not in the country at the time of the attack having left to attend a conference in Washington led by Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... But the deadly attack did leave 14 civilians and two special forces soldiers dead, as well as all six attackers, President Alassane Ouattara ...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo.... said, according to Rooters.
The attackers, who were "heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, fired at guests at the Etoile du Sud, a large hotel which was full of expats in the current heatwave," a witness told AFP.
Marcel Guy said he saw at least four gunnies with Kalashnikov rifles on the beach. He said one approached two children, and spoke in Arabic. One child knelt and prayed, the other child was rubbed out.
Rat bastards. Hunt them down.
"I was swimming when it started and I bravely ran away," said Dramane Kima, who showed video of the carnage to Rooters. He also took pictures of grenades and ammunition clips he believed were left behind by the gunnies.
Jacques Able, who identified himself as the owner of Etoile du Sud said one person had been killed at the hotel. A receptionist at Etoile du Sud hotel said the attacks happened on the beach.
"We don't know where they came from, and we don't know where they've gone," he said of the gunnies.
In a message posted on its Telegram channels, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said three of its “heroes” had stormed the Grand-Bassam resort,
Who did the other three dead miscreants belong to?
according to SITE Intelligence Group, which is based just outside Washington.
“By the grace of Allah and His granting of success, three heroes from the knights of Qaedat al-Jihad in the Islamic Maghreb were able to storm the tourist resort ‘Grand Bassam,’ situated east of the city of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast,” the SITE Intelligence Group quoted AQIM as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party was humiliated in key regional elections on Sunday as voters delivered their verdict at the ballot box about her open-door refugee policies.
Rightist populism does seem to be sweeping the EU and America. Wonder why? Could it be that the voters have figured out that the establishment elites hate their countries, hate their people, and don't give a fig what happens to the rest of us so long as they get theirs?
Exit poll results in three out of 16 German states foretell a wipeout in next year's general election as the hard-right capitalized on public disquiet and altered the political landscape forever.
Baden-Wuerttemberg - solidly middle class and home to blue chip companies like Porsche and Daimler - was won by the Green Party after Merkel's CDU lost nearly 11 percent support since the last vote there in 2011. And the Alternative for Germany - AfD anti-immigrant party - garnered 12.5 percent of the votes, propelling a party that her supporters call 'Nazis in pinstripes' into the local parliament.
#10
So, BP, do you think it was an accident that the flow of refugees increased greatly when Putin entered the conflict and started bombing people? Maybe a vast coincidence?
#14
I think he encouraged it, puts other people into a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. I think at least some of the people in the EU are his agents, tasked with starting a civil war one way or another, because once the ball gets rolling and the "middle" gets eaten out of the society it doesn't matter if the invaders win or if (for example) Marie Le Pen wins, for instance the latter thinks it's "right" and "conservative" to get closer, friendlier relations with the current Iranian government.
For example, he didn't "make" Ozero not bomb Assad, but Ozero cooperated with Putin in this endeavour (and is proud of it; I guess now we know what the Flexibility is about).. He even paid for the current Russian/Iranian offensive in Syria, which started right after he sent over the 150 billion or whatever it was to Iran).
As another example, take Ma Merkel. If she weren't a sort-of soviet agent of one sort or another, she'd have prosecuted Schroeder (the German PM who dismantled large parts of their power generation in favor of natural gas, not the cartoon character) when he went straight from a government position dismantling German industry to a seat on the board of Gazprom.
My guess is, Putin's burning through assets within the German government in order to start the civil war while at the same time funding the alt.right "resistance" fighting the other side. Because he thinks he can cut off places like Eastern Europe and well, Israel (whose next generation worth of naval corvettes is currently on order from Germany) from military resupply. Once-in-a-lifetime chance before someone who's less of a crackhead becomes President.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A woman armed with a machine gun was rubbed out by Saudi security forces during a raid to arrest a man suspected of involvement with an attack against Shiite Muslims in the kingdom, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.
The woman had given Sweilem al-Ruwaili - one of 16 people wanted for links with two deadly bombings on Shiite mosques claimed by ISIS in May, a safe haven from authorities, according to the SPA report, which cited an interior ministry front man.
The parents of the woman, named as Banan Essa Hilal had not known her whereabouts for one and-a-half years.
But SPA also said Ruwaili had been hiding with one of his comrades from the "deviant group" in the northern al-Jawf region when he was captured in the raid on Thursday, in reference to either ISIS or al-Qaeda holy warriors.
The authorities offered a cash reward of $1.3 million for information leading to their arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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Nothing gets past Asharq Al-Awsat
Tunis/Algiers – Dozens of Islamist militants, pertinent to the attack signal that came from the mosque, stormed through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan to hit army and police posts in street battles that lit the dawn sky with tracer bullets.
Reassuring the residents that they were ISIS, and that they came to save the town near the Libyan border from what they called “tyrant” army; militants used a megaphone to chant “God is Great”. Among them, Most were Tunisians themselves, with local accents, and even some familiar faces, officials and witnesses to Monday’s attack said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov ||
03/14/2016
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ANKARA, Turkey -- A car bomb went off near bus stops in the heart of Turkey's capital on Sunday, killing at least 27 people and wounded around 75 others, officials said. The blast occurred on the city's main boulevard, Ataturk Bulvari, close to Ankara's main square, Kizilay, and a park.
The private NTV news channel said a car, believed to be laden with explosives, detonated close to a bus. Several vehicles then caught fire, it said. The area is close to government offices, including ministries. Riot police buses are usually stationed in the area, but didn't appear to be the target of the attack.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu convened an emergency security meeting after the bombing, which also shattered the windows of shops that line the boulevard and the square.
Police sealed off the area and pushed onlookers and journalists back, warning there could be a second bomb.
Fair point...
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group have carried out bombings in the city recently. A far-left militant group is also active in Turkey.
The bombing is the third in the city in five months and comes as Turkey is faced with an array of issues, including renewed fighting with the Kurdish rebels, threats from the Islamic State group and a Syrian refugee crisis.
It occurred just three weeks after a suicide car bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people. A Kurdish militant group which is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 17 attack. The government, however, said that attack was carried out by a Syrian Kurdish militia group in concert with the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency.
No independent verification of that claim, but it allowed the Turks to hit two birds with one stone...
Sunday's attack also came two days after the U.S. Embassy issued a security warning about a potential plot to attack Turkish government buildings and housing in one Ankara neighborhood and asked its citizens to avoid those areas.
As with the previous bombings, Turkish authorities quickly imposed a ban Sunday preventing media organizations from broadcasting or publishing graphic images of the blast or from the scene.
The country's pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples' Democratic Party, condemned the attack the attack and said it shares "the huge pain felt along with our citizens." The statement was significant because the party is frequently accused of being the armed wing of the PKK — an accusation it denies — and of not speaking out against PKK violence.
Someone at the link, in a comment, must be a Rantburg reader: "Those damned Amish!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt’s Prime Minister Sharif Ismail on Sunday sacked the justice minister after he said in a television interview that he would arrest even "a prophet," a statement from the premier’s office said.
Earlier, judicial sources said the justice minister, Ahmed al-Zind, was asked by the prime minister to resign.
It was not immediately clear who would replace him. His predecessor was also forced to resign last May after saying the son of a garbage collector would be ineligible to serve as a judge.
Zend faced outrage on social media Sunday after the television interview.
When asked in an interview on private satellite channel Sada Al-Balad on Friday about a case involving journalists accused of defaming him and whether he would jail them, Zind said he would imprison anyone.
"Even if it’s a prophet, God’s peace and blessings be upon him," Zind said, using the Islamic saying of reverence spoken by Muslims only when referring to the Prophet Mohammed.
Upon realising what he had said, Zind immediately stopped and said: "I ask for forgiveness from God."
He further said any "wrongdoer, whatever his identity -- even judges" would be incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... if found guilty.
Zind’s remarks fired up the rubes on social media networks immediately after the interview, with angry tweets continuing to pour in on Sunday.
Cairo-based Al-Azhar, a prestigious learning centre of Sunni Islam, even issued a warning.
Angry Egyptians launched the Twitter hashtag "trial for Zind" as they lashed out at the minister, who only in January had angered human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups after he called for the "mass killing" of outlawed Moslem Brüderbund supporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... on Sunday said it will deport anyone sympathizing with the Lebanese Death Eater Hezbollah group after the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... declared the movement as "terrorist," Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
An Interior Ministry statement carried by the state news agency SPA said that Saudis and expatriates would be subjected to "severe penalties" under the kingdom's regulations and anti-terrorism laws.
The Arab League on Friday formally branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization, a move that raises concerns of deepening divisions among Arab countries and ramps up the pressure on the Shiite group, which is fighting on the side of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... in Syria.
The Arab League’s decision followed the blacklisting of Hezbollah by Gulf states.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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It's not about the environment. It's about the tempo
[ToloNews] Defense Minister Masoom Stanikzai has issued an order authorizing Afghan security forces to increase the number of night raids against homes of suspected Taliban insurgents and other militants.
Stanikzai also asked Afghan forces to take firm action against border violations and to defend the nation against threats without hesitation.
The minister's remarks come just days after reports surfaced that Afghanistan's eastern border regions have once again come under rocket attack from outside the country.
The move also comes as Taliban forces continue to pose major challenges to embattled Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in various regions of the country, in their bid to gain territory and strategic towns.
Following the end of the U.S combat mission in Afghanistan, the security situation has sharply deteriorated on the back of intensified attacks by the Taliban against Afghan forces. The sharp increase has shown no signs of abating.
"Presently the question is why are these wars fought in Zabul and Shindand and Badghis where only Afghan civilians are killed. What are the intentions behind these wars? If these wars are aimed at seizing power or fighting for the slavery of others, then it must be kept in mind that the people of Afghanistan are fully aware of these conspiracies," said Stanikzai.
Government's new shift also reflects growing concern among the residents in eastern regions of the country following cross-border firing.
"Sometimes we hear that a certain area was targeted and that a violation was committed in an area, our duty is to defend the country and our borders in line with our available resources and capabilities. For this, you (soldiers) do not need to ask permission while you are on duty, our task is to defend the country anytime and in any circumstance, whenever you see a violation, then retaliate," he added.
Meanwhile, Dawlat Waziri, a defense ministry spokesman said: "A major seminar was held at the ministry of defense and a decision was made to target the opponent wherever they operate from."
But security experts have called for firm action to be taken against the insurgent group.
"Ongoing efforts aren't enough to obliterate the enemy. More inclusive and stronger measures are needed for this purpose including nighttime operations," military expert Baz Mohammad Anwari said.
This comes at a time that the Afghan army continues military operations against militants in 14 provinces. Night raids have however been an effective way to eliminate militants.
Bloggers and the like will be poring over the video of this incident for some time to come.
My immediate take away is that Corey Lewandowski did grab Michelle Fields, but may have done so inadvertently, except no video exists to positively prove that anyone actually grabbed Fields.
The Wapo reporter who was there was tasked to explain what he saw and his reaction to Breitbart's official reaction. He said, "It's Breitbart." Which means because Breitbart is conservative-ish, they are guilty of whatever can be said about them.
Field better start wearing a cup if she is going to report on subjects like Trump.
Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned.
Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night.
“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “I do not believe Breitbart News has adequately stood by me during the events of the past week and because of that I believe it is now best for us to part ways.”
In his own statement, Shapiro said the episode was emblematic of how he believes the site’s management had sold out the legacy of its founder and namesake, the late Andrew Breitbart.
“Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro wrote. “Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle.”
Breitbart has been riven by internal strife in recent days after Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly grabbed Fields and yanked her away from Trump as she was attempting to ask him a question after a press conference in Florida. The Trump campaign denied the incident, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.
Breitbart published a story casting doubt on Fields’ account, appearing to side with the Trump campaign over their own reporter. Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large at the organization, ordered staffers to stop defending Fields. One source with knowledge of the situation said some staffers who publicly defended Fields had been threatened with firing.
“Both Lewandowski and Trump maligned Michelle in the most repulsive fashion,” Shapiro wrote in his resignation statement. “Meanwhile, Breitbart News not only stood by and did nothing outside of tepidly asking for an apology, they then attempted to abandon Michelle by silencing staff from tweeting or talking about the issue. Finally, in the ultimate indignity, they undermined Michelle completely by running a poorly-evidenced conspiracy theory as their lead story in which Michelle and Terris had somehow misidentified Lewandowski.”
The exodus, which began with the company’s spokesman Kurt Bardella, is unlikely to end with Fields and Shapiro. Three sources say multiple staffers are searching for a way out of the company — with several actively circulating résumés, according to two sources — and more resignations could follow in the coming days and weeks. The company is known for having editorial employees sign unusually strict contracts, at least some of which include non-compete clauses that could make it difficult to leave Breitbart for another news outlet.
Relations between Bannon and the site’s staff — which were already fraught with tension over the direction and editorial vision for the company — have deteriorated sharply over the episode with the Trump campaign. According to one company source with knowledge of the situation, some editors have discussed telling Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov they will quit unless Bannon is ousted. Solov did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.
#1
You are dead wrong on the "Its Brietbart" comment.
"Its Breitbart" means they are fully in the tank for Trump. That has become the issue with Breitbart as a news outlet. Breitbart used to be conservative-libertarian, but has abandoned it in favor of populist style know-nothing angry rhetoric by the editorial staff as surely as the NYT is progressive-liberal. They have changed, this isn't the Breitbart that Andrew ran anymore. Exec in chief Bannon is known to by a Trump sycophant and has tried to become a Trump campaign speech writer.
If you have not been keeping up with things, you may simply be ignorant of the change to Breitbart. They sold out, possibly literally in some cases (money is said to have changed hands as well as promises of jobs) for Trump and became attack dogs on his opponents, running multiple smear jobs. Its become a mouthpiece for pro-Trump articles, Trump apologists, and its "news" on Trump differs very little from press releases by the Trump team. They actively bash anyone that criticizes Trump. Its bad enough that even Rush Limbaugh, who tacitly supports Trump, called them "Trumpbart" on the air the other day.
Its bad enough that their former chief spokesman resigned over this the other day in protest and disgust about the treatment ordered by the editors on this story to their news staff.
Fields does have credibility on this despite the sleazy attacks on her such as what Badanov spewed above. Note that she has filed charges, has the bruises on her arm from the grab, and importantly has an eye witness.
How about running a real news article instead of Buzzfeed trash?
Here is the better source, by real reporters with both sides of the story, minus the Trumpbot smears.
#3
Proir to Andrews death, it was becoming a site to get news the MSM tried to ignore. Brietbart himself did not like Trump or his politics. After Breitbart's death, Bannon took over turned it into a home for a strident anti-immigration and anti-Washington rhetoric, which has recently morphed into attacking any Trump opponent with any smears handy, and parroting Trump positions uncritically.
Many inside the company believe Trump has provided undisclosed financial backing to the outlet in exchange for glowing coverage
According to four sources with knowledge of the situation, editors and writers at the outlet have privately complained since at least last year that the company’s top management was allowing Trump to turn Breitbart into his own fan website — using it to hype his political prospects and attack his enemies. One editor called the water-carrying “despicable” and “embarrassing,” and said he was told by an executive last year that the company had a financial arrangement with Trump. Another source at the company said he knew of several instances when managers had overruled writers and editors at Trump’s behest.
Trump’s book, Time to Get Tough, was written by Bannon.
A Breitbart insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says that "they’re the kind of people who, if you accidentally brushed against their shopping cart in the supermarket, their response is to burn down your house." Asked about this characterization, Bannon didn’t deny it. Quite the opposite, he laughed uproariously.
The editor in chief at Commentary, a true conservative outlet, compares Breitbart News to a fanzine. 'They’re like a Tiger Beat for Trump, a Sixteen magazine for Trump. It’s kind of a nonsense fan site,' John Podhoretz says.
“There have been a couple of staff-reporter pieces [personally attacking me] on Breitbart" says Erick Erickson of Redstate. Breitbart News’s Kevin Scholla calling Erickson a "RINO", is an obivous smear and a rather stupid one if you have actually bothered to read RedState over the years.
Brietbart has become Trump's personal Pravda and should be treated as such.
---
There's your brief on the descent of Brietbart from conservative-libertarian icon to "Trumpbart" and the real meaning behind that statement "Its Breitbart".
#5
Fields has reported conservative news reliably for a while, going back to the Daily Caller, a very conservative web site.
Her complaint about being knocked down by the NYPD while covering occupy was true. Lewandowsky jsut liead about her in an attempt to smear her. And Badanov just spread the smear and lie even further.
Here is a twitter pic that shows the that smear to be a lie,
The facts are there, perhaps you were simply unaware. You are not unaware anymore. Want to walk back that smear Mr Badanov? Or do you prefer to side with the scumbags smearing victims of their batery, then lie about them rather than admit the truth and simply apologize?
#6
I am not capable of determining ULTIMATE TRUTH about an incident far away, and involving people that I do not personally know.
And - in this day and age - digital media can be faked well enough to deceive me.
I came into this particular case being ignorant of the existence of Ms. Fields and Mr. Lewandowski, and with only light (but positive) impressions of Mr. Shapiro.
But - the information at this link: http://www.dangerandplay.com/2016/03/13/michelle-fields-corey-lewandowski-trump-hoax/ pretty well convinces me that Ms. Fields, for some unknown reason, fabricated - or at least massively exaggerated - the offense in question.
#14
Yawn. I want a slo-mo montage video of that 80-year old dropping the BLM squid with one shot, and I want it yesterday.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/14/2016 9:30
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#15
How about running a real news article instead of Buzzfeed trash?
At the time, it was the only site I could that had this story, the complete story. As it was, had you read it, you would have noticed it was sympathetic to Fields, et al.
If you have noticed, nearly every conservative website has chosen their presidential candidate and are in the tank for him. It's why I do not want to visit other sites to get news on that is going on because of that. In fact, this presidential campaign may force me to swear off reading conservatives sites for good, not that I would go back to the left.
The way every conservative site has handled the candidate vetting is itself shameful, not just Breitbart, and not just National Review or Red State, but all of them.
As for Breitbart: it is easy to see why they went for Trump. Like Trump, Breitbart was a grenade thrower against the establishment, but as far as being conservative, his loyalties were elsewhere.
As for the remark of the Wapo reporter, he said what he said, not anything like, "They're pro Trump." So, I took what he meant as what I thought he meant. I am very certain it mattered to him very little who on the right were supporting whom in this presidential campaign.
#20
Far more brownshirts here than I would have expected. Lets beat up anyone that protests or opposes our Dear Leader, and its OK to rough up the press too if they do not get in line and know their place... Right Dale, Regulajoe and Jvalentour? Yer gonna get them blacks and ferriners and Jooooos. Because its what the people you are praising will do. And remember that punch was a crime as was his death threat afterward, so no you are on record as praising violent criminal behavior. Paints a nasty picture of the true you.
What will you do nexc, make them wear signs, or an insignia that designates them as free targets due to their speaking out of turn and saying things you do not like and exposing The Leader Trump as grossly ignorant - or worse yet, making you look stupid by defending the indefensible. Mussolini used people like you. So did Lenin. Adolf as well. Nice company you keep.
Cultists. Just as bad as the Obama people, and just as violent is seems as the people they hate. To hell with both of you BLM/Progressives and Trump/Authoritarians.
The sad thing is I expected this from the left. But but not from the other side after seeing your criticism of the left/progs use of violence and intimidation, smearing and threats. But now, you adopt the same tactics, anger and irrational Strong Man worship you criticised from the other side.
Look in the mirror, and be ashamed of what you have let hate twist you into.
#21
Townhall is owned by the same people who own Red State, Bearing Arms, etc. Check it out. Their news is just as filtered as Breitbart. Maybe occasionally some facts leak out, but not before the agenda get plastered before you.
I just wonder why these conservative websites can't just speak to the basics: smaller unintrusive government, and a strong national defense. Why must they stroke one candidate over another, when it's about the basics, that hardly anyone is talking about?
#22
Badenov, self delusion is such a sad thing to see emerging in you. Good luck, and please let us know what color the sky is in your world where you take the side of thugs against a conservative reporter, one being smeared by the Trump machine, whose smear you repeat.
Prove it case, or you are the liar here.
Fields has eye witness, and a video and audio recording.
#23
I don't support Trump, but I find him amusing. On the other side, I have stated here several times that I assume every reporter is a liar, traitor and enemy to humankind until proven otherwise. My take is, they are all lying. So let them go to court and prove it one way or the other. Til then, I honestly can't say I care.
#24
Far more brownshirts here than I would have expected. Lets beat up anyone that protests or opposes our Dear Leader, and its OK to rough up the press too if they do not get in line and know their place... Right Dale, Regulajoe and Jvalentour? Yer gonna get them blacks and ferriners and Jooooos. Because its what the people you are praising will do. And remember that punch was a crime as was his death threat afterward, so no you are on record as praising violent criminal behavior. Paints a nasty picture of the true you.
Which punch? We know of one old man who sucker punched a young black protester at a Trump rally in Florida (I think), and we have a spurious allegation of a Trump campaign manager manhandling a female reporter. That is all I am aware of. You phrasing is unfair to us. we have an ethnically diverse group here, albeit not exactly politically diverse. None of the people who comment here or who work the editorial side come even close to the definition of "Brown Shirts" except for you.
You should know that attacking specific commenters is a no go here. If you have a problem, take it to twitter or to email, not on the forum.
What will you do nexc, make them wear signs, or an insignia that designates them as free targets due to their speaking out of turn and saying things you do not like and exposing The Leader Trump as grossly ignorant - or worse yet, making you look stupid by defending the indefensible. Mussolini used people like you. So did Lenin. Adolf as well. Nice company you keep.
I agree that Trump is an ignoramus, but I think he also is a sentimental ignoramus who in the final analysis would do the right thing, as he sees it, even for the wrong reason. Your contention that Trump would paint targets on the backs of racial or social minorities is flat wrong. Trump hasn't done that sort of thing before. He's been a businessman and a Golden Throat for so long, he knows very little else. And Mussolini? Lenin? Hitler? I guess you are out of ideas, huh?
Cultists. Just as bad as the Obama people, and just as violent is seems as the people they hate. To hell with both of you BLM/Progressives and Trump/Authoritarians.
You're new here aren't you?
The sad thing is I expected this from the left. But but not from the other side after seeing your criticism of the left/progs use of violence and intimidation, smearing and threats. But now, you adopt the same tactics, anger and irrational Strong Man worship you criticised from the other side.
Look in the mirror, and be ashamed of what you have let hate twist you into.
We've seen/heard this type of criticism before. It is nothing new, nor is it particularly accurate or fair. As long as you do not conduct personal attacks, you can say whatever you want. But be advised. You'll become a chew toy. And THAT is what is sad. Instead of debating and discussing, you are charging and doing a fair amount of hating yourself. You'll in the end, get what you get.
#25
Fields has eye witness, and a video and audio recording.
I don't know anything about this situation yet, but if he's smart enough to run a campaign, you figure he'd be smart enough not to grab her a$$ while anyone was looking. Just my two cents.
#26
Badenov, self delusion is such a sad thing to see emerging in you. Good luck, and please let us know what color the sky is in your world where you take the side of thugs against a conservative reporter, one being smeared by the Trump machine, whose smear you repeat.
Right. Fields is a conservative, Trump is a fascist, and you are happy to be here
Prove it case, or you are the liar here.
I have nothing to prove. This fight is not my fight.
Fields has eye witness, and a video and audio recording.
#27
Breitbart's Migrant Crisis Live Wire is useful. I check it every few days. I haven't been reading about campaigning politicians except the articles those I know -- whose choices range across the board -- post here and elsewhere. Today is my day to do research, because Super Tuesday is tomorrow here in Ohio.
Once again, my choices will be constrained to choosing the least bad of the options, as I understand them. It will be worse in November, but politics is the art of the possible, not the ideal.
#32
But the thing I really wanna know is, how many Trump supporters are there travelling around the country with the purpose of disrupting Clinton rallies?
#36
badanov is one of several Rantburgers who have worked as professional journalists. From time to time he critiques a piece from that perspective.
This is also why he has done several long series of original reportage for us on areas not covered adequately elsewhere (the drug war in Mexico a few years ago, the semi-civil war in the Ukraine now, the mad run up of bullet and gun prices reported in his weekly column This Week in Guns).
I'd like to think I've come to know my fellow moderator fairly well over the years. I find it suggestive that I have no idea who badanov would vote for in this election, except that, having firmly rejected the Progressive ideas of his youth after spending enough time behind the scenes to realize the inherent danger, it won't be one of the Democrats.
Why are you -- again -- attempting to provoke a flame war, Mr. Multi-nym?
Another question, Mr. Multi-nym, since you raised the issue yesterday: what is your military experience? It wouldn't normally matter, since we are a War on Terror blog rather than a milblog, and so a great many of us, including me, are utterly civilian, but you chose REMF as the insult to impugn another's opinion and truthfulness. The way you used it suggests you chose that particular term to resonate with your presumed audience, rather than because you've spent a lifetime dealing with REMFs and fobbits from the pointy end of the spear. Am I wrong?
As an aside to g(r)omgoru: no, reporterette is not a proper word. Historically, reporting was considered a blue collar job, and being able to take an elbow or dodge a punch without complaint while getting the story was understood to be part of the job for working men (and some women) with a talent for good grammar.
Since we're only 232 out of 300, they probably chose a real amateur. I notice he don't spel too gude.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2016 13:33
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#44
On Thursday (3-10-2016) Rantburg carried an article titled:
St. Simon's Island, GA: 54 Private Jets at Meeting to Stop Trump.
The Rantburg article cited a Breitbart article claiming that a meeting of elite tech CEOs, GOP party insiders and big donors at the annual World Forum event were conspiring to stop Donald Trump before he wins the Republican nomination.
American Enterprise Institute leadership adamantly disputed that they had facilitated any such anti-Trump activities during their 2016 forum.
Even the Huffington Post itself, later admitted that American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum featured
"no strategy session on how to stop the GOP front-runner on it's agenda."
The Breitbart article was nothing more than Huffington Post left wing propaganda - parroted by CNN - and then condensed (enhanced) and posted by Breitbart.
The annual World Forum is hosted by the American Enterprise Institute which was founded in 1938. Over the past 78 years it has been one of the most premier and respected conservative think tanks in the U.S.
Most of the leading (Republican) presidential candidates over the past few decades have attended and spoken at the World Forum event.
The left wing media has labeled it a "secretive right wing conspiracy" every single year since 1982.
But it's no secret that the Huff Post and Mother Jones would love to see the American Enterprise Institute and the annual World Forum discredited. They scream this same crap every year regardless of who attends the World Forum event.
I am most disappointed and disgusted that Breitbart News has recently taken to promoting and parroting Huffington Post and Mother Jones (magazine) left wing propaganda.
The World Forum story plus the story casting doubt on Michelle Fields are only two, of many easily researchable examples, of how far to the left Breitbart news "Chairman" Steve Bannon has taken the once reputable Breitbart news agency.
Someone needs to check on Andrew Breitbart ... It will surprise me if he hasn't kicked all the dirt off his own grave over this.
#45
The way you used it suggests you chose that particular term to resonate with your presumed audience, rather than because you've spent a lifetime dealing with REMFs and fobbits from the pointy end of the spear. Am I wrong?
#48
I still see Breithbart's reporting as mostly even. Some of the reporters (John Nolte) fawn over Trump while others are harsher towards Trump but it seems to balance out (at least in the articles that interest me).
The comments on the other hand are filled by a horde of Trump fanatics, most of whom are pretty vile.
Yemeni police clashed with Al Qaeda fighters on Saturday in second city Aden as pro-government forces pressed their offensive to break a rebel siege on third city Taez, security sources said.
In the internationally recognised government's temporary capital of Aden, fighting broke out in the Mansura residential district after security forces set up new checkpoints, they said.
Dozens of gunmen in balaclavas, carrying the Al Qaeda flag, were deployed to push back police trying to enter the neighbourhood, witnesses said.
Militants from Al Qaeda and Daesh have taken advantage of the conflict between Houthi insurgents and pro-government forces to reinforce their presence in the south, including the port city of Aden.
Meanwhile, pro-government forces on Saturday pressed their offensive aimed at breaking the rebels' months-long siege of the southwestern city of Taez, military sources said.
Fighting raged north and east of the city, they said, a day after loyalists pushed the Iran-backed Houthis out of its western and southern suburbs. Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi managed to "retake important positions" in a northern suburb where heavy clashes continued, one source said.
Air strikes killed at least 17 suspected al-Qaeda militants overnight in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, witnesses, medics and a security official said on Sunday.
The air strikes hit al-Mansoura district, a stronghold for militants and an area which has witnessed several attacks against local security officials since the Saudi-led coalition retook Aden last July from the Iran-allied Houthi militia.
The sources said at least 20 civilians and militants were wounded as well as three members of the security forces. The strikes targeted the militants who were sitting atop vehicles and one of the strikes hit a local government building. Intermittent clashes were still going on, they said.
There was tenuous calm in the district later in the district on Sunday, with streets leading out of the area closed off. A Reuters reporter saw the rubble of a butcher’s shop and the wreckages of destroyed cars. Electricity was cut across the district and food shops remained closed.
A security official said the strikes, thought to have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, were the “second stage” of retaking al-Mansoura from militants.
There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition on the strikes.
They took place a day after forces loyal to Yemen’s president broke a siege by the Houthis around Taiz, Yemen’s third biggest city, about 200 km (124 miles) northwest of Aden.
Yemen’s embattled government has been forced out of the capital Sanaa by the Houthi militias and is now based in Aden, but struggles to impose its authority even there.
The southern city has gone from being one of the world’s busiest ports as a former hub of the British empire to a backwater, and then in recent months, a conflict zone.
The coalition began a military campaign a year ago to prevent the Houthis from taking complete control of Yemen.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/14/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Interior Ministry said Sunday, that nine people had been either killed or injured in a bomb blast that took place southeast of Baghdad.
The source, who requested anonymity, said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “An explosive device has went off near the industrial shops in the area of Basmaya southeast of Baghdad, resulting in the death of one persons and wounding eight others,” adding that, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the injured to nearby hospital for treatment and the dead to the forensic medicine authority, while carried out an inspection operation to search for the perpetrators of the attack.”
Islam: your one-stop shop for when you're out of ideas
[ARA News] ERBIL – Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) have reportedly burned hundreds of Christian books in the city of Mosul, northern Iraq, under the pretext they are “books of infidels”, local sources reported on Sunday.
“ISIS jihadis burned hundreds of Christian textbooks in central Mosul, having collected them earlier last week from the schools and churches of the city,” local media activist Abdullah al-Mulla told ARA News in Mosul.
“The militants have also collected a lot of Christian textbooks from the Dawassa district near the Martyrs’ Park and publically burned them,” the source reported.
Local activists in Mosul circulated last Thursday a videotape on social media, showing remnants of burned Christian textbooks piled up east of the city in northern Iraq.
The ISIS radical group claimed that these books are burned because they belong to “infidels”, in reference to the Christians.
“I wish I were in my hometown Mosul right now, but we can’t come back to our areas and live with Daesh,” an Iraqi Christian refugee in Germany told ARA News, using an acronym for ISIS.
“We escaped from Mosul to Erbil (capital of Kurdistan Region) in August 2014,” he said. “The fighting was ongoing between Daesh and the Peshmerga.”
“It was difficult to stay there as a Christian,” he stressed.
The city of Mosul in Nineveh province of northern Iraq saw mass displacement among the residents after ISIS took over the region in June, 2014, especially among the Christian community. Those who insisted to remain are reportedly under great pressure.
YEZIDIS
In August 2014, ISIS extremists had taken control of Shingal, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 Yezidi civilians towards Duhok and Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of Yezidis remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape at the hands of ISIS extremists. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi women have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves.
After more than a year of ISIS occupation, the Yezidi region of Shingal was liberated in November at the hands of the Peshmerga, supported by the U.S.-led coalition’s air cover.
After ISIS departure, the Kurdish forces have discovered several mass graves in Shingal. Most of the victims were women and children from the Yezidi minority. Specialized teams, that have been inspecting traces of the people disappeared during the group’s rule over the Yezidi-populated region, have so far discovered five mass graves belonging to Yezidi civilians, according to human rights activists and Peshmerga officials who spoke to ARA News.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/14/2016
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#1
I wanted to burn some E-books the other day,
but couldn't get the fire going.
Guess I needed more Kindle-ing.....
[ALMANAR.LB] Top commander of 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 Omar al-Shishani has been "clinically dead" for several days after a US air strike in northern Syria, a monitoring group said Sunday.
"Shishani is not able to breathe on his own and is using machines. He has been clinically dead for several days," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Using machines" -- plural. So ventilator plus dialysis plus some infusion pumps. That's a start...
Abdel Rahman said the notorious red-bearded commander, known as Omar the Chechen, was in a hospital in the northern province of Raqa, ISIL's bastion in Syria.
A US official said on March 9 that Shishani "likely died" in a barrage of US-led air strikes on March 4 in northeastern Syria. The official branded Shishani "the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defense".
Abdel Rahman at the time said the terrorist had been "seriously injured" in the strike on his convoy, but that he had not died.
Shishani was one of the ISIL leaders, allegedly most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head. Shishani comes from the Pankisi Gorge, a mainly ethnic Chechen region of ex-Soviet state Georgia.
As early as May 2013, when ISIL was just emerging in Syria, he was appointed the group's military commander for the north of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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#1
So they found enough body parts to assemble something resembling a body and put it on a respirator?
his left arm and torso were deaders before they were ever loaded into the ambulance.
[ALMANAR.LB] Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... said Saturday that 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... is declaring enmity against Hezbollah when it describes the party as "terrorist group," stressing that "Saudi Arabia and its allies are in fact hostile to the luminous and influential achievements of the party and put themselves in the box of Israel."
During a speech he delivered in Bekaa region east of Leb, Sheikh Qassem said that "Saudi Arabia is trying to confirm Hezbollah is terrorist in all forums it is allowed to influence and put pressure, most recently was the meeting of Arab foreign ministers where a number of countries, including Leb, opposed such description."
His eminence noted that "the Saudi problem regarding Hezbollah is that his impressive Resistance in the region, which was able to defeat Israel, to liberate the Lebanese lands, to establish an effetive reluctance and resistance in the region, which in turn affected Israel's project and existence. Thus here Saudi Arabia comes to support Israel."
Another problem Saudi Arabia is suffering with Hezbollah, Sheikh Kassem said, is that he supports the Islamic unity and the national unity, and works to promote stability and security.
"Hezbollah buried the sectarian strife over and over again," he stated, indicating that "Saudi Arabia cannot dominate without planting sedition and sabotaging unity relations among Muslims themselves and between Christians and Muslims."
"The problem of Saudi Arabia with Hezbollah is that he supports the independence of the peoples, while Saudis find Resistance movements a threat to its dictatorship and domination," his eminence added.
"Describing us as "terrorists" increases our confidence and steadfastness, and confirms that we are right," Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Qassem concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Hezb-e-Islami party led by the notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... has announced the group is prepared to sit-in for peace talks with the Afghan government.
The group has released a statement saying they are prepared to participate in the peace talks in a bid to show to the nation that Hezb-e-Islami wants peace.
The party also condemned the inclusion of the group’s two members in the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) by the United States, saying the move by the US government comes amid calls by the Afghan government to start reconciliation process.
The US Department of State announced Friday "The Department of State has designated Abdullah Nowbahar and Abdul Saboor as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under section 1(b) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons that have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."
A statement by the State Department said the two Hezb-e-Islami group members, Abdullah Nowbahar and Abdul Saboor, are explosive experts for Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG).
The statement further added that both Nowbahar and Saboor participated in the September 18, 2012 attack on a bus carrying foreign employees of Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... International Airport that killed 12 people.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do... the announcement by Hezb-e-Islami to participate in the peace talks comes as the Taliban group has rejected to sit-in for peace talks, insisting on group’s pre-conditions to hold talks.
The Afghan government was expecting to start face to face talks with the Taliban group at the first week of this month following the conclusion of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting last month where calls were made for direct talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] 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 on Sunday pulled its turbans out of Rutba, a desert town in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, an army general and the mayor said.
"Daesh [Islamic State] [Arabic acronym of ISIL] has completely pulled out of Rutba and gone towards Al-Qaim," a major general said, referring to a takfiri bastion on the border with Syria, further north in Anbar.
"Daesh [Islamic State]'s gunnies started pulling out last night and completed their withdrawal this morning," the senior officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . "Rutba is now free of Daesh [Islamic State]."
The mayor of the isolated town, which lies about 390 kilometers (245 miles) west of Baghdad on the road to Jordan, confirmed that ISIL had withdrawn.
After launching a final push against ISIL in the picturesque provincial capital Ramadi late last year, Iraq's security forces established full control over the city last month.
They have since been securing areas east of Ramadi, further isolating the takfiri stronghold of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... which lies only 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
[AlAhram] The Islamic State group has pulled most of its fighters out of Hit, a large town in western Iraq on which security forces were advancing, a military front man says on Sunday.
"The majority of Daesh [Islamic State] (IS) fighters in Hit, Rutba and Kubaysa have fled through the desert to other regions," Yahya Rasool, Iraq’s top security front man, tells AFP.
Kubaysa is a smaller town that lies west of Hit while Rutba is a desert town on the road to Jordan.
"There is an operation to hunt them down with Iraqi aircraft," says Rasool, who is the front man for the Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS in Iraq.
"Hit is surrounded by Iraqi forces from the south and north," he says. "Thousands of families have fled the area to meet our forces."
Raja Barakat, a member of Anbar provincial council's security committee, confirmed the Rutba pullout and said IS group had also been pulling some of its forces from Hit.
"It was not just from Rutba but also from Hit after their fighters shaved their beards to slip out," he said.
Ah yes, the old shaved beard trick. Note the lack of tan on the chin, guys, it's a dead giveaway.
"But in Hit, it's not a complete pullout, some Daesh fighters remain."
He said that the IS group fighters who withdrew from Hit moved through the desert towards Baiji, to the northeast, and towards Al-Qaim, to the northwest.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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#1
Al-Qaim, referring to a bastion on the border with Syria
Where my junior son spent six months with the Marines in 2004-2005. The times they are a'changin'. Hope 'n' changin', that is.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2016 13:23
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SEOUL -- North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York City, the latest in a string of brazen threats.
Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from North Korea underlines its anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions.
“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a state-run outlet, reported Sunday.
“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il. The website is a strange choice for making such a claim, given that it also carries reports about such topics as rabbit farming and domestically made school backpacks.
North Korea’s newly developed hydrogen bomb “surpasses our imagination,” Cho is quoted as saying.
“The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away,” the report continued.
Kim in January ordered North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those produced by the North’s three previous tests.
Then in February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a rocket that put a satellite into orbit, a move widely considered part of a long-range-ballistic-missile program.
North Korea has made advances in its intercontinental-ballistic-missile program, and though experts generally conclude that the United States’ West Coast could be within reach, there has been no suggestion that the North would be able to hit the East Coast.
Many experts are also skeptical of the “miniaturized warhead” that Kim showed off last week during a visit to a nuclear weapons plant.
But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, warned against dismissing the claim too soon.
“It does not look like U.S. devices, to be sure, but it is hard to know if aspects of the model are truly implausible or simply that North Korean nuclear weapons look different than their Soviet and American cousins,” Lewis wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. “The size, however, is consistent with my expectations for North Korea.”
As international condemnation of the North’s acts mounted, culminating this month in the United Nations’ toughest sanctions yet against Pyongyang, Kim’s regime has become increasingly belligerent, firing missiles into the Sea of Japan — also known as the East Sea — and issuing a new threat or denunciation almost every day.
The sanctions coincide with annual spring drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, which Pyongyang considers a rehearsal for an invasion. The ongoing exercises are viewed as particularly antagonistic because special forces are practicing “decapitation strikes” that target Northern leaders and the destruction of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile sites.
On Friday, North Korea’s state media reported that Kim ordered more nuclear tests, while the North’s Korean People’s Army warned in a statement Saturday that it would counter the drills by “liberat[ing] the whole of South Korea including Seoul . . . with an ultra-precision blitzkrieg strike of the Korean style.”
South Korea’s Defense Ministry urged Pyongyang to stop its threats and provocations.
“If the North continues to make provocations despite the stern warnings made by our military, it is inevitable for us to roll out a strict response that may lead to the destruction of the Pyongyang regime,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016
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#2
The guy missed his calling. With a face and haircut like that he should be on SNL or Comedy Central. He could make a fortune as a stand up comic in America.
Pragmatically, Pudgy = NOKOR/DPRK can "liberate" SOKOR from itself widout help from China + PLA, as most of NOKOR's military equipment dates are several decades old - as things stand, NOKOR's Armed Forces is more "defensive" capable or oriented, not "offensive.
Second, CHINA = COLD WAR USSR/CPSU = doesn't trust or allow lessor satellite = vassal nations to possess or control nukes that could be used agz China, let alone destroy China. 'TIS WHY PUDGY ISN'T ALLOWED TO TEST ANYTHING BUT SHORT-RANGE OR VERY-SHORT-RANGE, LOW OR VERY-LOW-YIELD STUFF, ETC. Pudge is NOT in control of NOKOR's major programs, CHINA IS.
China is criticizing the USDOD's on-going, so-called "Return to Asia" [base-sharing] because China hasn't been able yet to re-unify wid Taiwan nor get any "Sole" Milbase rights [strategic access]for the PLA from the Nations of the mostly Pro-US, West "First Island Chain".
CHINA WANTS TO CONTROL OR DOMINATE ALL OF THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN", WHICH IT CANNOT DO IFF THE US IS ALLOWED TO BASE COLD WAR OR SIGNIFICANT LEVELS OF MILFORS/MILASSETS ON THE TERRITORIES OF US REGIONAL ALLIES.
Ordinary Americans should expect China to keep pushing the envelope as per the South, East China Seas + Taiwan throughout this the Bammer's last full year as POTUS. As an ANTI-US US OWG-GLOBALIST POTUS, THE BAMMER WILL COVERTLY OR PCORRECTLY-DENIABLY LET CHINA SUCCEED IN ITS EFFORTS TO DOMINATE OR CONTROL THE CHINA SEAS + TAIWAN.
AGAIN, IT BEHOOVES CHINA [+ Russia + Iran, Other?] TO MAKE ITS MOVES WHILE THE PERT, MSM-NET VERIFED "WEAKEST OR WORST US POTUS IN HISTORY OR SINCE JIMMY CARTER" STILL OCCUPIES THE WHITE HOUSE + SITS ATOP AS #1 ON THE US NATIONAL COMAND AUTHORITY, RESPONSIBLE FOR THE US' DIRECT MILITARY RESPONSE TO ANY DOMESTIC ANDOR INTERNATIONAL CRISIS/CRISES, OR IN ALTERNATE FOR THE LACK OF SAME.
AS FOR PUDGE, CHINA-VS-THE-US/POTUS-OBAMA = OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER-VS-OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER, ETC. ALREADY GIVES HIM A GOOD COVER STORY TO TRY TO START A MAJOR US-CHINA WAR IN EAST ASIA-WESTPAC OR NE ASIA IFF IT APPEARS THAT CHINESE TAKEOVER OR ANNEXATION OF NOKOR CAN NO LONGER BE AVOIDED OR PREVENTED.
* GUAM DAILY POST AM > OPINION: NORTH KOREA IS A [NucWeaps] NUCLEAR POWER.
To no one's surprise, or shouldn't be, SOKOR now desires its own Nukes, as will or does Japan.
OWG CO-SUPERPOWER CHINA must either amend or delay its ambitions, OR ELSE WAGE WAR TO DETER OR DEFEAT ITS RIVALS BEFORE THE LATTER GET TOO MILITARILY STRONG = NUCLEARIZED.
Unfortunately, World Political History including Chinese Political History would indic or say that Beijing will likely choose war,+ TO WAGE WAR SOONER THAN LATER.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemeni forces allied to internationally-recognized President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi began consolidating over military and government buildings in regions recently liberated from militia groups in the southwestern province of Taiz, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Sunday.
Taiz’s mayor Ali al-Muammari said that the Popular Resistance Units started handing out freed buildings to the pro-Hadi army.
The news comes after front man for the Saudi-led Arab Coalition Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri announced on Saturday that pro-Hadi forces have claimed control over the interior of the city, vowing that the Iran-backed Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias, who control the capital Sanaa and other areas, would be dislodged.
Since late March last year, the Saudi-led coalition has bombed Iranian-backed Houthi militias and forces allied to deposed leader President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , in a bid to put Hadi’s government back in power.
Sources also told Al Arabiya News Channel that the coalition forces have launched three consecutive strikes on "terrorists" targets in Al-Mansoura neighborhood in the southern port city of Aden.
Medical and security sources said 19 people - among them 17 from al-Qaeda - were killed in the raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Azerbaijani borders guards on Sunday rubbed out five armed Bangladeshi and Azeri nationals who were trying to illegally cross the ex-Soviet republic's border with Iran, officials said.
The incident took place in the Yardymli district on Azerbaijan's southern border with Iran where a group of eight to 10 people were seen trying to cross into Iran, a statement from the border guard service said.
"The border violators ignored warning shots and opened fire. Five of them were killed in a shootout and two were detained," it said.
"The group consisted of Bangladeshi nationals and their Azerbaijani guides who were armed," it added, without giving further details.
Azerbaijani media had previously reported numerous arrests of Bangladeshi and Indian nationals on suspicion of drug trafficking through Azerbaijan's 661-kilometre (400-mile) border with Iran.
The Caucasus nation of 9.4 million is a transit country for illicit narcotics by virtue of its location along major drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan and Iran to Europe and Russia, the US Department of State said in its 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016
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Top|| File under:
"Lies! All lies!"
Government of Yemen has denied the government forces and the popular resistance fighters violated human rights and international humanitarian law, following the liberation of Taiz province, south west of the country, from Al Houthi militia and Saleh group.
Yemen's Minister of Human Rights, Izz Al Din Al Asbahi, was quoted by the Yemeni official news agency as saying that the media elements belonging to the coup militia published fabricated photographs and actions they alleged to have been committed by the popular resistance in Taiz.
He added that those elements disseminated these fabricated images and rushed them to the diplomatic and international bodies on the ground that they reflect the behaviour of the popular resistance in Taiz against the militia. "Of course this is not true," the minister said, and noted that the popular resistance brushed aside such claims.
Al Asbahi said the national army and popular resistance fighters are aware that their victory in the moral front "is more important than any military achievement on the ground," and Taiz, which has resisted the fatal siege that lasted more than nine months would not seek any criminal reprisals against the coup militia that became professional murderers of civilians, and imposed the blockade on them.
He stressed the importance of a moral victory on the battlefield to liberate the country from the control of the Houthi militia and Saleh group, noting that any violation of the principles of human rights and international humanitarian law by any party, is not allowed.
The Yemeni Minister of Human Rights underlined that the popular resistance in Taiz, "cannot condone any actions outside the law, or slide in reactions and reprisals," adding that the popular resistance fighters embrace the principles of freedom, equality and peace they are fighting for.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Sunday, official journalists with the Ministry of Defense announced, that the Anti-Terrorism forces besieged Heet District from the northern and southern axes, while took control of al-Akba axis in western Anbar.
The journalist said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Anti-Terrorism forces managed to take control of al-Akba axis in western Anbar, and besieged Heet District from the northern and southern axes.”
Yesterday, official journalists with the Ministry of Defense announced the liberation of al-Safiriya and Albu Tiban areas in western Anbar, and raised the Iraqi flag over the buildings, while the Anti-Terrorism forces managed to evacuate thousands of families from the liberated areas.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – On Sunday, a security source in Anbar province stated, that the Iraqi security forces had managed to advance into the areas controlled by ISIS in Albu Obeid region east of Ramadi.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Anti-Terrorism forces and Anbar police managed to advance into the ISIS-controlled areas in Albu Obeid region located on the international highway road east of Ramadi,” noting that, “Those forces entered [the area] after the collapse of the [ISIS] elements in the region.”
The source also added, “Anbar tribal fighters are taking part in military operations east of Ramadi,” pointing out that, “The international coalition aviation inflicted great human and material losses upon ISIS in Khalidiya Island.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Head of the security committee in Anbar Provincial Council Rageh Barakat al-Eissawi announced on Sunday, that the joint forces liberated the areas of al-Khawda and Banan in Heet District west of Ramadi, while pointed out that the operation resulted in the killing of dozens of ISIS members.
Eissawi said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The joint forces from the army, police and tribal fighters carried out a wide-scale military operation on the headquarters and gatherings of ISIS terrorist gangs,” pointing out that, “The operation resulted in the liberation of al-Khawda and Banan areas in Heet District, as well as killing dozens of ISIS members.”
The Head of the security committee in Anbar Provincial Council added, “ISIS is collapsing, and its members are escaping to the western areas of Anbar.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The security committee of Anbar Provincial Council announced on Sunday, that 80 ISIS elements and suspects were detained in areas west of Ramadi.
The head of the security committee, Rageh Barakat al-Issawi, said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces managed to detain 80 ISIS elements and [other] suspects during the scrutiny which the civilians came under [it] in the areas of Zankura and the modern village as well as areas near Heet District west of Ramadi.”
Issawi added, “The security information confirmed that elements of ISIS have shaved their beards in the districts of Heet, Kabisa, and A’anah in preparation for an escape to Syria,” pointing out that, “The security forces transferred the wanted suspects who were arrested during the liberation battles to a security detention center for interrogation.”
Posted by: badanov ||
03/14/2016
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
The United States and France warned the Syrian regime on Sunday against trying to disrupt the fragile ceasefire as the warring sides prepared for fresh peace talks to end the brutal five-year conflict.
The UN-brokered indirect negotiations are due to start on Monday in Geneva, the latest international push to try to end a war that has killed more than 270,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
After talks with European allies in Paris, US Secretary of State John Kerry hit out at comments by his Syrian counterpart that removing President Bashar Al Assad would cross a "red line" in the negotiations.
At least when the Syrians say something is a 'red line', they mean it...
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault went further, describing Walid Muallem's comments as a "provocation" and a "bad sign" for the attempts to find peace.
Kerry warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran against "testing boundaries" or lessening their compliance with a fragile February 27 truce brokered by Washington and Moscow that has largely held despite each side accusing the other of violations.
Muallem said in Damascus on Saturday: "We will not talk with anyone who wants to discuss the presidency... Bashar Al Assad is a red line."
Kerry said the Syrian minister was "clearly trying to disrupt the process... clearly trying to send a message of deterrence to others.
"But the fact is (Assad's) strongest sponsors Russia and Iran have both adopted... an approach which dictates that there must be a political transition and that we must have a presidential election at some time," he added. Syrian government negotiator Bashar Al Jaafari arrived on Sunday in Geneva, where delegates from the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), are already preparing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators’ questions about the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server — marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers.
[IsraelTimes] Kerry says Sunday that 600 fighters from the 
[Law Newz] An intelligence source close to the FBI investigation into Clinton’s private unsecured email server told Fox News that former IT specialist Bryan Pagliano‘s has become an important source for investigators. Last week, it was reported that Pagliano, who helped set-up and maintain Clinton’s private server, struck an immunity deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. For the first time, we are getting details about what his testimony to investigators might entail.
A top Somali army official says Kenyan air-force jets have carried out an airborne attack against Al shabaab stronghold in the country’s south-western Gedo region on Saturday. Col Mohamed Hassan, a senior military commander in Gedo region said the Kenyan warplanes pounded Rays-Qode, targeting a key Al shabaab base near the strategic town of Garbaharey town.
[The Nation] At least seven rangers were wounded when Muslim militants launched three simultaneous attacks against soldiers and police in Narathiwat province before some of them fled inside a hospital and exchanged gunfire with security forces there.
[Inquirer] The suspected leader of a kidnap-for-ransom gang behind the abduction of an Irish priest and an Australian ex-soldier was gunned down by security forces Sunday. Waning Abdusalam was killed after he resisted arrest by a combined military and police team. The suspect was killed in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
[AFP] Indonesia does not want one of its most notorious terrorists, Hambali, returned home should the United States close Guantanamo Bay detention center, according to a senior minister.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A child has lost life and three others sustained injuries in a 
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Turkish General Staff has announced that a 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
QUETTA: The security forces in Balochistan claimed on Sunday to have killed five suspected militants in Balochistan's troubled Dera Bugti district, DawnNews reported.
The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized bases and weapons from a Western-backed rebel group in overnight fighting in northwestern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
DIYARBAKIR: Turkey on Sunday slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military “cleanup” operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The 
[DAWN] The Sindh government has identified 53 seminaries having ‘leaning towards militancy’ against which security agencies have been ordered to take ‘appropriate action’, it emerged on Saturday.
[FOXNEWS] A deadly attack on a popular Ivory Coast beach resort Sunday that killed at least 16 most likely targeted a U.S. delegation led by the assistant commerce secretary, who was visiting the country, a diplomatic source in the region told Fox News.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt’s Prime Minister Sharif Ismail on Sunday sacked the justice minister after he said in a television interview that he would arrest even "a prophet," a statement from the premier’s office said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ALMANAR.LB] Top commander of the so-called '
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
SEOUL -- North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York City, the latest in a string of brazen threats.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Azerbaijani borders guards on Sunday 
The United States and France warned the Syrian regime on Sunday against trying to disrupt the fragile ceasefire as the warring sides prepared for fresh peace talks to end the brutal five-year conflict.
