Hi there, !
Today Fri 12/18/2015 Thu 12/17/2015 Wed 12/16/2015 Tue 12/15/2015 Mon 12/14/2015 Sun 12/13/2015 Sat 12/12/2015 Archives
Rantburg
531689 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 64 articles and 207 comments as of 11:15.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Breaking: L.A. School District shut down due to credible terror threat
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
14 20:21 RandomJD [1] 
5 16:53 JohnQC [1] 
4 16:19 Alaska Paul [1] 
6 19:29 JosephMendiola [2] 
2 14:06 gorb [1] 
1 10:47 Skidmark [1] 
0 [2] 
0 [1] 
4 13:09 AlanC [1] 
0 [1] 
0 [2] 
0 [1] 
1 01:29 g(r)omgoru [1] 
2 01:31 g(r)omgoru [1] 
0 [1] 
0 [1] 
4 16:03 JohnQC [1] 
0 [2] 
0 [1] 
0 [1] 
1 10:49 Skidmark [1] 
0 [1] 
0 [2] 
2 12:15 Skidmark [1] 
0 [1] 
11 22:02 RandomJD [2] 
0 [2] 
0 [1] 
2 10:52 Skidmark [3] 
Page 2: WoT Background
4 23:24 Zenobia Floger6220 [4]
3 11:00 Bright Pebbles [3]
1 14:19 Skidmark [2]
15 23:23 KBK [2]
2 17:12 JohnQC [3]
0 [2]
1 17:09 Skidmark [2]
1 06:41 Sven the pelter [2]
1 16:58 Frank G [2]
3 16:52 Frank G [2]
0 [2]
3 16:09 JohnQC [2]
2 08:37 Procopius2k [2]
16 17:46 anon1 [2]
0 [4]
0 [3]
Page 3: Non-WoT
11 23:32 KBK [2]
7 23:43 KBK [2]
4 19:37 JosephMendiola [2]
5 16:20 JohnQC [2]
3 22:48 JosephMendiola [2]
3 12:53 gorb [2]
3 18:07 AlmostAnonymous5839 [3]
12 12:35 Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 [2]
10 15:40 swksvolFF [3]
1 06:53 Sven the pelter [2]
Page 4: Opinion
6 18:22 Rob Crawford [2]
1 10:13 JohnQC [3]
0 [3]
3 12:39 M. Murcek [2]
Page 6: Politix
1 19:34 JosephMendiola [3]
9 12:25 JohnQC [2]
4 08:12 Procopius2k [3]
8 20:28 texhooey [3]
5 12:05 Procopius2k [2]
Afghanistan
19 Talibunnies have a Very Bad Day in Ghazni province
Security forces have killed over a dozen of Taliban fighters in an ambush in Ab Band District of southern Ghazni province.

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, Deputy Governor of Ghazni province says 19 Taliban fighters armed with heavy and light weapons planned to go to Qara Bagh District for attacks.

He said police and army forces had established an ambush for them in Spin Band area last night.

Security forces opened fire at them as they arrived, Ahmadi said, adding that all 19 militants including their two local commanders were killed during the short gun battle.

According to Ahmadi, security force seized several different types of weapons from the militants including two Dushka (DSHK) heavy machineguns. Two vehicles and motorcycles were also confiscated during the clash.

Ahmadi said security forces did not suffer casualties.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Afghan security forces foil attack on Indian consulate
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has foiled a terrorist plot to attack vehicles of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad city, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.

NDS personnel have arrested two terrorists belonging to Daesh group who had planned to carry out the attack.

A statement released by NDS on Monday states that Ata-ur-Rahman alias Hanzala and Abdullah alias Qari Ismail were arrested with a 30-KG bomb before reaching to their target.

In a footage sent to media together with the statement by NDS, one of the suspects identifying himself as Ata-ur-Rahman says they were told to plant the landmine on the side of the road that leads to White House, a nicely decorated compound in Jalalabad city resembling part of the American White House, to target vehicles of the Indian consulate.

Indian consulate is located close to the area from where the suspects were rounded up.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


US Special Ops Forces Fight Taliban in Helmand
[Tolo News] Following heavy festivities in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, and the growing fear of districts falling to the Taliban, U.S Special Operations forces have secretly taken a more central role in the fighting in a bid to help drive out the holy warriors, reports the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
.
Shhhhhhhhh! It's a secret!
According to the report, not just air power has been committed to the battle but so too have ground troops.

It was reported that a Western diplomat said last week that the U.S special ops forces have in fact been involved in the fight for a few weeks -- despite the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by President Barack Obama
teachable moment...
at the end of last year.

The New York Times reports that the extent of the American role has been kept largely secret, with senior Afghan officials in the area saying they are under orders not to divulge the level of cooperation, especially by Special Operations forces on the ground.

The report states that the Pentagon is concerned that the involvement may suggest that the American combat role, which was supposed to have ended in December 2014, is still far beyond the official "train, advise and assist" mission.

The elite ground units in Helmand include both Special Operations troops and the United States Air Force's Special Tactics Squadron, according to the Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The American intervention in Helmand comes amid reports of Taliban capturing more districts and Afghan cops being trapped and becoming more demoralized, read the report adding that if hard boyz are able to sweep away the tenuous government presence in district centers and the capital, Lashkar Gah, it would be a dire setback for the Afghan government, and would give the Taliban a strong foothold in southern Afghanistan.

Asked whether American forces were taking a larger combat role in Helmand, a United States military front man, Col. Michael T. Lawhorn, would not reply directly. But he praised the Afghan forces' efforts so far.

"There's little question that Helmand is a contested area," Lawhorn said. "But the Afghan National Security Forces have conducted no fewer than five major operations there to disrupt holy warrior and Taliban activities."
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Obambi said "no boots on the ground!" so the operators all wore sneakers.
Posted by: Steven || 12/15/2015 3:45 Comments || Top||

#2  So, JSOC and others bringing Christmas joy.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 12:15 Comments || Top||


Gunmen Kill Eight Members Of One Nangarhar Family
[Tolo News] Unknown gunmen killed eight members of one family in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday night, local officials confirmed Monday.

According to officials, the incident occurred in Mirza Qala village in Behsood district.

So far no one has been arrested in connection with the incident but police have started their investigations.

One survivor said eight members of his family were killed by three men who had been staying with them at the time.

The head of the family, Yusuf, his mother, his wife and five children were all killed, said the survivor Parwiz.

According to him: "Among the dead are my nieces, sister and brother-in-law. They were killed by three men who were guests in the house. These men fled after the shooting."

Meanwhile a tribal elder from the village, Malik Nemat, said: "The incident happened during the night and we heard the news this morning. We quickly informed the security forces."

Local officials said the police have started investigations.

Attaullah Khogyani, a provincial governor's spokesman, said: "The police have visited the scene but so far no one has been arrested but police are looking for the murderers."

However, the survivors have called on government to ensure justice is carried out.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa North
Daesh in Libya executes 2 for 'witchcraft', 'spying'
[ARABNEWS] Daesh has executed a woman for “witchcraft” and a man accused of spying in its Libyan stronghold, news agencies close to the country’s rival authorities said Monday.

Daesh beheaded the Moroccan woman in a public square and shot dead a Palestinian man for alleged spying in the coastal city of Sirte, said the agency close to the internationally recognized government.

The extremists also chopped off a Libyan’s hand for stealing, witnesses said.

Libya has had rival administrations since August 2014, when a radical militia alliance overran Tripoli, forcing the government to take refuge in the east.

The group claimed control of Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown some 430 km east of the capital, in June.

The group is trying to spread toward Ajdabiya, a city controlled by loyalist forces and located between Sirte and Benghazi in an area where most of the country’s oil and gas terminals are located.

According to a UN report issued in December, Daesh has between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in Libya, including 1,500 in Sirte.

Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Subsaharan
Military, Shiite Muslims Clash in Northern Nigeria
[AnNahar] Deadly festivities erupted between the military and Shiite Muslims in Zaria, northern Nigeria, which also left the group's headquarters and the home of its leader destroyed, witnesses said Sunday.

Armed soldiers carried out crackdowns on the pro-Iranian Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) following an incident on Saturday involving the convoy of the chief of army staff.

The IMN, which seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-styled revolution, has been at loggerheads with Nigeria's secular authorities, leading to occasionally violent confrontations. The group's leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, has periodically been incarcerated for alleged incitement and subversion.

Northern Nigeria is majority Muslim and largely Sunni.

IMN front man Ibrahim Musa claimed dozens of the group's members were killed when soldiers opened fire and "hundreds more were maimed and incarcerated
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
" when Zakzaky's home and the sect's mosque were attacked.

Zakzaky's deputy and the group's head of security were among the dead but the whereabouts of Zakzaky and his family was unknown, he added.

There was no independent confirmation of the corpse count, although army front man Colonel Sani Usman said Sunday evening there was "loss of lives," without specifying numbers.

Local residents said soldiers backed by tanks invaded the Gyallesu area of Zaria and fought running battles through the night with hundreds of IMN members trying to block troops from reaching Zakzaky's home. Hundreds of sect members had mobilized from different parts of the north in response to an appeal on social media from the IMN leader for protection.

"Throughout the night gunfire rang all over the neighborhood as soldiers kept opening fire on hundreds of Shia followers who kept trooping to the house of their leader to guard it," said local Balarabe Gwargwaje. "The house has since been demolished."

On Saturday, Shiite faithful blocked the main road outside their Husseiniyya religious center, where hundreds had gathered for a ceremony.

The crowds obstructed traffic, including the convoy of Nigeria army chief Tukur Yusuf Buratai, witnesses and the military said.

The military claimed the Shiites attacked Buratai, which left soldiers no option but to retaliate. The army said IMN members, who set barricades and bonfires on the road, were armed with "dangerous weapons" in a "deliberate attempt to assassinate the chief of army staff and members of his entourage."

"The troops responsible for the safety and security of the Chief of Army Staff on hearing kaboom and firing were left with no choice than to defend him and the convoy at all cost as well as open up the barricaded road for law abiding citizens," it added.

Buratai was on an official visit to the city, the statement issued late Saturday said.

IMN front man Musa, however, said there was "no reason" for opening fire and the group was made up of "defenseless people out to perform a religious ceremony."

Iran summons Nigerian diplomat over killing of Shiites

[Ynet] Iran's state TV is reporting that the country's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Nigerian Charge d'Affaires to protest the killing of Shiite Muslims in northern Nigeria.

The broadcast says a senior Foreign Ministry official condemned the killings and said the Nigerian government is responsible to protect Shiite Muslim lives and properties. Iran is the world's largest Shiite Muslim state.

Nigerian soldiers raided the home of Ibraheem Zakzaky, leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement, this weekend in Zaria, a town in northern Nigeria. The movement says soldiers killed hundreds of Shiite Muslims after their group stoned the convoy of Nigeria's army chief. Other reports put the number of dead at about 20.
According to Ynet:
The dead from the military raids included the wife and two sons of the Shia Islamic Movement leader, Ibraheem Zakzaky.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/15/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Arabia
Saudi jets kill 68 rebel officers
Saudi warplanes and Apache helicopters killed 68 senior rebel officers in attacks on their positions across the border on Monday to avenge the death of one of its field army commanders, Saudi newspapers reported on Tuesday.

“The Kingdom’s warplanes and Apache helicopters turned the areas of the coup rebels into an open mourning for their high-ranking officers,” ‘Sabq’ newspaper said.

Sabq and other papers quoted military sources as saying the aircraft attacked rebel positions across the border and other areas and that 68 coup brigadiers and colonels were killed while 233 were injured.

The report said 43 rebel snipers and seven Scud missile experts from the Iranian-backed insurgents were also killed by the raids and Saudi artillery and missile shelling.

It said the attacks following the martyrdom of Saudi Colonel Abdullah Al Sahyan and UAE officer Sultan Al Kitbi on Monday "while they were carrying out their duties in supervising operations to liberate Taiz.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  68 senior rebel officers in attacks on their positions

The Arab Mind.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2015 1:29 Comments || Top||


Saudi commander, UAE officer among dozens killed in Yemen fighting
[DAWN] A senior commander from Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and an officer from the United Arab Emirates were among dozens of Gulf, Yemeni and Sudanese soldiers killed on Monday in a rocket strike in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
as fighting flared before Tuesday's peace talks, local media and Yemeni sources said.

The Tochka rocket strike on a Red Sea army camp south-west of the besieged city of Taiz appears to be one of the bloodiest setbacks for Gulf forces in months of fighting against Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
forces and Yemeni army units loyal to former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
.

Sultan Mohammed Ali al-Kitbi, an Emirati officer, was killed near Taiz, Emirati state news agency WAM reported.

Saudi Press Agency SPA said Colonel Abdullah al-Sahian and Kitbi "were martyred at dawn on Monday while shouldering their duties in overseeing operations to liberate Taiz".

The photographs of Sahian, who had been decorated by Saudi-backed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi for bravery two days earlier, were displayed by Saudi-owned al-Hadath television channel alongside verses of mourning.

The Houthis said via their own media outlets that the two commanders were among scores killed in a rocket attack near Bab al-Mandab on the Red Sea coast.

A source in Hadi's forces confirmed that a rocket had been fired at coalition forces in the Dhubab area, north of Bab al-Mandab and south-west of the city of Taiz, adding that "tens were killed" in a camp that houses Yemenis, Sudanese, Emiratis and Saudis.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition in a military campaign since late March to stop the Houthis from taking complete control of Yemen after they seized the capital Sanaa last year and advanced south towards the port city of Aden.

The Saudi-led campaign has retaken Aden and the city of Marib, east of Sanaa, but has failed to oust the Houthis from Taiz or end attacks on the Saudi border that have killed scores of the kingdom's soldiers.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia


Two coalition soldiers martyred in Taiz
[ARABNEWS] Two security officials, who were part of the Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government, were martyred at dawn on Monday in Taiz. They were named as Saudi Colonel Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Sahyan and United Arab Emirates officer Sultan bin Mohammed Ali Al-Qutbi. The pair were part of "operations of liberating (Taiz) within the operation of 'Renewal of Hope' in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
in the field," reported the SPA.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Britain
Man Convicted of Planning IS-Inspired Attack in London
[ABCNEWS.GO] A British man tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
days before an annual national war commemoration has been convicted of planning an 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-inspired knife attack in London.

Nadir Syed was arrested on Nov. 6, 2014, three days before Remembrance Sunday, amid fears that bully boyz were planning an attack on police or soldiers at a war memorial event.

Prosecutors said 22-year-old Syed was obsessed with beheadings and the killing of British solider Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death on a London street in 2013 by two British men inspired by al-Qaeda.

He tried to go to Syria in early 2014 but was prevented from leaving the country, and prosecutors said he was inspired by the words of an IS leader who urged attacks on Western targets.

Prosecutor Max Hill said the IS fatwa "inspired the defendant to plan his own attack in this country, emulating the attack on Lee Rigby." Hill said the timing, just before Remembrance Sunday, was "no coincidence." Syed recorded a video showing himself stamping on a poppy, the symbol of wartime remembrance, indicating his "attitude to the poppy as the remembrance image in this country," the prosecutor said.

Syed was arrested shortly after buying a foot-long (30 centimeter-long) chef's knife. He denied planning an attack and claimed the knife was meant as a gift for his mother.

Syed was convicted Wednesday at London's Woolwich Crown Court after a jury had deliberated for more than 50 hours. The verdict couldn't be reported until Monday because the jury was still deliberating on two other defendants.

Jurors failed to reach a verdict on suspects Haseeb Hamayoon, 29, and Syed's 20-year-old cousin Yousaf Syed. The two men face a retrial. Nadir Syed will be sentenced at a later date.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Syrians Arrested in Swiss Terror Plot Were Transporting TOXIC GAS for Geneva Attack
[Gateway Pundit] Swiss authorities said Saturday that two people of Syrian origin had been arrested on suspicion of transporting "explosives and toxic gases" as part of a probe into a terror threat.

The two suspects arrested Friday are accused of the "manufacture, concealment and transport of explosives and toxic gases", the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

They are also under suspicion of violating Swiss law prohibiting "groups like Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and similar organisations", it added.

Several Swiss media reported Friday that two people had been arrested in the Geneva region and that traces of explosives were found in their car, as the western city remained on alert due to an increased jihadist threat.

Geneva's public prosecutor has announced a news conference for later Saturday.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/15/2015 07:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What toxic gas? Sarin? Chlorine? Hell, if you spill some bleach in your car, CHLORINE!!!!! will show up.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/15/2015 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Never had a donar kabob?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/15/2015 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  "we are simple, but well-armed, rustic pest exterminators"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/15/2015 8:55 Comments || Top||

#4  "we are simple, but well-armed, rustic pest exterminators"

So are the Swiss.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/15/2015 11:46 Comments || Top||

#5  They are also under suspicion of violating Swiss law prohibiting "groups like Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and similar organisations" There is a law who's time has come.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/15/2015 16:53 Comments || Top||


Italy Arrests Syrian IS Suspect Off Refugee Boat
[AnNahar] Italian police have tossed in the slammer
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
a Syrian on suspicion of being a member of the so-called 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....
(IS), clapping him in cuffs shortly after he arrived by boat along with hundreds of refugees, media reports said Monday.

The man, reportedly in his 20s, was arrested by officers in Sicily after Italia's special operations division discovered incriminating material on his mobile phone.

The suspect had videos and photographs which appeared to be of IS attacks along with a text message which read "Allah is great, but ISIS is even better", according to the reports.

The local Corriere di Ragusa daily said the images contained "corpses, wounds and lots of blood."

The Syrian arrived on December 4 on a wooden fishing boat carrying 500 people, and had been staying at the reception center in the southeastern Sicilian port before his arrest.
If there is one in this 500, and nearly a million have come thus far this year, ...500 into 1,000,000 is like 5 into 10,000 or... about 2,000 jihadis and jihad fanboys. Let's be generous and assume that not all of them will actually act on their admiration, or will get caught at the planning stage. How many Parises would be successfully executed?
There have long been concerns in Italia and Europe of would-be jihadists entering the country and the rest of the continent on the rickety boats of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from northern Africa.

At least one of the men involved in the Gay Paree attacks last month, which left 130 people dead, is believed to have traveled through Italia on his way to La Belle France.
Q.E.D.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano praised police, describing the arrest as "proof of the prevention system's efficiency."
That's,certainly one way to describe it.
"Our work never stops, night nor day. We are on the ground with our best investigative teams and our best men."
I don't doubt it. How much sleep do your people get?
Since the Gay Paree attacks, which were claimed by IS, there have been reports of a drop in the number of people attending crowded events or places in Italia -- from Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican to shopping centers.

Rome's Prefect Franco Gabrielli said it was necessary to "beat the fear which is gripping the city and the country in the fatalistic anticipation that something will happen."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/15/2015 02:49 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  clapping him in cuffs shortly after he arrived by boat along with hundreds of refugees
Aren't they all suspects?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:47 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Two Protesters Killed in Clashes with Police in Southeast Turkey
[AnNahar] Two protesters were killed Monday in festivities with police in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long curfew, security sources said.

The two demonstrators, aged 21 and 25, were rubbed out in violent festivities that erupted over the curfew that has been in place in the city's central Sur district almost uninterrupted since December 2, a security source told AFP, asking not to be named.

The circumstances of the deaths were not immediately clear. At least two other people were maimed and some 40 tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
Police had used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters seeking to march towards the Sur district, which is currently under a security lockdown.

The authorities have allowed only a single break in the curfew of less than a full day on December 11, allowing some trapped residents to leave the area.

The curfew in Sur was imposed shortly after prominent Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci was killed in broad daylight in the narrow streets of the district on November 28, in a crime that remains unsolved.

The Turkish government has been waging a relentless offensive aimed at crippling the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has staged a string of attacks against security forces in Turkey since a two-year-old ceasefire fell apart in late July.

The authorities have in recent months imposed curfews lasting up to two weeks in several towns in the southeast to back up military operations against the PKK.

The measures have proved controversial, with activists saying they deprive residents of vital services and put their health at risk.

But the government insists the curfews are needed to ensure the safety of citizens during essential operations.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/15/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Breaking: L.A. School District shut down due to credible terror threat
Posted by: frozen al || 12/15/2015 10:34 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Got a case of the Syrian jitters.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/15/2015 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder how many pre-planned robberies we won't hear about.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3  #2 Wonder how many pre-planned robberies we won't hear about.


And how many will be perpetrated by the teachers?
Posted by: charger || 12/15/2015 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Credible? I don't think so.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 12:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Closing an entire school district is a major win, bomb or not. Isis has us figured out
Posted by: 49 pan || 12/15/2015 12:53 Comments || Top||

#6  A festering wound that will not heal until it is cauterized. Meanwhile the attending quack physicians proscribe more bleeding.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/15/2015 13:00 Comments || Top||

#7  The threat was sent via email to a school board member Monday evening and was traced back to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany

A RIPE IP, perhaps?

Ima thinkern "spoofing."
Posted by: Pappy || 12/15/2015 13:42 Comments || Top||

#8  They just want all the kids out to pack the theaters for the new Star Wars.
Posted by: regular joe || 12/15/2015 14:00 Comments || Top||

#9  If you listen closely, you can hear the president's most beautiful sound over the emergency sirens.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/15/2015 15:21 Comments || Top||

#10  This will continue to happen until the Lord of the Flies children running things in D.C. are sent to their rooms for a time out or a spanking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/15/2015 15:56 Comments || Top||

#11  Spanking hell JQC, send them to the mines like Victorian peasant kids, why waste a good canary?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/15/2015 16:03 Comments || Top||

#12  Small difference between 'hoax' and 'credible threat'. As TSA and inner-city school security portals have shown us, reactive behavior is expensive.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 17:02 Comments || Top||

#13  As long as they allow the real threat to metastasize they allow the power of such hoaxes to be effective.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/15/2015 19:17 Comments || Top||

#14  Did none of these idiots ever see Die Hard 2?
Posted by: RandomJD || 12/15/2015 20:21 Comments || Top||


Bowe Bergdahl to Face General Court Martial
[ABCNEWS.GO] Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's case has been referred to a general court martial, where he could face a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy and he could face five years of prison time if convicted of desertion.

"The U.S. Army Forces Command's Commanding General referred two charges today, Dec. 14, in the case of United States vs. Sgt. Robert B. Bergdahl to a General Court-Martial," the Army said in a statement.

"The two specific charges referred under the U.S. Armed Forces' Uniform Code of Military Justice are: (1) Article 85: 'Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty;' and (2) Article 99: 'Misbehavior before the Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place,'" the statement added.

Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement that Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, did not accept the recommendation from a pre-trial hearing that Bergdahl's case should be referred to a special court martial that would have limited prison time for a conviction to a year. Instead, Abrams decided to refer Bergdahl's case to a general court martial for which he could get five years if convicted of desertion and a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy.

"The convening authority did not follow the advice of the hearing officer who heard the witnesses," said Fidell, noting he "had hoped the case would not go in this direction."

"We will continue to defend Sgt. Bergdahl as the case proceeds," Fidell said. "We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client. We also ask that the House and Senate Armed Services Committees avoid any further statements or actions that prejudice our client's right to a fair trial."

The date of the arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be announced at a later date.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  diversionary entertainment news
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 3:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The approval of the referral to General Court Martial probably came with instructions to not proceed until after the Presidential elections
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 12/15/2015 4:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Once again, what happened to the initial Serious Incident Report (SIR) and AR 15-6 Investigation, platoon mates testimonies, and findings.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/15/2015 5:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Congrats to General Abrams for avoiding the Fix
Posted by: Frank G || 12/15/2015 7:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Congrats to General Abrams on your impending 'retirement.'
Posted by: Mae West || 12/15/2015 14:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Semi-retirement. GOs are subject to 'recall' at the behest of the Secretary. Might have a new one in January 2017. Might see the return of a number of former 'stars'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/15/2015 14:43 Comments || Top||

#7  I can see several ways this could play out:
1. It gets slow walked so that the actual trial doesn't happen until after Jan 2017. Bergdahl gets convicted and sentenced to life.

2. It gets fast tracked, Bergdahl gets convicted and Obama pardons him on his last day.

3.It goes at a normal pace, and Bergdahl gets acquitted due to "command influence" - from the White House.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/15/2015 15:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Well Done Gen Abrams, this was shaping up to be a huge stain on the Honor and credibility of the service. Regardless of what happens now, the fix cannot be made without it becoming even more obvious. My guess is slowwalking the trial to minimize impact until the remaining few weeks/months of the Obumble disaster.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 12/15/2015 15:20 Comments || Top||

#9  FWIW, my bet is on a slow grind too. Military prosecutors hate losing as much as any others, and will plod along carefully to be sure their case is airtight. Also, defense lawyers whine about how "justice delayed is justice denied," but strangely they're the ones who request as many delays as they can. A case this high profile makes everyone nervous nellies who will drag things out as long as possible.
Posted by: RandomJD || 12/15/2015 20:30 Comments || Top||

#10  the Defense lawyer is whining that "the Command disregarded the investigating Officer's recommendation" that was obviously political/too lenient/could've been written by the defense

Suck it. Sometimes political cover doesn't override honor and integrity (something unknown in this administration and their prostrate brass)
Posted by: Frank G || 12/15/2015 20:54 Comments || Top||

#11  Defense lawyers defend. They whine and bitch and huff and puff. That's their job. The Art. 32 officer's recommendation is just that: a recommendation. Nothing more. The decision is the CG's alone, and all the relevant players know that. The rest is just noise.

It just sucks this gomer came back alive at all.
Posted by: RandomJD || 12/15/2015 22:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Protest in Lahore against arrest of shop owner for putting up hateful poster
[DAWN] LAHORE: Hundreds gathered outside Lahore's Hafeez Center on Monday, protesting police's arrest of a shopkeeper for putting up an anti-Ahmadi poster.

The protesters consisted largely of shopkeepers from Hafeez Center, Lahore's largest electronic marketplace. They gathered on Main Boulevard opposite the center, holding placards and chanting slogans against the arrest of shopkeeper Abid Hashmi and the filing of a case against him.

On Sunday, Gulberg police tossed in the clink
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
Hashmi for putting up a notice declaring Ahmadis "infidels" and banning their entry into his shop.

According to a news release, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Dr Haider Ashraf took notice of the pasting and directed the Model Town Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Mustansar Feroze to arrest the suspect.

On Saturday, a police team led by Gulberg Station House Officer (SHO) Yousuf Butt had conducted a raid on the shop and removed the poster. Hashmi was arrested Sunday and a case was registered against him under sections 295-A of the Pakistain Penal Code and 16 of the MPO.

The DIG said the National Action Plan (NAP) would be implemented at all costs and strict action taken against violators. He said no one would be allowed to post any hate material against any religious group.

The issue was brought to the DIG's attention by people concerned with the contents of the poster. Under the NAP, police officials were directed to take action against any reported instances of hate speech and crime.

On Wednesday night, a photograph of the notice pasted outside the Hafeez Centre shop had gone viral on social media, demanding that the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

government and city officials "take action" against the "shameful" poster.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi state oil firm official shot dead in Kirkuk city
Gunmen shot dead a senior employee of Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company (NOC) on Monday, the third company official to be killed in the past four months, police and sources within the company said.

Deputy inspector-general Hassan Salim and three other employees were driving to their office in the northern oil city of Kirkuk when assailants in a speeding car sprayed their minibus with bullets.

Salim and another employee were killed instantly and the two other passengers were seriously wounded, police sources said.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the killings and police investigations have yet to uncover the perpetrator, according to a police officer in the investigating team.

The ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk has been under Kurdish control since June 2014, when Islamic State overran the north of the country and Iraqi security forces collapsed.

The number of bombings in the city has decreased since the Kurds took over, but there has been a wave of assassinations, many of them targeting Arabs.

More at the link
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


45 ISIS Bad Guys die in airstrikes
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Monday, a source in the Joint Special Operations Command stated, that 45 elements of the ISIS were either killed or injured as a result of an air raid by the international coalition on gatherings for the organization that was preparing to attack security forces west of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad).

The source said in a statement, “The international coalition aviation conducted an air strike that targeted the gatherings of the ISIS in al-Mazrae village near al-Kazak on the road of Mosul-Tal Afar,” pointing out that, “[Those gatherings] were preparing to attack the security forces,” noting that the air strike resulted in “The death of 45 elements of the ISIS and injuring others.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The attack also resulted in destruction of six booby-trapped vehicles,” stressing that, “The attack was based on intelligence information about the presence of gatherings of ISIS elements for the purpose of attacking the center of Baiji and Makhoul Mountains.”

Noteworthy the ISIS organization had taken over the city of Mosul in Nineveh province (405 km north of Baghdad) on the 10th of June in 2014.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


ISIS destroys all bridges surrounding Ramadi
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – On Monday, Head of the District Council of Khalidiya in Anbar province announced, that the ISIS organization has destroyed all the bridges around the city of Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad) to prevent raiding and cleansing the city, while emphasized that the security forces are working on developing alternatives to penetrate the defenses of the organization and destroy it.

Head of Khalidiya District Council, Ali Dawood, said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “During the past few months, elements of the ISIS organization blew up all the bridges and crossings surrounding the city of Ramadi in a terrorist plot to prevent the security forces from proceeding with the cleansing battles in pursuit of breaking into the center of the city from all axes.”

Dawood also noted, “Security forces belonging to the army and the police are working on developing alternative military methods to cross the Euphrates River, construct land-based roads [railway] and penetrate the defenses of ISIS to destroy it and break into territories of Ramadi within the next few days.”

Noteworthy, ISIS controls the most prominent cities of Anbar since nearly a year ago, while battles and confrontations between the security forces backed by tribal fighters are ongoing in the areas of Fallujah and al-Qaim, located on the Iraqi-Syrian border, as well as Heet, Rawa and other areas, including al-Karma near the borders of Baghdad.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Fish in a barrel. It's only a matter of time.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Stalingrad in the sand.

'Sounds like good prep for biblical siege - of several years. No fuel, no batteries, no food, no ammunition gets in.

Let them eat IED's - and each other.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 12/15/2015 1:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I think it is more intended to keep those pussies in ISIS in town to fight more than keeping the Iraqi Army et al. from coming in.

ISIS does seem to show a tendency toward mass desertion when the sledding gets tough.

Now that they are somewhat confined, can we have a good old fashioned B-52 arclight, I mean a REAL arc light with 500 pounders every ten feet for a freaking mile?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 12/15/2015 4:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Seems like the Iraqi forces have ISIS where they want them. Proceed with artillery bombardments. Pick ISIS jihadists off as they swim across the river to escape.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/15/2015 16:03 Comments || Top||


US warbirds hit ISIS targets == 15 dead Bad Guys
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A security source in Anbar province announced on Monday, that 15 elements of the ISIS had been killed, in addition to destroying five vehicles in the northern axis of the city of Ramadi.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “The international coalition warplane, supported by Anbar Operations, had managed to bomb five ISIS vehicles in the areas of Albu Dyab and Albu Farj north of Ramadi.”

The source, who asked anonymity, added: “The coalition force, backed by our ground forces, were able to destroy vehicles belonging to ISIS, as well as killing 15 elements of the organization and causing great material and human losses.”
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Turkey pulls out troops from camp near Mosul
[ARABNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
withdrew troops Monday from a north Iraq camp, a politician and witnesses said, after a deployment which Baghdad said went ahead without its permission and that sparked a diplomatic row.

It was not immediately clear how many soldiers were removed from the camp, where Ankara sent troops and tanks on a deployment last week it said was routine and necessary to protect Turkish trainers working with Iraqi forces battling Daesh [Islamic State].

Baghdad has sharply criticized the deployment, terming it an "incursion" that violated the country's illusory sovereignty, repeatedly demanding the forces be withdrawn and complaining to the UN Security Council.

"The Turkish Army withdrew from Camp Zilkan at dawn today, and according to our information, only the trainers remain to train Hashad Al-Watani forces," MP Salem Al-Shabaki said, referring to anti-Daesh [Islamic State] forces and the site where they were being trained.

"Witnesses confirmed that they saw the Turkish Army withdrawing from Camp Zilkan... toward the Turkish border," Shabaki said.

Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency quoted military sources as saying that "some of the Turkish troops stationed in Bashiqa have transited to the north as part of a new arrangement."

But did not specify if they were moving farther north into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, the government of which has strong relations with Ankara, or leaving altogether.

Anatolia said the troops were carried in a convoy of 10-12 military vehicles but did not give further details on numbers.

Witnesses in Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan reported seeing Turkish military equipment being moved on transport trucks toward the border.

Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Turkish Army withdrew from Camp Zilkan at dawn today
Look for the bombings to begin in 3..2..1..
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:49 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Eleven wounded in vehicular attack in Jerusalem
[Ynet] Terrorist from East Jerusalem rams his car into people waiting at a bus stop near the Chords Bridge at the entrance to the capital; he was rubbed out before he could leave his car; ax found in his vehicle.

Eleven people were maimed in a vehicular attack next to the the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. The attacker was rubbed out at the scene.

Eight people were taken to Sha'are Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, three of them in moderate condition, and six people in light condition, some suffering from shock.

Six were taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem, five of them lightly hurt. A one and a half-year-old baby, who was moderately maimed and suffering an injury to his leg, was initially taken to Sha'are Zedek and later transferred to Hadassah in an effort to save his leg, where his condition deteriorated.

The attack happened shortly before 3pm local time. The attacker, 21-year-old Abdel Muhsan Hasuna from the neighborhood of Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, arrived in a private vehicle to Herzl Boulevard and proceeded to drive into a bus stop, driving onto the sidewalk and hitting several people, as well as a fire hydrant.

A security guard and a member of the security forces saw what was happening and shot the attacker before he could get out of his car.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Maj.-Gen. Moshe Edri said that "Their quick and precise action that neutralized the terrorist prevented a bigger attack."

An ax was found in the terrorist's car.

An Israel Radio news hound said she had seen the car mount the pavement and strike people before shots rang out.

"I was about to turn left to Tel Aviv, suddenly a car went up onto a bus station, shots immediately opened up ... There are people in the station... A number of people simply lifted up the car, because there were people underneath it," Miri Krimolovsky told her station.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing the wave of attacks as "a new type of terror by individuals which challenges us and other countries," praised the quick response of people at the scene whose actions "prevented far more serious tragedies."

"We are acting constantly to fight this terror and I have no doubt that eventually we will overcome it," Netanyahu told a Likud party meeting moments after the attack.

Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
referred to the recent period as "a justified popular uprising."

"We cannot ask the youth why they are going out (to revolt)," Abbas said Monday. "They just despaired of the two-state solution."

In the West Bank, two Israelis were lightly maimed on Monday evening when large rocks were thrown at their car near the settlement of Beit Aryeh.

Kosta Poliakov, whose mother was maimed in the attack, said "a rock weighing 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) was thrown straight onto the windshield. The windshield shattered, and mom was maimed in her face."

Poliakov said the driver of a vehicle that was behind his mother's car pulled out his weapon and tried to fire at the stone-throwers, but was unsuccessful.

A poll published by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research indicated that 67 percent of respondents supported stabbing attacks against Israelis and that, if the attacks were increased, it "would serve Paleostinian national interests in ways that negotiations could not."
More on that poll here. Separately, according to The Times of Israel, fourteen were injured in the Jerusalem car ramming, and also:
A member of the security forces, a security guard and an armed civilian who saw the attack taking place shot the attacker before he was able to get out of his car and approach the civilians. The civilian was the first to respond, and shot the driver, Channel 2 said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, speaking at the scene of the attack, said that the municipality will soon install protective posts to prevent car-rammings at bus stops in the city, focusing on areas where there is the greatest risk of attacks.

Jerusalem has been one of the two focal points of terror attacks since the latest wave of violence began in October, with the West Bank city of Hebron being the other. More than 20 Israelis have been killed since the start of the violence, and hundreds more have been maimed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/15/2015 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Have Arabs, have terror".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2015 4:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Put steel posts in concrete to block such attacks.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  The MSM headline will read "Brave Palestinian Young Man Murdered by Jews"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/15/2015 12:50 Comments || Top||

#4  So, according to this poll, 2/3 of Paleos are terrorists or lovers thereof.

What proportion can we extrapolate to the neighboring Syrians?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/15/2015 13:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. has mapped Islamic State propaganda centers, won't launch strikes
[Wash Times] In a secret project tied to the overall U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, intelligence officials have spent months mapping out known physical locations of media safe houses where the extremist group's operatives are compiling, editing and curating raw video and print materials into finished digital propaganda products for dissemination across the Internet.

Most of the locations are embedded in heavily residential areas in Syria, Iraq and Libya and are not being targeted by U.S. airstrikes because of Obama administration concerns about civilian casualties, according to sources who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/15/2015 06:14 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "others are located in New York City and Atlanta"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/15/2015 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Can someone leak them to someone who wants to win?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/15/2015 9:12 Comments || Top||

#3  I guess I could make the drive to ATL.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Obama is not interested in taking out these propaganda centers even though they have a lot to do with recruiting. Things won't get better until he is out of office. He is the Manchurian Candidate. Hillary is an extension of Obama's administration. More of the same. She is not to be trusted either.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/15/2015 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  So I guess he has chosen to leave ISIS in place so they can sow even more mayhem. Great.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 12:33 Comments || Top||

#6  And POTUS Bill Clinton rly really REALLY R-E-E-L-L-Y told Americans = future Amerikans the Truth when he knowingly and wilfully lied and deceived, them, etc.

[STNG's CAPT. JEAN LUC PICARD = "WE HAVE NOTHING TO LEARN HERE, NO.1"].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/15/2015 19:29 Comments || Top||


Blue on Blue
[ARA News] DUHOK – The Islamic State (ISIS) hardline group executed on Monday three Imams in Iraq’s northwestern city of Mosul under the pretext that they refused urging youngsters to join the group’s ranks, local activists reported.

ISIS issued a decision last week, obliging all Imams of mosques in Mosul city to call for jihad and recruit the youth to join the group’s ranks.

The radical group has fortified its headquarters in Mosul in preparation for a possible attack by the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi troops, supported by the U.S.-led coalition.

“The Imams Kazim Abdulkarim, Bilal al-Sheikh Agha and Abdullah al-Hayalli were brutally beheaded in a public square on Monday afternoon,” a local media activist told ARA News on the condition of anonymity.

Speaking to ARA News in Mosul, Iraqi researcher and journalist Saaduddin al-Othman said: “The three Imams were beheaded in central Mosul in front of dozens of people. The terrifying scene caused a popular outrage, especially that the victims were renowned figures and committed to true Islam; they have opposed ISIS atrocities under the name of Allah, that’s why the terror group executed them.”

Also on Monday, an Iraqi teacher, identified as Ashwaq al-Nouaymi, was shot dead by ISIS militants for refusing to teach the new curriculum imposed by the extremist group on the schools of Mosul, eyewitnesses said.

Al-Othman pointed out that “the ignorance of the Iraqi people” have helped ISIS to spread and take over major areas.

“When ISIS emerged, people have had enough of the suppression of the Iraqi regime, so many people swore allegiance to ISIS with a hope that the group would help them overthrow the regime. However, today Iraq is witnessing the most horrible crimes at the hands of those barbaric terrorists,” he told concluded.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  For a minute there I thought they may have executed the three imams in the US who spoke out against radicalization after the incident in California.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  ...refused urging youngsters to join the group’s ranks

That's why the search for "Moderate Muslims" is so futile.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2015 1:31 Comments || Top||


Kurd drive back ISIS attack on Kobane
[ARA News]. QAMISHLI – Fierce clashes took place in Kobane suburb in northern Syria between Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), military sources reported on Monday.

The clashes centered in the vicinity of Sarrin town south of Kobane.

“Daesh terrorists targeted our security centers in Sarrin with several mortar shells, which lead to the outbreak of clashes in the vicinity of the town,” leadership of the YPG said in a statement on Monday evening, using another acronym for ISIS.

This comes after ISIS militants tried to infiltrate into the YPG-held town of Sarrin subsequent to receiving military reinforcements from Jarablous city west of Kobane on the border with Turkey.

The Kurdish forces have reportedly repelled the ISIS attack and forced the militants to withdraw towards Jarablous following fierce clashes with heavy weapons, during which casualties have fallen on both sides.

“The terror group has also tried to use car bombs in order to infiltrate into Sarrin, but our forces targeted the cars before reaching the town,” YPG spokesman in Kobane, Hebun Osman, told ARA News.

At least eight ISIS militants were killed in Monday’s clashes. On the other hand, three Kurdish fighters lost their lives after being hardly wounded.

In the meantime, warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition conducted several airstrikes on ISIS fighting positions west of Kobane, killing several militants and destroying two ISIS armored vehicles, the YPG leadership reported on Monday.
Posted by: badanov || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syrian Troops Seize Marj al-Sultan air base in Rebel-Held Suburb
[ABCNEWS.GO] Syrian troops and allied forces of Evil seized control of a sprawling military air base near Damascus on Monday, bolstering the government's presence in a key area overwhelmingly controlled by opposition forces.

The Marj al-Sultan air base lies in the eastern suburb of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta, and had been held by rebels for the past three years.

The capture is a rare victory for the government in an area considered an opposition stronghold. It bolsters the government's hold over Damascus International Airport and splits rebel-held areas.

The capture was reported by Al-Manar TV, the channel of Leb's Shiite Hezbollah group, whose fighters are battling alongside Syrian troops under Russian air cover.

Pro-government websites and the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside Syria, also reported the capture of Marj al-Sultan on Monday.

Fighting on the ground in Syria has intensified even as the international community makes its most serious push yet to restart peace talks between Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's government and the rebels.

U.S. 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...
is heading to Russia for talks aimed at narrowing gaps with Russian leaders over a political transition to end the country's nearly five-year civil war.

Before departing, Kerry attended a French-hosted foreign ministers' meeting in Gay Paree to compare notes on a conference of Syrian opposition figures held last week in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
.

As he headed into the meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last week's meeting in Riyadh was encouraging.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Russian artillery in Syria
Posted by: Sloluth Protector of the Weak7539 || 12/15/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  It's, a lot, cheaper to shell than to bomb. A lot more human shields casualties---on a short run.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2015 1:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Possibly A lot more human shields casualties.
Generally, better targeting intelligence and the locals have a sense of when the platforms will arrive.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:52 Comments || Top||


Government
3 House Committees Join Forces to Investigate Whitewashed ISIS Intelligence
[PJmedia] Three House committees have formed a joint task force to probe allegations that intelligence was manipulated to paint a rosier picture of the fight against ISIS.

The House Intelligence, Appropriations and Armed Services committees announced the joint investigation today. "In addition to looking into the specific allegations, the Joint Task Force will examine whether these allegations reflect systemic problems across the intelligence enterprise in CENTCOM or any other pertinent intelligence organizations," Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) said in a joint statement.

Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) will lead the investigation.

"Preliminary results" are expected "early next year," say the chairmen.

Thornberry told Fox whistleblowers have been coming forward to Congress; he said the committees have "talked to a variety of people and the allegation is that intelligence about ISIS was intentionally changed to make ISIS look better than it is."
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/15/2015 06:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Preliminary results" are expected "early next year," say the chairmen.
Early enough to fade from memory before the election.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Committee: X number of heads, X number of mouths, X number of stomachs, X by 2 number of arms, X by 2 number of legs, X by zero brains.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/15/2015 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  The Joint Subcommittee to select the members of The Joint Subcommittee.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/15/2015 12:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Joint subcommittee, all right. Pass it around.

Name a committee or subcommittee of Congress that has done anything in the last 10 years.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/15/2015 16:19 Comments || Top||


Why Did the Klingon Director Meet With Michael Bay ?
[Daily Beast] The action director's new film tells the story of the Benghazi attack based on a book that made the CIA look bad, but he also had a hush-hush meeting with the agency. When the Central Intelligence Agency met with party-boy, explosion-obsessed Hollywood filmmaker Michael Bay this year, the agency said it was on a matter of national security.

In January, Paramount Pictures is releasing Bay's new film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, an action flick dramatizing the story of six security-team members who defended the U.S. compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, at the time of the 2012 attack.

Bay is, of course, famous for helming rowdy, big-budget fare such as Bad Boys II and The Rock, and movies starring beautiful women and loud killer-robots. (For his Transformers franchise, Bay worked closely with the Pentagon to secure access to warships, helicopters, F-22 stealth fighters, and many more military assets.)

The Benghazi attack, which claimed the lives of four Americans, has become one of the more bitterly divisive and partisan issues of the Obama era, spawning multiple congressional investigations and various un-killable talking points for conservative media.

Bay has promised that there is no political agenda whatsoever driving 13 Hours. "I show both sides of the story," he said at a French film festival. "I met with the CIA on this movie and I show the whole situation."
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/15/2015 06:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Had to sign a NDA when extracting reality.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/15/2015 10:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I think they just wanted to have tea.
Posted by: gorb || 12/15/2015 14:06 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
36[untagged]
11Islamic State
3Houthis
3Govt of Syria
2Taliban
2Govt of Pakistan
2Hamas
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Iran
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Commies

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2015-12-15
  Breaking: L.A. School District shut down due to credible terror threat
Mon 2015-12-14
  40 die in Damascus airstrikes
Sun 2015-12-13
  Gambia now an Islamic republic, says President
Sat 2015-12-12
  US sez 3 ISIS Top Dawgs die in airstrikes
Fri 2015-12-11
  North Korea claims it has hydrogen bomb; experts skeptical
Thu 2015-12-10
  37 killed in Taliban siege at Khandahar airport
Wed 2015-12-09
  Daesh loses large part of Ramadi
Tue 2015-12-08
  Clash among the supporters of Taliban chief and Mullah Rasool leaves 24 dead
Mon 2015-12-07
  Yemen's Aden governor killed in car bombing claimed by Islamic State
Sun 2015-12-06
  AQIM shares responsibility for Mali hotel killings
Sat 2015-12-05
  Still No Confirmation On Reports Of Mullah Mansour's Death
Fri 2015-12-04
  They're here
Thu 2015-12-03
  Syed Farook is religious, sez Dad
Wed 2015-12-02
  Dozens of Houthis killed in major offensive across border from Yemen
Tue 2015-12-01
  Russia Arms Su-34s with Air-to-Air Missiles in Syria for First Time

Better than the average link...



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.
34.228.43.90
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (16)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (4)    (0)    Politix (5)