[Tolo News] At least eight Taliban hard boyz were killed and ten others were maimed during a series of security operations conducted by the joint Afghan forces operations in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) said on Saturday.
The other hard boyz were nabbed Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! during the operations.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army and the National Directorate for Security (NDS) or intelligence service conducted several anti-terrorism joint operations in, Faryab, Zabul, Pashtun-infested Logar and Ghor provinces," the ministry said in a statement.
The MoIA did not provide details about Afghan forces casualties during the raids.
"Also, during these operations, Afghan National Police discovered and confiscated light and heavy rounds ammunition and IEDs," the statement read.
The Taliban has not yet commented on the casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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BELEDWEYNE, Somalia -- At least 10 people were confirmed dead and 23 others were wounded after Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab fighters attacked the Somali Federal Government and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) military bases in central and southwestern Somalia overnight on Friday, Garowe Online reports.
The central Somali town and Hiraan regional district of Bulo Barde, about 250 km north of Mogadishu witnessed an hour long firefight between Somali government forces aided by African Union peacekeepers and Al Shabaab militants, residents confirmed.
Speaking to GO via telephone, Bulo Barde resident told that they woke up to calm situation in the early hours of Saturday morning: I saw five bodies including a djiboutian peacekeeper in the downtown. The situation is under control and Somali government forces AMISOM soldiers beefed up their presence in the outskirts of Bulo Barde.
The communication lines have been off and on for the last few hours and Djiboutian peacekeepers are on tour of duty according to witnesses.
Meanwhile in Gedo region town of Buur Dhubo of southwestern Somalia, suspected Al Shabaab militants fired mortar shells onto built up areas from unknown vicinities, inflicting heavy loses on innocent civilians.
Independent sources verified five deaths, although the extremists faced stiff resistance from Somali government soldiers and AMISOM peacekeepers co-located at temporary bases in Buur Dhubo. Residents of Buur Dhubo town said, the wounded were flown to Mogadishu by Helicopter on Saturday morning.
Fierce military offensives dislodged Al Shabaab from a string of strategic towns in Hiraan, Gedo and Bakool regions of southern Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raage (Ali Dheere), The Spokesman for the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab, denied the claims that he was killed.
We can fix that...
The spokesman declared that he disliked telling the Kenyan Defence Forces that he was still alive, but did not want to spread frantic fear amongst the Somali citizens.
"It is one of their lies that they use to calm the Kenyan people and their children who have inserted themselves in our affairs, on our territory," Said Sheikh Ali Dheere.
Recently, there was widespread rumour that Sheikh Ali Dheere was killed after the Kenyan Government declared that he was murdered after sustaining serious injuries to him and other high-ranking officials of Al-Shabaab.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
...He's either feeling much better now, or e's just pining for the fjords.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/16/2014 8:48 Comments ||
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#2
But they lie.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
03/16/2014 9:51 Comments ||
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A strong explosion rocked Mogadishu as a car rammed with explosives detonated outside the back entrance of the Makka Al Mukarrama Hotel. According to local witnesses, they confirmed to Shabelle that 3 civilians including a female sustained wounds during the attack.
After the explosion, soldiers of the Federal Government immediately headed to the explosion site to respond to the terrorist attack as well as cordoning off the scene.
The Chief of the Hodan district Police Station Mohamed Daahir, who rushed to the scene, told the press that the explosion was intended to complicate the lives of innocent people, and added that they are still pursuing the perpetrators responsible for this act of atrocity.
This explosion adds to the latest insecurity acts that have occurred in the capital city Mogadishu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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A Somali police officer says a jacket walla car bomber accidentally splodeydoped his explosives near a popular hotel in the Somali capital.
The jacket walla appeared to have prematurely splodeydoped his boom laden car Saturday as he tried to park near a hotel. No others were hurt or killed in the blast. From the news agency that must not be named.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[Egypt Independent] Cairo Criminal Court postponed on Tuesday trial of 26 suspects, involved in Nasr City terrorist cell, to 17 March to hear testimony of the last prosecution witness.
The court resumed on Saturday the trial, as it was postponed in the last session until two suspects involved in the lawsuit arrive from Banha Public Prison.
The suspects are accused of forming and running an hard boy group from April to December 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egypt's deadliest myrmidon group said one of its founders, who led a deadly 2011 attack in Israel, has been accidentally killed by a bomb.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has spearheaded a low-level insurgency against Egyptian soldiers and police, said Tawfiq Mohammed Fareej was killed last week when a car accident set off a bomb he was carrying.
The group, whose name means Partisans of Jerusalem in Arabic,
Partisans of the Temple in Jerusalem, but what difference does that now make?
has claimed some of the deadliest attacks on Egyptian security forces since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... last July.
One of the group's founders, Fareej was the "field commander" of an August 18, 2011 cross-border raid into Israel that killed eight Israelis, the group said in a statement on Friday.
He also criminal masterminded attacks on a gas pipeline to Israel, said the statement posted on myrmidon Islamist Internet forums.
Fareej was involved in a failed liquidation attempt against the Egyptian interior minister in September.
Interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim later identified Fareej as the "leader" of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and said he was involved in the liquidation attempt as well as a deadly December bombing of police headquarters.
The interior ministry itself did not immediately comment on Fareej's reported death.
The Sinai Peninsula-based group said Fareej "oversaw the group's branch that carried out many operations against the regime of traitors and collaborators."
The group has claimed a series of high profile attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt, including bombings of police headquarters and the downing of a military helicopter with a heat-seeking missile.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
one of its founders, who led a deadly 2011 attack in Israel, has been accidentally killed by a bomb.
[The Hindu] Unknown gunnies have killed six Egyptian soldiers in Cairo, signaling that violence that has been raging in the Sinai desert zone is now creeping into the heart of the country.
The military conscripts, positioned at a checkpoint in Cairo, were attacked at the break of dawn on Saturday. Ahmed Ali, a military front man, accused the Moslem Brüderbund group of criminal masterminding the attack. If confirmed, it could mean that the Brotherhood's slow descent from open political participation towards violent covert action has now become distinctly discernable. The Brotherhood has faced a massive crackdown from the military after the ouster last year by the armed forces of Mohammed Morsy, Egypt's elected President.
Egypt's interim government has designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in December--a decision that was upheld by the court last month.
Egyptian security officials said that two bombs that were planted by the assailants following the shootout have been defused.
Armed Islamists have so far targeted the military mainly in the sparsely populated Sinai peninsula. But in recent months, their reach has expanded to the Nile Delta and the capital. An Al-Qaeda affiliated group, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, has so far grabbed credit for most of the attacks on the army and police.
Saturday's strike follows street festivities on Friday between Brotherhood supporters and the armed forces in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city. Egypt state radio is reporting that protesters used Molotov cocktails, birdshot and fireworks during the clash on Friday in Cairo. Five Brotherhood members were tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... following the unrest in Alexandria.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[Osun Defender] No fewer than 350 people bit the dust on Friday as the orgy of bloodletting in some parts of the country continued with the clash between Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... turbans and the Special Forces in Maimalari, Maiduguri, Borno State. The turbans had attacked the 21 Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army in the wee hours of Friday.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the dead included turbans who attacked the military formation and their members who were held at the biggest detention facility on the premises of the headquarters of the Brigade.
It was gathered that the turbans targeted the detention facility within the 21 Armoury Brigade where most of the hardened members of the sect were detained.
The military authorities were said to have received an intelligence report of an impending attack on the barracks and prepared for the myrmidons.
It was learnt that the turbans attempted to divert the attention of the military by carrying out the attack in military uniforms and vehicles painted in military colours.
The huge casualty figure was revealed amid fresh facts on why the turbans were able to advance near the detention camp with ease. It was learnt that the myrmidons' advancement could not be immediately halted because the Shilka tank, a multipurpose self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery weapon positioned to secure the barracks, failed to fire.
An authoritative security source who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the Special Forces, told Saturday PUNCH that the Shilka tank refused to respond to signal. This situation, he said, prompted the Special Forces to fight hard to prevent what would have been a tragic outing.
It was learnt that the tank had earlier been well -positioned to secure the portion of the barracks where the turbans had penetrated. The source said if the gun had responded to touch, the soldiers would have found it easier to repel the attack of the turbans without any damage.
It was learnt that the soldiers abandoned the disappointing artillery tank and relied on other weapons to ward off the myrmidons' attack.
The source said that the military was already looking into the reason behind the disappointment of the crucial weapon.
It was learnt that security operatives who were investigating the Shilka tank failure were considering two possibilities-the age of the old artillery weapon and the possibility of sabotage .
"You know that when these people came, the Shilka gun simply did not fire. It disappointed, so the soldiers had to rely on other weapons to defend the barracks.
"The gun was positioned to defend that part of the barracks where the turbans came from. If that gun had fired, they wouldn't have got into the barracks near the detention facility.''
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the turbans stormed the strategic army formation from a place called Pori, near a tomato farm close to the barracks, with some Armoured Personnel Carriers, as early as 6.30am.
A security source, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said that the turbans fought their way into the detention facility at the barracks where they attempted to free some of their members being held.
The source said that at the end of the confrontation, the soldiers recovered a Buffalo Truck and an Armoured Personnel Carrier from the myrmidons.
Although the soldiers prevented the barracks from being burnt by the invading Boko Haram fighters, it was said that the turbans burnt the MRS, (the traditional medical facility within the barracks) and the detention facility.
A security source, who spoke to one of our correspondents on the condition of anonymity, said that 53 of the turbans were killed in action at the barracks while 297 were killed in a joint operation by the Air Force and the ground forces engrossed in chasing the fleeing myrmidons.
The source further said that four children of a soldier were among those killed.
The leader of a volunteer youth vigilante group who assisted the military in repelling the attack, Abdullahi Dere, said not less than 207 suspected Boko Haram bad boyz were potted.
Dere, who is the chairman of Sector 5 of the local vigilante group, popularly referred to as "Civilian JTF" in Jidari Polo near the Giwa Barracks, said several turbans fled the town for their hideouts with injuries.
He said: "We counted 207 dead bodies of Boko Haram members rubbed out by the military in Jidari Polo area alone. The suspected Boko Haram members had attacked Giwa Barracks and freed some of the detainees but the military were able to go after them and killed them. As we speak, the dead bodies of the Death Eaters are still within our area unattended to."
He added: "We were also able to capture some fleeing Boko Haram suspects and handed them over to the military."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
nigerian army is doing better than i thought they would
especially in the past month, they have hit Boko Haram pretty hard
perhaps we've been of some help
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2014 0:30 Comments ||
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#2
So any bets on how long before "International Community" warns Nigerian government over human rights violations.
#3
Actually, no IC warning is necessary. As long as they keep their tribal butchery somewhat confined to the continent, the blame befalls western colonial influence [reading, writing, maths, common English language, the Bible, etc] .....or is labeled a culture imperative we cannot possibly understand, and is politely ignored.
#7
There are Arab Muslims, there are Muslims Peripheral to Arabs, there are non-Arab North African Muslims, then there are African Muslims.
It's a bit complicated because there are numerous sub-hierarchies. For example the Saudis despise the Kuwaitis. And we haven't touched on the various sects. But to put it simply -
the Arab Muslims look down on the others, the Muslims Peripheral to Arabs look down on the non-Arab North African Muslims.
[THEHIMALAYANTIMES] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists attacked a military base in the northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... n city of Maiduguri today and freed dozens of Death Eaters from custody, the military said of the latest raid in the embattled city.
Before storming the Giwa barracks, a notorious prison for Islamist fighters, the gunnies opened fire in a residential neighbourhood and razed many homes, witnesses said.
The attack is another blow to the military's campaign against the Death Eater group, which has been blamed for thousands of killings since 2009 in Africa's most populous country and top oil producer.
An AFP news hound near the Giwa barracks said the shooting there started shortly after 0600 GMT.
Gunmen hurled explosives into the compound, causing several buildings to catch fire, witnesses said. A military source said that the Death Eaters forced their way inside the barracks prison and "freed dozens of their members".
Asked about the report, defence front man Chris Olukolade said that "many Death Eaters are in flight. Whether they were those who staged the attack or those who were held prisoner is not yet known."
In a separate statement, Olukolade said the Death Eaters have been hit hard by military bombardments in recent weeks and Boko Haram attacked the barracks "to boost their depleted stock of fighters."
The Death Eaters have previously carried out a number of prison breaks, but this appeared to be the most dramatic in many months. The northeast has been under a state of emergency since May when the military launched a major offensive aimed at crushing the Islamist uprising.
Defence officials have sought to portray the operation as a success but the violence has continued unchecked.
Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... today said Boko Haram had carried out more than 40 attacks already in 2014, with more than 700 people killed, one of the highest rates of killing since the uprising began. Many of those attacks have targeted defenceless civilians in remote villages, leading to claims from the military that the Death Eaters were no longer capable of striking anything but soft targets. But the latest daring raid in Maiduguri has re-enforced the notion that Boko Haram is still able to hit heavily fortified targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone should point out to the military that the BH boys would be less successful if they had to storm the cemetary.
[The Peninsula] A senior Yemeni police officer was killed when a street patrol in the southern city of Aden intervened to stop gunnies from killing a judge, police said Saturday.
Colonel Tareq Sharaf was shot in an overnight gunbattle with the assailants, two of who were maimed and placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
The gunnies's motive for trying to kill the unidentified judge, who sits on a commercial tribunal in the port city, was not immediately known.
Yemeni authorities normally blame such attacks on Al-Qaeda or southern separatists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain has said that it wants a permanent ceasefire that will end their decade-long conflict with the government, a member of their negotiating team for peace talks said on Saturday.
Professor Ibrahim Khan, who is a leading figure in the mainstream Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... party, met the leadership of the bully boy coalition TTP in South Wazoo on Thursday and Friday to discuss the issue of direct talks between the leadership and the government.
"This is the combined wish of the Taliban Shura (consultative body), and the negotiating committee to convert the one-month ceasefire into a permanent ceasefire," Ibrahim told Anadolu Agency, news agency.
The existing ceasefire was announced on March 1, following a 15-day deadlock in peace talks after two fatal attacks on security forces in February, which the army responded to with bombardments they claimed targeted bully boy hideouts. "There is lack of trust between the two sides," said Ibrahim. "We [the negotiating team] are trying to convert the temporary ceasefire into a permanent ceasefire, as the Taliban too want that."
He said the TTP negotiating committee would meet with the newly formed government committee in coming days to discuss direct talks. Ibrahim said the talks were likely to take place in South Waziristan because a rival bully boy group, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, objected to the negotiations being held in North Waziristan.
"They do not want the negotiations to be held in North Waziristan as they fear if the talks fail, they too have to bear the brunt [of military action]," said Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... the Taliban negotiation committee led by Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... on Saturday called on Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and briefed him on the committee's meeting with the Taliban leadership.
The interior minister appreciated peace efforts of the Taliban negotiation committee. During the meeting, Maulana Samiul Haq said both sides were serious about carrying forward the dialogue process. He expressed his optimism about finding avenues for restoration of peace in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] At least 18 rustics were kidnapped by armed gunnies from Badhber area on the outskirts of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , the capital of restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
The incident took place on Saturday at 2 am.
Official sources said that about 60 to 70 armed gunnies raided Faqeer Kalley in Mashokhel area of Badbher, some one kilometres away from the main city and kidnapped 18 people from the village.
The local people and the police said the kidnapped people belonged to the Shinwari tribe of Khyber agency.
Badhber police have started the paperwork but haven't done much else against three commanders of the banned religious outfit Lashkar-e-Islam for kidnapping of eleven rustics. Commanders Khalid, Sherkhel and Izzat have been nominated in the FIR.
One of the kidnapped persons has managed to escape from the kidnappers and has reached back home who phoned the police that the Khyber Agency-based Lashkar-e-Islam kidnapped the rustics.
Peshawar lies on the edge of Pakistain's tribal areas which have been labelled by Washington as the main sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Talibs in the country.
The city has seen frequent attacks by bully boyz in the past few years, with targets ranging from civilians to coppers and other law enforcement personnel.
Separately, the political administration of Khyber Agency has also suspended the polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination drive scheduled to begin on March 17 due to the law and order situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[The Peninsula] Storied Baghdad Operations Command announced that two snipers belonging to ISIL were killed.
Five improvised bombs dismantled, and a number of desperadostossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in different parts of the Iraqi capital Storied Baghdad over the past 24 hours, National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) reported.
The command said in a statement today that "a force of brigade 60 managed to kill two snipers and destroy their vehicle within the Amiriya bridge area, west of Storied Baghdad."
"While another force of the Sixth Brigade of the federal police dismantled two bombs in the Ghazaliya area."
The statement stated that "another force of the command was able to defuse three bombs in each of the Bakriah area, west of Storied Baghdad, Karrada area in central Storied Baghdad, and Sadr City east of Storied Baghdad without causalities."
Adding that "according to arrest warrants, a number of desperados arrested in accordance with Article (4) terrorism in different parts of Storied Baghdad over the past 24 hours."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A series of evening boom-mobiles targeting commercial neighborhoods of Iraq's capital killed at least nine people on Saturday, security and medical officials said.
The five blasts also maimed dozens, the latest in a months-long surge in bloodshed that has hit the country with less than two months left before national parliamentary elections.
The attacks, all boom-mobiles at markets or commercial shopping areas of the Sadr City, Amil, Amin, Shuala and Qahira neighborhoods, killed nine people in all, said police and medical sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
More than 30 people were maimed, they said.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the bloodshed, but Sunni hard boys, including those linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... jihadist group, are often blamed for carrying out coordinated mass-casualty bombings.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has singled out 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... and Qatar for effectively waging war on Iraq, accusing the two Gulf states of backing hard boy groups.
He told La Belle France 24 in an interview this month that Riyadh and Doha provide political, financial and media support to hard boy groups, and also accused the Saudis of supporting global "terrorism".
Elsewhere in Iraq on Saturday, a gun attack on the outskirts of the confessionally mixed city of Baquba killed a mother and her son, while a boom-mobile in the predominantly Sunni city of Tikrit near the home of a police colonel maimed 15 people.
More than 230 people have been killed already this month, according to an AFP tally.
Iraq is grappling with its worst prolonged period of violence since it emerged from a bloody sectarian war that left tens of thousands dead in 2006-07.
Analysts and diplomats have urged the Shiite-led government to reach out to the Sunni community, who allege they are mistreated by the government and security forces.
But with elections looming on April 30, politicians have been loath to be seen to compromise.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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Two Philippine soldiers were killed and three others were injured in a firefight with communist militants in North Cotabato on Saturday. The clash came days after leftist militants attacked a military detachment and the police headquarters in Matanao, Davao del Sur.
Military spokesman Captain Ernest Carolina said troops were conducting pursuit operations against members of the New People's Army (NPA) who attacked Matanao. They encountered a number of militants in Sitio Timodos at around 9:55 a.m. A fierce gunbattle ensued and lasted for an hour.
Philippine security forces sustained casualties after several explosives were detonated by the militants while the soldiers were maneuvering.
The Office of the President has recently condemned the NPA's use of explosives but the communist rebels asserted that they have not violated any international protocols in waging a guerrilla warfare.
[An Nahar] Activists said Saturday that the Kuwaiti commander of an al-Qaeda-linked group was killed while fighting government troops and Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... fighters inside Syria. He will be missed. Actually, he wasn't missed, was he?
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Abu Azzam al-Kuwaiti, a leader of the Nusra Front, was killed late Friday in fighting around the western town of Yabrud.
Amer al-Qalamouni, an activist in the area, and the Observatory said al-Kuwaiti was a key mediator for the release of a dozen nuns held by rebels earlier this week.
The nuns from the historic Christian town of Maalula -- where residents still speak the Aramaic language of Jesus Christ -- were freed unharmed in exchange for prisoners held by the regime after being kidnapped in December.
The bully boy's death came as Syrian forces and Hizbullah fighters advanced in Yabrud amid heavy fighting.
Yabrud is the last major rebel-held town in the mountainous Qalamoun region, where government forces have been waging an offensive for months to try to sever rebel supply lines across the mostly non-existent border into Leb.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A military expert defused on Saturday mortars found in a vehicle stopped by the army in the northern district of Akkar, the military and the state-run National News Agency reported.
NNA said that the army stopped the silver Renault at a checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Shadra.
It incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! the driver, Mamdouh Mohammed Rashid after finding "huge quantities of ammunition and bombs" in it, the news agency said.
The army said in its communique that it seized from Rashid two mortars, five hand grenades and ammunition.
The military cut the road and threw a tight dragnet around the car to allow the military expert to defuse the bombs, NNA said.
The car was later taken to an army base as the military took strong security measures in the area, it added.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Heavy festivities were underway Saturday inside the Syrian rebel bastion of Yabrud near the border with Leb, a Syrian military source said, a day after government troops entered the town.
Yabrud sits near key rebel supply lines stretching into Leb, and its fall would deal a major blow to the rebels as the war enters its fourth year.
"Fierce festivities are taking place inside the eastern neighborhoods of Yabrud," the source said, adding that "the 13 rebel chiefs leading operations are dead".
The source said there had been "very many deaths among the Death Eaters" in the fighting.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast footage from a hill overlooking the town, saying "the Syrian army is progressing in the town and spreading its control over most of the areas linking Syria and Leb".
"The army is intensifying its strikes against the terrorist hideouts," a correspondent for the channel on the ground said, using the government's term to refer to rebels.
He reported "fierce fighting between the army and terrorist groups including Al-Nusra Front," the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate.
The Observatory said the fighting was centered on the eastern entrance to Yabrud.
"There is fierce resistance by rebels led by Al-Nusra Front, which is trying to defend the town," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and other contacts inside Syria, said regime helicopters were dropping explosives-filled barrels on the outskirts of Yabrud.
Battle-hardened Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... members from Leb were fighting inside the town, it said.
After a month of aerial bombing and combat around the town, Hizbullah and Syrian troops have captured all the hills overlooking it.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] One person was killed and at least two others injured on Saturday after several rockets fired from the eastern mountain range landed on Shiite towns in the Bekaa Valley, the Lebanese army and the state-run National News Agency said.
A boy named Abbas Saleh Saifeddine died in al-Nabi Othman while two others were maimed in al-Labweh, NNA and media reports said.
The army said a third person was maimed in the attack that involved four rockets.
A military expert inspected the areas where the rockets landed to determine their source, it said in a communique.
Al-Jadeed TV quoted al-Labweh's municipal chief as saying that the rockets were fired from the outskirts of the Sunni town of Arsal, whose residents support the uprising against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... .
Al-Labweh's residents blocked the road that leads from their town to Arsal to protest the attack.
The al-Qaeda-inspired groups al-Nusra Front in Leb and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... usually claim responsibility for such attacks, arguing that they come in retaliation to Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... 's military intervention in Syria.
ISIL said it was responsible for Saturday's attack, claiming to have fired five Katyusha rockets.
Al-Labweh and al-Nabi Othman are Shiite towns whose residents are supporters of Hizbullah, which is fighting alongside troops loyal to Assad against the majority Sunni rebels.
Three Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... landed on Thursday on the hills of the Bekaa town of Nabi Sheet, state-run National News Agency reported.
The rockets which hit the al-Arid neighborhood did not cause any casualties, NNA said.
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03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[VOA News] Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north of Damascus, on Saturday and advanced towards the main street, Al Mayadeen television said.
The Beirut-based station broadcast footage showing soldiers charging through a field towards an arched entrance of the town and a sign saying "Welcome to Yabroud". Gunfire could be heard as the soldiers proceeded.
Capturing Yabroud would help Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... choke off a cross-border rebel supply line from Leb. The town is near the highway linking Damascus to the former commercial hub of Aleppo in the north and to the Mediterranean coast in the west, where Assad's minority Alawite community is concentrated.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the government was pounding some districts of Yabroud with improvised barrel bombs and shelling its outskirts.
The anti-Assad Observatory said heavy fighting was going on between government forces supported by Lebanese Shi'ite krazed killer group Hezbollah and rebel factions including the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's official branch in Syria, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL), an al-Qaeda splinter group.
Thousands of people fled Yabroud, a town of about 40,000 to 50,000 people roughly 60 km (40 miles) north of Damascus, and the surrounding areas after it was bombed and shelled last month ahead of the government offensive.
The government has been making incremental gains along the highway as well as around Damascus and Aleppo in recent months, regaining the initiative in a conflict, which began exactly three years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
And thus die the Syrian rebels, much like the Iranian ones, at the hands of local dictators, while the US studiously ignores them - not even covertly.
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
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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.
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raage (Ali Dheere), The Spokesman for the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab, denied the claims that he was killed.
A strong explosion rocked Mogadishu as a car rammed with explosives detonated outside the back entrance of the Makka Al Mukarrama Hotel. According to local witnesses, they confirmed to Shabelle that 3 civilians including a female sustained wounds during the attack.
A Somali police officer says a 
[Osun Defender] No fewer than 350 people 
Wazoo
Two Philippine soldiers were killed and three others were injured in a firefight with communist militants in North Cotabato on Saturday. The clash came days after leftist militants attacked a military detachment and the police headquarters in Matanao, Davao del Sur.
[An Nahar] Activists said Saturday that the Kuwaiti commander of an al-Qaeda-linked group was killed while fighting government troops and 
[An Nahar] Heavy 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
