[Iran Press TV] Afghan authorities say at least seven people have bit the dust in a dronezap in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. .
Provincial police front man Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashraqiwal said on Tuesday that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) struck an area the previous day in the Samso locality, located between Lal Pur and Bati Kot districts of the province.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] A powerful bomb kaboom has killed five members of a family and injured a number of others in troubled northern Afghanistan, local officials say.
Local Afghan officials said on Tuesday that the bomb went kaboom! inside the house of a police officer in the Grizwan district of the northern province of Faryab.
Abdul Razaq Kakar, the governor of Grizwak district, confirmed that the dead included a police officer, his wife, son, daughter and a daughter-in-law.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group claimed to have seized full control Tuesday of the Libyan city of Sirte from the Fajr Libya militia, including a power plant, according to a U.S. monitor.
SITE Intelligence Group said the jihadist group had published photographs of "IS fighters engaged in festivities, sitting atop heavy guns, exploring the power plant and town, as well as bodies of dead Fajr Libya fighters."
The claim comes nearly two weeks after IS overran the airport in Sirte -- the home town of slain strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... -- in the group's first such military gain in Libya.
SITE quoted a report in which an IS division that calls itself "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... Province" said "soldiers of the caliphate" seized control of the last locations of Fajr Libya gunnies in Sirte.
The report said Sirte would now "be the coastal city linking the east and west of Libya under full control of the Islamic State (group) fighters."
It said the capture of Sirte came after festivities that erupted at dawn saw the Fajr Libya fighters lose all entrances to the city and the power plant, as well as the al-Jallit military camp and al-Qardhabiyah base.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group released a video Monday showing the jihadists killing a man in North Sinai after accusing him of being a police "spy".
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis -- which has pledged allegiance to IS and renamed itself "Sinai Province" -- has carried out a spate of deadly attacks on the peninsula since last year.
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Fifteen people were killed when 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... attacked a remote village in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , opening fire and burning homes to the ground, three residents told AFP on Tuesday.
The attack happened at about 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday in Huyum, in the Askira-Uba district of Borno state which locals say has been hit repeatedly in recent weeks by the Islamist Lion of Islams.
"The whole village was burnt by Boko Haram gunnies. We lost around 500 homes," said Bukar Zira, who fled to the commercial hub of Mubi in neighboring Adamawa state as the rebels moved in.
Zira said the bandidos murderous Moslems surrounded the village and opened fire before moving in, sprinkling petrol on homes, many of which are mud-brick with straw roofs, then setting them alight.
"We have so far lost 15 people and one was injured. People in the whole village moved out to different parts of Borno and Adamawa," he added.
Another resident, Peter Malgwui, said Boko Haram had mounted several raids against neighboring villages in recent weeks, looting food supplies and homes.
"They completely burnt the whole village. Not a single home has been spared," he added, giving the same corpse count as Zira.
The attack is the 12th since Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria's new president on May 29. A total of 109 people have been killed, according to AFP reporting.
Buhari, a former military ruler and retired army general, has made crushing Boko Haram a priority for his administration after six years of violence and at least 15,000 deaths.
There have been reported military gains in recent months by a coalition of troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... but continued attacks underscores the ongoing threat from the rebels.
One Huyum resident, Ishaya Ayuba, said: "The attackers remained up to 4:00 am this morning until they withdrew.
"There were troops stationed about 20 kilometers (13 miles) away but they didn't respond. We have lost everything."
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] His atrocities were well-known in his locality in Kishoreganj. The nature and extent of his brutality during the 1971 Liberation War earned him the nickname "Razakar Hasan Ali Daroga".
On a September noon in 1971, Syed Hasan Ali, a Razakar commander of Tarail thana in Kishoreganj, along with his 15-20 armed accomplices, destroyed Hindu-dominated Palpara of Shemulhati village in less than three hours.
They captured 12 Hindus and split them into two groups. Initially, Hasan shot two villagers to death while his men tied and queued up 10 others. He and his Lions of Islam opened fire, leaving all but one dead. The surviving person fled and hid himself in a paddy field. But he was caught and killed by Hasan's men.
Before leaving Palpara around 3:30pm, Hasan and his gang left a trail of destruction. They plundered many houses and set those on fire.
Forty-four years after his notoriety, a special tribunal yesterday sentenced him to death for the act of genocide. The 68-year-old is on the run.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 said the convicted criminal can be executed either "by hanging or shooting" -- the first such order in the war crimes trials in Bangladesh.
The court, however, said the government will decide the mode of execution.
The tribunal found Hasan guilty of another act of genocide committed at Borgaon in Tarail on the night of September 27. Hasan and his accomplices cordoned off a boat on which a group of Hindus from Netrakona were going to India. They dragged the Hindu people onto their boat in Markan Bill and took them to Balongka road in Tarail.
Hasan shot three men dead and his fellow Razakars killed five other men and took away ornaments and cash from the female members of the group.
The three-member tribunal led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, with Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque as members, sentenced him to death for the crimes.
"All the crimes mentioned in the said two charges [charges 3 and 4] relating to genocide and crimes against humanity were massive human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations committed during the War of Liberation in 1971," said the court.
The fierceness of the crimes were "extremely detrimental to basic humanness" and it deserved to be evaluated as "crimes of serious gravity" intending to demean the human civilisation.
"...no punishment other than death will be equal to the said horrendous crimes for which the accused has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in the above mentioned two charges," added the court.
Hasan was found guilty on five of the six charges brought against him.
He got death sentence on two charges and jail until death on three other charges.
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Belgian authorities on Monday charged two people in connection with a probe into a Chechen murderous Moslem group suspected of seeking to recruit jihadists to fight in Syria, federal prosecutors said.
The two were among 16 people detained for questioning in 21 raids that took place Monday mainly in the Phlegmish-speaking Flanders region, but the other 14 were later released, a prosecutor's front man told AFP.
The authorities plan to issue warrants for the arrest of three other people in connection with the case, front man Jean-Pascal Thoreau said.
"The two people ...were placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in connection with a network aiming to recruit fighters to send them to Syria," Thoreau said.
He said the pair are charged with terrorism-related offenses, but added that he would not have the details of those charges until Tuesday. Nor did he give details on the suspects' identities.
The prosecutor's office said in an earlier statement that the "investigation targeted religious jihadism in a part of the Chechen community."
It said the police carried out the raids simultaneously because the two "extremist and Salafist Chechen groups... were linked to each other," the office said.
But the authorities later found no immediate evidence to suggest the second group was preparing to launch an attack in Belgium, as had earlier been suspected, the federal prosecutor's office said.
The raids took place in Ostend, Bredene, Antwerp, Jabbeke, Louvain, and Namur.
The investigation into the group suspected of recruiting fighters for Syria was launched in February after prosecutors said the police obtained information that a person from the port city of Ostend "was maimed," apparently after waging jihad in Syria, and "returned to Belgium in order to receive medical care."
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel praised the work of the police and courts who "once again showed the full mobilization and determination of the authorities to fight terrorism without let-up."
He added: "We will leave no place in our democracy for any of these people who represent a real threat to our citizens."
The prosecutor's office said "the Sherlocks worked closely with U.S. authorities in order to be able to check communication from WhatsApp," the phone technology allegedly used by the suspects.
In January, Belgian coppers said they thwarted an alleged Islamist plot to mount attacks against the police when they shot and killed two suspected gunnies in the eastern city of Verviers.
[AnNahar] An aviation technician caught in an FBI sting pleaded guilty Monday to plotting to attack a Kansas airport with a boom-mobile, U.S. officials said.
"Terry Loewen utilized his privileged airport access to attempt a terrorist attack in Wichita," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said in a statement. "Detecting, disrupting and holding accountable those who wish to harm Americans remains our highest priority."
Loewen, 59, was tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in December 2013 when he tried to use his access pass to drive a van filled with what he believed to be explosives on to the grounds of the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
He came to the attention of the FBI in May 2013 when he became a Facebook friend of a person who was posting comments advocating violent jihad.
An undercover agent began communicating with him and offered to help when Loewen "expressed his desire to engage in violent jihad," prosecutors said.
Loewen told the undercover agent that he wanted to martyr himself and was waiting for "the green light" from Allah to carry out a violent attack on a civilian target.
He also said he was inspired by the teachings of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... and Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list....
Ah. A romantic of the nihilistic type. In the old days they became anarchists and threw bombs into crowds.
In September 2013, Loewen sent photos of airplanes on the tarmac at the Wichita airport to the undercover agent and said he could have "walked over there, shot both pilots slapped some C4 on both fuel trucks and set them off before anyone even called TSA."
A second undercover agent began meeting with him in October. He eventually helped Loewen assemble a bomb -- ensuring that it was actually inert -- and drove with him as Loewen tried to use his access badge to access the airport's tarmac.
In his plea agreement, Loewen agreed with the prosecutor's recommendation of a sentence of 20 years in prison. A judge will make the final decision at a sentencing hearing.
[Iran Press TV] The White House press room was shortly evacuated as news hounds had gathered for a scheduled briefing.
While White House front man Josh Earnest was speaking, the Secret Service interrupted the Tuesday briefing.
Later, the evacuation turned out to be in response to a bomb threat.
The threat had specifically been made against the briefing room, Earnest said, adding, the agents "determined that for the safety of all of us they needed to evacuate all of us and sweep it,"
The evacuation, which took about 30 minutes, came hours after another one at the Dirksen Senate Office Building by Capitol Police.
"All press come with me please," an officer shouted as Earnest was speaking about cybersecurity.
The Secret Service agents inspected the room with bomb-sniffing dogs and minutes later the news hounds were told to return.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] At least 19 suspected holy warriors were killed and seven others injured when security personnel hit back after an attack on a checkpost in South Wazoo's Laddah tehsil, adjoining North Waziristan.
According to an Inter-Services Public Relations statement issued on Monday, seven security personnel were killed and seven others injured when a jacket wallahwent kaboom! during the attack on Preghal post.
In the retaliatory attack, at least 19 turbans, including five of their 'commanders', were killed. Seven holy warriors were maimed and one was captured.
Azam Tariq , a front man for the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's Mahsud chapter, grabbed credit for the attack on the checkpost.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[The Hill] The Obama administration is planning to send about 400 additional trainers to Iraq to train Iraqi forces against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to the New York Times.
As with the British training contingent going to Iraq that we noted recently, it assumes that the problem is that the Iraqi troops just need more training. We've been doing that all along, and the result was that the Iraqi army broke and ran when it confronted ISIS. The problem isn't training. The problem is that the average Iraqi isn't willing to fight for Iraq. The Shi'a militias that now confront ISIS are fighting for Shiastan, and the Kurds are fighting for Kurdistan, but none of them are fighting for Iraq.
The decision comes after an embarrassing defeat of Iraqi forces at Ramadi last month to the terrorist group, prompting the administration to reconsider its training and equipping program for Iraqi forces.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Iraqi forces in Ramadi had lacked the "will to fight," and Sunni tribal fighters there had complained of not receiving any training or equipment from the central government.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2015 8:57 Comments ||
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#3
I remember a friend who retired and went to work for Vinnel Corp. in the Magic Kingdom back in the 1980's. Whenever the SANG would fail or fall a bit short on training tasks during a MILGROUP review or Army Training and Evaluation Program, it was ALWAYS the trainer's fault.
"Contractor failed to train to standard" ...or some such language.
#4
I know it's different but I keep flashing back to my childhood memories about Viet Nam. I was old enough to understand what was going on there pre-LBJ and the massive build up.
#5
By the way: whatever happened to that famous Status of Forces Agreement we couldn't negotiate with the Iraqis? Are these "trainers" subject to the jurisdiction of the Iraqi courts if they happen to shoot somebody?
Posted by: Matt ||
06/10/2015 9:50 Comments ||
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#6
Waitasec! The Iraqui phase is closed. Isn't it? Didn't the Chosen One say so?
#8
prompting the administration to reconsider its training and equipping program for Iraqi forces
Two lies and a canard in that one.
I remember a friend who retired and went to work for Vinnel Corp. in the Magic Kingdom back in the 1980's.
I was peripherally involved with the Saudi Navy back then as well (not as a contractor.) The sailors and the ratings were reasonably competent*. It was the officers, and especially the "command" ranks that were... lacking.
* It rather helped that the sailors are pretty much stuck with their ships. Sauds had, and may still have, a habit of recruiting from the coasts and then assigning sailors to the coast opposite wherever they called home.
[Rudaw] A top ISIS leader and a number of his assistants were killed Tuesday in an kaboom at a bomb-making warehouse on Tuesday in the group's stronghold of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , a Kurdish official told Rudaw.
"The well-known Daesh emir, Abu Hisham al-Chechani, and a number of his gunnies died today in a stockade blast where they were making explosives," Saeed Mamozini, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's branch 14 in Mosul, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Abu Hisham al-Chechani, said to be originally from Chechnya in Russia's North Caucasus region, was reportedly the head of ISIS operations involving booby traps and planted bombs.
There was no immediate mention of the reported blast on ISIS social media sites.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] Three gunnies disguised in military uniform killed at least eight people in a local government office in Amiriyat al-Falluja in western Iraq on June 9, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
One of the attackers went kaboom! inside the building, but the other two were still on the lam, according to deputy district council chairman Falih al-Issawi, who said he could still hear gunfire.
A further 17 people were maimed in the attack, including the head of the council, Shakir al-Issawi, who leapt from the window of his office after the kaboom, a police source said.
In a statement, ISIL said the three attackers had killed "dozens of apostates".
Located on the western fringe of Baghdad, Amiriyat al-Falluja is one of the few remaining pockets of territory under government control in Anbar province, most of which is held by ISIL.
Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group jihadists armed with assault rifles, pistols and suicide belts attacked a local government headquarters west of the Iraqi capital Tuesday, killing at least two people, officials said.
Sabah Abdullah, a member of the Amriyat al-Fallujah local council, said two holy warriors wearing police uniforms mounted the attack during a council meeting.
They were killed before they could detonate their explosives but were still able to open fire.
Police Major Arif al-Janabi said the holy warriors killed one policeman and a civilian, while Abdullah put the corpse count at two police and one civilian.
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Gulf Today] Five militants, including a woman, of a breakaway group from the communist New People's Army were killed during a raid by Philippine security forces on their hideout in Pampanga province in Central Luzon.
Provincial police chief Rodolfo Recomono said another militant was wounded and captured during the raid conducted by a combined team of soldiers and policemen in a village in the town of Mexico, Pampanga at dawn on Tuesday.
Recomono said the casualties were from the Rebolusyunaryung Hukbong Bayan (HRB or the Revolutionary Forces of the Nation) that broke away from the NPA in the early 1990's. He said the militants ignored demands for them to surrender and fired at them instead, starting a firefight.
Recomono said, "When the smoke of the battle cleared, our security forces discovered the bodies of the slain rebels as well as the wounded who was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital."
The HRB militants operated mainly in Central Luzon and were allegedly engaged in armed robberies, drug trafficking and carjacking.
[Inquirer] Some 2,000 families fled eight villages in Maluso town of Basilan province after Saturday's Abu Sayyaf attack that left their water system heavily damaged.
Village chief Ariel Castillo said, "We have been receiving extortion demand from this (group). It’s not the first time they blasted our pipes. Last Saturday was the third time and it was the worst. Two major pipes destroyed."
Castillo said the residents were afraid of dying from thirst, if not from bullets, after the terrorists killed and decapitated a local militiaman. The pipelines were supplying potable water to eight of the town’s twenty villages.
Domiciano Delgado, an administrator for Maluso Water District, said the agency was determined to restore the water supply but was worried about the security of its crew. He said, "As of now, we were not able to repair the destroyed pipes because of security reasons."
Delgado thought the attack could be a result of Mawad's refusal to yield to extortion.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Gulf Today] Four soldiers returning from a football match were gunned down in an ambush in Thailand’s far south, police said last Thursday. The attack took place on Wednesday afternoon in the Raman district of Yala province.
Lieutenant Colonel Chanwut Raksapram said, "They (the soldiers) were on the way back to barracks after a friendly football match with local residents at the district office."
The soldiers, dressed in plainclothes, were ambushed by five to six gunmen. Chanwut said, "All of them were killed at the attack site and the gunmen took all of their four guns."
Images on local media showed the soldiers' bloodstained bodies lying on the road next to a black car riddled with bullet holes.
Cybersecurity experts believe that Israel is most likely the party responsible for a wave of espionage targeting hotels used by negotiators in the P5+1-Iran nuclear talks, The Wall Street Journal is reporting on Wednesday.
According to counterhacking experts quoted by the Journal, analysts at a cybersecurity firm discovered traces of a viral software that is widely believed to have been used by Israel in the past to conduct sophisticated digital espionage.
The company, Kaspersky Lab ZAO, conducted an investigation which revealed that it had been targeted by an "improved version" of Duqu, a spyware that American officials believe has been used by Israel in the past to hack into computer systems.
[Ynet] Hezbollah gunmen repelled an attack Tuesday by Islamic State extremists in an area along the Lebanon-Syria border as a major battle between the two groups looms in the rugged mountainous region, Hezbollah's TV station reported. Reporting the smaller victories and ignoring the (overwhelmingly) larger defeat...
According to Al-Manar TV, ISIS targeted several Hezbollah positions outside the northeastern Lebanese border village of Ras Baalbek.
The ensuing battle left at least five ISIS fighters dead or wounded, including the group's leader in the Qalamoun border region identified as Saudi national Walid Abdel Mohsen al-Omari, the channel said. It did not say whether there were casualties among Hezbollah fighters.
Al-Manar said Hezbollah also captured 14 ISIS bodies the militants were unable to retrieve.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian air strikes on rebel-held Aleppo city killed at least 12 people on Tuesday, Zaman al-Wasl news hound said.
The fierce aerial campaign on the liberated neighborhoods of the northern city killed 4 people in al-Shaaar neighborhood, 5 people, including a woman, in al-Ansari, and 3 others in al-Ferdous.
Syria's four-year-old war has killed more than 220,000 people and forced millions out of their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Jaysh al-Islam announced on Tuesday an offensive on ISIS in the eastern Qalamoun region, seeking to open a supply route that links to the Syrian north, according to statement posted online.
Activists said that fighters of Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... , or Islam Army, have seized control of al-Afaei mountain that located near the Syrian desert after expelling ISIS fighters who control most of Badiyat al-Sham territory.
Islam Army said its elite fighters, who operate under the 5th Brigade, are carrying out the battle against radical Islamist group.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... Southern Front fighters captured a major base from the Syrian army in the south of the country on Tuesday, rebels and a monitoring group said, a setback for Bashir al-Assad reflecting the mounting pressure on him after recent losses elsewhere, Rooters reported.
"We announce the liberation of Liwa 52," Issam al-Rayyes, front man for the "Southern Front" alliance of rebel groups, told Rooters. Liwa 52, or the 52nd Brigade, is one of the biggest Syrian army bases in the area.
The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the areas where bully boyz have inflicted significant defeats on Assad in the last three months, notably by capturing the Nasib border crossing with Jordan on April 1.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Hijole... for about five surreal seconds I saw that graphic as a Saints logo. Short my brain.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Since late March, an alliance of gunnies including the Nusra Front have seized nearly all of the northwestern province of Idlib at the Turkish border. Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... has also seized the city of Palmyra from government control.
In both cases, the Syrian military and militias fighting alongside it have appeared to withdraw rather than fight. Analysts say the decisions to retreat point to strain in the army after more than four years of combat.
The pressure has prompted Western policymakers to suggest a window of opportunity for a political deal may be opening in Syria after a war that has killed 250,000 people and made some 8 million homeless.
But the defeats have also triggered renewed statements of support for Assad from Iran, whose backing has been crucial to his survival.
While Assad has suffered setbacks in the northwest, southwest and east, he has tightened his grip over the border zone with Leb thanks to a joint operation over the last month with the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, Hezbollah.
The operation underway in the Qalamoun border region has cleared gunnies from hundreds of square kilometres between Syria and Leb.
Hezbollah fighters came under attack from Islamic State murderous Moslems for the first time in the Qalamoun campaign on Tuesday, Lebanese sources briefed on the battle said. Eleven Islamic State fighters were killed, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Rebel fighters captured a major base from the Syrian army in the south of the country on Tuesday, rebels and a monitoring group said, a setback for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... reflecting the mounting pressure on him after recent losses elsewhere.
Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the war, said a nearby town and a village had fallen to the rebels in addition to the base, Liwa 52.
"We announce the liberation of Liwa 52," Issam al-Rayyes, front man for the "Southern Front" alliance of rebel groups, told Rooters. Liwa 52, or the 52nd Brigade, is one of the biggest Syrian army bases in the area.
The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the areas where Lions of Islam have inflicted significant defeats on Assad in the last three months, notably by capturing the Nasib border crossing with Jordan on April 1.
Less than 100 km (60 miles) south of Damascus, the area is one of the last major footholds of rebel groups that are not dominated by hardline jihadists such as Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian arm, although Nusra also has a presence there.
An earlier Syrian state TV reported that the army had repelled an attempt by "a terrorist group" to infiltrate a military position in the area. It said a number of the attackers had been killed and maimed, including a rebel commander. The air force was carrying out raids in the area, it added.
The "Southern Front", an alliance of rebel groups, has been coordinating operations against Assad from a joint command center in Jordan. It includes groups that have received some support from foreign states that want to see Assad gone, including Gulf Arab governments.
Washington, which has been leading an air campaign against Islamic State since last year, says its strategy depends on encouraging the success of groups that oppose both Assad's government and the jihadists.
Saber Safar, commander of the "First Army" rebel group that said it led the attack, told Rooters by Skype that government forces had completed a "mass flight" after starting to withdraw in recent days.
The rebels had fired more than 100 missiles at the base during the attack, the opposition-affiliated Orient News TV station said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jaish al-Islam
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Commander of Jaish al-Islam's ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... Chiefs said fighters of the key rebel group in Syria will open all battlefronts against regime army and allied militias, according to to his official Twitter account, hour after the strategic gains in Daraa and eastern Qalamoun.
Islam Army announced on Tuesday an offensive on ISIS in the eastern Qalamoun region, seeking to open a supply route that links to the Syrian north, according to statement posted online.
Ali Abdul Baqi (Dubbed: Abu Ma'rouf) said on his Twitter account, we are pleased to inform the nation that our jihadist (al-Mujahedeen) to open all battlefront against Kharijite (Bashar al-Assad regime)..."
Activists said that fighters of Jaish al-Islam, or Islam Army, have seized control of al-Afaei mountain that located near the Syrian desert after expelling ISIS fighters who control most of Badiyat al-Sham territory.
Islam Army said its elite fighters who operate under the 5th Brigade is carrying out the battle against radical Islamist group.
Southern Front fighters, including Islam Army members, captured a major base from the Syrian army in the south of the country on Tuesday, rebels and a monitoring group said, a setback for Bashar al-Assad reflecting the mounting pressure on him after recent losses elsewhere, Reuters reported.
"We announce the liberation of Liwa 52," Issam al-Rayyes, spokesman for the "Southern Front" alliance of rebel groups, told Reuters. Liwa 52, or the 52nd Brigade, is one of the biggest Syrian army bases in the area.
The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the areas where insurgents have inflicted significant defeats on Assad in the last three months, notably by capturing the Nasib border crossing with Jordan on April 1.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The Syrian army has clashed with foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists in the southwestern province of Dara’a, killing dozens of them. But losing control of the territory all the same.
The Syrian army killed at least 40 terrorists in the area of al-Harak in the countryside of the provincial capital, Dara’a, on Tuesday, Lebanon’s al-Manar TV reported. And if you can't believe Hezbollah television who can you believe?
The report further added that a senior field commander of a terrorist group in the area was killed in the fighting. The report, however, did not name the terrorist group. ... much less the deader...
Syrian army units also carried out operations against terrorists in other provinces, including Homs, Aleppo, Idleb, and Quneitra, inflicting heavy losses on them. ... but still losing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Rudaw] United States Central Command has announced that 21 Arclight airstrikes were carried out in the last 24 hours in Iraq and Syria by the international coalition to fight the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , or ISIS.
According to a US statement, the Arclight airstrikes hit 14 different areas in Iraq, including the destruction of a massive bomb and a bomb-making factory in the town of Hit, some 30km west of Ramadi in Anbar province.
Hit town is a strategic site that ISIS has used as a base in order to attack other areas of Iraq.
Coalition Arclight airstrikes also hit seven areas in Syria's ethnically Kurdish northeastern region around the liberated city of Kobane.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iran Press TV] The White House press room was shortly evacuated as 
Wazoo
[Gulf Today] Five militants, including a woman, of a breakaway group from the communist New People's Army were killed during a raid by Philippine security forces on their hideout in Pampanga province in Central Luzon.
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Iran Press TV] The Syrian army has clashed with foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists in the southwestern province of Dara’a, killing dozens of them.
