The following harvested excerpt and follow-on paras form the basis of TopRev's comment and the Angelo Codevilla assertion regarding the man called Soetoro:
Connected
Two new books deal with Barack Obama's paternal and maternal families. British journalist Peter Firstbrook's The Obamas takes us all the way from the origins of East Africa's Luo tribe to Barack's father's relationship with Barack's mother. Generally fact-filled, it gives vivid portraits especially of Barack, Sr.'s, father, Onyango, who tried to raise a son as upright as he and was deadly disappointed when that son turned out to be a wastrel in the train of Tom Mboya, political leader of Kenya's Luo. The closer the book gets to the present, however, the less trustworthy it becomes. For example, it tells us that Mboya organized the 1959 airlift of 280 Africans to study in America, bypassing the U.S. State Department. Nonsense. This was high U.S. policy and touted as such at the time. The CIA considered Mboya one of its most important covert action agents. The people chosen by him and the CIA to go to America were his flunkies. But the book is irrelevant to understanding the current president of the United States because his African family had only a biological influence on him. Indeed, Barack Obama's African-ness is, as we shall see, strictly the product of his imagination.
The maternal family that raised Barack Obama, which is highly relevant to our understanding, is the subject of New YorkTimes reporter Janny Scott's A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. But though this book tells us that grandmother Madelyn Dunham's favorite color was beige, that Stanley Dunham and daughter Ann (Barack, Jr.'s, mother) shared a certain impulsiveness, and contains interviews with and personal information on countless of Ann's high school friends, it sheds no light on what the Dunhams were doing with their lives that led their daughter to take a practical interest in international affairs. Magically, Ann Dunham goes from peeking her shy 17-year-old head out of Mercer Island, Washington ("a young virgin," writes Janny Scott), to intimacy with a very foreign person, and a few years later with another, and then to work in one of the Cold War's key battlegrounds. Meanwhile her mother, about whose professional activities the book says nothing, becomes a bank executive. Did Ann speak any foreign language? Had the Dunhams ever taken any trips abroad? The book does not say. A Singular Woman gives the impression that Ann's Indonesian husband, Lolo Soetoro, was just a geographer drafted into the army, a minor, unwitting part of the bloody campaign that wrested Indonesia from the Communists; and that Ann's work in that country was anthropological-humanitarian, as if for her U.S. policy were irrelevant. It certainly was not for her employers—the U.S. government and contractors thereof.
#1
We've recently learned of President Trump's interest and dedication to the CIA Daily Brief. Contrast that with Soetoro's reported lack of attention to the CIA brief.
Perhaps Soetoro required no personal analysis. If he was simply TOLD what to say or do, the CIA Daily would have been little more than a needless golf distraction.
One of the most difficult and challenging aspects of clandestine intelligence source operations is the building of the 'legend' i.e., the construction of a background or biography, usually supported by documents, places, and events.
#2
He may not have been interested in the 'institutional' part of intelligence community. Apparently he and his people were interested in another part.
#3
He may not have been interested in the 'institutional' part of intelligence community. Apparently he and his people were interested in another part. Posted by Pappy
Ha! So it would appear, and he's still attempting to stay active in politics.
Prior to reading this piece, I had honestly never considered the Codevilla theory. The more I ponder it however, the more believable it becomes.
#4
and he's still attempting to stay active in politics.
Yes, but with the revelation that he chose not to act to prevent the Russian interference that Democrats have been shrieking cost Hillary the election, how much longer will he find eager audiences?
#6
Mighty nice of them to finally come out with details of this traitorous bastards's background, or at least make the half- assed pro forma attempt of parts of it. How fucking convenient.
Champs-Élysées Attacker May Have Been Plotting Attack at Eiffel Tower
23 June
[Breitbart] The man behind the failed Champs-Élysées attack on Monday was filmed loitering near the Eiffel Tower an hour before his failed attack raising questions from police and security services.
Dutch police arrest suspected Islamic State supporter
21.06.17
[Ynet] Dutch police arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of distributing propaganda for the Islamic State militant group, the national prosecutors office said on Wednesday. The suspect was detained last Thursday in the central city of Utrecht on suspicion of spreading violent videos and possibly instructing others on how to make explosives. A judge ruled Tuesday that the man would be held in custody for at least two weeks pending further investigations, a prosecution statement said. He has not yet been charged with any offences.
A useful chart can be seen at the link. Germany has one million illegal colonists.
How many refugees tried to get asylum in Europe? From crossing the border to being allowed to stay or rejected and receiving an order to leave - DW shows the data from 2012 to 2016.
Spanish Coastguard Brings 224 Migrants Ashore
24 June
Spain’s maritime rescue service says it has rescued 224 migrants from five different boats trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
EU Leaders Increase Aid for Libya to Halt Migrant Exodus
23 June
European Union leaders pledged Friday to boost their support for conflict-ravaged Libya as the number of people fleeing Africa on crowded, unsafe boats for better lives in Europe continues to rise.
European Union Admits Massive Rise of Illegal Migrants, But Not Refugees
23 June
European Union officials, including EU Council President Donald Tusk, have admitted most of the migrants coming from Africa into Italy are not legitimate refugees or asylum seekers, but illegal migrants.
Migrant Who Frequently Visited Kindergarten May Have Given Children Tuberculosis
22 June
An asylum seeker diagnosed with tuberculosis who visited at a kindergarten several times in Bünsdorf, Germany, may have infected as many as 18 children and four adults with the disease.
Libya Calls for EU Aid to Cope with Migrant Influx
22 June
The leader of Libya’s unity government is appealing for European Union funds to help cope with thousands of migrants flooding into his conflict-ravaged country in hope of reaching Europe.
Starbucks Plans to Hire 2,500 Asylum Seekers in Europe
21 June
U.S. coffee giant Starbucks has announced plans to hire 2,500 asylum seekers across Europe in the next five years as part of a worldwide initiative.
German Police Accused of Covering up Child Rape in Asylum Home
20 June
Police and the local government in Herford, Germany, have been accused of covering up the rape of a child at an asylum home for almost two weeks.
First Driver Death in Calais After Migrants Drag Tree Trunks onto Motorway
20 June
A van driver has died in an accident at Calais after migrants dragged tree trunks onto the A16 motorway in a bid to slow traffic and break into vehicles bound for Britain.
Pro Migrant Protest Calls on Spain’s Conservative Government to Open Borders
18 June
Protesters marched in Spain’s capital Saturday to demand the conservative government fulfill its pledge to give shelter to refugees from war-torn countries like Syria. Braving temperatures that reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), several thousand marchers
Italians Rejoice as Soros Ally Mayor Awarded UN Prize for Welcoming Migrants Kicked Out of Office
18 June
Italians this week cheered the electoral defeat of a mayor who signed a deal with George Soros to turn the tiny island of Lampedusa into a gateway to Europe for migrants travelling from Africa.
More Than 900 Migrants Picked Up By Coastguard Off Libya
17 June
The Libyan coastguard has rescued more than 900 African and Asian migrants attempting to reach Europe, a navy spokesman said on Saturday. “A coastguard patrol from Zawiya (west of Tripoli) intercepted five inflatable boats and a wooden vessel.
Macron Accuses Countries Resisting Mass Immigration of ‘Betraying’ the EU
23 June
[Breitbart] French president Emmanuel Macron has accused Central European countries resisting mass immigration of betraying EU principles and taking advantage of the bloc.
European Establishment and Members of the Public Poles Apart on EU, Immigration, Islam, Confirms Study
22 June
[Breitbart] The Royal Institute of International Affairs, commonly known as Chatham House, has published research which indicates there is a huge divide between Europe’s media-political establishment and ordinary members of the public on the EU, mass immigration, and Islamt
Hungarians Declare: ‘Central Europe Stands United Against Mass Illegal Migration’
21 June
An alliance of Central European countries led by Hungary has pledged to work together to stem the flow of illegal migrants into Europe at a meeting in Prague. Delegations to the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) group from Austria, Croatia,
Last Remaining Police Station in Migrant-Dominated Swedish Suburbs Forced to Close
20 June
The last remaining station in the troubled Järva area will most likely have to close, police sources have said, due to lack of staff.
h/t Instapundit
I don’t believe in grand historical conspiracies, or in designs that go on over generations. The right suffers from a bad case of "the individualists failed to organize" and the left, by now in their third generation of social dominance, are approaching the sort of behavior and IQ one saw in the last days of the Soviet Union. Or if you prefer, Marxist scientific efficiency has given us in three generations what it took the royal houses of Europe sixteen generations of inbreeding to achieve: an "elite" so profoundly dumb they couldn’t pour p*ss out a boot with instructions on both sides.
Which is why I don’t believe in conspiracies.
I do however believe in guiding principles, in abiding ideas that inform and shape a movement, and in people so completely in communion with the revealed message of "progressivism" that they will do the things that no police force or government could force them to do, were they free.
Hence we get journalists corrupting their craft and honor to be part of secret lists that choose which news to cover and which to ignore. We get functionaries trying to subvert legal, fair elections. And we have the Reeeee brigade leading us through a slow motion Cultural Revolution.
I don’t know who coined "Reeeee" for the sound progressives make when in the middle of a scream fest about some ‐ mostly imaginary and unintended ‐ offense. I know that for several months now all my friends use it, usually when just having dealt with some idiot who keeps yammering on about moon ferrets (or patriarchy. Or white supremacy. All of which have the exact same degree of existence in modern America.)
It’s not that you don’t want to answer the idiot. It’s that explaining there are no moon ferrets gets exhausting, when they immediately change the subject to the moon dolphins or the moon mole rats.
Their behavior is so insane, their on-command ability to jump on anyone or anything who deviates from the now-current party line so absolute, their arguments so ridiculous, it took me a while to realize what they’re doing is the equivalent of Mao’s brigades of aggressive young people fanning out to rural areas to teach the peasants how to think and what to do.
#1
I observed the recent patriot rally in Boston via livestream. When Antifa gave up the high ground surrounding the monument, the ralliers swept up the hill and many were shouting that "reeeeeeeeee!" Quite funny
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2017 10:26
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#2
If you do not believe in the Rule of Law, or any other firm principle, where will you stand when you are the Law? Like the conquering Barbarian squatting in the wreckage of civilization you will go from barbarism to decadence in a generation.
#5
The word "progressivism" implies some movement towards progress, that is an improvement to civilization. Progress sounds good and many people who claim to be Dems buy into it for that reason. It appears to be an euphemism for what is going on. I have yet to see much goodness or improvement of civilization from the Progressives. They will change their name to something else when more people catch on to them.
#6
Major Texas Rock solid, powerful conservatives are going to begin making behind the scenes change of heart influences regarding Congressmen and of other DC power centers starting mid week. I will not elaborate but Congress will get off its collective butt as a result fairly soon...
[BBC] At least 123 people were killed when a lorry transporting oil burst into flames near the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, local officials say.
A crowd had gathered reportedly to collect fuel leaking from the overturned vehicle when it caught fire. Dozens are being treated in hospital.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the tanker had been speeding when it overturned.
People smoking at the scene may have sparked the fire, Pakistan's Geo TV reports, quoting eyewitnesses.
The country's roads are notoriously dangerous, with poor vehicle maintenance and reckless driving contributing to the problem, correspondents say.
Army helicopters were dispatched to ferry casualties to hospitals, army spokesman Major Gen Asif Ghafoor said in a tweet.
[Wash Times] Can anyone with a modicum of common sense trust the Federal Bureau of investigation? The answer to that question is a resounding "no." The claim that the FBI strives to be above politics is today and has always been absurd. When former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover admitted in an interview that his "agents" had tapped the phones of 1964 Republican candidate Barry Goldwater and even bugged his campaign plane, Mr. Hoover told his interviewer, who wondered how someone in his position could so cavalierly ignore the law and the constitutional rights of American citizens, that when the president asks you deliver.
That and much else that Mr. Hoover ordered his "agents" to do during his too long tenure as FBI Director was bad enough, but in the years since he departed the scene, the FBI has developed a penchant for breaking the law without even requiring a wink and a nod from above. The Bureau picks its targets for whatever reason and goes after them, concocting evidence or setting them up to technically break laws that have nothing to do with the "reasons" for the original targeting.
#3
Any halfway honest history of the FBI shows that the problems predate the creation of the agency. What's totally ironic is how the type of people who despised the FBI in the 50s, 60s and 70s are enraptured with an arguably more out of control than ever FBI today.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/25/2017 12:01
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#4
MM, those people and now the ones in power. It makes all the difference in the world who is the bug and who is the windshield.
#5
Sitting around a campfire last night, listening to people play old Buffalo Springfield songs, I couldn't help but marvel how a generation that had defined itself by non-conformity and utter distrust of government had come to embraced groupthink and saw Big Government as the solution to any and all problems.
#6
I think the entire thing is going to just blow up.
CNN is running from the Russia story.
Lynch is going to take the Fifth.
The entire mime on Russia is a Democrat invention funded back in July for Clinton to u7se on Trump the contents of Dossier were so laughable that only the press took it seriously and when Clinton got her butt handed to her by Trump they had to blame it on something. So the dossier was the only thing they had.
#8
What is happening here is going deep into the FBI as it is VERY corrupt at the top levels. It is now nothing more than a political organization. Also goes for the klingons. A now useless agency.
[Townhall] Dennis Rodman stood up for his "friend" Kim Jong Un Friday, saying people don’t realize how "friendly" the dictator is once you get to know him.
"I think people don’t see him as a friendly guy," he told ABC News. "We sing karaoke, it’s all fun. Ride horses, everything."
He also said people don’t realize there’s a "good side" to the rogue nation.
"People don't see the good side about that country. It's like going, like, to Asia. It's like going to, like, Istanbul, Turkey, or any place like that," Rodman said. "You know, you're going to see some poverty. You're going to see some people that's not doing too well."But things are looking up for North Koreans, he said.
"When you go over there, and you hear the radio, and people are talking," Rodman said. "They're so happy now, because it's more like, it's civilized again."
The NBA Hall of Famer also said he felt partially responsible for securing Otto Warmbier’s release this month and felt “good things” came of his recent trip.
"I was just so happy to see the kid released," Rodman told ABC News’s Michael Strahan. "Later that day, that's when we found out he was ill, no one knew that. We jumped up and down. ... Some good things came of this trip."
Chris Volo, Rodman’s agent, said he asked for North Korean officials to release Warmbier on three occasions.
#1
"I think people don’t see him as a friendly guy," he told ABC News. "We sing karaoke, it’s all fun. Ride horses, ride Korean girls, everything."
Just a slight addition there, Dennis.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2017 10:17
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#2
What the cartoon says. The U.S. has had a long- standing relationship with the Norks beginning with the Korean War. Dennis, we know about the Norks. They are not the nice guys.
[Townhall] There is so much winning for taxpayers, concerned citizens, and conservatives in general in the state of California. The slow but steady victories in this blue bastion of progressive insanity should raise hope for all of us. After all, the Left loves to gloat that what happens in California is most likely to pop up all over the United States.
They might want to change their minds.
First, an assemblyman in Commie East Bay Alameda County attempted to allow Communists to serve openly in our government. The South Vietnamese Community in Orange County and veterans throughout the state hammered this liberal nut. His bill to "update archaic language in the state code" died after getting a bare majority in the Assembly. Besides, the legislature is full of communists anyway. They just need to be voted out.
#6
The bill was a sop to the Democrats' interest groups like the California Nursing Association and the SEIU.
As for the article itself, it really should have been on Page 4. We bitch when the media publishes opinion as news. Keep it in mind when stuff like this comes up.
#7
Pappy's got the politics right. I know Toni Atkins. Worked with her when she was a City Council Aide on my current project (I was a Project Manager way back then). She's a l3sbian Democrat, but above this stupid shit - or at least I thought so.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2017 15:18
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#8
The bill wasn't going to go anywhere. It hadn't been fully developed. The initial funding proposal was a no-go, and the second one was DOA after the Democrats got the gasoline tax hike through. So it was a low-risk move with her voters, that gave her some street-cred with the CA Democrat establishment.
[Western Journalism] "... suffer the consequences of any attack emanating from its territory."
Residents of the Israeli communities in the eastern part of the Golan Heights in northern Israel were forced into their bomb shelters Saturday when more than 10 mortar shells landed in the area causing no casualties or damage.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the mortar fire was "errand fire" from Syrian factions fighting each other in the Kuneitra region which is controlled by the former Al-Qaeda branch Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra.
However, as the Israeli response made clear, the mortar attacks on the Jewish communities were most likely the work of the pro-Assad coalition, which is currently trying to reconquer the border region with Israel.
[IsraelTimes] Crowds heckle Rouhani at al-Quds Day protest after reports of increasing tensions with supreme leader Khamenei.
A week after being heavily criticized by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani was heckled Friday during an annual pro-Paleostinian rally in Tehran, with protesters comparing him to a former state head who was impeached and later exiled.
According to the Guardian, Rouhani was rushed to his vehicle following the incident. The Iranian president had been participating in the Quds rally, which is held every year on the last Friday of Ramadan.
"Rouhani, Banisadr, happy marriage," protesters chanted, referring to exiled president Abolhassan Banisadr, the Guardian reported. "Death to liar, death to American mullah," others cried.
Earlier this month, Khamenei publicly rebuked Rouhani, warning the president not to split Iranian society as he claimed Banisadr had. "In 1980-81 the then president polarized society in two camps, and divided the country into opponents and supporters; this should not be repeated," Khamenei said.
Banisadr, who was driven from power by first supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini in the initial post-revolution years, told the Guardian that Khamenei was concerned over the increase in reformists’ power following last month’s elections in the country, in which the president won by a landslide.
"During my time, they closed down universities and carried out executions to undercut the civil society and make it passive. Now Mr. Khamenei is worried, particularly if he dies, because Mr. Rouhani is saying that his successor should obtain people’s vote."
Last month, Rouhani won 57 percent of the vote in the Iranian elections, scoring a convincing victory over hardline holy man Ebrahim Raisi on 38.3%.
"The message of our people has been very clearly expressed. The Iranian people have chosen the path of engagement with the world, far from extremism," he said on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
.
[Ynet] Victory on Western-based violent Islamism will only be achieved when Moslem communities reject any manifestation of religious-political fanaticism in a firm and uncompromising manner.
Moslem Germans erupted into the streets of Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... several weeks ago to protest terrorism. The march was held under the banner "Not with Us," and its goal was to condemn terrorism and the terror cells that have developed in the Moslem communities in Europe in the past two years.
Continued on Page 49
[The Hill] President Trump will reportedly receive a report about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process following a "tense" meeting between White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and leaders about the issue.
The London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat reports that Kushner's meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was "tense," according to a translation from the Jerusalem Post, and Abbas was reportedly furious at Kushner relaying the demands of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz also reports that Palestinian officials were "greatly disappointed" by their meeting with Kushner and Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.
[Al Jazeera] Thousands of Venezuelans marched on Saturday in a new flare-up of months-long protests against embattled President Nicolas Maduro, as the head of the Organization of American States dug in his heels in a war of words with Caracas, brusquely rejecting its demand that he resign.
Protesters in the Venezuelan capital and other cities marched on military installations, where they demanded an end to "brutal repression" and called for Maduro's resignation and new elections.
"Let's send a message to the armed forces: Are you going to continue killing Venezuelans or respect the constitution?" opposition deputy Jose Manuel Olivares said in Caracas, as protesters prepared to march on the La Carlota air base.
David Vallenilla - a 22-year-old protester - died outside the base on Thursday, three days after a 17-year-old was killed when national guardsmen opened fire. The corpse count in three months of protests now stands at 75.
Young protesters broke down a metal fence guarding the air base in Caracas before being repelled by security forces firing tear gas.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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Over fifty insurgents belonging to the Taliban group and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group’s offshoot in Afghanistan were killed during the operations in northern Jawzjan province, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Friday.
MoD deputy spokesman Gen. Mohammad Radmanish said the operations were conducted in the vicinities of Darzab district during the past several days.
He said at least forty militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group were killed and around ten others were wounded.
Gen. Radmanish further added that several commanders of the terror group were also wounded during the operations.
According to Gen. Radmanish, at least eleven Taliban insurgents including their main commander for Jawzjan were also killed during the operations.
He said the Taliban commander killed during the operation has been identified as Shamsullah.
The Taliban insurgents and ISIS loyalists have not commented regarding the report so far.
Jawzjan is among the relatively volatile provinces in north of Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgents and ISIS loyalists are actively operating in a number of its districts and often carry out insurgency activities.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, alongside Jaish al-Tawhid, launched a major offensive in the Golan Heights, today, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions near their stronghold of Ba’ath City.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and their allies began the offensive by attacking the Syrian Army’s defenses from their own positions at nearby al-Hamidiyah and al-Samdaniyah al-Gharbiyah.
According to a military source, intense festivities are ongoing near Ba’ath City, as the jihadist rebels try to break-through the Syrian Army’s front-lines defenses.
The source added that the Syrian Air Force is high alert due to the Israeli military’s presence in the Golan Heights.
Syrian military intelligence officers believe Israel is coordinating this offensive in the Golan Heights and will not hesitate to shoot down government airplanes.
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[IMAGES.DAWN] Johnny Depp on Friday apologised for joking about assassinating U.S. President Donald Trump, saying his remarks were in "poor taste."
The Pirates of the Caribbean star spoke during an appearance at Britain's Glastonbury music festival on Thursday when he pondered how long it had been since an actor had killed a U.S. president.
His remarks drew rebukes from Trump supporters, and the White House described Depp's remarks as "sad."
"President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it's sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead," the White House said in a statement.
"I hope that some of Mr. Depp’s colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democratic elected official."
Depp on Friday said his remarks were not intended maliciously.
“I apologise for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump,” Depp, 54, said in a statement. “It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone.”
Depp was at a screening of his 2004 film The Libertine at the Glastonbury festival when discussion turned to the topic of Trump. Depp said he thought the president "needs help."
"Can we bring Trump here?" Depp asked the audience. "... When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?"
Actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
"Now I want to clarify, I'm not an actor," Depp continued. "I lie for a living. However, it's been a while, and maybe it's time."
The U.S. Secret Service said it was aware of Depp's comments but had no other comment.
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#1
Enjoy your interview with the Secret Service, asshole.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/25/2017 1:56
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A British audience wouldn't know Lincoln has been assasinated by an actor, and I assume Depp didn't know either.
At least six militants including a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network were killed in an airstrike in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Saturday.
According to a statement by MoD, the airstrike was carried out in the past 24 hours in the vicinity of Jaghatoo district.
The statement further added that two vehicles packed with explosives and their two hideouts were also destroyed while several weapons, ammunition, and explosives were confiscated.
Maiwan Wardak is among the relatively volatile provinces in central parts of the country, located close to capital Kabul.
The anti-government armed militants are actively operating in its various districts and often carry out insurgency activities, mainly in the districts lying along the highway connecting Kabul with the southeastern and southern provinces.
In the meantime, MoD said at least three militants were killed and two others were wounded during a separate operation in Maiwand district of Kandahar, while two others were killed during an operation in Shegal district of Kunar province.
[DAWN] The Trump administration has authorised the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer of the drones said Friday, as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.
India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year.
The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.
The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defence ties as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... at the White House on Monday.
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[DAWN] At least three alleged bad boyz were potted and four security personnel injured during intelligence-based operations in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , police and military said.
A shootout took place Saturday morning in the Chamkani area of Peshawar when gunnies attacked a police party conducting an intelligence-based operation.
The gunnies were holed up in an abandoned building previously used as a floor mill, police officials said.
Officials told DawnNews that the operation continued for three hours and was launched on a tip off on the presence of gunnies in the area.
A large number of army personnel subsequently reached at the site to support the coppers under attack.
Three coppers, which included two station house officers, and one soldier received injuries during the operation.
A suspected controller of the gunnies was jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! , officials said, adding that some arrests were also made inside the building.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), Peshawar Tahir Khan said that weapons, kaboom, detonators, footage and documents were recovered from the building during the search operation.
The owner of the abandoned building will soon be interrogated, the CCPO said.
He further said that the injured personnel were out of danger.
Inspector General of Police Salahuddin dubbed the development a major achievement for the Peshawar police. He said that the gunnies were part of an organised network and responsible for a recent attack on a police party and murders in the area.
"A high profile terrorist commander was also among those killed," the IGP said.
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Via Zero Hedge:
[WolfStreet] When banks fail and regulators decide to liquidate them, it happens on Friday evening so that there is a weekend to clean up the mess. And this is what happened in Italy – with two banks!
It’s over for the two banks that have been prominent zombies in the Italian banking crisis: Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza, in northeastern Italy.
The banks have combined assets of €60 billion, a good part of which are toxic and no one wanted to touch them. They already received a bailout but more would have been required, and given the uncertainty and the messiness of their books, nothing was forthcoming, and the ECB which regulates them lost its patience.
In a tersely worded statement, the ECB’s office of Banking Supervision ordered the banks to be wound up because they “were failing or likely to fail as the two banks repeatedly breached supervisory capital requirements.”
“Failing or likely to fail” is the key phrase that banking supervisors use for banks that “should be put in resolution or wound up under normal insolvency proceedings,” the statement said. This is the first Italian bank liquidation under Europe’s new Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation. The ECB explained: More at the link
[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian Kurdish officials have expressed worries that the Turkish army will attack either Afrin or Tal Rifaat in northern Syria with silent support from the Syrian government and Russia. They are calling on the international community to save Afrin that hosts thousands of IDPs (internally displaced people).
"The people are afraid of a huge attack from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and the Syrian Islamists on Afrin and the Shahba region with support from Russia, the Syrian regime and Iran," Dr Kamal Sido, a consultant for ’the Society for Threatened Peoples’ (STP), told ARA News.
"The occupation of the Shahba [northern Aleppo] by Turkey could worsen the humanitarian situation in Efrin [Afrin]. The United States should not stay neutral. US president Trump should support the people in Efrin," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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[IsraelTimes] Authorities say six members of cell planning Alexandria attack have been captured, including two intended suicide bombers.
Egyptian police said on Saturday they foiled a church bombing by arresting a cell including the would-be attackers, two months after suicide bombers killed dozens of church goers in two attacks.
Six members of the cell including two “suicide bombers” planning the attack on an Alexandria church were arrested in the Mediterranean city, the interior ministry said in a statement.
It said one attacker had planned to detonate an explosive vest inside the church and the other to blow himself up when police arrived to the scene.
The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the two church bombings in April and one in December that killed more than seventy people.
On Thursday, the interior ministry said police killed seven suspected extremists in southern Egypt alleged to have been linked to the church attacks.
[Al Jazeera] President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ratified a controversial 2016 maritime demarcation agreement under which Egypt cedes illusory sovereignty over two strategic Red Sea islands to 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... The transfer of the uninhabited islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia has been the subject of a confusing legal battle, with one court annulling the treaty and another upholding it.
It also fuelled widespread public criticism and street protests among Egyptians angered over national illusory sovereignty.
"President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ratified the maritime demarcation agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the cabinet said in a statement on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
Militants who stormed a primary school in a southern Philippines town on Wednesday have fled, leaving 31 hostages, including 12 children, unharmed. Military spokesman Restituto Padilla said, "The enemy made a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind 31 hostages, among them 12 youngsters."
Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters raided a school in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato on Wednesday morning. Witnesses about a kilometer from the school said they could hear gunfire.
Earlier, a BIFF spokesman said they had taken civilians to a safe place after a firefight erupted with troops and did not intend to hold them.
Padilla said it was possible the attack was meant to disrupt an ongoing military offensive against a separate group of Maute militants who laid siege to Marawi in Lanao del Sur province.
[Al Jazeera] Iran's intelligence ministry says its forces have foiled bombings and suicide kabooms targeting religious centres after arresting suspected members of a group linked to ISIS, according state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Security forces "were able to arrest a group linked to ISIS (ISIS) that intended to carry out terror operations in religious cities ... and (seized) explosive and suicide attack equipment," the state broadcaster IRIB said on Saturday.
It did not say how many people were held, or where the operation took place
Authorities seized three assault rifles, a machine-gun equipped with a silencer, three suicide belts, as well as explosives and bomb-making equipment, according to the report.
Also seized were night vision goggles, three phones for remote detonation and a large amount of bullets, it added.
The arrests came days after Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired missiles from western Iran at ISIS positions in eastern Syria in retaliation for two attacks in Tehran earlier this month that were claimed by the gang.
Since the June 7 attack, Iranian authorities have carried out several operations inside Iran, detaining dozens of people, and targeting groups suspected of having links to ISIS, which stands for 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, and is also known as ISIS.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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[ABS-CBN] As the Muslims in this besieged city offered prayers at the end of Ramadan, gunshots were heard early Sunday, just minutes after security forces implemented an 8-hour ceasefire for the celebration of Eid al-Fitr.
The gunshots were heard in the background of a live radio report about congressional prayers for the Eid al-Fitr celebration held at the provincial capitol building. A stray bullet was then reportedly found at the capitol building. No casualties were reported in the incident.
The military has suspended offensives against Maute militants holed up in Marawi City from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. The humanitarian pause is the government's "way of uniting with all our Muslim brothers in the area as they commemorate the Eid," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.
Padilla said the unilateral truce will be revoked if the rebels begin shooting and jeopardize the safety of troops and civilians.
Officials also guaranteed that troops continued to keep a close watch at all entry and exit points in Marawi amid the ceasefire. Padilla said, "We are confident that the measure we have out in place will prevent any influx of help that may come from other areas and the escape of those who are still inside."
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Maute group (IS)
The caliphatization continues.[DW] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... will stop teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in high schools. Secular Turks are alarmed that their country is taking an increasingly Islamist direction under President Erdogan's authoritarian leadership.
A chapter entitled "Beginning of Life and Evolution" will be deleted from the standard biology textbooks used in high schools in Turkey, with the explanation that the "controversial" material was difficult to understand for average students, education authorities have said.
"We are aware that if our students don't have the background to comprehend the premises and hypotheses, or if they don't have the knowledge and scientific framework, they will not be able to understand some controversial issues, so we have left out some of them," Alparslan Durmus, head of the national education board, said.
The material will remain available only to students who are on the path to go on to university, aged 18 or 19, he added. The changes are part of a new curriculum that will go into effect at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, which was formulated in accordance with "Turkish values," Durmus said.
From embracing religious headscarves at some schools to shifting curricula, school education in Turkey has grown increasingly religious under the leadership of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). The issue of teaching evolution has been fought over for years.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2017 11:08
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#2
good point abu
Qur'an 20:53 - mahdan (bed)
الذي جعل لكم الارض مهدا وسلك لكم فيها سبلا وانزل من
السماء ماء فاخرجنا به ازواجا من نبات شتى
Allathee jaAAala lakumu al-arda mahdan wasalaka lakum feeha subulan waanzala mina alssama-imaan faakhrajna bihi azwajan min nabatinshatta
He Who has, made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky." With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/25/2017 13:08
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#3
Only the top stratum of students, those who will become engineers and scientists, have any need to understand the globulosity of the earth and its position relative to the sun and the stars in the heavens. For the rest, believing in the flat earth of their ancestors won't impact their ability to hew wood, haul water, and point bang sticks in the direction their officers direct.
Washington- Since al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States and the US military campaigns did not stop, in an effort to stamp out the most dangerous terrorist organization.
One of the most prominent US campaigns against the organization is the one in Yemen, where the Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula has been under a series of attacks aimed at destroying its ability to coordinate foreign terrorist attacks and preventing it from seizing areas controlled by the legitimate Yemeni government.
US Central Command spokesman Maj. Josh Jacques told Asharq Al-Awsat that US forces have intensified their attacks on Qaeda strongholds and have launched more than 80 raids in the past four months.
He pointed out that the United States has launched since 28 February more than 80 strikes on Qaeda militants, their infrastructure, combat sites and equipment.
Jacques stressed that they are keen to ensure the safety of innocent victims, pointing to “continuous coordination” with the legitimate government led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The US military official said: “We have made progress, but we still have a lot to do. Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a huge terrorist group that is still capable of attacking our country and the US citizens.”
The Yemeni leadership is working with Arab allies to eliminate the Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from its provinces,” he added.
He pointed out that the United States has launched since 28 February more than 80 strikes on Qaeda militants, their infrastructure, combat sites and equipment.
“US forces also eliminated dozens of Qaeda terrorists from the battlefield in the Arabian Peninsula, including Abu Khattab al Awlaqi, the chief of the terrorist organization in Shabwa,” Jacques said.
“Awlaki was a senior commander in charge of planning terrorist attacks against civilians. He had significant influence in the organization, had connections with other senior leaders of the group and was involved in planning and leading efforts to exacerbate instability in southern Yemen,” he added.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2017
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#1
September 11, 2011 huh? Fact-checkers as good as the NYT
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2017 10:17
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[Capital Research Center] (Washington, DC): The unlikely alliance between Islam and the left isn’t on the media’s radar screen, yet the chaos on our streets and campuses is obvious and disturbing. The ever-more frequent jihad attacks, both at home and abroad, even more so. But the swirl of images flitting across our screens can be difficult to understand: protesters are carrying all kinds of signs, hurling abuse at our new president, and at those who would speak in defense of America and its free institutions... Black Lives Matter activists spew hatred for law enforcement, but are funded by wealthy establishment leftists. Muslim terrorists screaming ’Allahu Akbar’ are murdering innocent, men, women and children--in the name of the ’religion of peace.’ Too much of it doesn’t seem to make sense. How can the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, Black Lives Matter movement, and social Marxist anarchist leftists all be part of the same street scene?
To help explain this unlikely but very real alliance, Matthew Vadum, Senior Vice President at the Washington, D.C. think tank, Capital Research Center and an award-winning journalist, has authored an important new book for the Center for Security Policy’s Civilization Jihad Readers Series entitled "Team Jihad: How Sharia-Supremacists Collaborate with Leftists to Destroy the United States." Vadum, already widely published on issues related to leftist infiltration and subversion within American society, here marshals a wealth of historical detail to document how and when the forces of Islam and the left first began to make common cause and how far they’ve come in the years since.
With a new president in the White House, the United States seems headed for changes on many fronts. None is more important to understand than the deeply anti-American working relationship among seemingly disparate forces like these that are united in their dedication to the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and our system of law and order. Neglect, benign and otherwise, has allowed this unholy alliance of jihadists, street thugs, and cultural Marxists to advance unchecked throughout our society for far too long.
With this monograph, Matt Vadum offers the average citizen a clear and very readable explanation for what we all see happening around us.
[DAWN] Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistain stepped down on Friday, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region.
A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller is returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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#1
Decided to stop pretending she was doing anything, huh?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/25/2017 10:10
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[RT] Two US E-4B aircraft, otherwise known as ‘Doomsday Planes’, which are designed to survive an electromagnetic shockwave in the event of war, were damaged and left grounded by a fast-moving tornado at an airbase in Nebraska, local media report.
A heavy storm packing driving rain, high winds, and two tornadoes ripped through the US Air Force’s Offutt base in Nebraska last weekend. The extent of the damage to the facility was reported by local media on Saturday.
Ten aircraft, including the two E-4B Nightwatchers, were damaged by the tornado, said Air Force Captain Mark Graff, as cited by Stars and Stripes
#1
...So half the force just got put out of service. Lovely, though that's one of those things one can't foresee. Get 'em back, quickly - it won't take much to leave us without any, and that's just when the Gods decide to start playing with us.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/25/2017 7:22
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#2
That's the beauty of the plan. All the E4's, Looking Glass, and the AWACS E3's (and most of the tanker assets) are based at either Offutt or Tinker (Oklahoma City). Prime tornado zone real estate.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/25/2017 10:19
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#3
#2 That's the beauty of the plan. All the E4's, Looking Glass, and the AWACS E3's (and most of the tanker assets) are based at either Offutt or Tinker (Oklahoma City). Prime tornado zone real estate.
...Sadly, because politics instead of any coherent basing or mission plan.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/25/2017 10:21
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[AlManar] Dozens of ISIL and other Takfiri terrorists have been killed in air strikes carried out by Syrian army in Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Raqqa and Daraa.
SANA news agency reported that that the Syrian army Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on the ISIL positions, gatherings and fortifications in Deir Ezzor’s neighborhoods of al-Hamidiyeh, al-Arfi and Khasarat and in the surroundings of battalion 137and the Panorama and al-Majbal area and in the villages of al-Jnaineh, Aiyash and al-Bghiliyeh, leaving many of terrorists dead or injured.
The source added that the army artillery killed many of the ISIS terrorists after bombarding their fortifications and movement axes in the surroundings of the airport, Talet al-Sanouf, the water resources, al-Thardeh Mountain and in al-Mrai’eyeh village in the eastern countryside of the province.
Elsewhere in the eastern countryside of Homs, the Syrian Air Force dealt heavy blows to dens and supply routes of ISIL terrorists to the east of al-Sukhneh city, killing many of the terrorists and destroying machinegun-equipped vehicles of their own, SANA cited a military source.
In the eastern countryside of Hama, the source said that many of ISIL terrorists were killed and their vehicles were destroyed in raids of the Syrian Army’s Air Force against the terrorists’ gatherings and fortifications to the east of al-Tanahej hills.
Also in the eastern countryside of Hama, Syrian army units destroyed ISIL terrorist positions and gatherings in Qulaib al-Thour and Tabbaret al-Dibeh.
Meanwhile, Syrian air Force raided ISIl terrorist movements and gatherings to the south of Kherbet Zedan village and to the west of Abu al-Ulouj area in the western countryside of Raqqa province, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.
Elsewhere in Daraa, Syrian srmy units killed a number of Nusra Front terrorists in the neighborhoods of Tariq al-Sad, al-Abbasiyeh and in al-Nazihin Camp in Daraa al-Balad area.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2017
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Come, dear Reader, let us together watch Barack Obama's legacy disappear in a puff of magic blue smoke released by the Washington Post.
[Ynet] Then-US pres. Obama knew Russia was tampering with US elections to assist Trump but chose not to go public, according to Washington Post; Obama's decision relied on Clinton's expected win and fear he would seen as influencing elections himself.
How can the Washington Post possibly imagine this helps their cause?
The CIA had top-level intelligence last August that Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... personally ordered an operation to help Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... Continued on Page 49
#4
Still, what I'm seeing is that the Russian 'hack' amounted to letting us see Hillary's dirty laundry.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/25/2017 10:36
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#5
...Somewhere, William of Ockham smiles. This makes sense, and doesn't require some fiendishly clever conspiracy.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/25/2017 11:42
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#6
Hillary's dirty laundry (and Bills) has been hanging on the line for some time. No one has done much about it. It seems there are two systems of justice; the one for the elites and the one for the rest of us.
#9
As the rush of stories slowly on revels in the truth behind it points more to Obama and his creatures more and more will emerge to show how corrupted the government tools of power have become. I await with great interest the slow emergence of ValJar and her tendrils. I can only hope there is still enough courage to show we still are a nation of laws, not slogans for the peasants....
#11
It's not at all certain to me that Obama and others in the know believed Hillary had the election in the bag. I'm more inclined to believe they knew how fake the polls were, how slanted the news was and how many Americans were rejecting them. Biden once admitted thinking Trump could win after watching a Trump rally where the attendance and enthusiasm were far greater than at any of Hillary's rallies. That's why it's hard for me to believe WAPO's assertion about Putin ordering the hacking to help Trump and Obama's knowledge of the so-called plot.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2017 15:56
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Professional courtesy btwn like-minded comrades. Besides, he told Romney in the debates that Russia was not the problem. The Syria, Iran, Russian troika could not be disrupted. There were dividends to be harvested down the road.
[DAWN] Afghanistan has suffered its deadliest Ramazan since the US-led invasion in 2001 with over 200 killed and hundreds maimed, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
The streets of Kabul were quiet on Saturday ahead of the Eidul Fitr festival, which marks the end of Ramazan, amid fears of further attacks.
"It was the deadliest month for pious Afghans who were all fasting," political analyst, General Abdul Wahid Taqat told AFP.
As Ramazan began on May 27, a Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... boom-mobileer targeting a CIA-funded Afghan militia group left 13 people dead and injured six in eastern Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... A sewage tanker filled with explosives detonated just days later in the city's fortified diplomatic quarter, killing more than 150 and wounding hundreds -- marking the deadliest attack in Kabul in recent years.
The carnage left the Afghan capital shaken and hundreds of protesters erupted into the streets following the bombing, calling for officials to resign.
Clashes between protesters and authorities left at least six people dead while at least seven more were killed when jacket wallahs tore through a row of mourners at a funeral for one of the protesters.
On Thursday as Ramazan was drawing to a close, a Taliban boom-mobile struck a bank in Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province. Around 34 people queuing to withdraw their salaries died.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The town of Salqin in northwestern Idlib countryside became a scene of infighting on Saturday, as heavy festivities erupted between jihadists of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, Syrian al-Qaeda branch) and local residents.
According to reports, firefights were instigated by masked HTS murderous Moslems trying to arrest civilians without a reason.
Local residents began gathering at the scene in a bid to prevent jihadists from detaining their fellow citizens, which prompted murderous Moslems to open fire at protesters.
The latter, in turn, carried their own guns which they had not hesitated to use, once jihadists began shooting.
As a result of violent firefight, at least 5 people have been confirmed dead, both among HTS and local civilians, with festivities still ongoing in Salqin.
Besides, according to local sources, residents of the town have called Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... in for help, and the islamist group responded the request by sending a unit to Salqin to drive HTS out of the town.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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[SHABELLENEWS] The Somali foreign minister on Friday lauded a Turkish military training camp which is expected to open in Somalia in the coming months.
"This military training camp established by our Turkish friends will be the first professional training camp for the Somali army. That is why it is very important to us," Yusuf Garaad Omar told Anadolu Agency in Ankara.
"We hope that this base will reinforce the professionalism of our army," he said.
He added that the facility is very important because Somalia is at the point of renewing its national army.
"I visited the modern facility outside the city," Omar said.
"We do not have a clear date yet, but we know it will open in a few months," Omar added.
Speaking about the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... -Saudi crisis, he said that Somalia had chosen to stay neutral over the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2017
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[ARA News] The Raqqa Civilian Council, established by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has pardoned 83 captured ISIS fighters, in what it said was a goodwill gesture designed to promote stability as the Kurdish-led SDF troops continue the fight to recapture the city from the radical group.
The council, which is expected to rule Raqqa once ISIS is eliminated in Raqqa, said on Saturday that the pardoned fighters “were low-ranking members and were not involved with violence.”
The youngest of the prisoners pardoned was 14 years old, according to Reuters.They were transported to the headquarters of the Raqqa City Council in the village of Ain Issa, north of Raqqa.
The amnesty coincided with the Eid al-Fitr holiday–marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The Raqqa Civilian Council is expected to run post-ISIS Raqqa city. In April, Kurdish feminist Layla Mohammed was appointed as the co-head of the US-backed council, with Mahmoud Shawakh al-Busran as the Arab co-chair.
The council includes members of the Arab tribes, Turkmen, and Kurds.
Fight for Raqqa
Last week, the Syrian Democratic Forces captured al-Baitara district in Raqqa city after clashes with ISIS. The US-backed SDF troops earlier captured the districts of al-Mishlab, al-Sabahiya, al-Romaniya, and Sinaa in Raqqa.
This comes after the SDF launched a major operation to liberate the city of Raqqa from ISIS radicals.
Raqqa has been known as a de facto capital for the ISIS self-proclaimed Caliphate since the summer of 2014.
On June 6, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced the official start of the battle for Raqqa city.
The Kurdish-Arab-Christian alliance of SDF has been isolating Raqqa since November 2016, when the US-backed alliance launched the so-called Euphrates Wrath Operation.
On 13 April, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the fourth phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation against Islamic State’s extremists to clear out the northern countryside of Raqqa.
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, which began on November 6, 2016, the SDF liberated roughly 560 km² in Northern Raqqa.
On 10 December, 2016, the SDF launched the second phase of the Euphrates Wrath, during which it captured over 2500 km² in Western Raqqa.
On 4 February, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the third phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation, and liberated dozens of villages in Eastern Raqqa from ISIS jihadists.
The campaign is ultimately aimed at liberating the city of Raqqa from ISIS extremists.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2017
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[Ynet] The CIA's director held a secret negotiation with Syria's intelligence chief earlier this year as part of an effort to free an American journalist taken hostage in the Arab country five years ago, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Friday.
The phone conversation between CIA boss Mike Pompeo and Syria's Ali Mamlouk occurred in February, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified American officials. The subject was Austin Tice, a former Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets.
While further communications followed, the Times reported that the diplomatic effort collapsed after the US accused Syrian President Basharal-Assad's government of killing dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in April and President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... responded by launching some 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.
Erbil – Although Iraqi forces are close to ending the battle to liberate Mosul and eliminating ISIS militarily in Iraq, some areas in the Kirkuk province, Hamrin Basin and the outskirts of the Tuz Khurmatu district have recently witnessed intense ISIS movements.
The terrorists’ numbers have increased dramatically despite the presence of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) military bases not far from these areas, raising questions about Tehran’s plans in the region.
“The Iranian regime wants to disrupt the referendum process on the independence of Kurdistan through ISIS’s control over Kirkuk,” Kurdish security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The referendum is due to be held in September and the Kurdish leadership wants it to take place in disputed areas, like Kirkuk.
Sources added that Iran wants Kirkuk to be controlled by the Popular Mobilization Forces under the pretext of liberating it from ISIS. They noted that Iranian ambassador to Iraq Irj Musjidi, who is one of the leaders of Guards’ Quds Force, is supervising the implementation of the plan.
For his part, commander of the military wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) in Iran Hussein Yazdan Banna told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Iranian regime, through the IRGC and Musjidi, is overseeing the implementation of a plan by ISIS in the district of Hawija, a province of Kirkuk that is under the control of the terrorists.
The plan, Banna said, is to launch a large-scale attack on Kirkuk and occupy it or occupying a strategic area close to it to give the Popular Mobilization Forces an excuse to mobilize and send large numbers of its armed forces to Kirkuk under the pretext of liberating and protecting it.
This will achieve the Iranian goal of separating Kirkuk from Kurdistan, preventing it from participating in the referendum and disrupting the referendum altogether.
Banna pointed out that Hawija, Hamrin Basin and the Tuz Khurmatu district on the western and southern sides of the province of Kirkuk, have been witnessing intense movements by ISIS, which launched in the past weeks many attacks on Peshmerga forces positions.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2017
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[Breitbart] Three Republican House Oversight Committee members on Friday called for an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey and Special Counsel Robert Mueller for acting in a partisan manner and applying double standards when it came to the Obama and Trump administrations.
Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Mark Meadows (NC), and Jody Hice (GA) said Comey misled the American people last year when he agreed to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s request that he call an investigation into Hillary Clinton a "matter" instead of an investigation.
"He did it willfully. He did it intentionally. And he did it at the direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch," they wrote in a piece published on foxnews.com.
They also said Comey misled the American people in the early weeks of the Trump administration by "furthering the perception that President Trump was under investigation, when in fact he was not."
"He again did this willfully and intentionally," they wrote.
They also pointed out that Comey recently admitted having a friend leak one of his memos detailing a private conversation he had with Trump, after Trump fired him.
#1
I'd say get on with it ASAP. After all, the Pubs have the majority even though, at times, they don't act like it. It should be a public hearing and under oath. Maybe there should be a Special Counsel to investigate the Special Counsel.
[Al Jazeera] A civil council in Syria's Raqqa has pardoned 83 captured ISIS fighters, in what it said was a goodwill gesture designed to promote stability as the fighting to recapture the city from the gang intensifies.
The council, which is expected to rule Raqqa once ISIS is dislodged from its self-proclaimed capital, said on Saturday that the pardoned fighters were low-ranking members and were not involved with violence.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have gained significant ground in the battle for Raqqa, the operational base for ISIS over the past three years.
Senior SDF figures predict Raqqa could fall within months.
The youngest of the prisoners pardoned was 14 years old, according to the Rooters news agency.
They were transported to the headquarters of the Raqqa City Council in the village of Ain Issa, north of Raqqa, in an amnesty coinciding with the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
'No senior posts'
Leila Mustafa, co-leader of the council, read out a speech saying the prisoners released had no blood on their hands and held no senior posts.
Syria has been locked in a multi-sided civil war for more than six years involving regional powers and a US-led coalition whose air raids put ISIS on the defensive.
"We would never release senior ISIS officials or anyone who has blood on their hands," senior council member Omar Aloush told Rooters, using an Arabic term for ISIS. "We are giving these men a second chance."
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06/25/2017
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[Bangkok Post] Twelve soldiers and two civilians, one of them a four-year-old girl, were hurt when a motorcycle bomb exploded on a road in Narathiwat province.
After receiving a report Friday evening, a security team found a military truck with the driver's side destroyed and burst front tires on the road lining an irrigation canal in Sungai Kolok district. Fourteen people were injured, 12 of them soldiers. They were found on the road and in the bed of the truck.
The soldiers were on a mission to replace those on duty at Ban Srayor and Ban Arakarn in Sungai Kolok municipality. About a kilometer from their base, men hiding in the roadside forest detonated the bomb buried on the roadside, injurng them and the father and daughter who were riding behind the truck on a motorcycle.
Police suspect insurgents who had warned about more unrest during the period between Ramadan and Hari Raya might have been responsible for the crime.
#3
#1 Evidently someone has forgotten about the late Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann and how he became a star on the CIA's Hall of Heroes.
Posted by Besoeker
Yep, Johnny Walker can now go hold hands with Muhammed Fazl, one of the Taliban Five that Obama freed. In regards to Spann's death, they were captured together and Fazl should have been charged as well as Lindh. Fazl gave the order and Lindh surely helped.
[SHABELLENEWS] Three people were killed and three others maimed in a suspected Islamic krazed killer attack in Kenya’s Mandera County, which borders Somalia, officials said Friday.
Four gunniesrubbed out two civilians and a policeman at a bank in Elwak, Northeastern Regional Security Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said.
Saleh said three people were maimed before the gunnies drove off toward Somalia.
Kenya’s border with long-chaotic Somalia is mostly unguarded.
In a separate incident, the Kenya Red Thingy said two people escaped unhurt after their car ran over a homemade bomb in Mandera.
Saleh said al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... bully boyz from Somalia were suspected to be behind both attacks.
Similar homemade explosives in Kenya in the past month have killed at least 38 people, including 20 coppers.
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[Ynet] The UN health agency says there are now more than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera in an outbreak in war-torn Yemen, many of them children.
UNICEF director Anthony Lake and World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said in a statement Saturday, "we are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world," with an average of 5,000 new cases every day. The agencies say that more than 1,300 people have died -- one quarter of them children -- and the corpse count is expected to rise.
[SHABELLENEWS] Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... and Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... states have signed a new peace deal in Galkayo town, the headquarters of Mudug region in central Somalia following Federal govt-brokered talks.
Basically the peace agreement was all about to restore peace in Galkayo, after forces loyal to two federal states have taken arms against each other and fought for control of the city.
The Interior Minister of Somalia has been lengthily engaged in bringing together officials of two states, who finally inked the peace accord aimed at ending the long-running conflict.
This signing of this agreement came after ministers from Puntland and Galmudug begun direct talks in Galkayo town to discuss the conflict between the two sides early this week.
The talks followed a meeting between Puntland President Abdiweli Mohammed Ali and Galmudug President Ahmed Duale Haaf, which was held in Adado town last month.
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[RT] Feds probe Los Alamos lab for mislabeling & shipping nuclear materials by air.
Federal regulators are investigating an “absolutely unacceptable” violation of improper handling of nuclear material after the mislabeled cargo was sent on commercial cargo flights to two laboratories in the United States.
Last week, unknown quantities of “special nuclear material” were sent from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina via “commercial air cargo” in violation of federal regulations.
#2
There've been serious problems at Los Alamos for the last 10 years or so. Like, having to shut down entire processing labs because they don't seem to be able to follow their own safety procedures. More than once.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/25/2017 10:47
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#3
The Hope Diamond was delivered to the Smithsonian via the US Mail.
[SHABELLENEWS] Mohammed Ali Yusuf, a politician who was forced out of Jubbaland parliament has accused the state’s President Ahmed Madobe of sending arms to the Al Qaeda-linked Al shabaab group.
Speaking at a presser in Mogadishu on Wednesday, Yusuf said Madobe provided Al shabaab with heavy and light arms which is fuelling the flames in a country already burning.
Yusuf was among several MPs ejected from Jubbaland parliament for undisclosed reasons.
Jubbaland, is federal state established in early 2013, following power-share talks in Kismayo ...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region...
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[DAWN] The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has directed the capital police to incorporate honour killing sections in an FIR registered against a man for opening fire on his teenage cousin in the Nilore village in order to prevent the chance of pardon or settlement within the family.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) on June 14 drew attention of the NCHR towards the attempted honour killing.
A letter sent by the HRCP to the NCHR stated that on June 9 a girl, aged between 16 and 17, was shot thrice allegedly by her cousin in the Nilore village.
It said seven months ago the father of the girl, who belonged to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and was settled in Nilore, decided to marry her off to a man much older than her.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the girl left her home with a boy belonging to a local community.
Four days later, the couple was caught at Khanna Pul and brought back home.
The girl was beaten and locked up inside the home. On June 9, the letter claimed, the girl’s cousin shot her and fled.
Her father filed an FIR with the Nilore police the same day but the accused could not be tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! The victim is under treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Pakistain Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).
On June 15, she was operated upon and a bullet which had pierced into her throat was removed successfully. She has now started communicating with her family through writing and also recorded her statement with the police.
On Thursday, NCHR Chairman retired Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan along with members from Islamabad, KP and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... heard the case at its head office. Police officers and doctors from Pims briefed the commission about the case.
Pims medico-legal officer Dr Naseema said when the victim was brought to the hospital she was in a very critical condition but now she was a bit stable and her condition improving.
Justice Chowhan said honour killing was totally against human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and freedom and liberty of a person and such acts should be condemned by the public on the lam and there should be strict punishments for the offenders.
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Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Salahuddin Province revealed that the Islamic State group burned a member of the so-called Cubs of the Caliphate, for refusing to kill his family, Alsumaria News reported on Saturday.
The source said that the Islamic State group burned a member of Cubs of the Caliphate in the area of Mutaibaija, east of Salahuddin, after he refused to attack and kill his family, in a village near Tikrit.
The Islamic State started to encourage its members to attack their own families, especially those who dissent the group’s radical ideology and support security forces and their affiliated militias, the source added on condition of anonymity.
The Islamic State group formed the so-called Cubs of the Caliphate, in order to recruit children and teenagers in its ranks, and use them in suicide attacks.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[IsraelTimes] Tribute to ’martyr’ Khaled Nazzal in Jenin had been removed earlier in week after intense pressure from PM Netanyahu.
Either they think Mr. Kushner won't notice what happened after he left, or they've given up the idea of winning through America-sponsored negotiations.
Paleostinians in the West Bank city of Jenin have reportedly reinstalled a monument to a terrorist who criminal masterminded a notorious 1974 massacre of Israeli school children, despite intense pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel Radio reported Saturday that the monument went back up overnight as part of an agreement between Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ’s Fatah party and the mayor of Jenin.
Last week the Jenin municipality named a square and put up the stone memorial in honor of "martyr" Khaled Nazzal, who planned the 1974 Maalot massacre in which Paleostinian forces of Evil murdered 22 school children and 4 adults.
The move prompted a Twitter outburst from Netanyahu who accused Abbas of lying that he wants peace and "poisoning" the minds of young Paleostinians.
Paleostinian Media Watch reported on the naming of the square Monday, noting that Nazzal, a member of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Paleostine, also planned a 1974 abduction in Beit She’an which ended in the killing of four hostages, and a 1984 shooting attack in Jerusalem in which one person was killed and 47 maimed.
On Saturday, Israel Radio said that following the outburst, the monument had been temporarily removed. Paleostinian officials said that Israel had warned if it was not taken down the IDF would come in and remove it and destroy the square.
The dispute comes as the US has been trying to get the Israelis and the Paleostinians back to the negotiating table. Israel says Paleostinians glorifying the murder of Israelis is one of the biggest impediments to peace.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Nineveh Province informed that three elite leaders of the Islamic State were killed in an air strike that targeted their gathering in Tal Afar, west of Nineveh, Alsumaria News reported on Saturday.
The source said that three elite leaders of the Islamic State in Tal Afar, including Diwan al-Jund (Soldiers department) Official, were killed by an air strike that bombarded a hideout that was hosting their meeting in the outskirts of the city.
The air strike also killed the guards of the three leaders and several others, the source added on condition of anonymity.
It is noteworthy, Tal Afar is one of the large districts in Nineveh Province that was captured by the Islamic State group in June 2014, and now is considered one of the most important strongholds of the group in the province, while Iraqi security forces are preparing to launch an assault to retake the district.
(Reuters) Iraqi forces opened exit routes for hundreds of civilians to flee the Old City of Mosul on Saturday as they battled to retake the ancient quarter from Islamic State militants mounting a last stand in what was the de facto capital of their “caliphate”.
U.S.-trained urban warfare units were channeling their onslaught along two perpendicular streets that converge in the heart of the Old City, aiming to isolate the jihadist insurgents in four pockets.
The United Nations voiced alarm on Saturday at the rising death toll among civilians in the heavily populated Old City, saying as many as 12 were killed and hundreds injured on Friday.
“Fighting is very intense in the Old City and civilians are at extreme, almost unimaginable risk. There are reports that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of people are being held as human shields (by Islamic State),” Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement. “Hundreds of civilians, including children, are being shot.”
Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the Muslim Eid holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, during the next few days.
Helicopter gunships were assisting the ground thrust, firing at insurgent emplacements in the Old City, a Reuters correspondent reported from a location near the front lines.
The government advance was carving out escape corridors for civilians marooned behind Islamic State lines.
There was a steady trickle of fleeing families on Saturday, some with injured and malnourished children. “My baby only had bread and water for the past eight days,” one mother said.
At least 100 civilians reached the safety of a government-held area west of the Old City in one 20-minute period, tired, scared and hungry. Soldiers gave them food and water.
More than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are believed to be children, remain trapped in the crumbling old houses of the Old City, with little food, water or medical treatment.
The urban-warfare forces were leading the campaign to clear the Sunni Islamist militants from the maze of Old City alleyways, moving on foot house-to-house in locations too cramped for the use of armored combat vehicles.
Aid organizations and Iraqi authorities say Islamic State was trying to prevent civilians from leaving so as to use them as human shields. Hundreds of civilians fleeing the Old City have been killed in the past three weeks.
A U.S.-led international coalition is providing ground and air support in the eight-month-old campaign to seize Mosul, the largest city the militants came to control in a shock offensive in Iraq and neighboring Syria three years ago.
U.S.-supported Iraqi government offensives have wrested back several important urban centers in the country’s west and north from Islamic State over the past 18 months.
Historic Mosque Blown Up By Militants
Military analysts said Baghdad’s campaign to recover Mosul gathered pace after Islamic State blew up the 850-year-old al-Nuri mosque with its famous leaning minaret on Wednesday.
The mosque’s destruction, while condemned by Iraqi and U.N. authorities as another cultural crime by the jihadists, gave troops more freedom to press their onslaught as they no longer had to worry about damaging the ancient site.
It was from the mosque that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced himself to the world for the first time as the “caliph”, or ruler of all Muslims, on July 4, 2014. Mosul’s population at the time was more than 2 million.
Baghdadi fled into the desert expanse extending across Iraq and Syria in the early phase of the Mosul offensive, leaving the fighting there to local IS commanders, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. Recent Russian reports that he was killed have not been confirmed by the coalition or Iraqi authorities.
The Iraqi government once hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the campaign dragged on as IS reinforced positions in inner-city neighborhoods of the city’s western half, carried out suicide car and motorbike bomb attacks, laid booby traps and kept up barrages of sniper and mortar fire.
By this weekend, the area still under IS control was less than 2 square km (0.77 sq miles) in extent, skirting the western bank of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul.
Islamic State retaliated for government advances on Friday evening with a triple bombing in a neighborhood in eastern Mosul, which Baghdad’s forces recaptured in January.
The attack was carried out by three people who detonated explosive belts, killing five, including three policemen, and wounding 19, according to a military statement on Saturday.
The fall of Mosul would mark the end of the Iraqi half of Islamic State’s “caliphate” as a quasi-state structure, but IS would still hold sizeable, mainly rural and small-town tracts of both Iraq and Syria.
In eastern Syria, Islamic State’s so-called capital, Raqqa, is now nearly encircled by a U.S.-backed Kurdish-led coalition.
MOSUL: Suicide bombers attacked a shopping district of east Mosul that was retaken from the jihadists months ago, killing at least three people, medical and security officials said Saturday.
The attack struck the Muthanna neighborhood late on Friday as residents shopped ahead of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“The first suicide bomber blew himself up as he was being stopped by a policeman, who died on the spot,” a senior police officer said.
A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital.
A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.
The attack was not the first but among the bloodiest since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country’s second city from Daesh.
Residents in areas retaken from the jihadists have warned that sleeper cells remain a threat and that cursory screening has allowed many Daesh supporters to return to civilian life without facing justice.
There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday night’s attack for the families of Daesh members to be banished for 10 years, among other measures.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[Al Jazeera] The number of people killed in twin bombings in the northwestern Pak city of Parachinar has risen to at least 67, bringing the overall corpse count from three separate attacks across the country on Friday to 85, officials said.
Shahid Khan, a local government official, said the toll could rise as many of the victims remained at death's door on Saturday.
More than 200 people were maimed in the rush-hour attacks on Parachinar's Toori Bazar, he told local media.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , a Sunni gang, claimed the bombings in the predominantly Shia Moslem town.
Earlier on Friday, a suicide kaboom at a police checkpoint in Quetta, in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, killed at least 14 people, at least 10 of whom were coppers, the AFP news agency said.
Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistain Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... , grabbed credit for the attack.
In yet another incident on Friday, gunnies in the port city of 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 Sindh province, attacked coppers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, Asif Ahmed, a police brass hat, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency.
Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , Pakistain's prime minister, ordered security to be tightened across the country after the attacks.
"Terrorists are attacking soft targets and no Moslem can ever imagine to commit such horrific act," he said in a statement.
"Such acts of terrorism will be dealt with the full power of the state."
Zoha Waseem, a researcher at King's College in London, criticised what she called Pakistain's "ad hoc" and "reactionary response to terrorism", saying it only served to increase the appeal of gangs.
Government policy of granting sweeping powers to security forces and increasing surveillance "severely impinge on civil rights," she told Al Jazeera.
"They are not preventive. They breed and exacerbate existing grievances in Pakistain", she said, adding that such measures meant gangs "will always find a pool of recruits, because they [public] are targeted by the state".
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[AlAhram] President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government said on Saturday it was investigating reports that forces backed by the United Arab Emirates were running secret prisons in southern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... where detainees are subjected to torture and abuse.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led Arab alliance that intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 to roll back Iran-allied 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 ... forces that drove Hadi into exile. His government has since regained a presence in the south based in Aden but the Houthis still hold most of the north including the capital Sanaa.
Reports of secret prisons where detainees are abused relate to areas of the south where UAE forces and its allies have also swooped against al Qaeda myrmidons, who have exploited the war to try to carve out areas of control and influence.
Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported that it had documented the cases of 49 people, including four children, whom it said were arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared in Aden and Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... over the last year.
Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr said he had set up a six-member committee headed by the justice minister to investigate "human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. allegations in liberated areas".
"The committee starts work from today and sends its report to the prime minister within 15 days," the order, dated June 22, said. The committee's duties were to investigate the abuse allegations, ways to respond to them and to put forth mechanisms to deal with any such issues in the future.
On Friday, the UAE Foreign Ministry denied running any secret prisons in Yemen and called the accusations "an attempt to sully the reputation of the alliance that had intervened to save the Yemeni people".
"This issue is in the hands of the legitimate Yemeni authorities, while the coalition forces provide the necessary training for Yemeni cadres in line with the best legal practices," the ministry said in a statement.
[SHABELLENEWS] Somalia’s military court has sentenced three alleged Al shabaab members to death and life imprisonment for killing a well-known holy man in the southern town of Baidoa early this month.
The chairman of the military tribunal Hassan Ali Nur Shuute has announced the court verdict during a presser in Baidoa on Wednesday.
According to court decision, Mohammed Ali Aden Barrow was sentenced to death for shooting dead Sheikh Mohammed Madeer, former electoral delegate outside a mosque in Baidoa city.
The two remaining accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment, Shuute said.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BBC] At least 123 people were killed when a lorry transporting oil burst into flames near the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, local officials say.
But things are looking up for North Koreans, he said.
[Townhall] There is so much winning for taxpayers, concerned citizens, and conservatives in general in the state of California. The slow but steady victories in this blue bastion of progressive insanity should raise hope for all of us. After all, the Left loves to gloat that what happens in California is most likely to pop up all over the United States.
[IMAGES.DAWN] Johnny Depp on Friday apologised for joking about assassinating U.S. President Donald Trump, saying his remarks were in "poor taste."
[ABS-CBN] As the Muslims in this besieged city offered prayers at the end of Ramadan, gunshots were heard early Sunday, just minutes after security forces implemented an 8-hour ceasefire for the celebration of Eid al-Fitr. 
The caliphatization continues.[DW] 
[AlManar] Dozens of ISIL and other Takfiri terrorists have been killed in air strikes carried out by Syrian army in Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Raqqa and Daraa.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[Breitbart] Three Republican House Oversight Committee members on Friday called for an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey and Special Counsel Robert Mueller for acting in a partisan manner and applying double standards when it came to the Obama and Trump administrations.
[Al Jazeera] A civil council in Syria's Raqqa has pardoned 83 captured 
[Bangkok Post] Twelve soldiers and two civilians, one of them a four-year-old girl, were hurt when a motorcycle bomb exploded on a road in Narathiwat province. 
[Foreign Policy]
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
[Al Jazeera] The ruling Socialists and rival Democrats seek an outright majority in Sunday's general election to implement EU plans.
[Ynet] The UN health agency says there are now more than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera in an outbreak in war-torn Yemen, many of them children.
[DAWN] The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has directed the capital police to incorporate honour killing sections in an FIR registered against a man for opening fire on his teenage cousin in the Nilore village in order to prevent the chance of pardon or settlement within the family.
