#2
A very Merry Christmas to all our men and women who serve. May God grant you safe return to your loved ones and know that we are with you in spirit..
"Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey, new to the 2nd Queen's Westminister Rifles, wrote to his mother, 'A most extraordinary thing happened. . . . Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men. . . . It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours." (p. 5)
An Afghan policewoman has killed a US civilian aide at the police headquarters in Kabul. It is believed to be the first such insider attack carried out by a woman. She is now in custody.
In a separate incident, at least five local policemen were killed by another officer in northern Afghanistan.
There has been a rise in incidents in which Afghan security forces members have shot dead either foreign personnel or their own colleagues.
Really - what did we do to provoke them? Clearly we haven't apologized enough.
In Monday's attack in Kabul, Afghan officials said the 33-year-old officer, who they named only as Nargis, arrived at the HQ looking for the police chief, the governor of Kabul or the head of the criminal investigation department. When she was unable to locate them she went to the canteen and fired one bullet at the aide. She then fired at officers who tried to arrest her.
Afghan officials said the woman was married to an officer with the criminal investigation department and has three children.
This "green-on-blue" incident in the Kabul police headquarters highlights the concern about whether Afghan and Nato forces can work together after most foreign troops leave the country in the next two years. After 2014 Nato will primarily be on a training mission requiring close working relations and trust between Afghan forces and foreign troops.
Such attacks raise more questions about whether such a close relationship is feasible.
[An Nahar] Rebels in Sudan's troubled Darfur region on Monday reported the rare seizure of a town from government control after fighting that resulted in arrests and casualties.
The Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA's) Abdelwahid Nur faction took control of Golo, a major town in the Jebel Marra area, at about mid-day on Monday after fighting when government militia tried to attack a rebel position, the group's front man Ibrahim Al-Hillu told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Hillu said the rebels seized heavy machine guns, mortars, vehicles and other military equipment in the town and had taken prisoners. There were also casualties but he had no details.
Sudan's army front man could not be reached for comment.
The fertile and mountainous Jebel Marra area is home to the non-Arab Fur people who gave their name to Darfur (Land of the Fur), and who are represented by Nur's faction.
The group has several hundred combatants and a "sphere of influence" limited to the Jebel Marra region, which has been regularly targeted by government military operations and air attacks, according to the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based independent research project.
In May, Nur's faction along with the SLA-Minni Minnawi group briefly took control of the southern Darfur town of Girayda from government forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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Egyptian armed forces foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 French-made TDI model rockets into the Gazoo Strip, the Egypt Independent quoted an anonymous military sources as saying Monday.
According to the report, Egyptian military forces, in cooperation with local Bedouins, stopped the smuggling attempt in northern Sinai. The rockets intercepted were caliber 68 mm, which have a range of three kilometers.
[An Nahar] "Pirates armed with guns attacked, boarded an offshore supply vessel ... and kidnapped four crew members," the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center said of the Sunday attack.
There were "no injuries to crew members and (the) vessel continued passage to a safe port," it said.
The attack occurred some 40 nautical miles off of Nigeria's Bayelsa state, the IMB said. It provided no further details on the nationality of the crew or the ship.
Such kidnappings occur regularly off Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region, with hostages typically released after payment of a ransom.
A 2009 amnesty deal led to a sharp drop in unrest in the region, but criminality remains widespread.
On December 17, four workers from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and a Nigerian were kidnapped by gunnies while working at a construction site in Bayelsa. The five were freed unharmed on Friday night.
On the same day, well armed pirates stormed and ransacked an oil tanker off the Niger Delta and kidnapped five Indian crew members.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed six al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiin Yemen on Monday, including a Jordanian, government officials said.
The first "drone strike targeted a vehicle killing two al-Qaeda members -- a Yemeni and a Jordanian" in Manaseh of central Bayda province, a local government official said, requesting anonymity.
A security official identified one of the Islamic fascistikilled as Abdullah Hussein al-Waeli, an al-Qaeda member from Marib province who was wanted after he beat feet from prison two years ago. No details were given on the Jordanian.
Tribal sources said three other Islamic fascistiwere maimed in the attack.
Three missiles fired at cycle of violences in Hadramawt province killed four more al-Qaeda bad turbans, a local government official said.
The official, who requested anonymity, said the missiles were fired by "an American drone," and that the attack took place in the center of Shehr, a town east of the bustling provincial capital Mukalla.
Al-Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in nearby Radaa earlier this year, shortly before being driven out by tribal militiamen.
Tareq al-Dahab, who led the al-Qaeda gunnies in the January raid on the town, was rubbed out in February.
Dahab was a brother-in-law of slain U.S.-born holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed in a suspected US drone strike in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Four people, including three traders, were bumped off in 'sectarian' attacks in two different parts of the city on Monday, police said.
The police added that the three traders, including two brothers, were rubbed out in two successive 'sectarian' attacks in Nazimabad No 2 on Monday morning.
The police added that four gunnies riding two cycles of violence fired at a department store owner, Qamar Hussain, 45, and his elder brother, Hasnain Hussain, 50, who ran a neighbouring vegetables shop, before killing yet another trader, Hussain Ali, at his paper shop in the next street printing press market.
The drive-by shootings were carried out in Nazimabad No 2 near Inquiry Office within the remit of the Gulbahar cop shoppe.
The victims were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where Hussain Ali, 40, was pronounced dead on arrival, while the maimed brothers died during treatment, the police said.
Police Sherlocks later collected seven spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scenes.
Both the brothers were area residents, the police Sherlocks said, adding that Hasnain had three children and Qamar was father of a child.
Hussain was also a resident of Nazimabad and father of five, the police said.
Following the medico-legal formalities, the bodies of the brothers were taken to the Imambargah Shah-e-Karbala in Rizvia Society, while the body of Hussain was shifted to the Mehfil-e-Khurasan where his funeral was held before his burial in the Mewashah graveyard.
The funeral of Hasnain and Qamar will be held on Tuesday after the arrival of their elder brother from Dubai, family members told Dawn.
Following the killings, tension gripped Nazimabad and Rizvia Society where shops and markets were closed, as protesters placed burning tyres on Golimar Road to suspend traffic.
A heavy police contingent was deployed in the area to tackle the situation.
DIG (west) Javed Odho said that the killings seemed to have sectarian motive. He added that 9mm pistol was used in all the three killings, he said. For the past couple of days, the pace of sectarian killings had picked up, he remarked.
Central deputy secretary general of the Majlis Wehdat-e-Mohammedaneen Maulana Amin Shaheedi condemned what he described as 'serial assassination' of Shias in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and demanded that President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... , Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... take immediate notice of the 'Shia genocide' in Bloody Karachi.
In a statement, he said more than five Shias were bumped off by gunnies of banned outfits over the past 36 hours in Bloody Karachi but the government and law-enforcement agencies had failed to arrest a single terrorist involved in the killings.
Prayer leader killed
Later during the day, a prayer leader was killed in another sectarian attack, this time in North Bloody Karachi, police said.
Mufti Muavia, son of Abdul Mateen, was bumped off as he was about to enter Sadequain mosque at Anda Morr within the remit of the Sir Syed cop shoppe, the police added.
The maimed Mufti was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital from where he was referred to the Liaquat National Hospital. He died during treatment on Monday night, the police added.
A front man for the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat confirmed the death of Mufti Muavia during treatment at the hospital.
His funeral was held in Madni Masjid, Sector 11-C, North Bloody Karachi.
The police described the killing as a sectarian attack. "Apparently the attack somewhat seemed a reaction to the Nazimabad killings," DIG west Javed Odho observed.
Student killed
A private medical university student was rubbed out during what police suspect was a botched kidnapping bid on the Northern Bypass on Monday morning.
Resident of DHA Khadda Market, 28-year-old Zohaib Ahmed was driving a car (ABX-849) when he was rubbed out within the remit of the Sohrab Goth cop shoppe, officials said.
Sohrab Goth DSP Qamar Ahmed the young man was student of third year MBBS student of Baqai Medical University. The bullet pierced through his shoulder and hit his neck casing his death, the officer said, adding that the victim rammed into the rocks after being shot at.
The police shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
As a matter of routine, he used to pick up some friends from Sohrab Goth while heading to the university every morning, but it was not clear as to why he took a different route on Monday, said the DSP.
"The victim was not deprived of cash, an expensive cellphone and the car, indicating that it was not a snatching attempt," he added.
"It seems that the suspects wanted to kidnap the young man, but he attempted to speed away and the suspects opened fire," the officer conjectured.
Man killed, policeman maimed
A man was rubbed out and a policeman was maimed in an attack at a tea restaurant in the Ayub Goth area of Sohrab Goth, officials said.
Abdul Jabbar Barfat, 65, was killed and policeman Mohammad Rafique was maimed in the drive-by shooting, the police said.
They said the dear departed was father of four.
Man rubbed out in Saddar
A young man was rubbed out in the Preedy area late Monday night, police said.
The victim was identified as Mazhar, 23, son of Mohammad Zaheer, a resident of Rexer Lines, the police added.
Preedy DSP Zamir Abbasi said: "The victim was rubbed out in a street near Rafique Plaza, off the M.A. Jinnah Road. It seems that he had been kidnapped before being brought there and rubbed out," he said.
The victim sustained a single bullet in the head, causing his instant death, the police said.
A spent bullet casing of 9mm pistol was found from the scene, the police said.
They later shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi for medico-legal formalities.
Any political affiliation of the victim was not clear immediately, said DSP Abbasi.
Young man rubbed out
A construction company employee was rubbed out within the remit of the Bilal Colony cop shoppe in New Bloody Karachi on Monday.
Nadeem Khursheed, 35, sustained a single bullet in the head, the police said.
They shifted the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
Bodies found
The bodies of two young men were found in a garbage dump in the marshy area near Machhar Colony, police said.
Both the men, identified as Saeed Alam, 20 and Amir Hussain, 24, had been shot at multiple times, the police added.
The police said the two men had criminal background. They had been tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! in murder and armed robbery cases, the police added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two personnel of the Frontier Corps and two of the 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... Constabulary and a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... container driver were killed in acts of terror in Quetta, Mashkey and Hub town on Monday.
Official sources said the FC personnel were killed when they were attacked by unknown hard boyz while they were coming out of the FC Fort in Mashkey. The two victims were identified as soldiers Saifullah and Zhazad.
Four FC personnel were seriously injured in Sakran area of Hub when a bomb strapped to a cycle of violencewent kaboom!.
Two Balochistan Constabulary personnel were killed and another was injured when their convoy was ambushed on Eastern Bypass in Quetta.
Bodies of the two were taken to Civil Hospital in Quetta and they were identified as Abdul Haleem and Mohammad Arshad. Hospital sources said that condition of injured Yar Muhammad was critical. A driver of a NATO supply container, Mohammad Qasim, was killed in Sariab locality.--
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel.
About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas.
The rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others, Human Rights Watch said.
"Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas.
Human Rights Watch research in Gaza found that armed groups repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire.
The Palestinian armed groups that are known to have launched rockets at Israel -- Hamas' Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Jihad's Saraya al-Quds Brigades, and the Popular Resistance Committee's Nasser Salahaddin Brigades -- at times said that their attacks targeted civilians or they sought to justify the attacks by calling them reprisals for Israeli attacks that killed civilians in Gaza.
#2
..appears their usual sources of revenue are drying up with the economic downturn and their usual sockpuppets at Newsweek are no longer answering the phone.
HT to Weasel Zippers. Popcorn anyone?
The Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command announced that its operations commander, Madal Elian, was killed by rebels in Syria, according to the Lebanese news channel LBC. killed by the rebels
The group is one of the last Palestinian factions to remain loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. (Former Ophthalmologist, now cranky despot)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/25/2012 19:04 ||
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#1
Making friends and influencing people, everywhere they go.
[An Nahar] Jihadists overran large parts of an Alawite village in the central Syrian province of Hama on Monday in fighting that killed at least 30 combatants, a monitoring group said.
Alongside other radical Islamist groups, al-Nusra Front seized parts of the village of Maan, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding at least 11 rebel fighters and 20 regime troops were killed.
Rebels last week launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, home to a patchwork of religious communities, says the Observatory.
While anti-regime sentiment in the province is strong, regime forces had so far suppressed any major signs of insurgency in Hama, which links strategic provinces such as Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , Idlib in the northwest, and Homs in central Syria.
The picturesque provincial capital saw some of the largest protests against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... at the start of Syria's uprising more than 21 months ago, but the city was overrun by security and military forces in summer 2011.
Al-Nusra Front is listed by the United States as a "terrorist" organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Warplanes carried out several strikes on Monday on rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... , where fresh festivities pitting snuffies and troops erupted, said a monitoring group.
The area east of Damascus is home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's fiercest and best organized groups. Several towns in Eastern Ghouta have become key flashpoints in Syria's conflict, as the violence draws ever nearer to the capital.
Analysts say the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... is trying to secure an eight-kilometer (five-mile) radius around the capital so it can be in a position to negotiate a solution to the nearly two-year conflict.
In Damascus, violent battles raged on Sunday night in the northeastern district of Qaboon and on the road separating the southern Paleostinian camp of Yarmuk from neighboring al-Hajar al-Aswad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Violent festivities broke out in Yarmuk last week. A tense calm returned on Thursday.
The Observatory also reported fierce army shelling on the central province of Hama, scene of a massacre of some 60 people on Sunday at the entrance to a bakery in the rebel-held town of Halfaya, according to the Observatory.
Shelling was also reported in the central province of Homs and Daraa in the south.
Monday's violence came a day after at least 198 people were killed across the country, just as international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Syria to launch a new bid to resolve the spiraling war.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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The first report is from al-Jizz, and they admit up front that they can't confirm it. The second comes from the Khaleej Times which gets it from the usual human rights committee inside Syria. They in turn get it from the same source as al-Jizz. This should be taken with the usual Rantburg-sized grain of salt until independent documentation is found.
This video shows medics in a besieged area in Homs city trying to help a person struggling to breath. They say he inhaled poisonous gas sprayed by regime forces in the rebel-held al-Bayada neighbourhood.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the accounts given by them.
BEIRUT - Syrian troops have deployed bombs containing a killer gas while fighting rebels in the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said on Monday.
"Activists in Homs say that six rebels died on Sunday night on the Khaldiyeh-Bayada frontline because they inhaled odourless gas and white smoke," said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and doctors to document Syria's raging conflict. "Gas spread in the area after regime troops threw bombs that gave off white smoke as soon as they hit the walls," said the Observatory, which added that the bombs were deployed during street clashes with the rebels.
"Those who inhaled the gas felt nauseous and suffered severe headaches. Some suffered fits," it added. "These are not chemical weapons, but we do not know whether they are internationally prohibited," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. "Activists say it is the first time they have recorded these effects," he added. "They are not conventional weapons."
The Observatory called on the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross to urgently send a specialised medical team to Homs, several of whose districts have been besieged by army forces for more than six months.
The Local Coordination Committees also reported the use of "bombs containing gases" in Homs. "These gases lead to muscle relaxation, severe difficulty in breathing and the narrowing of the iris," said the LCC, a grassroots network of peaceful activists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/25/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like white phosphorus smoke munitions? Historically, the Arabic-speaking media has had difficulty telling smoke screens from a chemical attack.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/25/2012 6:58 Comments ||
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#2
Ok, so they gassed them. Sounds like they lived through it. Would the human rights folks rather HE rounds obliterating the people, they are a conventional weapon as they desire. What we're missing here is radical Islam removing any doubt that their interests are in democracy or anything other than their way. Soon to be in a country near you, I'm afraid...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/25/2012 13:51 Comments ||
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#3
Give both sides pretty good MOP suits and let them continue debating.
#4
he got em from Saddam, along with his own stocks. Saddam knew how to use them to kill. I think Pencilneck didn't forget how that worked. If he uses them, the survivors will be the exception
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/25/2012 18:29 Comments ||
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Earth First is a terrorist organization, and anything about them is WoT related.
The latest newsletter from the environmentalist group Earth First! Journal contains a curious topic -- assassinations.
In fact, the newsletter conveniently provides the names, addresses and phone numbers of the assassination targets. Naturally, none of this is to be taken seriously, the environmentalists tell us. From the newsletter:
Let us say clearly, this is not a call to undertake assassinations of the elite scum who are pillaging the planet and enslaving the populace -- but not because we think that is a bad idea. And it's also not because we think killing CEOs and lobbyists is negative PR either. In fact, most everyone hates these creeps, and many would applaud their demise. Some would even be so enthusiastic as to make a bid on the assassin's old underwear if given the chance in a government auction, as we found out last year, when the State sold off Ted's personal belongings to further enrich the family of Unabomber victim Thomas J. Mosser, executive of corporate marketing giants Burson Marsteller.
We are not calling for the assassinations of CEOs and lobbyists primarily because those assholes are disposable and replaced with relative ease. Whereas eco-revolutionaries like us are still far and few between, and someone getting popped on that sort of charge it could pull them out of the game for a long time. So instead, until the police state and prison industrial complex is weakened, thus leveling the battlefield a bit more, we propose a campaign of "prank assassinations."
And who are the suggested targets of the Earth First! Journal assassination campaign? Members of the productive class, of course, fill the "Hit List." Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, is listed because his company has developed more efficient methods of developing cheap natural gas.
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.
Egyptian armed forces foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 French-made TDI model rockets into the 
[An Nahar] "Pirates armed with guns attacked, boarded an offshore supply vessel ... and kidnapped four crew members," the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center said of the Sunday attack.
[An Nahar] Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed six al-Qaeda 
cycle of violence
[Dawn] Four people, including three traders, were 
President Asif Ali 
Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Warplanes carried out several strikes on Monday on rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta region near 
