[AnNahar] The Taliban poisoned and captured at least 12 coppers as they broke their fast during the holy Moslem month of Ramadan in an attack in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.
The attack took place in Zabul province, where the Death Eater militia is believed to have a strong presence despite numerous operations by Afghanistan's Western-backed government security forces.
"Tragically, 12 coppers were poisoned and then taken away in a mini-van after breaking their fast yesterday evening in Shahjoy district of Zabul," Shah Nazanin, the district police chief, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"The incident happened at a police check post. It was the work of Taliban gunnies and probably one of their infiltrators was behind this attack," Nazanin added.
The militia, which ruled in Kabul from 1996 to the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, has frequently claimed to have infiltrated the ranks of the Afghan army and police, being trained by U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops.
Zabul provincial police chief, Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwani, confirmed the attack and said the coppers went missing after they were poisoned.
The Taliban grabbed credit.
Spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said Taliban fighters attacked the check post with the help of infiltrators and captured 12 coppers.
He said in a statement that they would be punished under sharia law over complaints from residents that police allegedly tortured people.
Government forces have formally taken responsibility for security from U.S.-led NATO troops due to leave the country next year. But there are concerns about their ability to stand against the Taliban unaided.
Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces are suffering a steep rise in attacks as the NATO combat mission winds down.
Two Spanish aid workers kidnapped almost two years ago in Kenya and then held in Somalia have been freed, their employer Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday.
Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, 40 and 30 respectively at the time of their kidnapping from the Dadaab refugee complex near the border with Somalia in October 2011, are both safe and healthy, MSF said.
At least two people were killed during the skirmishes in the Lower Shebelle region, on Tuesday night.
Al Shabab fighters targeted government troops in Balidoogle area, according to military officials, two attackers were killed in the battle. This week, at least 10 people have been killed in night time attacks in the capital Mogadishu.
[Ynet] Protesters set fire to the headquarters of Tunisia's Islamist ruling party Ennahda in the city of Sidi Bouzid after the liquidation of opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi on Thursday, witnesses said.
Brahmi, who belonged to the nationalist and secular Popular Party, was rubbed out outside his house in the capital Tunis. Ennahda strongly condemned the killing.
[AnNahar] Militants killed two Egyptian soldiers and maimed four in a shooting in north Sinai on Thursday, as the military vowed to crack down on "terrorism", officials said.
The army officer and conscript were killed when gunnies opened fire on a military checkpoint near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid, security officials and medics said.
A leading opposition figure and critic of Tunisias ruling Islamists, Mohamed Brahmi, was shot dead outside his home near the capital on Thursday in the second such assassination this year. The murder by unknown gunmen sparked angry street protests in central Tunis and Brahmis birthplace of Sidi Bouzid where he served as MP, AFP correspondents said.
Mohamed Brahmi, general coordinator of the Popular Movement and member of the National Constituent Assembly, was shot dead outside his home in Ariana, Watanya state television and the official TAP news agency reported.
He was riddled with bullets in front of his wife and children, Mohsen Nabti, a fellow member of the small leftist movement, said in a tearful account aired on Tunisian radio.
The interior ministry, cited by TAP, said that Brahmi, a 58-year-old MP and vocal critic of Tunisias ruling Islamists, was assassinated as he left home. Watanya said Brahmi was struck by a hail of 11 bullets fired from point-blank range.
Condemning the latest killing, lawyer Mabrouk Korchid told AFP that Brahmi was assassinated in cold blood on the day that Tunisia is marking the 56th anniversary of the republics declaration.
Brahmi, a man with a bushy moustache and weather-beaten complexion, was elected MP for Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of the 2011 revolution which toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. On July 7, he resigned from his post as general secretary of the Popular Movement, which he founded, protesting that it had been infiltrated by Islamists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2013 00:00 ||
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Seven international peacekeepers were killed Saturday when they came under heavy fire while on patrol in Sudan's Darfur region, a spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Darfur said. As many as 17 peacekeepers were also injured in the ambush.
Two of those wounded were female.
The "extended firefight" happened near Khor Abeche in South Darfur, the African Union/United Nations-led force said in a statement.
Interesting, because PRISM like surveillance led to the capture of the terrorists.
NEW DELHI: The bombers from Indian Mujahideen's Azamgarh cell who were tracked down to Batla House in Delhi would have carried on with their murderous campaign had it not been for a blunder by a key member of what is essentially a Lashkar-sponsored gang.
Sources familiar with one the most successful counter-terror operations said the hunt for the terrorists responsible for slaughtering hundreds of innocents appeared to be heading nowhere until Dr Shahnawaz, a leading member of the Azamgarh cell of IM, broke the standard operating procedure to contact the chief bomber of the module, Atif Amin, on the mobile that the latter had acquired for carrying out serial bomb attacks in Gujarat in 2008.
The number, 9714552899, was one of four that Atif and other IM members involved in the Gujarat operation had acquired. The four numbers would take calls only from each other and from PCOs. The protocol, put in place to dodge surveillance, was strictly followed, except on one occasion when Dr Shahnawaz let his guard down. Breaking from the agreed operational code, he used his mobile phone 9415835381 to contact Amin who had assumed the alias of Bashir Bhai for engineering the attacks in Gujarat.
The solitary deviation would by itself have not led to a breakthrough if the Intelligence Bureau, working with counter-terror agencies in Gujarat and Mumbai, had not chanced upon Afzal Mutaliq Usmani. A car thief from Navi Mumbai, Usmani was arrested after being identified as the person who had delivered two cars to be used in the Gujarat bombings.
Usmani provided a chest of information about the operation, including that Bashir Bhai, "a bucktoothed man with his hair slicked back" and the team leader of the Gujarat bombers, used the mobile number 9714552899. Luckily for the investigators, Usmani had traveled with Atif alias Bashir and the other alleged bombers when they returned to their base. He also disclosed that he accompanied the bombers to Batla House before catching a train for Pune.
Although Atif did not take them to L-18, their hideout, the information about Batla House emerged as the probe progressed. Especially because an analysis of the details of mobile towers showed up the location of the phone number 9714552899 in the Batla House locality between July 16-23. The analysis also showed that the phone, which had become inactive on July 27, a day after the Ahmedabad serial blast, was active for a long time around New Delhi's Nizamuddin railway station on July 21: the day, as subsequent investigations showed, Atif and other members booked return ticket for Ahmedabad.
This presence in Delhi of a mobile registered in Gujarat struck the counter-terror wing of the IB and other agencies. A trawl through its call details threw up Shahnawaz's number -- 9415835381. Soon, the investigators mining the data of this BSNL number from UP came across the fact that the leading member of IM would regularly call 9811004309.
A quick investigation showed that the Vodafone number was registered in the name of Atif Amin. On the face of it, nothing seemed to be amiss. It was a post-paid number and the address given, L-18, Batla House had even been verified. However, noting the coincidence of the presence of Gujarat number 9714552899 in the immediate vicinity of 9811004309 around Batla House, IB advised Delhi Police to check the address.
"We had a suspicion of sorts that either the gang itself had hired the premises or the occupant was providing shelter to the bombers. But we were far from sure," said a senior police officer who monitored the operation and coordinated with counter-terror units of different states.
The suspicion was the reason why a Delhi Police special cell personnel visited L-18 posing as a customer care representative of Vodafone. While he heard many voices coming from inside, the cop was intrigued when his knocks received no response. He alerted Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, waiting downstairs, who walked in, least suspecting that he would soon be faced with one of the deadliest bunch of terrorists.
[Ynet] Emboldened forces of Evil in Iraq set up their own checkpoint to kill drivers and bombed crowded cafes Thursday in the deadliest of a series of attacks that killed at least 42 people, authorities said.
More than 550 people have been killed in violent attacks so far this month, according to an News Agency that Dare Not be Named count, as violence continues during the Mohammedan holy month of Ramadan. The speaker of Iraqi parliament even has acknowledged that insecurity in the nation likely will get worse after a massive al-Qaeda-claimed prison break freed hundreds of inmates.
[AnNahar] Bombs went kaboom! near shops and cafes in Iraq on Thursday night, killing at least 17 people and wounding at least 25, officials said.
The blasts struck after the iftar meal that breaks the daily fast during the Mohammedan holy month of Ramadan, at a time when many people go shopping or relax in cafes.
Authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday closed local offices of Al Arabiya TV and Palestinian news agency Maan for alleged false reporting of Hamas help for Egypts Muslim Brotherhood.
Slipped the leash a tad, did they?
The Attorney-General decided to close down Al Arabiya and Maan offices in Gaza for distributing false news regarding the smear campaign against Hamas and Gaza about whats happening in Egypt, a Hamas official told AFP.
A Maan staffer and a Hamas official, who both requested anonymity,
"Please don't tell them! They'll kill me!"
told AFP the agency was being temporarily closed for a report citing Israeli sources saying that Hamas gave refuge in a Gaza hotel to fugitive leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Just a little too public in their canoodling...
Saudi-owned pan-Arab channel Al Arabiya did not immediately reveal the reasons for its office closure.
We received the closure notice and an official statement from Al Arabiya will be published to respond to this decision, its Gaza correspondent, Islam Abd Al Kareem.
On July 14, Egyptian investigators began questioning ousted president Mohammed Mursi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood over their escape from jail during the 2011 uprising that put them in power. The inquiry relates to the escape by Mursi and dozens of Brotherhood members from Wadi Natrun prison during the revolt that ended former president Hosni Mubaraks three-decade rule.
An Egyptian court in June found that the Hamas rulers of Gaza and Lebanons Shia Hezbollah movement helped prisoners.
Of course they did, they're on the same side...
Mursi, Egypts first freely elected president, was toppled in a military coup on July 3 after millions of people took to the streets calling on him to step down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
this is the periphery of the conflict between Qatar and the Saudis
Egypt is putting pressure on Al Jazeera(the Qatar owned station) so Hamas puts pressure on the Saudi owned station.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/26/2013 3:04 Comments ||
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Didn't they try this back home? Called it something like Quick'n'Angry...Anyone remember how that worked out?
WASHINGTON (Rooters) - The United States has quietly been testing the Syrian opposition's ability to deliver food rations, medical kits and money to rebel-held areas as Washington prepares to send arms to the rebel fighters. Lots of logistical "testing" since Benghazi, one would assume. I don't think anyone's ever had trouble 'delivering' money...
U.S. officials meet weekly in Turkey with Syrian opposition leaders to work out how best to keep supply lines open to rebel fighters and war-ravaged towns and districts. Ah yes, the old personal meeting with the Turk embassy fellow again.
One of the Syrian opposition's best-known female formerly clandestine operators leaders, Suhair al-Atassi, attends the meetings as coordinator of the "non-lethal" aid that includes equipment for rebel fighters and local councils, as opposed to humanitarian aid for the displaced. The diplaced, councils, fighters....What differences does it make, and thanks for outing me fokwads ?
Supplies are handed to officers of the moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) at clandestine locations that cannot be divulged for security reasons. "Moderate" meaning.... non-cannibal ?
"I sign the paperwork, and shake the hands of the FSA official," said a U.S. State Department official involved in the effort. "I wish them well and walk away." Lucky you, State Dept. person.
The rebels take aid for their own units and also distribute some of it to schools, clinics and local councils. At least that's what they tell me they're doing with it.
[AnNahar] More than 100,000 people have now been killed in the Syria civil war, U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Thursday as he appealed for new efforts to convene a peace conference.
On the ground, violence raged in the flashpoint city of Homs and a boom-mobileing in Damascus killed 10 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The U.N. chief and U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... told news hounds at the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... that there could be no military solution to the 28-month-old conflict.
The Britannia-based Observatory has previously reported that the corpse count had crossed the 100,000 threshold.
On Thursday, Ban said: "More than 100,000 people have been killed, millions of people have either been displaced or become refugees in neighboring countries.
"We have to bring this to an end. The military and violent actions must be stopped by both parties, and it is thus imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible."
The United States and Russia vowed in May to press for a follow-up to a peace conference held in Geneva last year, which set out a transition plan.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... divisions in the international community and disagreements between the Syrian regime and opposition about the goals of such a conference have blocked efforts.
Syrian National Coalition president Ahmad Jarba was in New York on Thursday for talks with Kerry ahead of a Friday meeting with U.N. Security Council envoys.
Kerry said there are "enormous levels of suffering".
"There is no military solution to Syria, there is only a political solution. That will require leadership in order to bring people to the table," he added.
Kerry said he spoke on Wednesday with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"We remain committed to the effort to bring the parties to a Geneva II, to implement Geneva I, and we will try our hardest to make that happen as soon as is possible," he said.
Ban has previously said he would like a peace conference in September. But U.N. diplomats say the conflict is now so bitter that they doubt the two sides can be brought to the negotiating table.
"The chances of a meaningful peace conference are now zero, but the U.S. and U.N. can't admit that," said Richard Gowan of New York University's Center for International Cooperation.
U.S. President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... 's plan to provide vetted Syrian rebels with weapons and strategic military aid is gaining traction in Congress, according to U.S. politicians.
Washington is currently providing humanitarian and non-lethal military aid to rebel groups.
The U.S. government promised an expansion of military aid to Syria's rebel forces in June after accusing Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... 's forces of using chemical weapons, but such aid has yet to be disbursed.
Ban also said that two U.N. envoys had completed talks in Damascus on seeking access for U.N. inspectors for an inquiry on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Ake Sellstrom, head of the inquiry, and Angela Kane, the U.N. high representative for disarmament, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday.
"They are coming out of Syria now, we will get the report soon," Ban said.
On the ground, the fighting was intense, especially around rebel areas of Homs in central Syria, which the army has besieged for more than a year, said the Observatory.
Homs-based activist Yazan said the current army offensive was entering its fourth week, and added that for the second time this week, the historic Khaled Bin Walid mosque was hit by regime shelling.
The Syrian Observatory said a car kaboom in Jaramana, a Christian-Druze suburb of Damascus, killed 10 people. State television had earlier reported a toll of seven dead.
Thursday's violence comes two weeks into the Mohammedan fasting month of Ramadan. During this fortnight alone, at least 2,014 people, mostly combatants, have been killed in the conflict, the Observatory said.
More than 1,323 of the dead were pro- and anti-regime fighters, it said.
The toll for combatants killed has spiked "because the intensity of the fighting is escalating", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The Syrian regime was accused yesterday of using civilians as human shields, as the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, pledged his nation's full support for Kofi Annan's plan to end the turmoil in the country.
The Russian leader said the former UN chief's proposal could be the "last chance" to avoid a long and bloody civil war.
He spoke as details emerged of the way Syrian forces have allegedly used civilians to shield troops advancing on rebel towns. Ghalib, an activist from a village in Idlib province, told The Independent how he had watched with binoculars from a hillside as President Bashar al Assad's forces rolled in earlier this month to wrest control from the Free Syrian Army.
[AnNahar] The bodyguard of Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, a Paleostinian, was tossed in the calaboose Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on Thursday at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International airport, media reports said.
Security agencies opened an investigation with 30-year-old Ali Abdul Wahad, who was heading to an African country aboard Egypt Air.
According to the reports, Abdul Wahad was detained at dawn.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr had ordered his arrest.
Abdul Wahad was referred to the army intelligence for preliminary interrogation.
Asir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint, late last month, leaving around 18 soldiers and more than 20 gunnies dead.
The gunbattles concentrated in the area of Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque and nearby buildings in Abra.
Asir, a 45-year-old holy man who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... , is no where to be found along with Fadel Shaker.
Asir teamed up with Shaker, a onetime prominent singer, when around two years ago he began agitating for Hizbullah to disarm.
[AnNahar] A second Syrian suspected of involvement in a bombing of a Hizbullah convoy in the eastern Bekaa Valley earlier this month was tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by the Army Intelligence on Thursday.
Media reports said the Syrian was seized during a raid in the town of Majdal Anjar. He is a relative of another Syrian who was arrested by the army on Monday.
The two Syrians are suspected of planting the explosives that targeted the convoy near al-Masnaa border crossing with Syria on July 16.
The bombing is the fourth time that a vehicle has been targeted by an bomb in the Bekaa region, which is a stronghold of Hizbullah.
The attacks come as the party gets increasingly involved in the war in Syria. It has sent its members to bolster Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's forces in their assault on some rebel-held areas.
Since then, Leb has seen a spike in Sunni-Shiite tensions that has sparked gunbattles in several cities around the country.
Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad in Syria, while Shiites generally back Hizbullah and the regime in Damascus.
A car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded 62 on Thursday when it exploded on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said.
State news agency SANA said the bomb hit the Al Siyouf Square in Jaramanah. It blamed terrorists, a term the Syrian government uses for rebels who are fighting a two-year-old civil war against President Bashar Al Assad.
Bombs have previously hit Jaramanah, a religiously mixed area that houses supporters and opponents of Assad but which is under army control.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[AnNahar] The bodyguard of Salafist 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded 62 on Thursday when it exploded on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said.
