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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Zarb-i-Azb: 47 militants killed in NWA, Khyber blitz
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rantburg Pre-birthday review. Movie: Proof of Life, 2000.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 8:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Happy Birthday Kayleigh Pearson, 29 Today !

English glamour model (born 25 June 1985 in Bath, England) who rose to prominence after winning the second FHM High Street Honey competition in 2003. She was featured on the FHM list of 100 Sexiest Women four times, from 2004 to 2007.

Posted by: Alexander || 06/25/2014 8:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Happy Birthday Linda Cardellini, 39 Today !

Rose to fame as ER's Nurse Samantha Taggart. She used her television fame to find major motion picture success in Scooby-Doo in which she acted alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. She had supporting roles in the films Grandma's Boy and Brokeback Mountain.

Posted by: Alexander || 06/25/2014 8:54 Comments || Top||

#4  For Besoeker

Posted by: Alexander || 06/25/2014 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Well done Alex.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 9:03 Comments || Top||

#6  I have a feeling Besoeker would enjoy this version of a tune too:
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 16:19 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Dozens Killed and Thousands Displaced in Helmand Clash
[Tolo News] Officials reported that more than 40 Taliban krazed killers, 35 civilians, 13 coppers and nine Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were killed amid heavy festivities between turbans and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province over the past four days.

An additional 40 civilians and 40 ANSF personnel have suffered injuries.

The festivities began in Sangin district of Helmand province when hundreds of Taliban hard boyz stormed police outposts, Helmand Governor's Spokesman, Omar Zwak, said on Tuesday. He added that more security forces have been deployed in Sangin to clear the area of krazed killers.

Zwak said more than 800 Taliban hard boyz including Arab and Pak hard boyz have attacked the district; the festivities still continue.

According to officials, more than 2,500 families have been displaced because of heavy festivities.

Self-identified Taliban front man, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed the flare-up, but claimed more parts of Sangin have been captured by the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Thats what happens when Nato/US are removed.Another Iraq situation to begin.

The forces of evil Pakistan and Saudi will savage that country again.

How must those Soldiers/families feel when loved ones died in Iraq/Afganistan for Obama to throw these countries back to the wolves.
Posted by: Thusosh Untervehr8552 || 06/25/2014 4:26 Comments || Top||

#2  The 'Bammer has got to be the worst US president ever. While this may give great comfort to Warren G. Harding and Ulysses S. Grant to move out of the cellar, it doesn't help us in the present at all.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 16:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't forget James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: Herb Bumble4862 || 06/25/2014 19:29 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria: Abuja blast in Wuse district kills 21
An explosion has struck a busy shopping district in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, killing at least 21 people. The explosion was in the capital's Wuse district, near the popular Banex plaza shopping complex, and could be heard from miles away.

It is not yet clear what was behind the explosion, however police say they are securing a "crime scene".

"We saw the smoke and people covered in blood. It was just chaos."

Eyewitnesses at the scene described seeing body parts scattered across the area.

The area was packed with shoppers at the time of the blast, the BBC's Hausa service editor Mansur Liman reports. Many cars outside the shopping complex were burnt out and many windows were shattered, he adds.

One man told the BBC his driver was killed in the blast: "I was in the complex when I saw that the ground was shaking. I saw my driver dead and a lot of casualties."

Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, told AFP news agency: "You can see smoke billowing from the sky. It's a very crowded place."

Police spokesman Frank Mba said he could not provide details of the nature or extent of the damage.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 14:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


60 females, 31 boys abducted in Nigeria
[Dhaka Tribune] Islamic bully boyz have kidnapped 60 more girls and women and 31 boys from villages in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
, witnesses said yesterday. Security forces denied the kidnappings. Nigeria's government and military have been widely criticized for their slow response to the abductions of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped April 15.

There was no way to safely and independently confirm the report from Kummabza, 150 kilometers (95 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and headquarters of a military state of emergency that has failed to curtail near-daily attacks by 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...
fighters.

Kummabza resident Aji Khalil said Tuesday the abductions took place Saturday in an attack in which four villagers were killed. Khalil is a member of one of the vigilante groups that have had some success in repelling Boko Haram attacks with primitive weapons.

A senior local councilor from the village's Damboa local government told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that abductions had occurred but insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to news hounds. He said elderly survivors of the attack had walked some 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the relative safety of other villages.

The Damboa council secretary, Modu Mustapha, said he could not confirm or deny the abductions and directed a news hound to the council chairman, Alamin Mohammed, who did not answer phone calls or respond to text messages. The new kidnappings add to Nigeria's crisis over the April kidnappings and the ongoing violence from the Islamic bully boy group Boko Haram.

A strategy to rescue the girls appears to have reached an impasse. Nigeria's military has said it knows where they are but fears their abductors would kill them if any military action is taken. Boko Haram has been demanding the release of detained members in exchange for its hostages but President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
has said he will not consider a swap.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  African slave trade being revived?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/25/2014 4:09 Comments || Top||

#2  African slave trade being revived?

It seems it never ended, g(r)omgoru. It just was done quietly for a while.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/25/2014 6:39 Comments || Top||

#3  It can't be. Only white Americans (even those who arrived in the great migration of the 1890s) had slaves, because they have to pay reparations. That's what they bray in academia. /sarc off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/25/2014 8:31 Comments || Top||


Central Africa festivities eliminate 50
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] More than 50 people have been killed in two days of festivities in Central African Republic, witnesses and officials said on Tuesday, with foreign troops struggling to stop recurrent violence between Mohammedan and Christian communities.

Witnesses in Bambari, 380 km (236 miles) northwest of the capital Bangui, said an initial attack early on Monday by mainly Christian militia on its outskirts led to waves of reprisals by Mohammedan youths and fighting inside the town.

Bambari sits on a sectarian fault line now cleaving the country, where over a year of violence has killed thousands, forced a million from their homes and led to most Mohammedans fleeing into northern zones closer to Chad and Sudan.

The violence in the landlocked ex-French colony dates to the takeover last year of Bangui by the mostly Mohammedan Seleka rebel group, whose time in power was marked by a string of rights abuses, leading to the creation of the Christian militia.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Seleka


40 Suspected Boko Haram Militants Arrested in Cameroon
[VOA News] Cameroon's military has nabbed
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
40 suspected 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...
gunnies in the north of the country. Soldiers have also sealed off a market where they suspect Boko Haram may be hiding arms for use in the insurgency over the border in Nigeria.

"A gendarme [military] raid on the Maroua Central Market has led to the arrests of over 40 people," a state radio broadcaster announced. "The arrests are in connection with ongoing investigations into the activities of the Boko Haram group in the far north region of the country."

In an interview with the private Danay FM radio station, Maroua businessman Wanika Baba, said many of the arrested were his peers and there is confusion in the community.

He added that he does not understand what is happening as the military has had the market sealed for two days now and have arrested so many people. He said children and women are suffering from the closure and no one knows the fate of those arrested.

Colonel Nyemeck Pierre, who led the military raid, told VOA that the central government ordered the military action as part of its fight against Boko Haram incursions into Cameroon.

"It is the duty of the military to filter the population so that enemies do not infiltrate into Cameroon," he said in French, adding that the matter is complicated because along the border there are Nigerians and Cameroonians who belong to the same families and soldiers have to try to distinguish who is a krazed killer.

This is the first time Cameroon's military has carried out an operation on such a large scale in a single day.

Northern Cameroon has been plagued for almost a year with an influx of refugees and gunnies from strife in neighboring Central African Republic and the Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria.

Authorities in Cameroon have been urging citizens along the border - particularly with Nigeria's Borno state - the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency - to cooperate with the government by providing information on suspected sympathizers with the Islamist sect.

The government here believes Boko Haram is now expanding its recruiting into Cameroon.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


India-Pakistan
Two 'TTP men' held, explosives seized
[DAWN] KARACHI: Pakistain Rangers, Sindh, on Monday claimed to have incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
two suspected snuffies who were allegedly planning to carry out a kaboom in the metropolis and seized an explosives-laden cycle of violence.

The paramilitary force carried out a targeted raid in Mohammedanabad Colony, Quaidabad, while acting on a tip-off about the presence of the snuffies there.

On seeing the Rangers, the suspects tried to escape abandoning the explosives-laden cycle of violence, but the troops chased the fleeing suspects and arrested two Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain murderous Moslems, said the spokesperson.

The personnel seized weapons and explosives, he said. They also launched a search operation to arrest their accomplices.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Teenager among five found shot dead in Karachi
[DAWN] KARACHI: Five people, including a teenager, were found rubbed out in two different parts of district west within the span of a few hours on Monday, officials said.

They added that four victims found in the Mochko area appeared to be Baloch, while the one found in Manghopir could be Sindhi or Seraiki.

It appeared that they had been kidnapped somewhere and brought to a deserted place, several kilometres from the mud-road leading to 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...
, where they were bumped off, according to City SSP Sheraz Nazeer.

The trussed-up bodies lying in the bushes near Arib Goth in the area adjoining Balochistan province were spotted by some local people who subsequently informed the police about their presence.

The police said more than a dozen spent bullet casings were found at the scene of the crime, indicating that they were rubbed out there with a 9mm pistol.There were between four and five gunshot wounds on the body of each victim, the officials said.

One of the victims aged around 14 years, two others were between 25 and 30 years while one was about 35-40 years.

All of them were clean-shaven and appeared to be Baloch, the police said.

SSP Nazeer said that no report of missing persons had been filed at any cop shoppe of the City division. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
in reply to a question, he said that some bodies of missing persons, including krazed killers, had been found in the Mochko area in the recent past.

The bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
for a post-mortem examination. According to medico-legal official Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi, all the dear departed sustained multiple bullet wounds while one body also bore torture marks.

The bodies were brought to the hospital at around 11:15am, the officer said.

The MLO, who conducted the autopsies, added that it seemed they had been killed around eight hours before their bodies were brought to hospital.

Following the post-mortem examination, the bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue for identification.

Investigation officer of the Mochko area Sub-inspector Ghulam Nabi told Dawn that one of the victims sustained around one dozen bullet wounds on different parts of his body. Another man received four bullet wounds in the head, he added.

He added that the boy wore a blue shirt while all the three men wore shalwar kameez.

Mochko abutting on Balochistan is one of those Karachi localities where 'missing' persons and Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
gang warfare victims have been found rubbed out.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results...
another young man was found rubbed out on Monday in the Manghopir area, police said.

They added that the man with a bullet wou­nd in the head was found in Jam Chakro Goth.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Zarb-i-Azb: 47 militants killed in NWA, Khyber blitz
[DAWN] At least 47 suspected hard boyz were killed and 23 hideouts desroyed in air striked carried out on Tuesday by the military in North Wazoo and Khyber tribal region, according to statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations.

Jet strikes carried out by the military in Mirali area of North Waziristan Agency killed 27 suspected hard boyz and destroyed 11 hideouts including a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

The ISPR statement also claimed that 20 hard boyz were killed and 12 hideouts were destroyed during the air blitz in Khyber tribal region.

Foiled suicide kaboom
Three people, including two security personnel and a civilian, were killed Tuesday in a foiled suicide attempt on a hospital in Spinwam area of North Waziristan tribal region, according to an ISPR statement.

Security sources said that a single cabin explosive-laden vehicle was intercepted by security forces near a checkpost outside the civil hospital in Spinwam area.

Soldiers on duty, spotted and fired at the vehicle causing it to explode 100 meters short of the checkpost.

The kaboom also caused damage to the roof of a nearby building.

The statement further said that one person also suffered wounds and added that huge losses would have occurred if the jacket wallah had not been intercepted.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Long live the eight ball !!!
Posted by: Speregum Fillmore3332 || 06/25/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||


Pakistani plane comes under attack in Peshawar
[Iran Press TV] Unidentified gunnies have opened fire on a Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) aircraft as it was landing in the volatile city 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.
, officials say.

According to policeman Asghar Khan, flight PK 756 was carrying nearly 180 passengers traveling from Soddy Arabia
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
ISIL Jihadists move against Lebanon & Jordan & ...
Map clearly illustrates the ultimate target of destruction.
A nice little round-up by Pamela Geller at her blog links to a nice bigger round-up by the Washington Post. It's the Post which has the map Besoeker approves of.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 02:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To resupply no doubt!
Posted by: Speregum Fillmore3332 || 06/25/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  They are just going SHOPPING like George told us all to do so the terrorists don't win!
Posted by: Speregum Fillmore3332 || 06/25/2014 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I share this strategy in hopes that it will work in the Middle East also! I stopped one of the world's largest terror organizations in Texas with a 2x4 all they need to do is figure out how to use one calling all carpenters!
Posted by: Speregum Fillmore3332 || 06/25/2014 9:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Dammit, Son - aincha ever heard of the comma?
Posted by: Pappy || 06/25/2014 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Whahahha
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 9:46 Comments || Top||

#6  There's this delightful Finnish word Pilkunnussija which could be used in this thread. But I will desist, in order to dodge the ban hammer. :)

Posted by: Shipman || 06/25/2014 11:54 Comments || Top||

#7  There seems to be rumors of both an alliance of ISIL and Al Nusra, and also the rejection of US assistance by Iraq.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/25/2014 12:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Been support those doing work in Jordan to prepare for this since mid last year. The Jordanians figured this might happen when the initial ISIS incursions were basically ignored by Obama, and Iraqi Shia under Maliki used it as an excuse to beat up Sunnis.

Jordan's military is as ready as they could be thanks to good prep, foresight, and US Contractors and US military training liaison officers and NCOs that have been silently working their asses off for the past year.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/25/2014 12:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Word has it that Maliki has rejected Lurch's call for a reconciliation government.

Tamerlane killed almost the entire population of Baghdad and left pyramids of heads 50-feet high at each of the cardinal points on the perimeter of the dead city. The Tigris ran black with the ink from manuscripts from the University of Baghdad thrown into the river.

I wonder if we are about to see a re-run of that massacre...unfortunately for Iraq and Muslims in general, there are going to be no winners in this one. Whoever thinks they won will actually be gaining control of a desolation and ruined society.

That's what happens when you fight over the succession to the prophet for 1200 years and there are no descendants to succeed him and haven't been for 1200 years...that never made sense to me...and it didn't make sense to any of my Libyan friends either.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 06/25/2014 18:24 Comments || Top||

#10  See also DAILY MAIL.UK > FROM SYRIA TO IRAQ, KENYA TO MALAYSIA, A NEW ERA OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS IS SPREADING FEAR + CHAOS ACROSS THE WORLD.

* SAME > ISLAMIST EXTREMISTS COULD [easily] SWEEP THRU AFGHANISTAN AS WELL AS IRAQ, SAYS [UK] EX-MILITARY CHIEF.

* TELEGRAPH.UK > "25,000 [Shia Muslim]INDIANS READY TO FIGHT IN IRAQ TO DEFEND SHIA HOLY SITES".

Wid another 100,000 Shia Muslim Indians pledging support - the tote of 125,000 is only part of approxi 50.0Milyuhn Shia Muslims in India.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [JPost] JCPA ANALYST: 1000 CHINESE JIHADISTS TRAINING IN PAKISTAN.

* TOPIX > [The Star Online] SOUTHEAST ASIA FEARS MILITANT FALLOUT AS MIDEAST CONFLICT WIDENS.

* RELATED SAME > Lim Kit Sung] SISIS MMILITANTS CAUSING HAVOC IN IRAQ ARE GETTING FUNDS AND RECRUITS FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA.

As I've been telling locals here on Guam, its no longer the US_vs-China in Asia -Pacific, but the US-vs-China-vs-Islam/Nuclear-Islam - iff its NOT Rising China that takes over Guam-WESTPAC iff the US pulls out, it will be Soon-to-be-Nuclear Islam or Nuclear Islam, which went Nukulaar ironically wid Western = JudeoChristian help + approval.

But I digress ... ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/25/2014 23:00 Comments || Top||


Baghdad surrounded: ‘Nightmare scenario’ unfolds as ISIL takes supply routes
[Wash Times] Baghdad is surrounded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and at least two key supply routes are under the Sunni radical organization’s control.

Shafin Dizayee, a spokesman for autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil, told McClatchy news service that “the picture is no longer scary. It has become close to a nightmare scenario, where we see [ISIL] expanding and taking control of its borders.”

Another Kurdish official, Jabbar Yawar of the Peshmerga militia, told the news service that the towns of Iskandariya and Mahmoudiyah, just 6 miles south of Baghdad, had fallen.

The city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, is also not faring well. An official who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, told McClatchy that Iraqi security forces were having a difficult time defending the city.

“[Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki is tense. He is up working until 4 a.m. every day. He angrily ordered staff at his office to stop watching TV news channels hostile to his government,” one Iraqi official told The Associated Press in a report Friday.

The Obama administration is sending 300 U.S. troops to Iraq to serve as military advisers in an attempt to help thwart a civil war.
This has all the makings of a sectarian bloodbath of epic proportions. As the ISIL encirclement is completed, I suspect BIAP will come under heavy fire and be closed to commercial and military flights. A race to the Kuwait and Iranian borders will begin.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 01:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq

#1  This has all the makings of a sectarian bloodbath of epic proportions.

You just have to keep in mind, Besoeker, that the best metaphor for post Sykes-Picot ME is "The Island of Dr Moreau"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/25/2014 5:54 Comments || Top||

#2  "What is the Law"! (Spoken by Bela Lugosi)

- Not to spill blood! (spoken by manimals)
- Not to eat meat!
- Not to walk on all fours!

THAT is the Law! Are we not men?
rong>
Posted by: borgboy || 06/25/2014 6:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Well g(r)om, perhaps we'll live to see the hard work of your lads at Dimona finally rewarded. When the evening news is interrupted with the reporting, please know that I will be on my feet and cheering wildly.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Besoeker, nukes are soooo inelegant. Sooo brute force.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/25/2014 6:14 Comments || Top||

#5  When I was attempting to learn to play tennis, we were taught that if the opponent is crowding the net, smash a ball at their feet to drive them back a bit, setting up for the killer slam down the line.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/25/2014 8:17 Comments || Top||

#6  about 4 million people in Baghdad and vicinity

this comes at a bad time for Iran because some of their best forces are in Syria or guarding the oil fields in the sunni region in sw Iran.

Still, they should be able to mobilize at least a division pretty quickly.
Posted by: lord garth || 06/25/2014 8:59 Comments || Top||

#7  "On to Tehran!"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/25/2014 9:25 Comments || Top||

#8  There is already a battalion of Iranian Quds in Iraq, and a motorized division supposedly marshaling over the border. It will get nasty if they enter - because Persians and Arabs do.not.like each other one bit.

The joke in the deck are the Shia militias. If they get loosed, especially Tater's bunch, they can be every bit as bloody as ISIS, except with Sunni heads on the pikes. Once that happens, there will not be any stopping it - and it becomes Lebanon on a much larger scale.

At that point, I say we as a nation just supply plenty of ammo, lob in cruise missiles on leadership targets, and sit back with popcorn, watching from Jordan and Kurdistan.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/25/2014 13:20 Comments || Top||

#9  This ISIS Group seem to be too organised/state funded to take this much of Iraq so soon.
Posted by: Thusosh Untervehr8552 || 06/25/2014 13:49 Comments || Top||

#10  This ISIS Group seem to be too organised/state funded to take this much of Iraq so soon.

ISIS was joined by Saddam Hussein's generals and lower some time ago, Thusosh Untervehr8552. At one point some of them would have gone through American training.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/25/2014 14:13 Comments || Top||

#11  At that point, I say we as a nation just supply plenty of ammo
This is another reason caliber commonality is so very important. 1 airdrop, 2 targets, instead of 2 airdrops and associated waste.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/25/2014 14:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Iskandariya and Mahmoudiyah, just 6 miles south of Baghdad, had fallen.

This is bad. By my reckoning, Iskandariya (AKA Alexandria) is halfway between Baghdad and Karbala, just more due south of Baghdad than Karbala. I don't know where the six miles south of Baghdad came from. Baghdad is being encircled and no surge on the horizon to lift it.

No wonder the Sunni minority conquered the Shia; what wusses.

Bye-bye Maliki.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 14:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Kurds are duking it out with ISIL outside of Qaraqosh, a Christian town due east of Mosul. The Kurds fear a massacre if ISIS takes Qaraqosh.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 15:05 Comments || Top||

#14  http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2014/06/iraqs-central-front-attacks-upon.html
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 15:38 Comments || Top||

#15  Anything else gave an error posting.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 15:39 Comments || Top||

#16  From Outlaw09 at Small Wars Council we see:
Ongoing events

1.In Europe reports are coming out concerning Iranian military movements and buildup on Iraqi border near Manadli next to Diyala province.
2. It appears that now ISIS has closed the ring around Baghdad with their troop movements being mobile forcing the ISF to not fully understand the battle space and making it harder to react to --basically it seems the ISF is just setting up checkpoints after checkpoints actually in effect creating new targets as the IAI/ISIS have 8 years of target practice against any form of checkpoint there is.
3. It now appears that the Syrian Air Force is actually bombing inside Iraq and the Iraqi's initially claimed it was US drones in order to cover up the Syrian involvement.

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-sends-wa...134145404.html

4. And this is extremely important if true to any degree---some European news reporters in the [b]KSA are indicating a very quiet KSA military alert for selected armored and AF units and some movement of units towards the Iraqi border.[/b]
5. Turkey is claiming they have stopped a total of 5300 recruits attempting to flow into the ISIS in Syria over the last six months.

Things are getting now out of control and a momentum is building that if it continues will expand into a Holy War as the three regional hegemones are getting involved-Syria, Iran and the KSA.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 15:44 Comments || Top||

#17  So.. The Magic Kingdom is getting ready to enter the battle. That implies they have their nukes to counter the Iranian ones?
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 15:46 Comments || Top||

#18  One of things the news has not been talking about is how Maliki has antagonized the Kurds. He has spent the last 3 years purging Kurds from the army along with anyone who was trained by the US Army and replaced them with Shia militia leaders.

If you're wondering what happened to the army we trained there, that army disappeared long before Mosul.

This January, while no one was paying attention, Maliki cut off all payments to the Kurdish Regional Government, throwing the Kurdish economy into chaos. If you want to know why the Kurds aren't fighting harder, it's because they don't want to stick their necks out for someone who's stabbed them in the back so many times.
Posted by: frozen al || 06/25/2014 15:56 Comments || Top||

#19  ISF is closing the gates, or trying to, around Baghdad - I wonder how infiltrated the city is by ISIL. Close the airport, disrupt water and electricity, slow ground transport supplies in. No, they don't need to assault Baghdad, just need to start a panic.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/25/2014 16:29 Comments || Top||

#20  3dc: I suspect Turkey is working with ISIS.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/25/2014 16:36 Comments || Top||

#21  No matter wat your politics or slant, this is going to get most unpleasant for a great many innocent people. Sadly, it could have been prevented if only the communist kaffir bastard had listened.

I hope and pray all the U.S. personnel and other foreign nationals make it out of Iraq in one piece.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 16:45 Comments || Top||

#22  I suspect Turkey is working with ISIS.

I have been wondering about that. Perhaps that is why Turkey is being so nice to the Kurds; trying to split them away from Maliki.

None of the regional players want ISIL to ultimately succeed. So I wonder what the Turkey and KSA plan is for the end game? Wipeout ISIL (who and how?) and leave JRTN in charge; that is, back to Saddam?

Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 16:47 Comments || Top||

#23  I hope and pray all the U.S. personnel and other foreign nationals make it out of Iraq in one piece.

Ditto.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 16:52 Comments || Top||

#24  What are the logistics involved in extracting the thousands of embassy staff if the airport is in insurgent hands and the runways have been disrupted?
Posted by: KBK || 06/25/2014 16:55 Comments || Top||

#25  Well KBK old boy, it becomes a long, hot, dusty 500+ kilo slog straight south to a petrol stop in Nasiriyah and on to the Mutla Ridge [see happy snap] if you're lucky. All of that with the hope the Kuwaitis can hold the bastards off and there will be hots and cots down at Camp Arifjan until airlift from Al al Salem or Kuwaiti International can be arranged. Of course there's the Iranian border option, not my first choice. I'd wager the Kuwaitis would help U.S. personnel and foreign nationals....Iraqis however, not so much. All the makings of a colossal cock-up of the first order I'd say.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/25/2014 17:13 Comments || Top||

#26  Iranian artillery shells border's Kurdish villages in Iraqi Kurdistan region

"Erbil: Iranian artillery bombed border's villages adjacent to the Iranian territory in Iraqi Kurdistan region. The website of the Union Patriotic of Kurdistan quoted an eminent Kurdish official as saying: The shelling experienced by this area started on Tuesday evening noting that Iranian forces also carried out an assault on Merkin village juxtaposed to the Iranian border Tuesday afternoon. The same source added that the artillery shelling also targeted the villages of Kanyah-Do, Saqar, and Sharki, without casualties."

Anybody know anything more about this?
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 18:05 Comments || Top||

#27  Yes, but the question is, can we provide cover for the extraction, or is it a shooting gallery?

What are we waiting for?
Posted by: KBK || 06/25/2014 18:38 Comments || Top||

#28  A week old but good analysis:
Posted by: 3dc || 06/25/2014 18:48 Comments || Top||

#29  Re: Iranian artillery - I'd surmise that it's more a warning to the Iraqi Kurds to stay on heir side of the border.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/25/2014 18:52 Comments || Top||

#30  Thanks Pappy. Last check, the Kurds have no heavy artillery, no armor and no air force. If we are counting on the Kurds to counter ISIL then this better be remedied PDQ.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/25/2014 18:58 Comments || Top||

#31  Thanks a lot for this disaster of a clusterfuck, Bambi. You fucking IDIOT.
Posted by: Barbara || 06/25/2014 21:22 Comments || Top||

#32  Thanks a lot for this disaster of a clusterfuck, Bambi. You fucking IDIOT.
Posted by: Barbara || 06/25/2014 21:22 Comments || Top||

#33  Sorry for the double post, mods - please delete one.

This is what happens, boy & girls, when you accidently hit "enter" instead of "backspace." >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 06/25/2014 21:24 Comments || Top||

#34  To finish my comment, I don't believe for a minute that the Manchurian Candidate's (not-so-hidden) owner/handler didn't plan all this crap.
Posted by: Barbara || 06/25/2014 21:28 Comments || Top||


Thousands more join Iraq army to fight against ISIL
[Iran Press TV] A large number of Iraqi volunteers have rushed to military recruitment centers to join the battle against forces of Evil from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

On Tuesday, hundreds of volunteers gathered at the Federal Police Command headquarters in the capital Storied Baghdad to receive application forms and go through required medical tests.

Security officials in Basra say up to 100000 people in the province have registered to fight alongside government troops.

This comes as Iraq's top Shia holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has called on all Iraqi people and political factions to unite and support the government and army in their battle against the terrorists.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Esquimeau village Jack was learning how to rub noses with Nootka's wife......
Iraq's army front man says security forces have the upper hand against the forces of Evil from the ISIL. General Qassim Atta says troops, in their latest battles, have conducted anti-terror operations against the Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
forces of Evil in several locations across the country.

Iraqi media say over a dozen Takfiri forces of Evil have been killed as army warplanes pounded multiple targets in the town of Baiji --- home to the country's largest oil refinery. The area has seen fierce festivities over the past days.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  Volkstrumm redux. (We all know how that turned out.)
Posted by: borgboy || 06/25/2014 6:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I had to look it up, so I'm sharing. From Wikipedia: Volkssturm
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/25/2014 8:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq corpse count: 69 dead
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] At least 69 people were killed and 144 injured in fierce festivities Tuesday between Iraqi security forces and Sunni murderous Moslem groups even as 17 more Indians were evacuated from the conflict-ridden country.

A provincial police source, requesting anonymity, put the toll at 69 with 144 others being maimed after air strikes Tuesday, carried out by unidentified aircraft on two Iraqi cities in Anbar province, Xinhua reported.

The source said a plane bombed the area near the local government of Rutba city, where many civilian cars were queuing outside a fuel station, leaving some 50 people dead and 122 maimed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


More than 1,000 killed in 17 days in Iraq: UN
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq between June 5 and 22 as Islamist militants swept through large swaths of northern and western Iraq, the UN said Tuesday.

At least 1,075 people were killed and 658 injured in the country during the 17-day period, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN human rights office told reporters in Geneva, stressing that the numbers "should be viewed very much as a minimum."
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Car bomb explosion kills one in Syria's Homs
[Iran Press TV] At least one person has been killed in a boom-mobile kaboom in the western Syrian city of Homs, as the crisis continues in the Arab country.

Syrian media reports said that the kaboom took place on Tuesday near a candy shop in the neighborhood of Wadi Dahab, leaving over 20 people injured.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the kaboom, saying that 14 people were maimed in the incident.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


Leb security officer kaboomed
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] An overnight suicide kaboom in Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah's main bastion, killed a security officer who had tried to stop the bomber, a Lebanese security source said Tuesday.

No one has claimed the attack, but an audio recording posted on YouTube by a Sunni murderous Moslem group said there would be more "strikes" if the Shiite movement does not pull out of Syria.

The kaboom happened at around midnight (2100 GMT Monday) near an army checkpoint and cafe where football fans were watching a World Cup match.

An army statement said a suicide kaboomer driving a white Mercedes "went kaboom! at an army checkpoint at the Tayuneh roundabout (in southern Beirut), wounding several civilians."

The official National News Agency reported 12 people maimed.

On Tuesday, a security source told AFP a high-ranking General Security Agency officer whom the army had reported missing had "been martyred."

Remains were undergoing DNA testing to confirm that they were indeed those of Abdel Karim Hodroj, the source added.
Posted by: Fred || 06/25/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  Is this a second bombing, or an update on the first one to reflect a fatality?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/25/2014 9:14 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-06-25
  Zarb-i-Azb: 47 militants killed in NWA, Khyber blitz
Tue 2014-06-24
  Thousands flee North Waziristan region on last day of evacuation
Mon 2014-06-23
  Syria Army, Hizbullah Seek to Oust Rebels from Qalamun Foothills
Sun 2014-06-22
  30 militants killed in Khyber Agency, N Waziristan air blitz
Sat 2014-06-21
  Lebanon security chief escapes suicide attack
Fri 2014-06-20
  Zarb-i-Azb operation: 23 militants killed in fresh strikes
Thu 2014-06-19
  Iraq Battles ISIL for Control of Baiji Refinery
Wed 2014-06-18
   Iraqi PM sacks senior security officers over failure in fighting insurgents
Tue 2014-06-17
  Iraq calls for Iranian help to fight militants
Mon 2014-06-16
  Mighty Pak Army launches operation in North Wazoo
Sun 2014-06-15
  Iraq Rebels Stall North of Baghdad
Sat 2014-06-14
  Iran sends forces to Iraq as ISIS militants press forward
Fri 2014-06-13
  Iraqi security forces withdraw from Syrian border
Thu 2014-06-12
  'They have lined the streets of Mosul with the heads of police and soldiers'
Wed 2014-06-11
  Maliki asks for state of emergency

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