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Today: 46 articles and 128 comments as of 11:36.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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25 21:35 Fred [] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
8 14:56 Besoeker []
We're back up
After feeling like a dummy for most of the time we've been down, I think we're recovering now. I'll try not to break it again, at least not soon.

Because we've got a brand new hard drive there will be bugs. Badanov and I will try to kill them as they come up.

I'd gotten sloppy about backing up -- we went fifteen years without crashing, at least nothing serious. The directory back up was several months old, so we're probably missing pictures. The database backups have been taking place at the wrong hours. So I've got a bit of adjustment to do.

The HP machine I bought to replace the old box crashed because it suddenly couldn't recognize the network card, which was due to a bug in the Realtek 8169 card of several years standing. For some odd reason it behaves at home but not at our ISP. It's not critical here, and there's a wireless network card as a workaround so I'm not worried. We're running on the old box now, with the hard drive out of the new one.

Please let me know when you find something that doesn't work. I'll try to be careful when I make changes and to fix things promptly when I break them.
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 03:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Might be another 'bug fix' necessary. I'm unable to post articles.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/08/2016 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Might be a good thing, considering the news.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/08/2016 3:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome back. The Realtek 8169 card always gave me problems particularly in the shift between 6th direct to 7th overdrive. The over rev would crash the gears in the hard box until I finally got smart and went wireless.
Posted by: Voldemort and Company5797 || 07/08/2016 4:19 Comments || Top||

#4  My hands were getting sweaty and shaking. I felt clammy all over. Had flu-like symptoms for the past week or so. All I can figure is that it was "Rantburg withdrawal."

Thanks Fred for all your efforts. You too Badanov.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/08/2016 6:57 Comments || Top||

#5  welcome back, thanks Fred and Bad
Posted by: Frank G || 07/08/2016 7:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes, I do feel better, after posting five comments! I missed all of you. Can't wait to read the comments later in the day.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/08/2016 7:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Rantburg withdrawal symptoms caused me to drink alcohol. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it. Time to sober up now due to more sobering news to ponder.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 07/08/2016 8:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Let's see if I have any problems. Looks good.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/08/2016 10:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank goodness.

You're one of the few things that allows me to keep my sanity these days.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/08/2016 10:25 Comments || Top||

#10  I can only imagine.
Thank you, Fred and All.

Tip jar coming, and I promise no pickled egg joke.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/08/2016 10:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Amidst the humongous inanity,
A parasite cried, "All is vanity."
While being excreted,
This rhyme it completed
To help AlanC keep his sanity.

Tough times. Love to all.
Posted by: Spineper Sinatra5269 || 07/08/2016 11:43 Comments || Top||

#12  "Whilst," dammit.
Posted by: Spineper Sinatra5269 || 07/08/2016 11:45 Comments || Top||

#13  I too suffered from RWS this week with spillover consequences.
Posted by: Butch Angaimp6143 || 07/08/2016 12:22 Comments || Top||

#14  I think there were too many negative comments here about the Hildabeest and she fried Fred's hard drive.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/08/2016 12:34 Comments || Top||

#15  I thought it was all the hair plug jokes after the last outage..."pulling my hair out".

Please Fred, don't take your ball and go home.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/08/2016 12:46 Comments || Top||

#16  Maybe Fred pulled out all Besoeker's hair this time?
Posted by: gorb || 07/08/2016 12:49 Comments || Top||

#17  Thank you.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 07/08/2016 13:21 Comments || Top||

#18  A day without Rantburg is like a day without...attitude. Yeah, that's it. Attitude.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 07/08/2016 13:54 Comments || Top||

#19  Yippee!

I'm so glad you're back - I was getting the shakes from Rant-withdrawal.

You're on my calendar for a donation come next payday. And of course all my Amazon ordering is done through Rantburg.

Fred, have I mentioned you're a GOD? :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 07/08/2016 15:43 Comments || Top||

#20  Welcome back! I wanted to post it on July 4, but better late than never:

The Munich Allianz Arena on Independence Day
Posted by: European Conservative || 07/08/2016 15:45 Comments || Top||

#21  Cool, EC! Thanks for posting. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 07/08/2016 15:49 Comments || Top||

#22  Wow -- what a lovely gesture from an unexpected source (the arena, not you, European Conservative). Thank you!
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 16:11 Comments || Top||

#23  Backups are a bitch. My first real server had a pricey digital tape backup (ok, long ago), big bucks sw, and surprise, the first time I really needed to restore something, it was all corrupt. The backup sw company said 'tsk, we'll catch that bug on the next release. Maybe.'
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/08/2016 20:53 Comments || Top||

#24  And yes, thank you European Conservative.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/08/2016 20:58 Comments || Top||

#25  Had the same problem with tape. The 'Burg database backs up at 8, 4, and midnight, Eastern time. I think I'll change it to noon, 6 and midnight. And I have to rsync the photo directories. And all the Javascript.
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 21:35 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Al Shabaab publicly executes two men in central Somalia
The Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab fighters in central Somalia have publicly executes two men by firing squad on Thursday afternoon, for killing unarmed civilians in the past.

Sources say a firing squad from Al Shabaab carried out the execution against the men at a square in the coastal city of Harardhere in Mudug province which is controlled by militants.

A local court belonging to Al Shabaab has sentenced two men whose names have been identified as Abdirahman Dhuhul Abdulle, 22, and Abdi Muse Hayle, 25, to death penalty in vengeance for previous two civilian killing. The sources said hundreds of residents, including women and children have watched to execution of the tow men.

Somalia’s central town of Haradhere, formerly a pirate hub is currently serving as the biggest operations and financial core for Al Shabaab fighters in Mudug region situated in the autonomous Galmudug regional state.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Car bomb kills 11 Libyan troops in Benghazi
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A boom-mobile killed 11 soldiers in Libya’s second city Benghazi as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a military source said Thursday.

Benghazi has been hit by repeated bombings since troops under the command of controversial General Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
drove Islamist fighters out of most of the city earlier this year.

Haftar refuses to recognize a joint military command set by the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, saying he still takes orders from a rival administration based in the far eastern city of Tobruk.

Wednesday’s blast follows a boom-mobile targeting a security chief that killed two people on Sunday and a June 24 bombing that killed four civilians.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, there was another kaboom...
a MiG-23 fighter jet of Haftar’s air force crashed in the west of Benghazi on Wednesday, killing its pilot, a front man said.

"The crash was due to a technical fault," Ahmad al-Mismari, front man of the Haftar-led army command, told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Kuwait Busted Three IS Cells Plotting Attacks on Monday
[AnNahar] Kuwaiti security authorities have broken up three 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....
cells plotting "terror" attacks in the oil-rich Gulf state, the interior ministry said Monday.

Five Kuwaiti nationals were incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
, including a policeman and a woman, who all confessed to plotting attacks against a Shiite mosque and an interior ministry target, the ministry said in a statement.

All members of the three cells also confessed to being members of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Kuwaiti police are still looking for a Gulf man and an Asian who assisted one of the cells, the ministry said.

The action against the Islamist cells comes a year after an IS-linked Saudi jacket wallah went kaboom! in a Shiite mosque, killing 26 worshipers in the worst attack in Kuwait.

A court sentenced one man to death and jugged
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
eight others for assisting the Saudi bomber.

Among those arrested in the latest police action was 18-year old Talal Raja who confessed to have been plotting a suicide kaboom against a Shiite mosque and an interior ministry installation by the end of the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan on Tuesday, the ministry said.

The second cell consisted of a mother and son who were arrested in Syria in the IS-controlled Raqa and brought back to Kuwait, the ministry said. It provided no details of how they were arrested.

The 28-year old son had cut short his petroleum engineering study in Britannia to join the IS after his younger brother was killed while fighting for the group in Iraq, the ministry said.

The third cell comprised of two Kuwaitis, one of them a policeman, who were seized along with two Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. The pair confessed to plotting attacks in the country, the ministry said.

In November last year, Kuwaiti police busted an international cell led by a Lebanese man that was sending air defense systems and funds to the Islamic State group.

Several suspected IS members and sympathizers were tried in the Gulf emirate for a suicide kaboom last month claimed by the group.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 10:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Saudi ministry names Prophet Mosque bomber
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Saudi Interior Ministry on Thursday named the suicide kaboomer behind the infamous attack near the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah which left four security force members dead.

The ministry said 26-year-old Naer Musllam Hammad Al-Nijaidi carried out Monday’s attack, adding that he had a history of drug abuse, read an interior ministry statement on the Saudi Press Agency.

The ministry also named three attackers behind the blast in the eastern city of Qatif, including Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed Al-Amer, 23, who was formerly detained two years ago "for having been involved in a mob calling for the release of terror-related detainees."

The other two attackers were Ibrhaim Saleh Mohammed Al-Amer, 20, and Abdulkareem Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Hasini, 20.

It said none of them had obtained Saudi IDs.

The ministry said investigations have led to the arrest of 19 suspects, including 12 Pak nationals and 7 Saudis, involved in the attacks in Madinah, Qatif and Jeddah.

The statement added that examinations of the remains from the two terror attacks in Madinah and Qatif "revealed the presence of the explosive Nitroglycerin", which it said was similar to the substance found in the scene of the bombing at Sulaiman Faqih hospital parking lot in Jeddah, the front man said, adding that the authorities were still conducting tests.

Monday's bombings came days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan when Moslems fast from dawn until dusk.

Militant attacks on Madinah are unprecedented. The city is home to the second-holiest site in Islam, a mosque built by the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, which also houses his tomb.

Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Terror comes to Turkey and now Saudi Arabia? I think I'll get some popcorn.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/08/2016 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  It said none of them had obtained Saudi IDs

Or were adherents to the teachings of John Wesley.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/08/2016 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  The monotheistic confession
Of Muslims professing submission?
Their asses for Mullah
Who'll reach-around Allah...
It's certainly a stressful position.
Posted by: Glomoger Ebbaviling9416 || 07/08/2016 11:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Zenobia F, is that you?
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 15:22 Comments || Top||

#5  The Saudis have been supporting terrorism abroad for decades, and now it's come home to roost.

I'll try (but not very hard) to find my pico-violin.
Posted by: Barbara || 07/08/2016 15:45 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh blast, gunbattle kill four during Eid prayers
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Extremists in Bangladesh hurled homemade bombs and engaged in a gunbattle with police guarding a large Eid prayer on Thursday morning. Two officers, a woman and one suspected myrmidon were killed, while at least 12 other people were maimed, officials said.

At least one of the bombs went kaboom! during the prayer attended by hundreds of thousands of people at the sprawling Sholakia grounds in the district of Kishoreganj, about 90 kilometers north of Dhaka. The grounds hold the country’s largest open-air gatherings for Eid-al-Fitr.

After the blast killed two officers, police fired on the attackers and killed one of them, Assistant Superintendent Tofazzal Hossain said. A female bystander was also killed in the crossfire. More than a dozen other people were maimed with gunshot or bomb shrapnel wounds, including two at death's door, he said.

Police cordoned off the area and searched the devotees as well as nearby houses for suspects in hiding, said resident Shafiqul Islam, who was among those offering Eid prayers.

The violence comes just days after a deadly hostage crisis in which 28 people were killed, including 20 hostages, two police and six of the attackers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack, but the government insisted it was carried out by domestic gunnies fighting to destabilize Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
’s government.

The country’s information minister said the target of the attack was the police convoy patrolling the religious gathering.

"It is a totally political move. They are out to destabilize the government. It is a political attack to oust and topple the secular government of Sheikh Hasina," Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told Indian broadcaster CNN-News 18.

Hasina government accuses her political opponents of backing the myrmidon agenda in Bangladesh, an allegation the opposition parties vehemently deny. Many Bangladeshis have said they were horrified by the attacks, but determined to stand against them.

"The rise of such a minuscule militancy can be rooted out very soon," said Dhaka resident Mohammad Nizam Uddin Jitu after participating in Eid prayers on Thursday at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the capital.

"The people of this country are united," he said. "The people of this country are peace loving. The people of this country never support militancy."

Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansarullah Bangla Team


China-Japan-Koreas
21 hurt in Taiwan train blast
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An kaboom engulfed a Taiwanese commuter train car in flames late Thursday, injuring 21 people, some of them seriously, Taiwan's official news agency said.

Taiwanese police said they suspected the blast in the capital of Taipei was caused by an explosive in the train car, the island's Central News Agency reported.

The explosive appeared to be 15 to 20 centimeters (6-8 inches) long and looked like a firecracker, the news agency said, citing the director of Taiwan’s National Police Agency, Chen Kuo-en.

Police bomb squad chief Lee Tzu-wen told local television networks that Sherlocks found "a 15 centimeter-long, broken metal tube stuffed with kaboom inside a black backpack" that they believed caused the blast.

The self-ruled island’s premier, Lin Chuan, ordered government agencies to form a team to investigate the blast, the Central News Agency said.

"It looks like someone did it on purpose," Lin told journalists. "We will make our best efforts to investigate this case. Please rest assured that we will provide effective and efficient security for all passengers."

Reports cited witnesses as saying they heard a loud kaboom before the train carriage burst into flames.
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Brother of Paris attacker Wednesday got nine years over Syria trip
[AlAhram] The brother of one of the jihadists who blew themselves up in the deadly Gay Paree attacks last November was jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
Wednesday for nine years on terror-related charges.

Karim Mohammed-Aggad, whose brother Foued was identified after the November 13 attacks which killed 130 people, was accused of fighting as a jihadist while in Syria between December 2013 and April 2014.

Another six defendants of the so-called Strasbourg group who were in the war-torn country at the same time also received jail terms of six to eight years, of which they must serve two-thirds before having any chance of early release.

The formal charge was criminal association with a view to commit acts of terrorism.

The Gay Paree court also ordered that the defendants, all suspected members of a jihadist cell based in Strasbourg, northeastern La Belle France, be added to La Belle France's terror watch list.

Francoise Cotta, Mohammed-Aggad's lawyer, said he was considering appealing the sentence.

She said the court had "made a decision based on fear in a La Belle France that is afraid".

During the 10 days of hearings in late May and early June, the defendants, now aged between 24 and 27, were anxious to shake off the association with Foued Mohammed-Aggad and the Gay Paree attacks.

They said they returned to La Belle France from Syria after witnessing fighting between rebel groups.

They said they had wanted to fight the Syrian regime of Bashir al-Assad and to join their recruiter Mourad Fares but they did not specifically want to join 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.

One testified that their trip had no more than a "veneer of religiosity".

At a hearing in May, defence lawyers objected to the prosecutor's decision to use leaked IS documents that list the defendants as "combatants".

The documents, acquired by Sky News television in March, include an estimated 173 names of French citizens or residents of La Belle France, said a source close the probe, but the defence questioned their authenticity.

Foued Mohammed-Aggad travelled with the same group to Syria but did not return home with them.

Nearly two years later he went kaboom! at the Bataclan concert hall in Gay Paree where 90 people were murdered.

Fares was known to French intelligence for recruiting jihadist fighters through social media and the Internet.

Fares -- whom La Belle France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has described as a "particularly dangerous individual" -- was tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in August 2014 in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
before being handed over to the French authorities.

He is in preventive custody awaiting trial.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Two Paris Attacks Suspects Charged Wednesday after Being Handed to France
[AnNahar] French anti-terror magistrates Wednesday charged two men believed to have helped a key suspect in the November 13 Gay Paree attacks flee to Brussels.

Mohammed Amri and Ali Oulkadi are suspected of helping Salah Abdeslam in the crucial hours after massacre, which left 130 dead and hundreds maimed.

The pair allegedly worked with Hamza Attou, who has already been extradited to La Belle France from Belgium.

"Within the framework of the Gay Paree attacks of November 2015, Mohammed A. and Ali O. have been surrendered to the French authorities today," a Belgian statement said earlier Wednesday, referring to the men only by their initials.

Amri -- a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin -- and Attou are suspected of accompanying Abdeslam back to Brussels, getting him past three police checks in La Belle France before crossing the border into Belgium.

Oulkadi, a 31-year-old French national, is thought to have then driven Abdeslam across Brussels on November 14, the last place the top suspect was traced before his capture in the Belgian capital four months later.

Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that attacked Gay Paree, was extradited to La Belle France in April.

The French magistrates charged the men with having "terrorist" links, a judicial source said.

Attou told Belgian Sherlocks that Abdeslam called him and Amri late on November 13 to ask them to come for him "because he had had an accident," according to a source close to the case.

He claimed that they did not know of Abdeslam's involvement in the attacks until after they joined him in Gay Paree.

The source quoted Attou as recounting that Abdeslam said he was "the sole survivor of these attacks" and that "they would pay for my brother's death."

Abdeslam's brother Brahim went kaboom! outside a Gay Paree cafe during the attacks.

Once in Brussels, Attou said he took Abdeslam to a market to buy new clothes and to get a haircut before taking him to Oulkadi, who showed him to a safe house in the city's Schaerbeek area.

Amri and Attou were placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
on November 14 in Brussels' Molenbeek district -- where Abdeslam grew up -- and charged in Belgium.

Belgium agreed to extradite Attou to La Belle France earlier this month but on condition that he serve any jail time in Belgium.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Belgian Court on Tuesday Jailed Leaders of Terror Cell
[AnNahar] A Belgian court on Tuesday tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
four leaders of a terror cell broken up in a deadly raid in 2015, which had alleged links to the jihadists who staged attacks in Gay Paree and Brussels.

The men received jail terms of between eight and 16 years for their role in leading 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 in the eastern town of Verviers that was allegedly planning to kill coppers.

Marouane El Bali, Souhaib El Abdi and Mohammed Arshad were tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
for 16 years each while Omar Damache was tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
for eight years by the court in the capital Brussels.

Judge Pierre Hendrickx said there was evidence that the Verviers cell was planning a gun and kaboom on Zavantem airport in Brussels of the same type as the one that eventually happened on March 22.

Passing sentence on the four men, he pointed to the fact that explosives of the kind used by IS and weapons were found in the property, and that some of the men had spent time in Syria.

"These elements left no doubt about the fact that the Verviers cell was planning an attack," Hendrickx said.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Brussels near the German border.

- 'Rough draft' of Gay Paree -
Prosecutors described the cell as the "rough draft" of the terror cell that attacked Gay Paree on November 13 2015. They said the group was under the orders of Gay Paree ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Main suspect El Bali was charged with attempted murder for firing at police during the Verviers shootout. He denied the charge.

Arshad meanwhile told the court he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives and rent two vehicles and a flat in Verviers. The documents were provided by small-time criminal El Abdi.

Damache, an Algerian, was incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
at an address in Athens where police believe they had zeroed in on Abaaoud. Damache was later extradited to Belgium.

Abaaoud was killed by police days after the Gay Paree attacks, in which 130 people were murdered.

The two men killed in the Verviers raid were Sofiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi who went to Syria to join IS in April 2014. The two then slipped back into Belgium to the Verviers hideout.

The raid on Verviers also occurred just two weeks after a set of jihadist attacks in Gay Paree against the Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket that left 17 people dead.

Authorities have said the November Gay Paree and March Brussels attacks were the work of the same cross-border jihadist group with deep roots in the Belgian capital.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Germany Arrests IS Suspect 'Close to Paris Attacks Planner'
[AnNahar] German prosecutors said Thursday they had placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
an alleged Algerian 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 bad boy who had had contact with the late ringleader of the November Gay Paree attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

The suspect, identified only as 20-year-old Bilal C., is accused of having informed Abaaoud of ways to smuggle jihadists into Western Europe along the Balkans route then used by a mass influx of migrants colonists.

He had also been in touch with Moroccan jihadist Ayoub El Khazzani, who opened fire with an assault rifle on an Amsterdam-Gay Paree train last August but was overpowered by a group of Americans and a Briton, prosecutors said.

Bilal C. was already in jug "on another matter" when the German domestic intelligence service identified him as an IS suspect, said federal prosecutors in a statement. An investigating judge had issued a new arrest warrant.

The man allegedly traveled in 2014 from Algeria via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
to Syria where in December he joined the IS and received combat and weapons training.

In June 2015, Abaaoud allegedly instructed him "to explore the so-called Balkans route in terms of border controls and trafficking opportunities."

"As a result, the accused traveled from June to August 2015 from Syria via Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Hungary to Austria" before reaching Germany, the prosecutors said.

Along the way he had informed Abaaoud of "any open border crossings, waiting times, and arrival and departure routes," the statement said.

Several members of the IS group that carried out the November 13 Gay Paree attacks are suspected of having posed as refugees.

Abaaoud, a Belgian-Moroccan, was killed in November 2015 in a French police raid, aged 28.

Bilal C. had also kept Khazzani up to date on trafficking opportunities, "particularly from Turkey to Greece," the statement said.

Prosecutors said they had no evidence Bilal C. had been active on behalf of the IS since arriving in Germany.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Man held for spying on German-Israeli group for Iran
[IsraelTimes] Syed Mustufa H. allegedly followed the former head of society that promotes warm ties between Berlin and Jerusalem

German authorities have nabbed
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
a Pak man accused of spying for Iran on the former head of a group that promotes German-Israeli relations.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that the 31-year-old, identified only as Syed Mustufa H. in keeping with German privacy rules, was arrested on Tuesday in the northern city of Bremen.

They said in a statement that he was "in contact with an intelligence unit attributed to Iran," without elaborating. He is alleged to have spied on the former head of the German-Israeli Society and people close to him, among others, and handed over information to Iran in October.

The ex-head of the German-Israeli group, former politician Reinhold Robbe, told the Bild newspaper that he wasn’t surprised by the alleged espionage and he "will not be intimidated."
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Sort of related: German intelligence: Iran seeking illegal nuke, missile technology
Posted by: Pappy || 07/08/2016 8:11 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
17 More Charged Tuesday over Istanbul Airport Attack
[AnNahar] Seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, Dogan news agency reported Tuesday, bringing to 30 the total number charged over the suicide assault.

The latest suspects , who also include six Turks, were charged with "belonging to an armed terrorist group."

Ankara says 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 is behind the June 28 gun and kaboom at Ataturk international airport, which left 45 people dead including 19 foreigners.

Thirteen suspects had already been charged Sunday in connection with the worst of several attacks to hit The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's biggest city this year.

Police also detained two suspected IS jihadists -- Kyrgyz nationals -- at the airport on Sunday. Night-vision goggles and military clothing were reportedly found in their suitcases, along with passports in different names.

The men had just arrived in Istanbul from Ukraine, NTV television reported.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday that security was being boosted at sensitive Istanbul sites such as metro stations, with 80 special forces troops patrolling Ataturk airport.

Of more than 200 people injured in last week's attack, 47 people are still in hospital.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 02:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Seventeen, eh? Seems like a lot of people rounded up pretty quickly. Superior Turkish intel work? Extremely sloppy terr cell? Or just dragging in the usual suspects and a few targets of opportunity?

And by 'Russians', do they mean Chechens?
Posted by: SteveS || 07/08/2016 14:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Russian-speakers. Which includes Chechens.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/08/2016 20:00 Comments || Top||

#3  We ruminated about why Chechens would carry out a bombing in an Airport if there were no Russians around to kill.
Posted by: newc || 07/08/2016 23:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Let the stoning begin!
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/08/2016 23:50 Comments || Top||


Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets in Turkey’s southeast
Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in the southeastern province of Şırnak on July 7.

The jets hit the rural Cudi and Güçlükonak areas between 9:33 and 10:45 a.m. after evaluating intelligence, according to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Seven targets, including shelters, belonging to the group were destroyed, the TSK added.

The warplanes returned to their bases after the operation.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


2 Syrians killed in Turkey while preparing improvised bomb
Two Syrian citizens were killed in the Turkish province of Hatay, near the border with Syria, as a result of explosion of an improvised bomb, the Hurriyet newspaper reported July 7.

The explosion occurred when the Syrians were preparing the explosive device, according to the report. Following the explosion, police found a lot of ammunition in the apartment occupied by the Syrians.

A criminal case was launched and an investigation is underway.

According to the Turkish Office for Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency (AFAD), there are 2,999,998 three million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm always reminded that majority of "Palestinians" are descendants of Sunni immigrants from Syria. Genetics are destiny!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/08/2016 2:48 Comments || Top||

#2  'Forced' immigrants, g(r)om?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/08/2016 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  No. During the British Mandate they came - with Brits encouragement - to take advantage of the changes Jews made. See "From Time Immemorial"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/08/2016 15:19 Comments || Top||

#4  As g(r)omgoru said. They came for the economic opportunities that resulted from Jewish entrepreneurship. It turns out that draining malarial swamps, making deserts bloom, and building brand new towns, cities, and chemical industries creates jobs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 15:29 Comments || Top||

#5  "It turns out that draining malarial swamps, making deserts bloom, and building brand new towns, cities, and chemical industries creates jobs."

You forgot to add "Who knew?," tw. ;-)
Posted by: Barbara || 07/08/2016 15:47 Comments || Top||

#6  "we should take advantage and destroy this". Stupid parasites
Posted by: Frank G || 07/08/2016 21:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Idiot Jihadi Faces Additional US Terror Charges for Plot to Kill Judge
[AnNahar] A grand jury in the US state of Ohio on Wednesday returned a three-count indictment against an Emirati man suspected of trying to order the killing of a federal judge.

Yahya Farooq Mohammad, 37, was charged with attempted first degree murder of the judge presiding over the case that landed him in jail, as well as with committing a crime of violence and using the mail and interstate commerce facilities -- a cellphone -- to commit murder for hire, a Justice Department statement said.

The charges stem from Mohammad allegedly telling another inmate that he wanted to have US District Judge Jack Zouhary kidnapped and murdered, and that he was willing to pay $15,000 for the crime, according to the indictment.

The inmate then alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and presented Mohammad to an undercover FBI employee.

Mohammad is also said to have told the undercover agent that he could use a mail courier to send a downpayment, or the undercover employee could meet Mohammad's wife in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
to obtain the money.

Asked about when he wanted the murder to take place, Mohammad said: "The sooner would be good, you know," according to the indictment.

On May 5, Mohammad's wife, identified simply as "N.T." in the indictment, met the undercover agent at a post office in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and provided $1,000 in cash inside a white envelope, according to the indictment.

On May 11, Mohammad told the inmate that the rest of the money for the murder was coming from Dubai.

The undercover agent and N.T. met on May 16, and he undercover agent showed her a photograph he claimed was of Zouhary's dead body.

The undercover agent then asked for the rest of the money owed to him and N.T. said she would contact Mohammad and then get back in touch with the undercover agent, the indictment said.

Zouhary was presiding over a case in which Mohammad was indicted last year for conspiring with three other men to travel to 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...
to provide thousands of dollars to US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter 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...
to support violent myrmidon acts against US military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Rantburg had an early report of the case here.
"According to the charges in the indictment, this defendant not only attempted to have a federal judge murdered, but he did so to obstruct justice in a terrorism case against him," US Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement.

"This prosecution seeks to hold the defendant accountable for attempting to victimize the judge and for trying to undermine our criminal justice system."

Special Agent in Charge Stephen Anthony added: "Conspiring to have a judge killed is not the way to avoid being prosecuted -- now Mohammad will be held accountable for additional serious federal charges."

If convicted on all of the new counts, Mohammad could face up to 50 years in prison.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


India-Pakistan
Army launches operation in Handwara
[Daily Excelsior] Army today launched an operation against bully boyz after they said that their patrol party was fired upon in Mawar area of Langate in North Kashmire. Reports said that an Army’s patrol party of 30 RR at Batgund Mawar in Langate area of Handwara heard few firing shots. Army immediately cordoned off the area and conducted search operation but didn’t find any Death Eater presence.
However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
police is ascertaining the facts about the firing on the patrol party.
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Iraq
At least 20 killed in attack on Shiite mausoleum north of Baghdad
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least 20 people were killed and 50 others maimed on Thursday evening in an attack on a Shiite mausoleum north of Baghdad, security sources said.

The site, the Mausoleum of Sayid Mohammed bin Ali al-Hadi, is located in Balad, about 93 kilometers (58 miles) north of Baghdad.

A suicide boom-mobile blew up at the external gate of the mausoleum, allowing several gunnies to storm the site and start shooting at pilgrims on a visit on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr festival.

Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Protests as Baghdad bombing death toll rises to 186 or 292
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Anger and protests mounted Thursday at the site of a massive truck bombing by ISIS earlier this week in Baghdad that killed scores as the corpse count rose further, with more remains recovered from the rubble.

The attack - the deadliest attack in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion - has stoked public unrest and spurred Iraqi officials to announce a number of new security measures.

Iraqi hospital and police officials said Thursday that their corpse count from Sundays attack now stood at 186, with around 20 people still missing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to talk to the media.

However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
Ahmad Roudaini, from the Health Ministry’s media office, said the ministry’s corpse count is 292.

The discrepancies in the numbers could not immediately be reconciled. Many of those killed have had to be identified with DNA-testing because their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

On Thursday evening, a crowd of angry friends and family members of the victims tried to push into one of the buildings hit in the truck bombing but civilian volunteers held them back.

The ISIS jacket wallah had detonated his explosives in Baghdad’s central Karada neighborhood, outside a shopping mall in a street crammed with people preparing for the Moslem holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The area, packed with shops, cafes and restaurants, had swelled overnight with Baghdad residents eager from a respite from the daily fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

Mustafa Hassan, one of the men gathered at the scene on Thursday, said he had volunteered to help sift through the debris after authorities failed to do so. Hassan, a young man wearing a surgical mask and gloves, held up two plastic bags that he believed contained charred human flesh.

Roudaini said the ministry of health continues to help transport the remains of the dead to Baghdad’s forensic lab or to the city morgue, but he said the scale of the kaboom has overwhelmed the teams who normally respond to such attacks.

"Till now there are maybe still some dead under the building, we don’t know," Roudaini said.

But Hassan, who said he had been coming every day to the site of the attack, insisted that only firefighters were seen at the site, no one else. As he spoke to news hounds, a man behind him pushed past an improvised barrier and ran into the burned-out building.

"He’s looking for his wife, she’s still missing, he wants to find anything, even just an earring," Hassan said.

Moments later, the man was carried out of the building by a group of volunteers. Hassan said he likely had fainted from grief. "It happens a lot here," he added.

Hundreds gathered in the street chanted religious slogans and waved Iraqi and Shiite militia flags. Hours after the bombing, ISIS said it had targeted Shiites, whom the Lion of Islam Sunni group considers as apostates. Many of the Karada victims were Shiites, but many Sunnis and Christians were also among the dead.

Others gathered in Karada on Thursday also blamed the government for failing to secure the city.

"People are getting more and more angry," said Hussein Samir, 24. "Every day that people have to think about this tragedy, it just makes them more upset."

After the attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced new measures, including that much-disputed bomb-detection wands would no longer be used by security forces. Experts have repeatedly pronounced the wands bogus.

Al-Abadi also said aerial scanning measures would be stepped-up to improve intelligence gathering in Baghdad and that the ring of checkpoints around the capital would be tightened. It is unclear if any of those measures have yet been implemented.

At the site of the blast, hundreds of death notices have been plastered over what’s left of burned-out buildings on either side of a once bustling thoroughfare.

Muhammad Mehdi, an arts school student, said he hopes the buildings are kept as they are. "If they just wash this away and rebuild, we will forget about what happened here. We’ll never learn our lesson," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  "We’ll never learn our lesson"

You're Arabs. Q.E.D.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/08/2016 20:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli-Arab mother of 5 sentenced for trying to join ISIS
[Ynet] An Israeli-Arab woman who tried to join ISIS has received a sentence of 22 months imprisonment and a NIS 30,000 fine.

The woman, Iman Kanjo, 44, is from the northern Israeli town of Shfaram. She was convicted of contacting a foreign enemy agent and trying to leave Israel in an illegal manner by the Haifa District Court. She is a mother to five children.

According to the verdict, "the accused's actions undermine the government and society, and undermine the underlying values and the security of the country and the security of its citizens. The danger posed by the egregious actions of the accused endangered both the lives of the citizens of Israel and the country as a whole, even if this was not the intention of the accused, as she alleges."

Kanjo, who was born in Nazareth, has a PhD in Islamic studies and does not have a criminal record. She is married to the Imam of one of the mosques in Shfaram.

Iman travelled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
in the summer of 2015 with her father, and then went missing.

"We received information that she tried to illegally cross into Syria with the intention of joining ISIS. She failed after she was intercepted by Turkish authorities and extradited back to Israel," said Superintendent Susannah Zendek, Deputy Chief of the Minorities Division of the Northern District's Interrogations Department

Kanjo was tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
at Ben Gurion International Airport on August 28, 2015, and said during questioning that she "identifies with ISIS's ideology," and wanted to "give lectures to the activists there."

Under a plea bargain reached between the prosecution and defense, the accused will serve 40 months in prison alongside paying a heavy fine in addition to the 22-month prison term. She was also given a one-year suspended sentence.

Kanjo's defense attorney claims that a Shin Bet investigation revealed that she never had any intention of harming the security of the State of Israel, that she never supported violence, and that the only reason she wanted to join ISIS was to fulfill her dream of living under Sharia law.

Kanjo spoke before the court and said that she deeply regrets her actions, and wished to thank her family "who stood by her during these difficult times." She says that all she wants to do now is return home and dedicate her life to her marriage and her children.

The judge added during her closing statements that "although the defendant failed in her plans to reach Syria, it is not out of regret that the defendant returned (to Israel) but because she got caught."

"So intense was her desire to join ISIS in Syria that she even hid her plans from her husband and her family, and only shared her secret with her father."
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


IDF demolish terrorists' homes, arrest brothers of Hallel Ariel's killer
[Ynet] Troops face violence in Qalandiya and Dura as they demolish homes of Jaffa Gate bully boyz and arrest brothers of Hallel Yafa Ariel's murderer; Several other Paleostinians tossed in the clink
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
and maimed during festivities.


Riots erupted overnight Sunday when the IDF demolished homes of two terrorists--Anaan Hamad, 20, and Issa Asaf, 19, both from the Qalandiya refugee camp--who carried out a stabbing attack at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City last December.

The demolitions of the two homes, which lasted four hours, were not carried out using explosives but hammers and other tools due to the overcrowding of the refugee camp. The prolonged period of time between the attack--in which Rabbi Reuven Biermacher, 45, a married father of seven, was killed while another was maimed--can be attributed to judicial proceedings and petitions presented before the Supreme Court.

During the violence that broke out, stones were pelted at IDF soldiers and gunshots were also fired at them. Soldiers responded to the unrest by attempting to disperse the crowds and used live fire which resulted in the wounding of four Paleostinians. The maimed were evacuated to a government hospital in Ramallah in light-to-moderate condition. No IDF soldiers were maimed in the violence.

Also overnight, riots took place in Dura, southwest of Hebron, after IDF forces entered the village of Bani Na'im and arrested at least four Paleostinians, two belonging to the same family. A vehicle was also confiscated.

The IDF reported that it had arrested two of the brothers of Mohammed Taraireh, the terrorist who murdered 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept in her bed in Kiryat Arba last week. On Saturday, Taraireh’s sister was also arrested after praising the actions of her brother. During the operations, the IDF found and confiscated an M16 rifle, two pipe bombs and bottle of flammable paint.

Over the past few days, the IDF has tightened checkpoints in the Hebron area following two deadly attacks in Kiryat Arba and on Route 60 which claimed the lives of Hallel Yaffa Ariel and Miki Mark respectively. The IDF is also continuing in its hunt for the bully boyz who carried out the drive-by shooting on Friday afternoon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Israel will reduce the amount of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Paleostinians each month, saying it would offset money Paleostinian officials give to families of attackers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Philippine military assaults kill 9 Abu Sayyaf extremists
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Philippine troops, backed by rocket-firing helicopters and artillery fire, killed up to nine Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
Lions of Islam in fighting Thursday after the new military chief warned of a "shock and awe" offensive to wipe out the bully boy group known for its brutality.

One soldier was killed and six maimed as government troops battled about 130 Abu Sayyaf fighters in the jungles of mountainous Patikul town in Sulu province, said regional military front man Maj. Filemon Tan. In addition to the Abu Sayyaf deaths, 13 of the holy warriors were maimed, he said.

The holy warriors were led by one-armed Abu Sayyaf commander Radulan Sahiron but it was not immediately clear what happened to him. The United States and the Philippines have offered separate bounties for the capture and prosecution of Sahiron, who has been blamed for kabooms and kidnappings for ransom.

In nearby Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
province, troops fought about 200 Abu Sayyaf gunnies for five hours late Wednesday.

The festivities resumed Thursday but there were no immediate reports of casualties, Tan said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has warned the Abu Sayyaf to stop a wave of ransom kidnappings, adding he would eventually confront the bully boys.

Military chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya said early this week a looming offensive would "shock and awe" the krazed killers, suggesting the use of overwhelming firepower against the resilient bully boys, who have survived more than a decade of on-and-off offensives.

Additional troops have been deployed to Basilan and Sulu, predominantly Moslem provinces where the holy warriors have kept hostages in jungle encampments. Two Canadians were successively beheaded by the holy warriors in Sulu after ransom deadlines lapsed, sparking condemnation from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A Norwegian, a Dutch bird watcher and a group of seven newly kidnapped Indonesian tugboat crewmen remain in Abu Sayyaf custody.

The United States and the Philippines have blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for bombings, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings.

Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS Claimed Bombing against Kurds in Syria's Hasakeh
[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 said on Wednesday that it carried out a suicide kaboom that killed 16 people in a mainly Kurdish city in northeastern Syria.

Tuesday evening's blast in Hasakeh struck outside a bakery in a Kurdish neighborhood where a large crowd had gathered as they prepared to break the last daytime fast of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan.

The bomber infiltrated the Salihiah district then blew up his explosives belt in the middle of the crowd, IS said in a statement on social media.

A Kurdish police source said the bomber, who was on a cycle of violence, also maimed 40 people.

Fifteen of them were at death's door, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.

Parts of Hasakeh remain under Syrian government control but most of the city and nearly all of the surrounding province are held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

The YPG, who have declared an autonomous region across the mainly Kurdish northern areas they hold, are regarded by the Pentagon as the most effective fighting force against IS on the ground in Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/08/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


No letup in Syrian fighting despite Eid truce
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In a multi-pronged offensive, Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into an area north of the city of Aleppo on Thursday, threatening a key supply line for the city’s opposition-held quarters and setting off intense festivities with rebels, activists said.

The advance came despite of and in violation of the government’s own cease-fire, which the authorities announced the day before to coincide with the Moslem holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan.

Also Thursday, the international relief organization Mercy Corps warned its food stocks in the opposition-held half of the contested city of Aleppo could run out in a month. It said it provides food aid to 75,000 people there, among an estimated population of 300,000-400,000 in the rebel-held sections. The entire city, which is also the capital of Aleppo province, has about 2 million people.

"Unless we are able to resupply, it’s going to be very difficult if not impossible to continue support beyond that," said Dominic Graham, who directs the organization’s Syria efforts.

Fierce fighting also broke out in the eastern and southern suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, activists and rebel fighters reported.

Islam Alloush, a front man for the 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...
fighting group, said government forces moved in on the suburb of Mayda, seeking to block a rebel supply line, while the opposition fought back to regain a number of areas previously captured. Government advances were also reported in Daraya, a besieged opposition-held town overlooking Damascus airport, the opposition-operated Facebook account of the Local Council of Daraya reported.

On Wednesday, Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
’s government announced the 72-hour truce, ending on midnight Friday, an announcement welcomed by US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
and others. Kerry said efforts were underway to extend it.

On Thursday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, noted "initial reports of potential violations" but urged all parties to abide by the truce.

The rebel supply line to Aleppo is known as the Castello road and government forces and their allies, including Leb’s Hezbollah krazed killer group, have been mounting repeated attacks on it.

The government has so far secured control over the surrounding Mallah farms, leaving Syrian forces less than a mile (1.3 kilometers) away from Castello road, Hezbollah’s media arm said, describing it as retaliation for violations of the truce by gangs. Syrian State TV declared that, "murderous Moslems are violating the truce."

Rebel Nour al-Din Zinky group said on its Facebook page that government warplanes and artillery shelled the Mallah farms close to the road. It said the rebels were trying to regain control of the farms.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year, reported festivities west and east of Castello road.

Syria's state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
said rebels shelled a government neighborhood of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing three people, while the anti-government Aleppo Media Center reported that at least two people were killed in government Arclight airstrikes and shelling on rebel-held neighborhoods of the contested city.

Mercy Corp’s Graham said a previous, US-Russia-brokered cease-fire, which started in February but eventually fell apart, had not helped the group’s aid deliveries. ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate were excluded from that truce.

Ahmed Ramadan, an exiled Syrian political opposition member, wrote on his Twitter page that the Assad government's truce was a "hoax."
Posted by: Fred || 07/08/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
20Islamic State
16[untagged]
2Govt of Iran
1Ansarullah Bangla Team
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Syria
1Human Trafficking
1Sublime Porte
1Abu Sayyaf
1al-Qaeda in Arabia

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In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2016-07-04
  NYC: Walker in Central Park severely injured in explosion
Sun 2016-07-03
  20 Foreigners Hacked to Death in Bangladesh Hostage Carnage
Sat 2016-07-02
  Bangladesh security forces storm hostage restaurant
Fri 2016-07-01
  Gunmen Seize Hostages at Bangladesh Restaurant and Detonate Explosives
Thu 2016-06-30
  Iraqi flag raised in liberated Fallujah neighborhood
Thu 2016-06-30
  Iraqi flag raised in liberated Fallujah neighborhood
Sun 2016-06-26
  Erdoğan meets Mashal in Istanbul
Sat 2016-06-25
  Shaboobs kaboom hotel in Mogadishu
Fri 2016-06-24
  Syrian division commander dies in Raqqa debacle

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