[Libya Herald] The US government has advised American citizens in Libya to leave the country, citing the deteriorating security situation and threats made by krazed killer groups.
"The Department of State warns US citizens against all travel to Libya and recommends that US citizens currently in Libya depart immediately," the US government said, in the latest update to its travel advice.
"Extremist groups in Libya have made several specific threats this year against US government officials, citizens, and interests in Libya."
Due to security concerns, the US embassy in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... had reduced its staff and was now only able to offer very limited emergency services to US citizens in Libya, the State Department said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
In a note issued yesterday, the US State Dept said "WTF are you doing in Libya, moron? Even us civil servant types have this one figured out."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/29/2014 7:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The sequel to the first video must be ready for worldwide release.
#3
So Bush put boots on the ground to get rid of Hussein and Champ sends a couple of F-14s and a platoon of laser painters into Libya.
Both countries descend into chaos and Bush didn't have a plan?
If we do anything in Libya of a rational nature...which actually the time has passed for such behavior, we would be inserting ourselves into a nascent civil war as the punching bag and boogie man for both sides...such action would be taken ONLY to save the election for the Dems.
A few troops in Tripoli and a few troops in Benghazi right after Qaddafi the Duck was killed would have done much to get Libya off on the right foot. The people are hungry for a rational government.
But what do you expect with an administration whose expert on the middle east is slow joe and next is Lurch?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2014 10:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The question then becomes what in the hell were Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama thinking when they deposed Qadaffi?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/29/2014 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
[Libya Herald] The Commander of Ansar Al-Sharia in Benghazi has denounced the military operation by forces loyal to General Khalifa Hifter, calling it a "crusade" against Islam.
Speaking at a presser held at a secret location last night in Benghazi, Mohammed Al-Zahawi claimed that the leader of Operation Dignity was backed the US and allies in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , the UAE and Egypt. He said the same fate awaited Hifter as had befallen Qadaffy.
Zahawi warned the US against intervention. He said that any military incursion by the western power would result in defeats worse than those he said it had faced in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia.
Describing recent fighting in Benghazi as a victory for Ansar Al-Sharia, Zahawi said: "We thank God that we were able to defeat Hifter and we challenge him to attempt entering Benghazi again. We warn him that if he continues this war against us, Moslems from across the world will come to fight, as is the case in Syria right now."
He added that the war would continue and that Ansar Al-Sharia would decide when it ended.
Members of Ansar Al-Sharia have been implicated by America in the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, during which ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia
#1
What you are seeing in Benghazi is the beginnings of a struggle between those who wish for a Sharia based clerical government (only supported by a few fanatics and imports from Iran) and those who want a western secular government with a western constitution similar to the United States.
A chat with a few men on the street in Tripoli will tell you the majority of Libyans DO NO WANT Sharia. The business community in Libya recognizes that a Sharia constitution and laws is a death sentence for international business in the country.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2014 10:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
those who want a western secular government with a western constitution similar to the United States.
[Middle East Online] Ex-rebels say warplane carried out raids on camp of 'February 17 Martyrs Brigades', hitting it with two missiles.
Forces loyal to rogue former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar carried out an air raid Wednesday on a jihadist camp in the eastern city of Benghazi, ex-rebels said.
"A warplane carried out raids on a camp of the 'February 17 Martyrs Brigades', hitting it with two missiles," said Ahmed al-Jazaoui.
No casualties were reported in the attack, in which anti-aircraft batteries returned fire.
Haftar, who returned to Libya from American exile in 2011 to join the uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Gathafi, launched an anti-jihadist campaign in Benghazi on May 16 when warplanes also bombed February 17 positions.
Subsequent fighting killed at least 79 people.
The powerful brigade is made up of Islamist ex-rebels, including radicals, and is suspected of links with Ansar Al-Sharia, a group classified as a terrorist group by Washington.
BANGUI, Central African Republic -- Muslim rebels stormed a Catholic church compound in the capital of Central African Republic on Wednesday, launching grenades and spraying civilians with gunfire, witnesses said. At least five bodies were brought to area hospitals, though some witnesses said the death toll could be as high as 30.
The attack on the compound at the church, where thousands of civilians had sought refuge from the violence ravaging Bangui's streets, is the largest and most brazen blamed on Muslim fighters since their Seleka coalition was ousted from power nearly five months ago.
Wednesday's attack marked a rare attack on a house of worship, as Catholic churches have served as sanctuaries for both Christian and Muslim civilians since the country erupted into sectarian bloodshed in December.
Mosques, of course, have likewise provided shelter to all of God's children, whether or not they profess the faith. No? Perhaps that's why six million a year are converting to Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa alone, according to Muslim sources.
[An Nahar] At least 10 people were killed and several others wounded in clashes Wednesday in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, officials said.
The violence erupted during the afternoon close to the Notre-Dame de Fatima church in Bangui, according to a police officer and a military source.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Seleka
[DAWN] A key faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) announced Wednesday that it was splitting from the bad boy outfit following bloody festivities with a rival group.
The break-away faction belongs to the Mehsud tribe, widely considered the most important of the various groups that comprise the umbrella TTP which has fought the Pak government since 2007.
Azam Tariq, a front man for the group, said the breakaway faction would be lead by Khalid Mehsud, famously known by the name of Khan Said alias Sajna.
"We announce our defection from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, we have chosen Khalid Mehsud as the new leader for South Wazoo," announced Tariq.
Khalid Mehsud was a key ally of former Mehsud Taliban chief and former TTP number two Waliur Rehman Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in May last year.
Speaking in an interview at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location, Tariq said individual ideologies had created a rift among the Taliban and they were deviating from "the real cause".
He claimed that the present TTP regime was carrying out kabooms on public places with bogus names and money was also being extorted from madrassahs and other institutions which, he said, was unacceptable.
"The TTP leadership has fallen into the hands of a bunch of conspirators, the umbrella organization is involved in criminal activities like robbery and extortion," he said.
He said other Taliban factions were also becoming distrustful of the main umbrella organization.
Azam further said that the group had tried to reform the TTP, claiming that, despite its efforts, conniving elements in the organization had emerged successful.
The front man said that these elements had handed over management of the central organization into the hands of "shadowy forces".
Two factions of the TTP, the umbrella grouping for disparate bad boy organizations, have been locked in bloody festivities for the past several weeks.
Differences emerged in the bad boy organization after former chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a US drone in November last year and a crisis developed over the future leadership of the group.
Khalid Mehsud was a contender for the TTP's top slot after Hakimullah's death, but the post eventually was handed to Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... who hails from the scenic Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley and is the first non-Mehsud to lead the TTP.
The conflict brought those backing Khalid Mehsud against supporters of Taliban capo Sheheryar Mehsud, who claim to be the followers of the late Hakimullah Mehsud.
Infighting among the factions has also impeded and undermined what little progress had been made in peace negotiations with the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#2
Azam Tariq, a front man for the group, said the breakaway faction would be lead by Khalid Mehsud, famously known by the name of Khan Said alias Shirley
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/29/2014 7:27 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] Attacks across Iraq killed 14 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.
The shootings and bombings struck in Storied Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more maimed, security and medical officials said.
The protracted spike in bloodletting has fuelled fears that Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007, when a brutal sectarian war left tens of thousands dead.
In Wednesday's deadliest violence, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and maimed 11, officials said.
The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen in the town, which is also populated by Arabs and Kurds and lies in a stretch of territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of the central government.
Insurgents often exploit poor communication between Arab and Kurdish security forces to carry out attacks in the area.
Shelling in the myrmidon-held city of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... a short drive west of Storied Baghdad, killed three more people, a day after New York-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... criticised the Iraqi government for possibly violating the laws of war by shelling the city's main hospital.
All of Fallujah and parts of nearby Anbar bustling provincial capital Ramadi have been out of government hands since the beginning of the year.
Security forces have shelled Fallujah repeatedly for several months, and while they insist they are targeting myrmidon hideouts, human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... groups and residents say civilians are bearing the brunt of the bombardment.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, attacks in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh left three people dead, while shootings and bombings in and around Storied Baghdad killed three more.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[An Nahar] A Jordanian military tribunal handed jail terms of between four and 20 years on Wednesday to 11 people it convicted of plotting to attack the U.S. embassy for Al-Qaeda in 2012.
The state security court found the men guilty of "plotting to carry out terrorist acts and possessing explosives as well as automatic and other weapons for illicit use."
After the ruling, the bearded convicts, wearing brown and blue prison uniform, shouted: "God is the greatest, the Koran is our constitution and jihad is our path."
The group, tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... in October 2012, planned to "attack shopping malls in Amman to divert the attention of security services before firing mortar rounds at the U.S. embassy," according to the chargesheet.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
#1
I bet Jordon doesn't provide condoms to prisoners.
[Ynet] Ramallah printer says Israel trying to stop distribution of three Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, papers in the West Bank.
IDF soldiers Wednesday raided the offices of a Paleostinian newspaper in the West Bank city of Ramallah, managers said, ordering them to stop printing publications by the Islamist movement Hamas, according to a statement by a pro-Fatah newspaper that prints the Hamas papers as well.
"Officers informed us that Israel would not allow the printing and distribution of Falastin, Al-Resala, and Al-Istiqlal," three Hamas newspapers, Al-Ayyam's managers said in a statement.
Al-Ayyam has been printing the three papers since April, when a surprise reconciliation deal between Hamas, which rules the Gazoo Strip, and their rivals Fatah brought the Islamist group's publications back to West Bank newsstands.
The soldiers threatened to take "concrete steps" towards stopping Falastin, Al-Resala and Al-Istiqlal being printed at Al-Ayyam's offices in Ramallah, the statement said.
The IDF had no immediate comment.
On April 23, Hamas and the Paleostine Liberation Organization - which Fatah dominates - revealed a reconciliation deal under which they would work together to form a new government of political independents.
That was seized upon by Israel, which said it would not negotiate with any Paleostinian government backed by Hamas, putting the final nail in the coffin of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks.
[Ynet] Some 200 Border Guard officers conducted a raid of arrests in the Paleostinian villages of Abu Dis and Iziria east of Jerusalem, and enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! nine people for suspected terror activities and rioting.
During the raid, some 150 bullets were found as well as inciting materal. Those arrested are suspected for throwing explosives and Molotov cocktails at security forces over recent months.
[IsraelTimes] An Arab citizen of Israel from the Negev town of Hura was locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! in late April for helping two family members leave Israel, enter Syria, and join the ranks of the al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Shin Bet security service announced Tuesday.
Idris Abu Alqayan, 23, was arrested on April 28 and charged on May 15 with conspiracy to commit a crime and aiding an unlawful exit from the country.
Abu Alqayan, a Salafist, helped plan and pay for his brother Othman's and his cousin Shafiq's trip through Turkey to Syria. With the help of social media, the Shin Bet said, he also assisted the two Israeli citizens to link up with like-minded Islamist fighters in Syria.
The war in Syria has claimed 165,000 lives and forced millions of Syrians to flee to neighboring countries Jordan and Turkey.
Calling the phenomenon of Israeli citizens leaving to fight in Syria alongside the anti-Assad forces "familiar," the Shin Bet said it was the first time citizens from the Negev had taken such actions.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center released a report earlier this month asserting that there are currently over 5,000 foreign Arab fighters waging war in Syria and that they constitute "the spine" of murderous Moslem organizations such Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS.
"The phenomenon is dangerous because all those who enter that arena receive military training, are exposed to murderous Moslem global jihad ideology, and there is the risk that they will be used, at the end of the day, to carry out terror attacks against the State of Israel," the Shin Bet said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
Abu Sayyaf rebels have freed a kidnapped Filipina trader in Sulu province after three months on captivity. Sugar Diane Buenviaje was released in the town of Jolo where her sister waited and took a plane bound for Zamboanga City. It was not known how much ransom her family paid the kidnappers.
Police identified Alhabsi Misaya's group as behind Buenviaje's kidnapping. Misaya's group is believed to be holding Chinese holidaymaker Gao Huayun, and Filipina Marcy Dayawan who were kidnapped in the town of Semporna in Sabah on April 2. The victims were first brought by their captors led by Murphy Ladja to Tawi-Tawi before escaping by boat to Sulu and handing the hostages to Misaya, who was also implicated in the series of bombings in Sulu in recent years.
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
Following a series of explosions that caused many casualties and damage in Pattani province on Sunday, another bomb went off at Khok Pho Hospital's motorcycle parking area on Wednesday morning, wounding ten people, three seriously, and damaging more than 50 vehicles. The blast occured at about 9:30 a.m., causing a fire that engulfed the area.
This comes after explosions hit several spots in Muang district on Saturday night in what officials said were co-ordinated operations which also took place in Narathiwat.
In nearby Yala province, a village leader was gunned down Wednesday morning in front of shocked shoppers at a fresh market. Witnesses said two young men had followed the victim. One of them finally drew a pistol and shot him four times in the head, killing him instantly. The killers stole a 9mm handgun from his body before fleeing.
A senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was recently killed in Syria by opposition rebels, according to reports Wednesday. A man whose decapitated head had appeared in a photo five days previously was identified as IRGC Col. Mohammad Eskandari, according to a Syrian activist who goes by the pseudonym Charles Windsor.
Eskandari, who was listed in other reports as a brigadier general, was reportedly killed by the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, a rebel group that has been fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Windsor, who runs the Tharir Souri news network in Syria, which claims to provide unbiased reporting of the civil war, posted a photo of the decapitated head side by side with an unconfirmed photo of Eskandari taken at an unknown time or location.
The Iranian news agency ABNA also reported that Eskandari died in Syrian fighting, according to news and analysis website EA Worldview.
Earlier this month, Eskandari was quoted telling Iranian media that 42 divisions and 138 battalions of the elite IRGC were fighting in Syria, to bolster forces loyal to Assad. Eskandari added that âtodayâs war in Syria is really our war with America.â
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
#2
the IRGC only has about 30 Divisions (probably no more than half are combat ready for a conflict like that in Syria) in total nationwide so if they send 42 to Syria it leaves negative 12 division in Iran.
Probably, the Colonel was just spouting off his hopes and dreams.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/29/2014 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
#3
You would think 42 divisions of troops from a first class military power like Iran would have smashed the Syrian rebels like a bug months ago...oh well...I for one am quaking in my boots at the thought of the US having to go at it with Iran...of course...I AM quaking in my boots at the ROE and the generals Champ would put in charge of such a venture.
Wag the dog anyone?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2014 10:35 Comments ||
Top||
#4
How long can this terrible war continue to kill our enemies?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/29/2014 20:15 Comments ||
Top||
#7
42 divisions
they have one division formally assigned to each province; some of these divisions are made up mostly of part timers who almost never show up, so 20 real divisions is a good estimate
in addition, they have a number of divisions that are 'on paper' and comprised of veterans up to age 55 or so - perhaps thats the other 12
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/29/2014 21:51 Comments ||
Top||
An American citizen carried out a suicide bombing in Syria on behalf of an al Qaeda-linked militant group on Sunday, apparently the first time a U.S. citizen has carried out such an attack in the Syrian civil war, U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism officials tell NBC News. The officials confirmed the suicide bombing and said they have identified the American. They declined to release his identity or hometown.
Word of the Americanâs death in the suicide bombing first surfaced Tuesday in tweets from the al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked group fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The tweets identified the bomber only by his Arabic nom de guerre, âAbu Hurayra al-Amriki,â (Abu Hurayra the American) and said he carried out one of four suicide bombings of Syrian government sites in Jabal al-Arbaa'in in Idlib Province -- the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks and months.
"Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki performed a martrydom operation in Idlib, Jabal Al-Arba'een. May Allah accept him," it said.
The tweet included an image of a young, bearded and smiling Caucasian man holding a cat, as well as images of the bombing it said he had carried out. Another tweet, this one in Arabic, included a photo showing the same light-skinned man sitting on the ground wearing what appeared to be a suicide vest.
Syrian rebel sources based in London tell NBC News that other jihadi tweets suggest the American was of Palestinian descent.
The incident is believed to be the first suicide bombing by a U.S. citizen in the Syrian civil war. Three Americans were confirmed to have carried suicide attacks in Somalia on behalf of another al Qaeda linked group, al Shabab, between 2009 and 2011.
Laith Alkhouri, an NBC News counterterrrorism analyst who found the material online, said reports indicated that "the truck used in the suicide bombing allegedly carried over 16 tons of explosives."
Alkhouri said that if the account is proven accurate, it would almost certainly be used in future propaganda by the al-Nasra Front, which is on the U.S. terrorist watch list.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[An Nahar] The corpse count from Syrian air raids on rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo has topped 40 over a 24-hour period, a monitoring group said Wednesday.
Barrel bombs killed 22 people Tuesday in the eastern districts of Hay Qataneh, Tariq al-Bab, Bustan al-Qasr, Bani Zeid, Mghayer and Lairamoun, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another 21 people died on Wednesday in another wave of barrel bomb strikes on Mghayer, said the Britannia-based group, which compiles its information from a network of medics and opposition activists on the ground.
Nine children figured among the dead, the Observatory added, warning that the toll could rise because "many people are at death's door and there must bodies under the rubble".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Middle East Online] Ex-rebels say warplane carried out raids on camp of 'February 17 Martyrs Brigades', hitting it with two missiles.
BANGUI, Central African Republic -- Muslim rebels stormed a Catholic church compound in the capital of Central African Republic on Wednesday, launching grenades and spraying civilians with gunfire, witnesses said. At least five bodies were brought to area hospitals, though some witnesses said the death toll could be as high as 30.
[DAWN] A key faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) announced Wednesday that it was splitting from the
[An Nahar] A Jordanian military tribunal handed jail terms of between four and 20 years on Wednesday to 11 people it convicted of plotting to attack the U.S. embassy for Al-Qaeda in 2012.
A senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was recently killed in Syria by opposition rebels, according to reports Wednesday. A man whose decapitated head had appeared in a photo five days previously was identified as IRGC Col. Mohammad Eskandari, according to a Syrian activist who goes by the pseudonym Charles Windsor.
