Kampala -- An armed group in South Sudan has abducted at least 89 boys in a northern state, the UN children’s agency said on Saturday. The boys, some as young as 13, were abducted near Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state, according to a UNICEF statement.
Malakal, which is currently under government control, has recently seen intense fighting between rebel forces and government troops who accuse each other of violating multiple peace agreements.
Armed men surrounded the community and searched house by house, forcibly taking boys older than 12, said witnesses, according to the UNICEF statement, which said the latest abductions were carried out while the children were doing their exams in the Wau Shilluk area. The number of those abducted could be much higher, it added. It is not clear which group carried out the abductions.
Last year 12,000 children were used as soldiers by armed forces and groups across South Sudan, according to UNICEF.
“The recruitment and use of children by armed forces destroys families and communities. Children are exposed to incomprehensible levels of violence, they lose their families and their chance to go to school,” said Jonathan Veitch, the UNICEF representative in South Sudan.
Watchdog groups have persistently accused South Sudan’s warring factions of actively recruiting and using child soldiers. South Sudan’s military and rebels are actively enlisting children despite promises to the contrary, Human Rights Watch said in a report last week.
South Sudanese officials strongly denied the allegations, saying standing orders forbid the military from recruiting children. Rebels have not responded to the charges.
South Sudan’s current conflict started in December 2013 when forces led by former Vice-President Riek Machar fought troops loyal to President Salva Kiir.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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BOSSASO, Somalia -- Puntland military court has handed prison sentences to five alleged Al Shabaab recruits during criminal hearings in the Gulf of Aden Port City of Bossaso on Wednesday, Garowe Online reports.
Court Chairman Abdifatah Haji Adan who announced the sentences unleashed on the five said that-Adan Ali Abdi, 19 Ahmed Abdi Hussein, 24 Abdi Mohamed Hussein, 19 Ahmed Adan Abdi, 18 and Ali Mohamed Nur, 19-were sentenced to two years in prison each while two defendants Ali Nur Ali, 19 and Abdi Nunow Abdi, 31 were freed after the court found them no guilty of terrorism.
Speaking in the court building, Adan went on: “We softened the sentences for them since they confessed to heading to Galgala Mountains and took part no terror offensives as of now,” he noted, referring to the largest Al Shabaab springboard in the north eastern state of Puntland.
On Sunday, the Military court handed down death penalties to four alleged Al Shabaab members, marking the first sentences to be handed out in this year, 2015.
Puntland is trying to dwindle unrelenting rampage by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants operating from hideouts along Golis Mountain Ranges. Bossaso, Puntland’s most populous city has become a spot for apparently coordinated terror attacks as militants more recently stepped in for night raids.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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MOGADISHU -- Somalia's intelligence forces arrested 12 staffers for a hotel in connection with deadly double suicide attacks at the hotel that killed 25 people in the Somalia capital on Friday, officials say.
Admit it, you're surprised, aren't you...
Somalia's security minister Abdirisaaq Omar Mohamed told journalists that 12 employees at the Central hotel were arrested on the onset of a long investigation into the bombing that killed many including two legislators, politicians and wounded the country's deputy prime minister.
"They have probably perpetrated and facilitated that terrorist attack on the hotel." he said.
The latest bombing on the hotel frequented by government officials and politicians highlights security challenges facing the weak government which is trying to restore law and order after more than two decades of war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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MOGADISHU -- Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group claimed credit for the killing of at least ten people including high ranking government officials and politicians on Friday, Garowe Online reports. A spokesman for the terror group boasted, they carried out an attack on a hotel frequented by Somalia Federal Government officials.
Police and witnesses say, explosive-laden car exploded in front of Mogadishu’s Central Hotel which is popular with government officials and Diaspora returnees, followed by a suicide bombing inside a mosque in the hotel during Friday prayers.
From the photo at the link, the hotel has little similarity to a Ramada...
Among the MPs killed in the attack are Omar Furdug and Haji Kafey.
Civil Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama Jangeli and Lawmaker Abdulkadir Ali Omar were reportedly wounded in the attack by a suicide bomber, with another source disclosing that Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte has also been wounded.
Credible sources within the government have confirmed the death of former Puntland Minister Abdishakur Mire Adan, Deputy Banadir Governor Mohamed Adan Guled and former Information Minister under the incumbency of Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, Abdishakur Ali Mire.
Despite near-daily Al Shabaab rampages in volatile Mogadishu, the attack marks the deadliest in Months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The corpse count in today's early morning triple suicide kaboom in Guba has now hit 42. Funerals for those slaughtered in the carnage were held in the town this afternoon.
The UAE sent a specially-equipped aircraft to ferry the most seriously maimed of the more than 80 casualties from Labraq to the UAE for treatment.
Condemnations of the blast have continued to flow in. Among them, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expressed his horror and his deepest condolences to the families of the dead and to the maimed and their kin.
The EU's High Representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini said: "Those who have committed this attack must be held accountable for their crime".
She insisted that terrorism could only be defeated by a united Libyan government.
"The Libyan parties should not to miss this last chance, as the window of opportunity is rapidly closing. The UN Special representative for Libya, Bernardino León, has called for a next meeting of the political dialogue to finalise discussions initiated in Geneva on the formation of a government of national unity and security arrangements.
"It's time " she said, "for parties to give proof of courage and take upon them the responsibility to ensure to all Libyans a future. In this, they will find the international community at their side".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Demonstrators in Benghazi’s Kish Square today demanded the House of Representatives (HoR) appoint a military council headed by Khalifa Hafter, sack the government of Abdullah Al-Thinni and list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation . . . Rest is behind the paywall...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Psaki are you listening?
Hmmm, maybe not and perhaps no one else
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/22/2015 11:44 Comments ||
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Madrid -- Militants in Libya pose a “direct threat” to Europe, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in Madrid on Saturday.
So when do you and the Italians start the mission to clear Libya of these hard boyz?
“I would like to cite the question of Libya and the direct threat to our security of the creation — under our eyes and not far from our borders — of a new haven for the terrorists,” Valls told a gathering of social democrats, according to a transcript of his speech.
Valls’ comments come amid growing concern that the Daesh group, which has already seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, has also established a foothold in Libya.
“The threat of Daesh in Libya is set to increase exponentially,” analyst Mohamed Al Jareh, from the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Centre for the Middle East, said on Friday.
Recent attacks in Libya claimed by Daesh have boosted concern that some militias have in fact pledged allegiance to the Sunni extremists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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DHS is claiming the usual "right wing extremist threat of terrorism in the US" I bet this will be the narrative anytime we have a terrorist incident in the US. The WH, DHS, etc., will claim it is right wing extremism. New cover story the "work place violence" did not play well in Peoria.
I would not be surprised to find out the French and the Italians already have something in the works and possibly on the ground in Libya...standby for mysterious mounting casualties by various wacko fanatic Islamic organizations in Libya.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/22/2015 11:51 Comments ||
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#3
See also RELATED TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > ISIS ATTACK ON ROME COULD LEAD TO INVASION OF EUROPE.
* SAME > NEW US DEFENSE CHIEF [Ashton Carter] CONVENES ANTI-ISLAMIC STATE WAR COUNCIL IN KUWAIT.
OOOOOOO, You just gotta luv the name - ASHTON.
VERSUS
* TOPIX > [NewsMax] GEORGE WILL: TWITTER IS OBAMA'S IDEA OF ACTION AGZ THE ISIS.
US DepState has set up over 300 Twitter accounts to combat ISIS cyberhackers.
* GROONG > [Itar-Tass] FRENCH ANALYST CALLS FOR FRANCE-GERMANY-RUSSIA [Tripartite] ALLIANCE, as only sure way to get rid of overbearing US protectorate + set up a truly "FREE EUROPE" in Gaullist sense, fight Radical Islam effectively widout US obstructionism.
French Writer, Political Journalist Eric Zemmour.
* SAME > [Daily Star.LB] ISIS PREPARING TO DECLARE ISLAMIC EMIRATE IN LEBANON VERY SOON:
SOURCES.
All of Lebanon, or 1/2 of same, to belong to the Islamic State.
Perhaps to include ...
* WORLDNEWS > [The National] SUDAN FACING TWIN TERROR THREATS.
Boko Haram + ISIS.
* SAME > [Times of India] MALDIVES IS A FERTILE GROUND FOR ISIS, INDIA MUST ACT - FORMER PRESIDENT MASHEED.
Cairo -- The relatives of four Coptic Christian hostages held by gunmen in Libya for months are appealing for help from local and Libyan authorities to ensure their safe release. The four hostages, all members of the same family from the southern Egyptian city of Abu Teeg, were abducted last August while trying to flee the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Wageh Hakim, whose brother and cousins are being held, told The Associated Press on Friday that the four men were separated from friends at a checkpoint.
The four men were working in Tripoli as construction workers when tribal militias overran the capital in August.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A "ghost town" of burnt-out homes and looted properties greeted residents returning to Gamboru in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... for the first time since Chadian forces retook it from Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Scores of people crossed the 300-meter (yard) bridge that forms the border with Cameroon
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[VOA News] Nigeria's military says it has reclaimed a strategically located town from the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... myrmidon group, as the two sides struggle for territory in Nigeria's northeast.
The military tweeted on Saturday that it has retaken Baga, the site of a horrific massacre of villagers at the myrmidons' hands early this year, with an estimate of as many as 2,000 dead. The town, located on a major supply route at the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , had been in the hands of the forces of Evil since the attack in early January. Many residents of the area have fled for their lives.
The military said there were heavy casualties in Saturday's fighting and that cleanup was taking place. The military promised more details later.
It said the town was retaken using Nigerian forces backed by Arclight airstrikes.
Baga is near Doron Baga, a military base used by the joint forces fighting Boko Haram. Fighting has intensified in the past month since Niger, Chad and Cameroon joined Nigeria in deploying troops against the myrmidons.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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NIAMEY -- Boko Haram militants attacked an island on Niger's side of Lake Chad but the army repelled them after heavy fighting, residents and security sources said on Saturday.
The Lake Chad area - a vast maze of tiny islands and swampland sheltering thousands of Nigerian refugees - is thought to be serving as a hideout for the Islamist insurgent group.
“There was heavy weapons and machine gun fire from about 2000 local time,” said a resident of Niger's nearby lakeside town of N'Guigmi, which Boko Haram attempted to seize earlier this month. Niger security sources said several Boko Haram members were killed in the fighting.
It was not immediately clear which island had been attacked and whether it was inhabited, but the security sources and residents said it was in Niger and within 50 km (30 miles) of the borders with Chad and Nigeria.
Before we can help the Niger government we'll need to know their attitude towards abortion and day-after contraception...
Last week, Boko Haram fighters aboard motorized canoes attacked a fishing village in Chad, killing at least five people in the group's first known lethal attack on that country.
Niger, a poor desert nation, is also seeking to dismantle clandestine Boko Haram networks around its southern border. The defense ministry on Friday raised 2 billion CFA francs ($3.46 million) to help the army fight the jihadists via a telethon campaign.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] A Jubo Dal activist and a Chhatra Dal activist were claimed to have died in a shootout with police in Barisal yesterday.
Kabir Mollah, 32, son of Hossain Mollah, and Tipu Hawladar, 30, son of Matiur Rahman Hawladar of Nagarbari village, died in the shootout in Bitharnagar of Agailjhara upazila around 2:15am, said Md Monirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Agailjhara cop shoppe.
Kabir was a Jubo Dal activist in Agailjhara upazila while Tipu was sports secretary of the upazila's Chhatra Dal unit. Tipu was also a student of Shaheed Abdur Rob Serniabat Degree College.
The two were incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... from Ashulia and Keraniganj before being taken to Agailjhara on Friday afternoon. Police then took them along to an operation aimed at arresting their associates at night.
But the cohorts of Kabir and Tipu attacked police at Bitharnagar in a bid to snatch the two activists which triggered the shootout, said OC Monirul.
"The two men died during the shootout," he added.
The bodies were sent to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital yesterday morning.
Police also recovered five petrol bombs and four weapons from the scene, said Monirul.
He said Assistant Sub Inspector Mustafizur Rahman and Constable Razu of Agailjhara cop shoppewere maimed during the shootout and were treated at the upazila health complex.
Police claimed that both the men were accused in about eight cases and were on the run.
The cases were filed, among other incidents, in connection with the killing of three people in an arson attack in Gaurnadi on February 7, setting ablaze a fruit-laden pick-up van on February 9, and torching a BRTC bus on February 14 in Agailjhara.
The duo were also sued for stalking and torturing women.
But Gaurnadi cop shoppe Officer-in-Charge Sazzad Hossain failed to confirm whether Kabir and Tipu were accused in the case lodged over the February 7 arson attack.
Akon Kuddusur Rahman, district (north) president of Barisal unit of the BNP, and Ebaidul Haque Chan, district (south) president of the unit, condemned the killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Activists of Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... 's Barisal University unit assaulted freedom fighters early yesterday over the order of laying wreaths at Barisal Shaheed Minar, injuring at least four.
Of the four, three are Abdul Kader, Ehsan Rabbi, member secretary of Muktijoddhar Santan Command, and AMG Kabir Bhulu.
Two of the injured were treated at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.
AMG Kabir Bhulu, a freedom fighter and former deputy commander of Muktijoddha Sangsad's Barisal unit, said district Awami League Secretary and politician Advocate Talukdar Md Yunus and Workers Party politician Tipu Sultan first laid wreaths at Shaheed Minar at midnight.
The name of the divisional commissioner was then announced but Chhatra League activists, led by the vice-chancellor of Barisal University, defied the order and forcefully laid wreaths at Shaheed Minar.
The activists of Barisal Sangskritik Sangsad, who were in charge of ensuring discipline on Shaheed Minar premises, protested the violation of order, but Chhatra League activists got angry and beat up the freedom fighters on the road in front of Shaheed Minar.
Police later arrived on the scene and brought the situation under control.
No Chhatra League leader of Barisal University could be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Rapid Action Battalion yesterday in a drive recovered 12 petrol bombs from Munshipara area in the town and tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! two persons in this connection.
According to police sources, on a tip-off, a team of RAB conducted the raid at a shop and recovered the petrol bombs concealed in a basket.
The law enforcement agency also arrested the shop owner and Jamaat cadre Haroon-or-Rasheed, 40, and his employee Daven Chandra Das, 30, for stockpiling the explosives to carryout sabotage.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet] Turkey has evacuated its military personnel protecting the Tomb of Suleyman Shah in northern Syria as well as the artifacts in the mausoleum by an operation jointly conducted by the intelligence organization and the Turkish army...The tomb, around 37 kilometers from the Turkish border [and surrounded by Syrian territory], is regarded Turkish territory by international agreements and was protected by some 40 soldiers. The tomb was made Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France was the colonial power in Syria. Ankara regards it as sovereign territory and has repeatedly made clear that it will defend the mausoleum if it is attacked.
The Tomb and its annex have gone through several processes of demolition, relocation, and reconstruction since 1939. The Tomb was moved to its current location in 1975 as a consequence of a dam construction.
Without engaging in any clashes, Turkish troops early Feb. 22, after detonating the symbolic building since ISIL would have done it anyway to prevent ISIL militants use it as a base.
Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria early Sunday in an unprecedented incursion, evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State jihadists.
The Damascus government, which no longer controls the area but is at loggerheads with Ankara over the Syria conflict, lashed out at what it described as a "flagrant aggression" on Syrian territory.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the mission had succeeded, with the soldiers returning safely home and also bringing back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's founder, Osman I.
In a hugely symbolic move, Turkish troops also seized control of a new area inside Syria close to the Turkish border where officials said the tomb will be relocated within days. Turkish television showed pictures of troops triumphantly planting the Turkish flag at the new location in the nighttime operation.
Turkish tanks had earlier driven through the ruined streets of the Syrian town of Kobane -- controlled by Kurdish fighters after a months long battle with jihadists -- on their way to the tomb. Davutoglu said that 572 Turkish soldiers using 39 tanks, 57 armored vehicles and 100 other military vehicles took part in the operation.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 ||
02/22/2015 01:57 ||
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#1
Baby Assad has something to say ...
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [SANA.com] SYRIA: TURKEY'S TRANSGRESSION INTO SYRIAN TERRITORY PROVES ITS CONNECTION WID ISIS, FOREIGN MINSTRY SAYS.
Posted by: frozen al ||
02/22/2015 15:39 ||
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#1
Block of salt with this one. It's a common trope in the region (there are movies about it, including a Turkish one saying US soldiers were doing it in Iraq), I suspect it would require a more sophisticated logistics operation than ISIS would be capable of maintaining.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/22/2015 19:08 Comments ||
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[IraqiNews.com] The volunteers and the Iraqi Security Forces foiled a suicide kaboom in Samara city in Salah il-Din.
Security source stated to IraqiNews.com "The suicide attack was by a jacket wallah in Sour Ashnas area of eastern Samara where the ISF and the volunteers opened fire against the bomber and killed him immediately."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[IraqiNews.com] The Iraqi Army forces bombarded locations of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Levant faceless myrmidons in central and southern Tikrit on Saturday.
Security source stated to IraqiNews.com "The IA shells resulted in killing 38 ISIL faceless myrmidons as initial count and burning 9 vehicles for them."
[IraqiNews.com] The Security forces in cooperation with the US-led Coalition started a security operation to liberate Baghdadi district from the ISIL terrorists.
[IraqiNews.com] The security forces delivered the humanitarian aids to the residents of the residential complex in Baghdad after liberating it from the ISIL terrorists.
[IraqiNews.com] The security forces imposed curfew in Baghdadi district in Anbar.
Security source stated to IraqiNews.com "The security forces imposed curfew in Baghdadi and cleared a road to transport the citizens of the residential complex to a safe place in order to attack the ISIL terrorists."
[IraqiNews.com] Security source assured targeting the ISIL shelters with the Arclight airstrikes of the US-led Coalition near Heet and Baghdadi districts.
If anyone has a good map of the current situation over there, or the progress of the war against IS/ISIS/ISIL/Da3sh, I would be grateful.
[IraqiNews.com] The ISIL bully boyz stole the funds allocated to the displaced families in Heet district.
Security source stated to IraqiNews.com "The ISIL terrorists, in cooperation with a local official, stole two billion IQD allocated to the displaced families in Heet district."
Of course. In the end it's all jizya for the Lions of Islam.
[IraqiNews.com] The security forces completely cleared Baghdadi sub-district in Anbar province of IS terrorists.
That was fast. Kudos all around!
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
For a map dated Jan 15, see article "What ISIS Really Wants", The Atlantic Magazine. Original source is Institute for the Study of War. Shows attack zones, control zones, support zones.
[Gulf Today] Philippine security forces launched ground and artillery attacks to dislodge members of the secessionist Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who have been occupying several villages in the neighboring provinces of North Cotabato and Maguindanao in Mindanao. The launch came amid reports that the military and the police wanted the BIFF to be declared a terrorist group.
Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay confirmed clashes occurred between soldiers and BIFF members in a village in the Pikit, North Cotabato on Saturday morning. She said, "Sporadic firefight is still ongoing and there were no reported casualties on both sides."
Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF's chief peace negotiator, said that it was not involved in the ongoing military operations adding, "The military co-ordinated with us the operation against the BIFF. Our forces are far from the site of fighting."
Earlier, the military reported that members of the MILF and the BIFF engaged in several clashes that resulted in the killing of a front commander and at least six combatants. The clashes forced the evacuation of at least 15,000 people from several villages in Pikit and Pagalungan to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
#1
PH President Aquino is still being harshly criticized in the local PH Medias-Net over his alleged role, or lack of it, in the Mamasapano incident.
Again, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Aquino + Globalist POTUS Obama don't prove to be mirror-images of one another, ala Mamasapano = Obama surrendering or giving up Guam-WESTPAC to OWG Co-Superpower Rising China.
[The Nation} Thai police are searching for eight suspects over their involvement a car bomb attack on Friday that injured 13 people, with arrest warrants to be issued in a week. Police are targeting eight individuals who may hail from Narathiwat's Bacho and Yi-ngor districts, Pattani's Sai Buri and Khok Pho district and Songkhla.
An informed source said that security camera footage captured two suspects involved in the attack. He said one suspect planted the bomb in front of the karaoke bar before being picked up on a motorcycle by the other suspect.
General Pattanawut Angkanawin said the attackers seem to be trying to regain support after locals started to cooperate more with the authorities. He said the decision to carry out the attack downtown reflected the attackers' desire to show they still could.
In an effort to prevent future attacks, Narathiwat Governor Natthapong Sirichana yesterday said officials would consider declaring community areas in 13 districts helmet-free zones because attackers use helmets to shield their identities.
In related news, a brief gun battle erupted yesterday afternoon between militants and soldiers on patrol in Narathiwat's Rangae province. The militants escaped and one soldier was slightly injured.
[AnNahar] Ten children were among at least 48 people killed in a Syrian village earlier this week as regime forces executed six families of rebel fighters, a monitoring group said Saturday.
The killings took place in the village of Rityan, north of second city Aleppo, which regime forces entered on Tuesday during an offensive aimed at cutting rebel supply lines to the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britannia-based monitoring group said that villagers had discovered the bodies of those killed when they returned to their homes after the regime forces pulled back on Wednesday.
Five women and 13 rebel fighters from the six families were also among the dead.
"The troops and bully boyz knew exactly where they lived thanks to the informers who accompanied them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
"There was no resistance except in one house where a rebel shot up troops before being executed along with his family," he added.
Activist Mamun Abu Omar said some of the bodies of the dead had been mutilated.
The brief seizure of Rityan was part of an abortive offensive launched by the army this week to try to encircle the rebel-held east of Aleppo and relieve two besieged Shiite villages to its north.
By Friday all but one of the villages taken by government forces in the initial fighting had been recaptured by the rebels, who include fighters of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front.
The heavy fighting claimed the lives of 129 regime loyalists and 116 rebels, including an Al-Nusra commander, according to an Observatory toll.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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According to new report, Iran is establishing Hezbollah Syria organization and has a direct presence in Syria, particularly on Golan. Former Revolutionary Guard commander: "Our strategic depth reaches to the Mediterranean, and over Israel's head."
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp15048 ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Nothing new here..
Posted by: chris ||
02/22/2015 10:04 Comments ||
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#2
So IDF can kill them without having to travel---carbon footprint, don't you know?
Debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources have discovered a large-scale Iranian airlift is in progress for bringing thousands of Shiite fighters to the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia to reinforce the Syrian army forces falling back from the key city of Aleppo. The Syrian rebels in heavy fighting Thursday and Friday, Feb. 19-20 repulsed a Hizballah-backed Syrian army offensive to recapture the town and took scores of Hizballah fighters prisoner.
The incoming reinforcements are being transferred directly to the Aleppo battle-front in an effort to stabilize it and reverse the Syrian army’s retreat.
The incoming reinforcements are made up of Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani Shiite militiamen.The fact that Tehran was able to raise this force in less than 24 hours from the Syrian army’s defeat in Aleppo demonstrates Iran’s total military and strategic commitment to swift action for averting a Syrian-Hizballah retreat from a key front of the four-year old civil war.
The Iranian planes are taking two routes to Syria, starting out either in Baghdad or Tehran. In Baghdad, they touch down in the military section of the international airport and collect the Iraqi Shiite militiamen destined for the Syrian battlefield. This step necessitated the consent of the Iraqi government and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
The Iranian operation therefore exposes two exceedingly disturbing developments which are causing Israel’s army chiefs to burn the midnight oil: The fall of the Abadi government under Tehran’s sway is one; and Iraq’s direct involvement for the first time in the military actions of the Syrian civil war.
debkafile’s military experts extrapolate from Tehran’s immediate readiness to transfer thousands of foreign troops into Syria to save Assad’s army from retreat, that the same response is to be expected from a possible setback of the same alliance in South Syria - especially when Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers are leading a Syrian-Hizballah-Shiite drive to capture the Golan town of Quneitra across from Israel’s lines.
Our sources add that President Barack Obama was in a position, had he wished, to intervene with Baghdad and hold back the Iranian troop airlift to Syria. This has not happened. The administration’s inaction places it squarely behind Iran’s military steps in the Middle East and its direct intervention in key trouble spots.
Posted by: Pappy ||
02/22/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Breitbart] Self-relegated to Iraq and Syria, just months ago ISIS seemed a distant threat to Italians and other Europeans. Having set up Libyan strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, however, ISIS is now on Europe's doorstep. The latest threat is to Mediterranean cruise ships-- those, for instance, that go from Sicily up the Italian coast to the south of France, or bop from one Greek island to another. As if food poisoning and running aground were not bad enough. The Italian Ministry of Defense has outlined various grim scenarios whereby ISIS would engage in Somali-style piracy on the Mediterranean, menacing shipping companies and cruise ships, SS Bottom Line. Oh so, noooooow we're concerned.
#3
O.K. - why the river cruises, B? Easier to get to from anywhere on shore?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/22/2015 17:30 Comments ||
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#4
I was disappointed to find that the Viking Cruise Line does not feature pillaging on their river cruises. Seems like false advertising to me.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/22/2015 19:01 Comments ||
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#5
'Looks like we will soon be back to the "rich and intertwined" history of Islam and America, as we once again have to fight the Barbary Pirates.
Minor note: The first time around, we didn't have the Aegis Combat System, TLAM Cruise Missiles, and FA-18 Superhornets. The Barbary Pirates - well, they didn't have cell phones and video cameras.
#7
I look at a lot of photos and videos to determine why a transformer, substation switchboard or controller 'catastrophically' failed.
One looks for 'blast patterns' and debris dispersal fields to determine where the fault initially occurred and isolate the 'naughty' component(s).
Hopefully with that info, we can try to make the probability of 'future occurrences' less likely.
Video on this isn't too 'High-Q', but I'm quite sure the blast didn't come from the procession's 'tributee'. Based on debris scatter, if that was a grenade, it was a pretty big one. More likely an IED of some sort.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/22/2015 11:19 Comments ||
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#8
Probably not enough to bury after the suicide vest exploded.
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
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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.
Debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources have discovered a large-scale Iranian airlift is in progress for bringing thousands of Shiite fighters to the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia to reinforce the Syrian army forces falling back from the key city of Aleppo. The Syrian rebels in heavy fighting Thursday and Friday, Feb. 19-20 repulsed a Hizballah-backed Syrian army offensive to recapture the town and took scores of Hizballah fighters prisoner.
[Breitbart] Self-relegated to Iraq and Syria, just months ago ISIS seemed a distant threat to Italians and other Europeans. Having set up Libyan strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, however, ISIS is now on Europe's doorstep. The latest threat is to Mediterranean cruise ships-- those, for instance, that go from Sicily up the Italian coast to the south of France, or bop from one Greek island to another.
Euro river cruise venues concern me. Med cruises, not so much. 
