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Today: 75 articles and 246 comments as of 11:07.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Israel Gaza campaign kills 28, wounds more than 150
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Four ISAF Soldiers Killed in Eastern Afghanistan
[Tolo News] Four International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died as a "result of an enemy forces attack" in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, according to a statement released by ISAF.

ISAF did not provide details about the exact location of the incident and the nationality of the soldiers.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the four ISAF personnel were killed in a suicide kaboom in Parwan province, north of Kabul, close to Bagram airfield, the largest U.S. base in the country. At least ten others, most of them civilians, were killed in the attack too.

The death brings the number of foreign troops kill this year in Afghanistan to 50.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Rooters reports the four were Czech.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2014 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Mercy. We have a family friend who was in an OMLT--Nat'l Guard partnering--with the Czechs in Astan. He's been home about a year. Wonder if any of the guys he knew were on another deployment.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 07/09/2014 23:46 Comments || Top||


Afghan suicide attack kills 16
[Pak Daily Times] A Taliban jacket wallah killed 16 people including 10 civilians and four Czech soldiers in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, as foreign troops wind down their war against the krazed killers.

Czech chief of staff Petr Pavel told news hounds in Prague that the bomber was in a crowd of Afghans talking to soldiers who were investigating rocket attacks against Bagram airbase, a major US military facility nearby. The attack, which was claimed by the Taliban, comes as Afghanistan is mired in political crisis, with a bitter row raging over allegations of fraud in the presidential runoff election.

Waheed Sediqqi, front man for the governor of Parwan province, told AFP that ten civilians and two coppers were killed in the attack as well as the four soldiers. The turbans said 15 US special forces soldiers were killed. They routinely make exaggerated claims after such attacks.

About 250 Czech soldiers serve among the 50,000 US-led NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
troops still deployed in Afghanistan.

NATO's combat mission will wrap up at the end of this year, with 10,000 US troops staying into next year if the new president signs a security deal with Washington.

About 3,450 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 when the Taliban regime was ousted from power. US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
warned Tuesday that any attempt to seize power in the election crisis would cost the country its international aid.

Initial results released on Monday showed former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani had won the election, but a front man for his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah
... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
rejected the outcome as "a coup against the will of the people".

Fraud allegations immediately stoked concerns of instability after the figures showed Ghani collected 56.4 percent of the run-off vote against ex-foreign minister Abdullah's 43.5 percent.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Somali presidential compound attacked, president safe
[Pak Daily Times] Somalia's Islamist Shabaab rebels carried out a major bomb and armed assault against the country's presidential palace late Tuesday, penetrating the heavily-fortified complex before blowing themselves up.

Officials said Somalia's internationally-backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed were not inside the complex at the time and were "both safe". Security sources said they were with guards from the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's 22,000-strong AMISOM force.

"There were at least nine attackers, all have been killed, and the situation is under control, the attack is over," security official Abdi Ahmed said.

"There were eight blasts towards the end of the fighting, believed to have been boom jackets. They detonated themselves."

A Shabaab front man confirmed that the Al-Qaeda-linked group was behind the attack, and claimed their commandos had managed to seize the president's office inside the presidential compound known as the Villa Somalia.

"Our commandos are inside the so-called presidential office," Shabaab front man Abdulaziz Abu Musab told AFP. "We are in control of the headquarters of the apostate regime."
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa Subsaharan
Catholic cathedral under siege by Islamic rebels in Central African Republic
[CATHOLICCULTURE.ORG] Rebels of the Seleka
...a 'mainly' Moslem rebel force in the Central African Republic that overthrew the govt, imposed a regime of rapine and looting on the country's non-Moslem population, and was then tossed by France. They still exist, getting funding and weapons from somewhere or other, licking their wounds, complaining about the oppression of Moslems, and occasionally raping and looting someone...
militia have surrounded the Catholic cathedral in Bambari, in the Central African Republic, the Fides news service reports.

The Islamic rebels reportedly fired on the cathedral complex and laid siege to the area. Fides reported that accurate news was difficult to obtain, because phone lines into Bambari had been severed.

More than 12,000 civilians who have been driven from their homes by the fighting had gathered around the cathedral seeking refuge when the siege began on July 7.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Seleka


Attacks Hit Tanzania and Kenya Tourist Sites
[AnNahar] Tanzania and Kenya were targeted in separate attacks in key tourist sites in the east African nations, police said Tuesday, the latest in a series of bombings and shootouts scaring off foreign visitors.

While the attacks -- including a restaurant kaboom that maimed eight in Tanzania and a shootout at a wildlife conservation center in Kenya -- are not reported to be connected, they threaten to badly dent the countries' crucial tourism industry.

Eight people were maimed late Monday when unknown attackers hurled a bomb through the window of a restaurant popular with foreigners and wealthy locals in the north Tanzanian town of Arusha.

"It was an improvised bomb thrown through a window," top Tanzanian police officer Issaya Mngulu told AFP Tuesday.

The floor of the upmarket Indian restaurant in the center of Arusha was covered in blood, with overturned chairs amid broken glass, an AFP news hound said.

Visitors come to Arusha before traveling on to the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, as well as to the Serengeti national park, famed for its spectacular great migration of wildebeest.

In Kenya, gunnies stormed conservation offices on the coast near the tourist island of Lamu, battling with police before setting fire to buildings and vehicles and escaping, following a series of massacres in nearby settlements, government officials said.

"They set ablaze the camp and also several vehicles, then there was also shooting between the attackers and police at the base," said government official Shahasi Abdalla, the local area chief, adding there were no casualties.

The ranch hosts offices of the Lamu Conservation Trust, which works to support local peoples and traditional ways of life, and protect some 63,000 acres of coastal forest inhabited by elephants and buffalo. Lamu island has in the past hosted wealthy visitors including celebrities.

There was no claim of responsibility for that attack, but it follows several killings in the area which claimed at least 87 lives, according to the Red Thingy.

Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab have grabbed credit for previous attacks in the Lamu area, saying they were in retaliation for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as part of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force supporting the country's fragile and internationally-backed government.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
police have blamed the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), a group that campaigns for independence of the coastal region, while Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta accused "local political networks" and criminal gangs.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
whoever is to blame, the unrest has already provoked scores of cancellations for the tourist industry -- a key foreign currency earner and massive employer for the country -- at one of its traditionally busiest times of the year.

In a further blow to the sector, a Russian tourist was murdered on Saturday in Kenya's port city of Mombasa while touring Fort Jesus -- a 16th century Portuguese-built fort and a UNESCO World Heritage Site -- in what police said was "normal thuggery".

Tanzanian police said they had incarcerated
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
two Tanzanian nationals were arrested following the attack in Arusha, but said they did not believe Shabaab turbans were to blame.

"We do not know who the attackers are, but we do not suspect any involvement with Al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
," Mngulu said.

On July 3, two people were maimed when an improvised bomb was hurled into the home of leading Moslem holy man in Arusha, Mngulu said.

In a separate attack in Kenya's restive northeastern Wajir region also late Monday, some 450 kilometers (240 miles) north of Lamu, gunnies hurled a grenade into a restaurant before spraying diners with bullets, killing one and wounding several others.

The remote, rural region is one of Kenya's most volatile areas, awash with guns and armed bandidos, and while the Shabaab have also carried out attacks there, local Dire Revenge™ killings between rival clans are also common.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a Russian tourist was murdered on Saturday in Kenya's port city of Mombasa while touring Fort Jesus -- a 16th century Portuguese-built fort and a UNESCO World Heritage Site -- in what police said was "normal thuggery"

That area is 'Arab' and has always been rough.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2014 10:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen Shiite rebels seize city near capital
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Yemeni Shiite rebels seized control on Tuesday of the northern city of Amran, near the capital Saana, after three days of fierce fighting, an official said.

"Amran is now under the control of the Huthi" rebels, who are also known as Ansarullah, said the official, whose remarks were confirmed by military sources and witnesses questioned by AFP.

Amran, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sanaa, is home to an estimated 120,000 people.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Britain
British jihadists caught after parents inform police
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Two British jihadists who fought in Syria were caught on their return after their parents alerted the police.

Childhood friends Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar, both 22, spent eight months in the war-torn country last year fighting with a notorious terror group.

Sarwar, a part time student, left a note for his parents, who thought he was on holiday in Turkey, saying he had gone to Syria to fight "jihad" and to become a martyr.

The family alerted the police and pleaded for help and West Midlands counter terrorism officers were waiting for them when they finally returned home in January.

Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

#1  Makes a change for the Muslim Parents to act.

There is support in uk for Jihad in Syria no doubt amongst the muslim community unsure about Iraq and joining ISIS.I think only the youngsters see this as a military adventure/jihad.
Posted by: Paul D || 07/09/2014 4:22 Comments || Top||

#2  gone to Syria to fight "jihad" and to become a martyr.

Typical Muzzie failure. If you make it back you ain't a martyr.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/09/2014 13:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Islamist plot to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre and nuclear power plant foiled, say French police
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/09/2014 15:16 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Really? Blow up the Eiffel Tower? Now that's just plain rude.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/09/2014 15:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Wasn't this a scene from 'Team America'?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/09/2014 15:20 Comments || Top||

#3  I blame Sarkozie and Bush.
Posted by: Airandee || 07/09/2014 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Dirka, dirka. Mohammed jihad.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/09/2014 17:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Civilization is not Islamic.
Posted by: Solomon Thiting9822 || 07/09/2014 17:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Takes a butcher
Posted by: KBK || 07/09/2014 22:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two militants arrested in GB operation
[DAWN] The Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts and army launched a targeted operation against hard boyz in Mosarpar area of Diamer district on Tuesday and locked away
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
two Lion of Islams, sources said.

The operation was launched after hard boyz attacked a cop shoppe in Dodishal Diamer. Scores of security forces personnel were flown to the hilly area in five helicopters on Tuesday morning to take part in the operation, sources said. Mosarpar, a remote area, is situated 10 kilometres away from Chillas, the district headquarters of Diamer, near the border of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to a handout issued by home department, scouts and army were taking part in the operation. It said that helicopter gunships destroyed the hideouts of Death Eaters in Mosarpar. Two suspected Death Eaters were arrested in the operation, it added.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Pakistan Airstrikes Kill 13 Militants in Tribal Area
[AnNahar] Pak jets bombed Lion of Islam hideouts in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan and killed at least 13 hard boyz on Tuesday, the military said.

The strikes were carried out at Degan village, a stronghold of Talibs in the North Wazoo tribal district.

"Seven terrorist hideouts were destroyed and 13 bad boyz were potted, including foreigners, by jet aircraft strikes in Degan in North Waziristan Agency today," a military statement said.

More than half a million civilians have fled the long-awaited offensive unleashed by the military on the tribal area last month.

The military has vowed to wipe out the strongholds which hard boyz have used to mount countless deadly attacks in recent years.

So far 399 hard boyz and 20 soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to the military. The area is off-limits to journalists and the number and identity of the dead is impossible to verify.

The rugged mountainous area has been a hideout for years for Islamist hard boyz of all stripes -- including Al-Qaeda and the homegrown Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain as well as imported muscle including Uzbeks and Uighurs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So far 399 hard boyz and 20 soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to the military

how about killing another 49,601 hard boyz for a nice round number?


/OCD
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 9:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq tells UN "terrorist groups" seized former chemical weapons depot
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Iraq's government has lost control of a former chemical weapons facility to "armed terrorist groups" and is unable to fulfill its international obligations to destroy toxins kept there, the country's UN envoy told the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
In a letter to UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, made public on Tuesday, Ambassador Mohammed Ali Alhakim said the Muthanna facility north of Baghdad was seized on June 11. He said remnants of a former chemical weapons program are kept in two bunkers there.

"The project management spotted at dawn on Thursday, 12 June 2014, through the camera surveillance system, the looting of some of the project equipment and appliances, before the forces of Evil disabled the surveillance system," Alhakim wrote in the letter dated June 30.

The Sunni Mohammedan group known as the Islamic State is spearheading a patchwork of Death Eaters who have taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. The group, an al Qaeda offshoot, until recently called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"The Government of Iraq requests the States Members of the United Nations to understand the current inability of Iraq, owing to the deterioration of the security situation, to fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons," he said.

Iraq would resume its obligations when the security situation improves and it has regained control of the facility, Alhakim said.

US Defense Department front man Rear Admiral John Kirby said last month that the United States' best understanding was that "whatever material was kept there is pretty old and not likely to be able to be accessed or used against anyone right now."

"We aren't viewing this particular site and their holding it as a major issue at this point," Kirby said. "Should they even be able to access the materials, frankly, it would likely be more of a threat to them than anyone else.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

#1  FREEREPUBLIC Artic indics that there are literally 000's of Saddam-era rockets still left + filled wid all sorts of BIOWAR + CHEMWAR WMDS, e.g. SARIN, + which can now be used to strike Israel or for any other purpose the Milterrs see fit.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/09/2014 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  AyPee has the details JosephM refers to:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents, Iraq said in a letter circulated Tuesday at the United Nations.

The U.S. government played down the threat from the takeover, saying there are no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to use the material for military purposes.


More at the link. It is not clear to me whether or not ISIS can use either the rockets or the chemicals in a meaningful -- rather than merely threatening -- way. In other words, is it scary in the way that a dirty bomb is scary -- radiation is a terrible word, but general is neither life-harming nor life-threatening -- or can ISIS do actual harm to others with the stuff?
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 7:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Why is there any doubt about whether the "former chemical weapons depot" has anything to worry about? How many years & how many billions was spent during the US occupation of Iraq?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/09/2014 8:15 Comments || Top||

#4  So the narrative created by the left in the U.S that Bush lied about WMDs and that the invasion of Iraq was illegal is a false narrative. Who would have thought the left would lie about such things (SARC ON).
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/09/2014 8:37 Comments || Top||

#5  ..here remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents

They may degraded with time, but would you allow them to be stored in your neighborhood? The amateur stuff cooked up by Aum Shinrikyo in the Tokyo subway was not 'weaponized' material as these things are.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/09/2014 8:44 Comments || Top||

#6  More detailed account from Guardian.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/09/2014 8:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Ref Guardian story at #6.

The UN inspectors left just before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and never returned. The US-led Iraq survey group then took over the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and found none.

As a point of clarification, UNSCOM/UNMOVIC was ordered out of Iraq and back to Bahrain by Saddam.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2014 10:01 Comments || Top||

#8  PJMedia notes that AP quietly edited their article. The original lede:

Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.

Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Tuesday that “terrorist” groups entered the Muthanna site June 11 and seized weapons and equipment from the protection force guarding the facility.


Note the difference with what I posted earlier.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 13:09 Comments || Top||

#9  You mean the weapons the democrats and their whore media swore were not there?
Posted by: newc || 07/09/2014 16:42 Comments || Top||


Bombings Kill Eight in Iraq
[AnNahar] Bombings north of Baghdad killed eight people on Tuesday, police and a doctor said, as Iraq struggles to regain ground overrun in a major jihadist-led offensive.

In the deadliest attack, a jacket wallah detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a checkpoint south of Samarra, killing five people, among them three police, and wounding seven others, including four police.

And a roadside kaboom killed three federal police and maimed two more west of Samarra, a sensitive city home to a revered Shiite shrine that was bombed in 2006, sparking a Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands of people.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah also firing rockets at Israel
Fatah has several hundred militiamen in the Gaza Strip, some of whom are members of the Palestinian Authority security forces, who continue to receive their salaries from Western governments.

At least two Fatah armed groups announced that they had started firing rockets at the "settlements" of Ashkelon and Sderot, cities inside the pre-1967 borders of Israel, with another Fatah group claiming responsibility for firing 35 rockets into Israel since Sunday.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/09/2014 13:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Fatah

#1  I don't know if this is possible. Could the population of gaza be moved into barren regions of the west bank, gaza razed, and then let back in?
Posted by: irishrageboy || 07/09/2014 15:31 Comments || Top||

#2  "We need attention wanna get smited too!"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 15:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Ashkelon has the largest reverse osmosis desalination plant in the world: 87.1 million gallons per day production, supplying 13% of Israel's domestic water needs.

These Gaza Guyz need a serious smackdown. Gaza needs its water and electricity supplies from Israel shut off and disconnected.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/09/2014 17:10 Comments || Top||

#4  As per CNN, HAMAS' rockets have also been landing near Israel's nuke reactor at Dimona, which must also be defended.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/09/2014 20:00 Comments || Top||


IAF destroys homes of all Hamas commanders, kills senior members
In recent air strikes on Gazoo, all of the homes of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, brigade commanders have been destroyed, Israel Radio reported early on Wednesday.

According to a report by the Paleostinian news agency Ma'an, one of the homes targeted was that of senior Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terrorist Hafiz Mohammed Hamad. In the strike early on Tuesday, Hamad and five of his family members were reportedly killed.

In a separate incident, a joint IDF-Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation struck a vehicle containing a commander of Hamas's naval commando unit, Muhammad Sa'aban, aged 24, on Tuesday.

Paleostinian media reported that four Hamas people in total were killed in the targeted strike on the vehicle.

Sa'aban's commando unit operated in northern Gazoo, security forces said. He was immediately killed in the strike. Sa'aban was a resident of Jabalia in Gazoo.

The strike came hours after the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge in an effort to quell increased rocket fire from Gazoo into southern Israel in recent weeks.

Later on Tuesday, the air force struck three homes in Gazoo used by Hamas as command and control centers for enabling rocket fire against Israel.

The homes belonged to Muhammad Sba'at, a senior member of Hamas's rocket launching formations in Beit Hanount, who was involved in several recent rocket attacks against Israel, Amin Ibrahim Al-Alba'an, a Hamas member, and Abu Jarad, a Hamas member from northern Gazoo who has been engaged in terrorism against Israel.

Paleostinians said six people were killed and about 25 maimed in one of the houses attacked.

Some 100 targets in Gazoo have been struck by the IAF since the operation began, including homes used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, underground rocket launchers, underground attack tunnels, remote rocket launch infrastructure, training camps, and additional centers of terrorist activities.

Since midnight Tuesday, some 30 rockets fired from the Gazoo Strip have went kaboom! in Israel.

The Iron Dome anti-rocket system has intercepted six rockets.

Paleostinians say that a total of 24 people have been killed in IAF strikes since Operation Defensive Edge began.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/09/2014 09:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Amazing what effective planning and intel can accomplish.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2014 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  And a sense of ever-present survival.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/09/2014 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  if Hamas succeeds in a terrorist hit on Israel, will they be allowed to pass out candy in the daytime given that it is ramadan?
Posted by: lord garth || 07/09/2014 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Good shooting
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/09/2014 12:20 Comments || Top||

#5  As we used to say, "It's a start."

Keep working your way down until you hit bedrock.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/09/2014 13:04 Comments || Top||

#6  As Insty is wont to say..."Faster please"
Posted by: AlanC || 07/09/2014 13:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Giddyp Israel -- now is the time to settle all family business:

The ME is focused on score-settling in Irag/Syria, the civilized world is focused on the World Cup and the third world is massing at the US southern border.
Posted by: regular joe || 07/09/2014 13:50 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: spano bellingbo3665 || 07/09/2014 14:04 Comments || Top||

#9  That's funny, speaking of ruttin, wuz at the station the other night and chief tells me to roll hose and your mom taps me on the shoulder; but she told me the barrel needs to point in. Right now.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/09/2014 15:01 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: spano bellingbo3665 || 07/09/2014 15:03 Comments || Top||

#11  Ja winner, I took you for a 'winner' from your first post.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2014 15:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Wrong court, the thread you are looking for is like your mom on a Friday - ten posts down.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/09/2014 15:05 Comments || Top||

#13 
Posted by: spano bellingbo3665 || 07/09/2014 15:12 Comments || Top||

#14  I hear fatigue, you better switch hands.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/09/2014 15:24 Comments || Top||

#15  we got a barely sentient chewtoy on hand. Pretty weak shit
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 15:37 Comments || Top||

#16 
Posted by: spano bellingbo3665 || 07/09/2014 15:43 Comments || Top||

#17  The clown is a reincarnation of Jerkface Killa.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2014 16:00 Comments || Top||

#18  sigh...
The quality of trolls these days have certainly gone down the drain. Today we get 'mum joke... I win' and juvenile name calling.

Crap even jerkface was a little entertaining even if all he would do is crap out a few droppings and leave.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/09/2014 16:05 Comments || Top||

#19  Beware the Canuck bearing roses!
He whines you, but then he proposes.
He likes to rub noses
And, in his cups, hoses,
Then gnaws on a moose limb and dozes.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 07/09/2014 16:09 Comments || Top||

#20  Golf clap, Z.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 07/09/2014 16:39 Comments || Top||

#21  Good stuff ZF.

Yeah, tells a mom joke - bombs - then declares mom jokes are game enders or something. This, this didn't even get to a water break.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/09/2014 18:50 Comments || Top||

#22  Keep it up! Now go hit the deputy commanders, the banks, and Iranian businesses...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/09/2014 21:39 Comments || Top||


Times of Israel: July 9th Liveblog
Yesterday's liveblog is here.

For a different take on things, Muqata is blogging on Facebook here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 06:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hamas has been somewhat embarrassed by the lack of fatalities on the Israel side. It will be hard for them to agree to a cease fire without at least one rocket attack which kills a few people.

On the Israeli side, the attacks on infrastructure have been pretty successful, but what the IDF is hoping for is to get the coordinates of the Hamas underground bunker system so the main portion (there are going to be portions that don't connect to the main portion) it can be hit simultaneously with multiple warheads. I think they have a few locations now but not enough.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/09/2014 8:16 Comments || Top||


Barbecue - Gaza Style
The same caveat as all images purporting to be from Gaza: the BBC says a lot of them actually are from other times and/or other places. If any Rantburgers speak Arabic, a translation of what was said, and whether the accent is Gazan would be much appreciated.

That said, click on the headline and enjoy! (Also, note the unsympathetic comments from other Youtube viewers. Ouch.)
Posted by: Anginegum Slolurt5448 || 07/09/2014 01:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like a car bomb to me. Or maybe a work accident.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/09/2014 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  My Arabee is rusty, but it says something about a GM ignition switch malfunction.

Snark of the day.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2014 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Mr. B that was good and fast.
Posted by: Dale || 07/09/2014 8:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Is that a Porsche?
Posted by: regular joe || 07/09/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||

#5  That's what happens when you drive AND speak on the cell phone!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/09/2014 9:08 Comments || Top||


Israel Under Attack: Over 100 Rockets Fired In One Day
[Ynet] Rocket alert sirens blare across the country - including Be'er Sheva, Tel Aviv, Binyamin and the Sharon Plains.

A total of 117 rockets were fired from the Gazoo Strip at Israel on Tuesday, the first day of Operation Protective Edge. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a total of 29 rockets.

Rockets fired from Gazoo kept pushing northward on Tuesday night when the rocket alert siren blared in areas as far as the Sharon plains and Caesarea. It was followed by a volley of about 30 rockets fired at the same time at different areas of the country.

Before that barrage, sirens were sounded across the country, including in Sderot, Ashdod, Yavne, Be'er Sheva, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Rishon LeZion,Kadima-Tzoran, Ness Ziona, Southern Sharon Regional Council, Ra'anana and Herzliya.

Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, claimed it fired four M75 rockets towards Jerusalem. The rocket alert siren was sounded in the capital, as well as surrounding cities Beit Shemesh and Beitar Illit.

A total of three rockets fell in the Jerusalem area. In the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, a rocket hit in between houses. Another rocket fell in an open area in the West Bank settlement of Giv'at Ze'ev, 5 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem municipality has opened all of its public bomb shelters.

Hamas also claimed to have fired an R-160 rocket at Haifa. There were no reports of rockets hitting the northern city.

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted three rockets fired over the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Hamas claimed to have fired four M75 rockets at Tel Aviv in one attack and two more in another.

Some of the long-range rockets fired at the Tel Aviv area on Tuesday evening fell in an inhabited area. Light damage was caused to a home when a rocket hit right outside it.

The Home Front Command ordered bomb shelters opened in the Sharon plains, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, and in communities in the Shfela area.

Throughout the day Tuesday, Code Red rocket alerts also sounded in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ofakim, Merhavim, Ramat HaNegev and Eshkol. The Iron Dome missile defense system was in operation in various locations, intercepting at least two rockets over Be'er Sheva, and more fired at the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. It is also believed that at least one rocket was intercepted over Netivot.

Meanwhile in southern Israel, rockets continued raining down. A rocket went kaboom! near the Nitzanim junction on Tuesday night. Nine rockets went kaboom! in open areas in Eshkol Regional Council on Tuesday afternoon, and two Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
hit open areas in Ashkelon. On Tuesday morning, a rocket hit an empty house in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, causing a fire. Two more rockets went kaboom! in open areas between Ashdod and Ashkelon on Tuesday morning.

Magen David Adom paramedics treated nine people Tuesday in wake of the ongoing rocket fire. One person was lightly hurt from shrapnel to his foot, and another injured himself running to a shelter. Seven other people were treated for anxiety.

The Home Front Command on Tuesday instructed Israel Railways to halt train activity between Ashkelon and Sderot in both directions. The trains will begin and end their journeys at Ashkelon station until further notice.

In addition, the Israel Airports Authority announced that timings of arrivals and departures at Ben-Gurion Airport in Lod may change due to the security situation. Tel Aviv's Sde Dov Airport was closed for takeoffs on Tuesday evening, and timing of landings may change.

Earlier, after being told by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon that there is a possibility Hamas could use its 80km-range rockets to fire at the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, mayors of Tel Aviv, Givatayim, Ramat Gan and Rishon LeZion have opened public shelters in their city. The Rishon LeZion beach was also cleared of beach goers as a precaution.

The IDF announced the operation in Gazoo late Monday night, after a day in which some 80 rockets were fired at southern Israeli communities.

"The IDF has commenced Operation Protective Edge in Gazoo against Hamas, in order to stop the terror Israel's citizens face on a daily basis," the IDF Spokesman wrote in a message posted on Twitter shortly after 1am.

Hamas has vowed to strike back, threatening that its rockets would indeed reach Tel Aviv. The bad boy group fired rockets at Israel's commercial and cultural hub during the previous IDF operation to counter rocket fire, 2012's Pillar of Defense, but few reached their target.

The IDF has urged Israelis within a 40km (24 mile) radius of the southern coastal territory to stay within reach of protected areas and ordered summer camps shut as a precaution against rocket fire.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  100 rockets fired, creating one injury to someone's foot.

Wow, that is impressive.

Big war weapons you Muslims got there. I guess you are really mad.

Let me remind you to duck as the Israeli air force pounds you. Oops, too late.
Posted by: rammer || 07/09/2014 1:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget to cut off their water, power and fuel. Otherwise it is just stirring sand.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/09/2014 2:00 Comments || Top||

#3  If there is one thing you can count on Hamas for, it's bad aim.
Posted by: Charles || 07/09/2014 4:09 Comments || Top||

#4  It's time to turn Gaza into a gated Med resort.

Big bulldozers at one side and don't stop till you're washing the blades in the Med.

Sorry but 1,000,000 strikes and you're out.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/09/2014 7:23 Comments || Top||

#5  D9s hub to hub. Push the trash into the sea.
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/09/2014 9:14 Comments || Top||

#6  guys, there's laws against water pollution
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 10:03 Comments || Top||

#7  It's all organic, Frank.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 07/09/2014 15:18 Comments || Top||

#8  gonna leave a slick on the Med
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 15:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Chum.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/09/2014 17:02 Comments || Top||

#10  They've been having a problem with raw sewage flowing directly into the sea there, and ruining the beaches. What y'all are calling for would be an improvement, pollutionwise.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 19:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Take out everything but the existing sewage ponds.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/09/2014 20:07 Comments || Top||


Israel hits Hamas, Islamic Jihad leaders
[TIMESOFISRAEL] Israel launched a major operation against Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, following heavy Hamas rocket fire over the preceding days. By Tuesday night, Hamas had fired over 140 rockets in 24 hours into Israel, as far north as Hadera; Iron Dome intercepted about 30 of them. Palestinian media put the Gaza death toll at over 20. Israel also thwarted an infiltration from the sea.

An Israeli airstrike killed a top Islamic Jihad member in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning along with five others.

Hafiz Hamad, a leader of Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades, died in an airstrike on his house in Beit Hanoun, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reports.

Another two airstrikes are reported to have taken place in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Two Palestinians are reported dead in the attacks.


Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Hamas rockets reach Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
[JPOST] Air raid sirens rang out in Greater Tel Aviv, and in Jerusalem, Kfar Saba and the Binyamina area on Tuesday evening, marking an increase in the Gazook rockets' range, on the first day of Operation Protective Edge.

An Iron Dome battery intercepted the incoming rocket over Tel Aviv. Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announced it had fired four M-75 rockets at the capital. Two loud thuds were heard in downtown Jerusalem shortly after the rocket warning siren went off at 9:56 p.m. Thousands of residents entered bomb shelters, while others remained outside and in cafés.

Police front man Micky Rosenfeld said none of the rockets fired from Gazoo hit in side the capital, although two rockets struck just outside the city. At least one rocket hit in the adjacent Mateh Yehuda region. A rocket hit near a home, but there was no damage.

The Jerusalem Municipality announced Tuesday evening that it will open public bomb shelters across the capital. The municipality also recommended that residents open their private shelters.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Israel Gaza campaign kills 28, wounds more than 150
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] An Israeli operation against Gazoo murderous Moslems has killed 28 people, medics said on Wednesday, and maimed more than 150, in the deadliest day of violence in the coastal strip since 2012.

Air strikes which began in Gazoo on Tuesday killed 24 people, including two women and five children, and Israeli forces killed four Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, murderous Moslems who staged a beachfront assault on an army base just north of the besieged Strip.
Not an army base, according to Ynet, but a kibbutz. And Israeli troops found and killed a fifth Hamas "SEAL" after the ZeeNews report was filed. But do carry on, dear ZeeNews reporter.
In the worst strike, a missile slammed into a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis after people had reportedly formed a human shield to protect it, killing seven people.
A foreseeable consequence, were one the type to believe in consequences...
Emergency services front man Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP two teenagers were among the dead and that at least another 25 people were maimed.
Unexpectedly.
An eight-year-old child maimed in the strike later died of his injuries.

Witnesses said an Israeli drone fired a warning flare, prompting relatives and neighbours to gather at the house as a human shield and that, shortly afterwards, an F-16 warplane fired a missile that levelled the building.

In response, Hamas said "all Israelis" would be potential targets for retaliation.

Shortly afterwards, two Paleostinians were killed in a strike in Shejaiya, east of Gazoo City, Qudra said.

The blast shook buildings in the city, and Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV replayed what it said was a video of the strike, which sent a tall cloud of debris rising into the air.
The BBC says an awful lot of purported Gaza imagery was actually taken at other times and in other places.
A further three separate air strikes killed three people, including a teenager.

One hit a tuktuk, or motorised rickshaw, in Beit Lahiya in the north of Gazoo, killing a "young man," and one west of Gazoo City killed a 16-year-old boy, Qudra said.

The third, a while later, hit Deit al-Balah in central Gazoo killing a Paleostinian man, he said, without identifying him.

Earlier, three people were killed when a missile struck a car in the centre of Gazoo City.

Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV showed gruesome images of charred body parts being loaded onto ambulance stretchers.
About that BBC image research...
The third, a while later, hit Deit al-Balah in central Gazoo killing a Paleostinian man, he said, without identifying him.

And an early morning strike on a house in Beit Hanun in the north of the Strip killed six people, Qudra said, without providing immediate details.

Earlier, three people were killed when a missile struck a car in the centre of Gazoo City.

Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV showed gruesome images of charred body parts being loaded onto ambulance stretchers.
As the BBC reported, real images, but mostly not from the Gaza strip nor taken today.
Relatives said all of them were Hamas bad boys, identifying one as Mohammed Shaaban, 32, a senior commander in Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades. He was also head of the group's naval operations.

The Army confirmed targeting Shaaban, describing him as "a senior Hamas operative".

In a separate strike near Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gazoo, another man was killed, with witnesses saying he was a Hamas bad boy.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse...
the army rubbed out four men from the Brigades on a beach in Israel after they had infiltrated, not far from the Gazoo border.

"A number of snuffies came out of the ocean and attacked the base with Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades," said army front man Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner.

Soldiers on the base near kibbutz Zikim, just north of the Gazoo Strip, shot two of the bad boys, aircraft killed a third and the navy killed the fourth, said Lerner.

One soldier was lightly injured. The Brigades said its men carried out an attack at Zikim although it did not report losses, saying instead there were heavy casualties on the Israeli side.

It said it fired 10 Katyusha rockets at the Israeli base.

The deaths came hours after Israel announced the start of Operation Protective Edge, aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure.

Lerner said some 120 rockets were fired at Israel, 23 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, with most of the rest falling on open ground causing no damage or casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  "human shields" generally don't stop artillery or missiles
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  What kind of person would bring an 8-year-old child to be a Human Shield?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/09/2014 10:37 Comments || Top||

#3  a Paleo
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2014 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Gazooks need a green helmet man.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 07/09/2014 15:22 Comments || Top||

#5  "Palestinians" have been thrown out of every country they've ever, er, blessed.

Now they're heroes.

Maybe a manifestation of obscured animosity held against their adversary?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 07/09/2014 22:45 Comments || Top||


Watch: 5 Hamas “naval commandos” infiltrating Israel gunned down by IDF helicopter (Updates)
Hey Mohammed, hold my virgin and watch this!
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Appears exfiltration is a CANX.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2014 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  What if we take the $3.7b which our Champ wants and contract the IDF to secure OUR border ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2014 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Does that mean the IDF would not be changing diapers? If not, that would be a good use of $3.7B instead of hiring more lawyers to gum up the works.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/09/2014 8:41 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Eight injured as terrorists attack passenger bus in southern Thailand
Suspected insurgents yesterday opened fire at a passenger bus, injuring eight passengers as guards on the bus fought them off in Yala province.

The bus driver said the bus, with 10 people aboard including himself, was passing two men standing on the side of the road at around 7 a.m. when they suddenly pulled out pistols and took shots at the vehicle. The driver said he sped away and, after learning that several passengers were injured, headed to the hospital.

Defense volunteer Prajak said that he and another defense volunteer, fired back at the assailants as the bus driver sped away. Prajak, who sustained injuries himself, said that after hearing gunshots he shouted for all passengers to stay down and returned fire.

In related news, a policeman was wounded by a roadside bomb while overseeing traffic in front of a school in Narathiwat province yesterday.
Posted by: ryuge || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria troops converge as rebels ready for Aleppo showdown
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Elite government forces backed by Hezbollah converged Tuesday on the north Syrian city of Aleppo as rebels bolstered their own fighters in readiness for a major showdown, a monitor said.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was likely that pro-regime forces were preparing to lay siege to rebel-held parts of Aleppo, the country's pre-war commercial capital.

The rebels fighting to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
have controlled parts of the northern city since they wrested them from the government's hands in July 2012.

"Commando troop reinforcements from the Republican Guard and from (Leb's) Hezbollah continued to be sent, in a bid to surround Aleppo city," the Observatory said.

At the same time, "rebel and (allied) Islamist brigades sent reinforcements of their own... through the eastern entrance to Aleppo city," added the Britannia-based organization.

Aleppo was Syria's most populous city before the conflict, but it is now a major battle zone split into areas controlled by the rebels concentrated in the east and those held by the government mainly in the west.

The rebel-held areas have come under daily aerial bombardment since December.

The Observatory says the offensive has killed some 2,000 civilians, including more than 500 children, since January.

It has also forced tens of thousands of families to flee.On Tuesday, fresh air strikes hit Marea, a rebel town in Aleppo province, as well as Tal Rifaat village nearby, killing a child, said the Observatory.

A mortar struck the government-held district of Ashrafiyeh, in Aleppo city, it added.

The developments come two days after the opposition National Coalition warned the regime is preparing to launch a major assault on Aleppo.

Compounding the rebels' fears are recent advances throughout the north and east of Syria by the radical Islamic State (IS), which recently declared the establishment of a "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq.

Rebels have been fighting IS since January.

The jihadist group was initially welcomed in Syria by some opponents as potential allies, but its systematic abuses and quest for domination has turned the rebels -- even the Islamists -- against them.

IS has recently been emboldened by a lightening offensive it has spearheaded in Iraq, where it has captured vast amounts of heavy weapons from fleeing Iraqi troops.

Rebels have frequently said IS's interests overlap with the regime's.

On Monday, Abdul Ilah al-Bashir, who heads the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
's Supreme Military Council, said the regime and IS "complete each other".

His statement came a day before a convoy of 50 vehicles that belong to a group in the northwestern province of Idlib that has pledged loyalty to IS travelled through regime-held areas to jihadist-held Raqa in the north and Al-Bab near Aleppo, according to the Observatory.

"Just as the regime is advancing on Aleppo city, IS is advancing on its countryside. The regime is happy the rebels have to fight on two fronts," said Abdel Rahman.

Syria's war began as a peaceful movement calling for political change, but morphed into a war after Assad's regime unleashed a massive crackdown on dissent.
Posted by: Fred || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Army Arrests 7 Suspects over Tripoli Attacks, Illegal Activities
[AnNahar] The Lebanese army said on Monday that it has nabbed
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
several people, including foreigners, on suspicion of involvement in attacks and "security activities" in the northern city of 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...
Five suspects were arrested for tossing hand grenades at restaurants and for threatening citizens, the military command said in a communqiue.

The army also apprehended a Sudanese and a Tunisian for residing illegally in the country, They are "suspected of involvement in activities that threaten security," it said.

The seven men are being questioned under the supervision of the judiciary, the communique added.

The state-run National News Agency said an unknown assailant tossed a percussion grenade near cafes in al-Qobbeh area at noon Monday.

Security forces opened an investigation into the attack, it said.

Several hand grenade attacks rattled Tripoli last week. One of them involved an assault on a cafe, which left four people injured.

The city has been witnessing relative calm since security forces and the army began implementing a plan in April to end deadly gunbattles between rival neighborhoods.

Clashes between Bab al-Tabbaneh, whose residents are Sunnis, and mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen have left scores of people dead and injured.

The fighting was a direct spillover of the civil war in Syria where Sunni rebels are fighting Alawite Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
's troops.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Death Penalty Demanded for 6 Syrians for Forming Terrorist Group
[AnNahar] The death penalty was asked for six Syrians on Monday on charges of forming a terrorist group, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Military Tribunal Judge Fadi Sawan asked for the penalty for detainee Issa Mohammed Rabih and his runaway brother, Mahmoud Mohammed Rabih.

They are accused of forming a terrorist cell with the help of four others, including a defected Syrian officer.

The group was affiliated with the Ziad al-Jarrah Brigades and it sought to carry out terrorist acts.

The accused set up in Leb a factory to produce rockets and rig explosives.

They also purchased weapons in Leb and sent them to Syria.

Sawan issued an arrest warrant against the two brothers and ordered that the necessary investigations be taken to uncover the complete identity of their accomplices.

The case has been referred to the permanent military court.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saqr Charges 28 with Belonging to ISIL
[AnNahar] Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Monday 28 people with belonging 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...
, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The NNA said that seven suspects are already in jug.

They were detained in security raids on hotels.

The 28 felons are charged with belonging to ISIL, planning to carry out suicide kabooms by using boom belts and preparing explosive-rigged vehicles.

They are also accused of buying detonators, explosives, boom belts and weapons and training jacket wallahs to carry out terrorist acts in residential areas in the capital Beirut.

The case was referred to First Military Examining Magistrate Riad Abou Ghida.

Earlier in June, security forces raided the Napoleon Hotel in Beirut's Hamra district after obtaining information on a plot to target hospitals and high-ranking security officials.

Over 100 people were interrogated during the security raid but only a Frenchie who is originally from the Comoros islands was tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
and has reportedly confessed to being sent by the ISIL to carry out a terrorist attack in Leb.

Leb was once again hit by a series of deadly blasts recently, the latest of which was on June 25 when a Saudi suicide bomber went kaboom! at the Duroy Hotel when he detonated his explosives during a security raid. His accomplice, also a Saudi citizen, survived the blast and is being questioned.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


Hizbullah Fighters Publicly Appear at Midday in Northern Bekaa
[AnNahar] 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 heavily deployed in the northern Bekaa Valley in a first-of-its kind appearance by the party that previously sought to move discretely during the night in the area.

According to An Nahar newspaper, Hizbullah fighters moved military vehicles, cannons and rocket launchers at midday in al-Labweh, al-Ain and several other areas on the eastern mountain range near the border with Syria.

Sources said that the movement aims at confronting the Syrian opposition members on the Syrian side of the border.

In April, the army kicked off preliminary measures to begin implementing in the northern and central Bekaa a security plan similar to the one executed in the northern city of 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...
The army removed then Hizbullah checkpoints between the regions of Baalbek and al-Hermel and in Arsal is the first sign of the implementation of the plan.

The impact of the Syrian crisis has been felt in the Bekaa, with the army arresting a number of gunnies attempting to enter Leb illegally from the neighboring country and seizing booby-trapped vehicles that were to be used in terrorist attacks in Leb.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  they can do this openly because Israel only bombs rocket conveys when they are moving toward Israel and this convey was moving in the other direction
Posted by: lord garth || 07/09/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||


Lebanese, 22, Dies after Joining IS Ranks in Iraq
[AnNahar] A 22-year-old Lebanese is the first to allegedly carry out a suicide kaboom in Iraq since the Islamic State's declaration, al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

The daily said that the family of Moustafa Abdul Hay, who hails from al-Mankoubin area in the northern city of 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...
, was informed that he died after carrying out a suicide attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Abdul Hay, who was identified as the Lebanese Abou Hafas, went kaboom! near a al-Washwash area in central Baghdad.

The young man had reportedly headed from Tripoli two years ago to join the ranks of Ahrar al-Sham in Syria, then returned to Leb to only pledge allegiance 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...
.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


Jihadist 'Caliph' Vows to Free Roumieh 'Captives,' Attack Judges
[AnNahar] Self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has vowed to release Mohammedan "hostages" from jails in Arab countries, including Leb, and promised to "liquidate their butchers."

According to a video posted on YouTube on Sunday, the shadowy jihadist said the "butchers" include judges, security forces and guards.

Al-Baghdadi heads the Islamic State (IS) group, which led a lighting offensive in Iraq that has overrun swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.

A text appeared in the video, accusing the Lebanese state of being a U.S. and Israeli ally.

It also showed Mohammed Zwawi, a Paleostinian-Syrian, who claimed that he is an inmate in Roumieh, Leb's largest prison.

The video was allegedly shot at Roumieh's bloc B.

Zwawi has been sentenced to death over his involvement in the fighting between Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred.
turbans and the Lebanese army at the Paleostinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in 2007.

Last week, the emir of the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra in al-Qalamoun promised in an audio message to free Islamist prisoners in Roumieh "within days."

Abou Malek al-Shami described the inmates as "Mohammedan captives and jihadist brethren."

The threats come amid strong measures taken by security forces and the army around Roumieh over an alleged plot to carry out a truck bombing and a plan by prisoners to escape from the facility.

The authorities have announced the arrest in the past weeks of several suspected turbans plotting to carry out suicide kabooms in Leb.

Previous attacks have been claimed by murderous Moslems, who have vowed to carry out more assaults to avenge the presence of 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 in Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

#1  See also TOPIX > [Long War Journal] AL-QAEDA ALLY CALLS FOR STATEMENT ON "ISLAMIC STATE" CALIPHATE.

"CORE" AL-QAEDA = AYMAN ZAWAHIRI HE'S A'LOOKIN AT YOU!

and

* SAME > [Jawa Report] AL-QAEDA SO ON THE RUN THAT A [Pakistani Militant] GROUP WID TALIBAN TIES PLEDGE LOYALTY TO "ISLAMIC STATE".

* GROONG > ANKARA: WHO IS THE ENEMY? ISIL OR PESHMERGA [Kurd Militants-Separatists]?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/09/2014 23:22 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-07-09
  Israel Gaza campaign kills 28, wounds more than 150
Tue 2014-07-08
  Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia branch allies with ISIS
Mon 2014-07-07
  Yemen Bombs Rebels After Cease-Fire Falters
Sun 2014-07-06
  ISIS destroys shrines, Shiite mosques in Mosul
Sat 2014-07-05
  Iraq's Maliki to Run Again
Fri 2014-07-04
  IDF Begins To Shift Forces South As Rocket Fire Continues
Thu 2014-07-03
  Saudi Arabia deploys 30,000 soldiers to border with Iraq
Wed 2014-07-02
  Civilian group: 56 dead in Nigeria market blast
Tue 2014-07-01
  Report: Abbas holding 'frantic' talks with US, EU
Mon 2014-06-30
  Bodies of Kidnapped Teens Found Near Hevron
Sun 2014-06-29
  Afghan Forces Claim Victory in Major Taliban Battle
Sat 2014-06-28
  Maliki rejects calls for emergency government
Fri 2014-06-27
  Syrian planes bomb Sunni targets in Iraq, Maliki rejects calls for emergency government
Thu 2014-06-26
  At least 21 killed in rush-hour blast in Nigerian capital
Wed 2014-06-25
  Zarb-i-Azb: 47 militants killed in NWA, Khyber blitz

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