MARKA, Somalia -- At least 13 Al Shabaab militants have been reported dead in fierce clashes near Bakool regional capital of Hudur of southwestern Somalia on Monday morning, Garowe Online reports.
Speaking on VOA Somali Service, the Governor of Bakool region Mohamed Abdi Tool said, Al Shabaab retaliated with raids on government forces and African Union troops.
"Al Shabaab men retaliated, heavy fighting yesterday occurred and following previous battles they launched attacks outside of Rabdhure and Garasweyne," Tool noted.
He stated that they lost four soldiers in fierce clash in Mooro Gaabey vicinity which lies 13km from Hudur.
According to Bakool governor, 13 Al Shabaab fighters were also killed while 8 soldiers from Somali National Army (SNA) and AMISOM sustained injuries. The allied forces dislodged Al Shabaab militants from a string of strategic towns in southern and central Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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At least 14 people reportedly died and 11 others have been wounded in two separate renewed tribal clashes that took place in Balanbl town of central Somalia.
According to local sources, at least 10 people, including civilians were killed on the battling sides on Tuesday in the town after fierce clan fighting erupted at Shilanta, Garas-gaabta and Cila-buulale localities in Balanbal of Galgaduud region.
Local reports say both warring sides exchanged heavy gunfire which lasted for more than 5 hours and the gun battle broke out over land ownership dispute between two co-living clans in the town. The injured people were rushed to Balanbal general hospital for medical treatment, according to locals.
So far, Balanbal district government officials and SFG officials in Mogadishu have yet to comment on the deadly renewed clashes in villages in the twon of Galgaduud region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Sheikh Mohammed Idris, chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, was killed close to a mosque near his home by a group of gunmen. Reports say he had previously been threatened by radical Muslim youths and had said he feared for his life.
He is the fourth prominent Muslim cleric to be shot dead in the city since 2012.
The others were accused of links to the al-Qaeda linked Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab and their supporters accused the government of being behind their killings â charges the authorities denied.
Mr Idris had apparently urged the police to deal with militant elements at his mosque, leading some to brand him a traitor.
According members of his family Sheikh Idris life was threatened before his death leading to writing statement at area police station for fear. According to local media reports those opposed to him wanted to change the mosqueâs name from Sakina Jamia to Masjid Mujahedeen.
In April, Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, known as Makaburi, who had been listed by the UN as a recruiter for al-Shabaab, was shot dead in Mombasa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Not a high enough level to perform a self healing spell sucks to be him!
#3
Sheikh Idris, trustworthy and patient,
Was raised by his faith to high station.
His peaceloving flock
Were devoted to talk,
But true Muslims are not so complaisant.
[AnNahar] A Bahraini court handed down jail sentences of up to 13 years Tuesday against 13 defendants convicted of attacking police during an anti-government demonstration in 2012, a judicial official said.
The trial was the latest in a string of prosecutions for protests among the Gulf state's Shiite Moslem majority that prompted Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... to warn last month that the Sunni ruling family was using the courts as a tool to maintain a "highly repressive political order."
The defendants were detained after protesters clashed with riot police in the Shiite village of Sitra outside the capital Manama on August 6, 2012, the judicial official said.
The lead defendant was sentenced to 13 years, while his 12 co-accused were sentenced to 10 years.
They were found guilty of attempted murder of coppers, possession of Molotov cocktails and gathering on a public highway.
The 2012 demonstration was one of a spate of persistent protests in Shiite villages that have continued despite a bloody 2011 crackdown on an Arab Spring-inspired movement for majority rule and a constitutional monarchy in the small but strategic archipelago.
In a report released on May 29, Human Rights Watch charged that the heavy jail terms handed down against scores of Shiite protesters were part of "a highly functional injustice system" operated by the Bahraini authorities.
The New York-based watchdog accused Washington, whose Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, just across the Gulf from Iran, of not doing enough to raise human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... concerns with its ally.
[AnNahar] A suspected al-Qaeda gunman killed a soldier in a Yemeni scenic provincial capital on Tuesday, bringing the corpse count in the southern town of Huta to three in as many days.
The soldier was rubbed out at a checkpoint in the town, capital of Lahij province, a security source said.
Tensions have run high in Huta since a wave of arrests targeting suspected al-Qaeda bully boyz prompted a Sunday assault on the cop shoppe where they were being held, killing a soldier.
Lahij province is home to the Al-Anad air base, north of the main southern city of Aden, where Yemeni officials have said Washington has personnel deployed gathering intelligence for its drone war against al-Qaeda.
In late April, the Yemeni army launched a ground offensive against al-Qaeda in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwa provinces farther east.
Commanders say they have killed more than 500 bully boys, but the jihadists have regrouped in the mountains and in neighboring provinces.
A suspected al-Qaeda gunman killed a civilian in Huta on Monday.
Al-Qaeda took advantage of the collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that forced veteran strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... from power to seize large swathes of the south and east.
The jihadists remain deeply entrenched in Hadramawt province farther east where they have carried out a series of spectacular attacks in recent months.
Washington regards the jihadist network's Yemen affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as its most dangerous, and has stepped up drone strikes against its leaders this year.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/11/2014 09:17 ||
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[11124 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Yemen suffered a total blackout on Tuesday after terrorists gunmen in the eastern province of Marib sabotaged key power lines, the electricity and energy ministry announced.
âThe act of sabotage at Kilometre 78 (48 miles east of Sanaa) suspended the entire national power and energy grid, including at Maribâs gas plant, and cut power in all provinces,â a ministry spokesman was quoted by the defence ministry news website 26sep.net as saying.
State news agency Saba quoted a spokesman as saying that power lines in Marib had come under attack twice. Technical teams repaired the lines after the first assault before terrorists gunmen sabotaged them a second time and prevented technicians from fixing them again.
Attacks on power lines in Yemen are common and are often launched by heavily armed tribesmen as a lever to press for the release of jailed relatives or to support other demands.
Marib is also a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen by the United States as the terrorist extremist networkâs deadliest franchise, which has been targeted by an army offensive since April 29.
The absence of reliable electricity supplies further complicates the lives of Yemenis, who already suffer water and food shortages. Sanaa residents have also faced severe fuel shortages for weeks, with motorists having to queue for hours at petrol stations.
Sucks to live in a failed state...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Perhaps it would be a good time to go a tech crazy no interference, kinda like signal problems with air strikes!
[IsraelTimes] Two Jewish teenagers reported that they were sprayed with tear gas in an attack in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Gay Paree.
The teens, who were wearing skullcaps, said they were attacked on Saturday night, according to a report posted Monday on the website of the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA.
The attack, which was captured by a nearby security system, reportedly was perpetrated by a group of youths ages eight to 17, of "North African origin," according to the BNVCA.
The attack comes less than a week after two Jewish teenagers told police they were chased on Shavuot eve by a hatchet-wielding man and three others in Romainville, a northeastern suburb of Gay Paree.
Last month, BNVCA and SPCJ, the watchdog of La Belle France's Jewish communities, documented two suspected anti-Semitic beatings of Jews in the Gay Paree suburb of Creteil. Also last month, police received a report about three men who were filming the entrance to the local Jewish school of Creteil, Otzar Hatorah.
#2
Should we stigmatize kids of Sarcelles
Traumatized by the infidels' hell?
Must we put them in zoos
Just because they gas Jews
And rape people and burn things and yell?
#3
Silly Joos, that gent didn't abhor ya;
He just wanted a chunk of the Torah!
Fellow man of the book,
That innocent cook's
Just a brain-picking Muslim explorer!
#4
The Frenchified folk of Creteil,
Who hail from down south of Marseilles:
"Nous sommes anti-semites?
Mais non! We'd never beat
On the Joos if they'd just go away!"
Lord Dannatt, a former head of the Army, cautioned against rushing to apocalyptic judgments about what was left of Britains legacy in Iraq.
He said: Our involvement was in the south and this is in the north. Are we seeing Basra in flames? No we are not. This is a problem in the Sunni north and Baghdad.
But he acknowledged that the situation in the north appeared very dangerous.
He said: Its linked very closely to whats going on in Syria. This is an insurgency that doesnt respect national boundaries.
18.39 More from the briefing in Washington now.
Reuters: STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS U.S. UNDERSTANDING IS THAT IRAQ'S BIGGEST OIL REFINERY "REMAINS UNDER CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT"
18.38 Ban ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, has been speaking about the kidnapping of the Turkish diplomats and civilians in Mosul.
The UN chief told a meeting on counter-terrorism Wednesday he was "shocked" to learn of the kidnappings by "terrorists."
He urged the Iraqi government, regional countries and the international community to do everything possible to secure the safe release of the diplomats and bring the perpetrators to justice.
By late Wednesday, witnesses in Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad, were reporting that the militants, many of them aligned with the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS, were on the outskirts of the city. They said the militants demanded that forces loyal to the government leave the city or a sacred Shiite shrine there would be destroyed. Samarra is known for the shrine, the al-Askari Mosque, which was severely damaged in a 2006 bombing during the height of the American-led occupation. That event touched off sectarian mayhem between the country's Sunni Arab minority and its Shiite majority.
Members of Shiite militias were on high alert in Baghdad, and many were reported headed north to Samarra, even though the central government declared a 10 p.m. curfew in the capital and surrounding towns. An influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Moktada al-fucking-Sadr, called for the formation of a special force to defend religious sites in Iraq. The authorities in neighboring Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, canceled all visas and flights for pilgrims to Baghdad and intensified security on the Iran-Iraq border, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Expect Baghdad to fall swiftly. Bring Baghdad Bob out of retirement: "Taken Tikrit? Certainly not. Don't be stupid."
Posted by: KBK ||
06/11/2014 20:41 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
The rising insurgency presented a new quandary for the Obama administration, which has faced sharp criticism for its recent swap of five Taliban officers for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and must now answer questions about the death of five Americans by friendly fire in Afghanistan on Monday night.
Critics have long contended that Americas withdrawal of troops from Iraq, without leaving even a token force, invited an insurgent revival.
#4
I surely hope you are wrong, but it does not look good. Not good at all. I believe they [like Saddam], will head straight to Kuwait City and the Gulf. The U.S. has a huge base at Camp Arifjan, KU. Will we surrender that as well ?
#7
Obama also promised support for Iraq after the last troops had left. They'll get air support I'm sure..Chinooks to the Greez Zone.
What do you expect Obama to do? Call in airstrikes on the very team he has been trying to arm and give air cover to? Why that would be contradictory, make him look bad. McCain has been on TV for the last three years trying to blow up somebody, anybody, and here is his chance to do so, to prevent a massacre. Where is the olde saber rattler?
* SAME > [Daily Beast] IRAQ WANTS AMERICA BACK TO FIGHT AL-QAEDA WID AIRSTRIKES.
* FYI see also TOPIX > [Daily Mail.UK] THE US HAS NO PLANS TO SEND ANY OF ITS 35,000 MIDDLE EAST-BASED TROOPS INTO IRAQ AFTER AL-QAEDA OVERRUNS TWO TWO CITIES AND FORCES 500,000 TO FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES.
* SAME > NOW TIKRIT FALLS TO ISLAMIC TERRORISTS ... ...
* SAME > AL-QAEDA BREAKAWAY PURSUING AN ISLAMIC STATE, from Syria to Iraq, | IRAQ CRISIS: BATTLE FOR MOSUL USHERS IN ISLAMIC CALIPHATE FROM SYRIA TO IRAQ.
* SAME > [Commentary Magazine] OBAMA'S RETREAT + JIHAD'S RISE.
Iraq = Vietnam = PHIL = all want the Bammer = USA to be more hands-on, or take active determinative steps inluding USDOD-led "shows/displays of force", vee ongoing crises.
Iff one believes as I do that the Bammer + Globies desire for Rising Iran to be a OWG Co-Superpower in control or dominating one or more OWG Global Fed Union(s), then the questions to be asked is WILL IRAQ'S SHIA-LED GOVT-ARMY ASK IRAN-N-ONLY-IRAN TO INTERVENE, + WILL IRAN REGIONAL RIVAL TURKEY ALLOW IT???
Again, OWG GLOBALISM = FUTURE OWG CO-SUPERPOWERS RISING IRAN, RISING CHINA, + RUSSIA, ETC. MAY UNILATERALLY = FORCIBLY? EXPAND THEIR SPHERES OF INFLUENCE WID LITTLE TO NO INTERVENTION BY THE GLOBALIST OBAMA = USA SAVE FOR PCORRECT-DENIABLE DEMANDS FOR DIPLOMATIC SOLUTIONS + STRONGLY-WORDED LETTERS OF DISPLEASURE.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars - the equivalent of $429m (256m) - from Mosul's central bank, according to the regional governor.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish televison reports that Isis militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen.
Following the siege of the country's second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Falkland Islands. Plus, lots of weapons, including Black Hawks. h/t Zerohedge
#5
I would hope that when Hillary's name appears on the ballot, voters will remember Benghazi and her (and Champ's) wildly successful (SARC)" foreign policy disasterous policies that has have resulted in this Mideast meltdown. She never has been available for that 3:00 a.m. phone call.
#6
But here they have it up front in hand; if key people were paid off for Mosul then they have some grease to play with. Money and material east into what looks to be a soft Iraq, or west to press Assad, maybe order some Chinese takeout and new shoes.
Capturing the opponents horses does no good if you don't know how to ride them, it does prevent the other side from having its cavalry. Parts and maintenance capability for the vehicles though I could imagine a spearhead or suicide mission using vehicles and uniforms. Anti-aircraft, anti-tank weapons captured I think would be a consideration.
#8
Sunni insurgents [also] overran parts of the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday, security sources said. Tikrit is located 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad
more important than the helicopter (which they probably don't know how to fly), they captured thousands of vehicles, the same vehicles the Iraqi army uses.
This is looking like Vietnam 1974-75.
Al
Posted by: frozen al ||
06/11/2014 12:42 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Was thinking the same thing Al. Removed the troops, decline air support and training, quit weapons supplies. Bad guys operating out in the open with impunity.
#14
Vietnam(/Cambodia/Laos/Thailand). So in 2 generations we should see a purge of progressives then ideologic apathy, a booming return to class structured capitalism and tolerance of religious diversity?
A costly but interesting experiment. Don't think I'll be around to quantify the results.
#15
Just when you thought the news could not get worse
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/11/2014 15:02 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Dunno Skid. These are the guys who think AQ is a bunch of nancy boys. If they win, we might see a purge rather quickly. Wasn't it ISIS/L who stampede the women and raped the cattle in that Christian town in Syria?
#19
Well, Obeama and the fuckwits that support him say terrorism is due to poverty. So I guess this ends terrorism, half a billion $ goes a long way, right? /sarcasm
Jihadists overran Iraq's second city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the surrounding Nineveh province, parts of Kirkuk and areas in Salaheddin on Tuesday, in a major blow to a government apparently incapable of stopping bad boy advances.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responded by asking parliament to declare a state of emergency and announcing the government would arm citizens to fight the bad boys.
"All of Nineveh province fell into the hands of bad boys," parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi told journalists in Storied Baghdad, adding the gunnies were heading south towards neighboring Salaheddin province.
An army brigadier general told Agence La Belle France Presse hundreds of turbans from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) launched a major assault on the security forces late on Monday.
An interior ministry official said Mosul, the scene of deadly festivities on Friday and Saturday, was "outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the bad boys".
Soldiers and police had stripped off their uniforms and fled, and the turbans used loudspeakers to declare they had "come to liberate" the city of some two million people.
An AFP journalist, himself fleeing with his family, said shops were closed, a cop shoppe had been set ablaze and security forces vehicles had been burned or abandoned.
Hundreds of families were seen fleeing. Some were on foot, carrying what they could, others in vehicles with their belongings piled on the roofs.
In the Kurdish north, another AFP journalist said thousands of Mosul residents had fled for the safety of the autonomous region.
Dozens of cars and trucks stretched out from one checkpoint on the boundary of the region, as people with plastic bags, suitcases and a pram waited to enter, some with young children in tow.
"The army forces threw away their weapons and changed their clothes and left their vehicles and left the city," said Mahmoud Nuri, a displaced Mosul resident.
"We didn't see anyone fire a shot".
The assailants seized the provincial government headquarters and the Nineveh Operations Command as well as the airport, the army general said.
They also freed hundreds of prisoners from three jails.
The Turkish consulate in Mosul said ISIL fighters had captured 28 Turkish truck drivers, while a foreign ministry official said Ankara hoped they would be released once they finished unloading fuel oil at a power station.
Maliki said the cabinet had decided to arm citizens to fight the bad boys.
It has "created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming", he said in televised remarks.
Maliki said the cabinet also decided to reorganize the security forces, and to ask parliament to impose emergency rule.
State television said parliament had received a joint request from Maliki and the president's office to declare a state of emergency.
Later on Tuesday, jihadists seized two areas of the Salaheddin province, officials said.
The turbans moved into Salaheddin's Siniyah and Sulaiman Bek, both located north of Storied Baghdad, after security forces withdrew, an army brigadier general and a local official said.
Predominantly Sunni Mohammedan Nineveh province has long been a bad boy stronghold and one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq.
ISIL, the most powerful bad boy group in Iraq, is also a key force in the rebellion against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... in neighboring Syria.
In April, it launched a campaign in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, which borders Nineveh, aimed at carving out an Islamic state.
The group said it was behind operations in Nineveh in messages on Twitter, though other turbans may have been involved as well.
Mosul is the second city to fall from government control this year. Anti-government fighters also control Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... west of Storied Baghdad.
ISIL turbans also took six different areas of Kirkuk province, which shares a border with part of southeastern Nineveh, police Colonel Ahmed Taha said.
Taha said security forces abandoned their posts in one of the areas, while a local official said soldiers were ordered to depart another, allowing turbans to move in.
Violence also struck other areas of Iraq.
In Baquba, north of Storied Baghdad, two bombs killed 20 people near a funeral procession for a slain teacher.
And in the capital, nine people died in attacks.
Gunmen have launched major operations in Nineveh, Salaheddin, Anbar, Diyala and Storied Baghdad provinces since Thursday, killing scores and highlighting both their long reach and the weakness of security forces.
Violence is running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in festivities between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority.
Officials blame external factors for the rising bloodshed, particularly the Syrian war.
But analysts say widespread Sunni Arab anger with the Shiite-led government has also been a major factor.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
#1
I know why they stormed the compound in Libya now! Watch Al Jizzera the Iraqi airforce needed office supplies for their airforce the idiots are running around with paper airplanes on their heads! Paperclips on nose end get it!
#5
You remember the term. Some called it... "nation building." Anyone who has actually been to the region knew we were simply disturbing the natural order of Islam.
#6
You remember the term. Some called it... "nation building." Anyone who has actually been to the region knew we were simply disturbing the natural order of Islam.
I think it's before your time, Besoeker, but Dave D. early on laid out our possibilities for the the War on Terror in proper engineer analysis. One of the points he made, that has coloured my view of events ever since, was that we had to try nation building, so that when it didn't work (like many engineers, Dave D. had faith in the space widgets he designed, but a dark view of people in general to do the right thing right) we could look our grandchildren in the eye as we explained why we pounded the entire Arab world into rubble.
He still pokes his head in the the 'Burg very occasionally, which always makes me happy.
#7
Thanks TW. With all due respect to Burg poster Dave D. and his assessment, I believe the justification for "pounding the entire Arab world into rubble" has now been clearly established and is entirely defendable.
#8
I'm not sure I disagree, Besoeker, and I weep over all the stray kittens I can't rescue (the real reason, Mr. Wife admits, that he never let me join him in India. He firmly believes I would be devastated that I wouldn't be able to help all the poor people there -- and we haven't enough spare bedrooms.)
But nothing is going to happen in that direction until January, 2017... or at least nothing constructive.
#10
much of the islamic (not arab) world pounds itself into dust
Somalia for many years now (not arab)
Syria
Iraq
up next, Pakistan (also not arab)
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/11/2014 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I should note that the Annual Haj migration is beginning... and MERS has killed for the first time in Algeria. (The other patient appears to be recovering.) Also, the Pakistani polio virus has been isolated in Syria and Israel. Israel immediately commenced on a vaccination campaign.
Darwin is riding along with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Muslim world these days. Pounding themselves into dust, indeed. Is this the cultural suicide David P. Goldman wrote about?
#12
Iraqi government will arm citizens to fight militants? How are they going to determine that they are not arming AQ?
Thought the same thing, then I saw the video from Mosul whereby the Iraqi military completely abandoned their posts, and dropped their uniforms, weapons and even abandoned US-provided Humvees and other vehicles. IOW, it probably doesn't matter now (at least in Mosul) as ISIL now has US-made weapons/vehicles, as well as Iraqi uniforms.
Posted by: BA ||
06/11/2014 11:25 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I wonder how many thought about spiking their equipment before leaving, and how many effectively did.
#17
DaveD was is a indeed a helluva engineer, he invented a very sophisticated digital give-a-shit meter that is still occasionally brought out of the back room hereabouts. Can a Mod maybe lay hands on that sucker to illustrate talent?
#19
I wonder what James Carville and Karl Rove would say to each other over a bottle of scotch after this one?
That aside, Iraq, thanks to the Democrats who never saw a war they couldn't lose have finally turned Iraq into 1975. They always said Iraq was going to become another Viet Nam, well thanks to their malfeasance, it has. Well at least the ARVN didn't drop trousers and run like the Iraqis did. I wonder what the hell happened to those guys in the dark green with those steely eyes that were so damned tough fighting the bad guys two years ago...I find it hard to believe those guys who stood in line for hours and risked suicide bombs, snipers, and threats to the family to enlist turned tail and ran. What the hell happened????
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/11/2014 19:27 Comments ||
Top||
#20
I wonder what the hell happened to those guys in the dark green with those steely eyes that were so damned tough fighting the bad guys two years ago...I find it hard to believe those guys who stood in line for hours and risked suicide bombs, snipers, and threats to the family to enlist turned tail and ran. What the hell happened????
Sometimes we say nice things about our allies in hopes they'll eventually live up to the hype we've generated.
#21
I wouldn't worry about the equipment. It needs maintenance and spares -- they're too stuck on themselves to do the first and the second will quickly run out.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/11/2014 20:53 Comments ||
Top||
#22
It's the technology transfer I'm worried about. How much Tech advantage did we lose? How many more STA did we lose? It's a disaster any way you look at it. What they can't use they'll strip or sell.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/11/2014 21:27 Comments ||
Top||
#23
They're headed toward Kuwait and the Gulf. This is getting very, very ugly.
#24
I think the only thing between the ISIL and the Gulf is the Saudi Army.
It is time for KSA to man up with all of those billions of dollars of fancy equipment and DO SOMETHING. If they don't, they are toast and Iran wins.
Thank you Democrats a war that could have been won and a country that could have been whole and functioning is pissed away to your darling revolutionaries...err fanatics. Why does the left love fanatics and anarchists? Why do the libs think nothing is worth fighting for?
When I was in Iraq, I personally say men standing in line to enlist and we know the Anbar resurrection was due to tribal leaders fighting AQ...all of that is gone, I guess the assassinations and the murders finally gutted the adult supervision.
We cannot ever be trusted again. We abandoned Iraq, we abandoned Libya and we are abandoning Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
What on earth is this administration doing?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/11/2014 22:47 Comments ||
Top||
#25
Meanwhile, not to be outdone by the ISIS ...
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Last Days Watchman] COMING SOON? A MORE ISLAMIC, BUDDHIST, HINDU LESS CHRISTIAN AMERICA.
D *** NG, do the Hare Krishnas know???
* JAPAN TIMES > PUTIN GAMBLES ON CULTURE WAR WID WEST.
Which apparently America is losing, but Amerika is winning.
* TOPIX > [American Thinker] RUSSIA + CHINA ARE EXECUTING A PLAN WE [US, West] IGNORE AT OUR PERIL.
Iraq's prime minister has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency after Islamist militants effectively took control of Mosul, the country's second-largest city, and much of its province of Nineveh June 9, in another blow to the authorities, who appear incapable of stopping rebel advances, Agence France-Presse reported.
Nouri Maliki said "vital areas" of the city had been seized; some 150,000 people are believed to have fled. A police chief who spoke to AFP told The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) partly took control of the Salahaddin province and some areas in the city of Kirkuk.
Overnight, hundreds of gunmen launched an assault on Mosul, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad, engaging in combat with troops and police, they said.
The ISIL has also reportedly taken 28 Turkish truck drivers hostage. The drivers had been travelling from the southern Turkish city of Ä°skenderun to the Geyara Thermal Power Plant in Mosul, DoÄan News Agency reported. A senior Turkish official told Reuters that Turkey is investigating media reports.
"These truck drivers were taking fuel to an energy storage and distribution hub. When they arrived, ISIL (militants) were already there," the official told Reuters, adding that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in contact with Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. officials to try to ensure their safe release.
"They were detained (by the militants), they haven't been hijacked ... They're unharmed as far as we're aware. When they've finished transferring the fuel we're hoping that they will be freed," another Turkish official said.
The phone lines of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul have been cut, though Ankara can still communicate with Consul ďż˝--ztĂźrk YÄąlmaz through his cellphone, HĂźrriyet's UÄur Ergan has reported. YÄąlmaz recently survived a bomb attack while traveling to the northern city of Arbil.
Entire region threatened, US says
The US has said the ISIL threatens not just Iraq, but the entire region.
Too bad we couldn't have done anything to prevent that...
And we won't do anything substantive until January, 2017. Keep up with your calmness exercises, O ye who are capable of understanding.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the situation in Mosul was "extremely serious" and that the US supported "a strong, co-ordinated response to push back against this aggression".
Jen is the latest mendacious Foggy Bottom spokes-moron...
One sure sign is that she refuses to go by the serious name her mother gave her, but insists on the intimate nickname.
Before the entire city fell, militants took control of the governor's headquarters, prisons and television stations. An AFP journalist, himself fleeing the city, said shops were closed, security forces had abandoned vehicles and a police station had been set ablaze.
Kurdish leaders offers help
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has called on the people of the Kurdish region to help the displaced people of Mosul, while accusing the central government of not cooperating with the KRG against militants.
"Over the last two days, we tried extremely hard to establish cooperation with the Iraqi Security Forces in order to protect the city of Mosul. Tragically, Baghdad adopted a position which has prevented the establishment of this cooperation," Barzani said in a written statement.
"In order to assist and support the displaced people of the city of Mosul, including all of the city's different ethnic groups, I ask the people of the Kurdistan region to help the displaced people of Mosul in whatever way they can within the framework of legal and security guidelines. I also urge the United Nations High Commission for Refugees [UNHCR] to provide relief and support for the displaced people fleeing the violence in Mosul," he added.
"In the meantime, we reassure the people living in the areas of Kurdistan outside of KRG administration that the Kurdish Security Forces are ready, as always, to handle the security situation in these areas."
Don't offer help, just do it. You're also Iraqis, at least for a while longer. Go in there and kick some ISIL butt, and a semi-grateful nation will be more disposed to working with you.
Mosul is the capital of Nineveh province. In recent days, militants have launched major operations in Nineveh and four other provinces, killing scores of people and highlighting both their long reach and the weakness of Iraq's security forces. Mosul is the second city to fall to militants this year, after the government lost control of Fallujah, just a short drive from Baghdad, in early January.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The most effective butcher will likely prevail. Something of a common regional theme.
[AnNahar] Paleostinian snuffies in Gazoo fired a rocket Wednesday which struck southern Israel without causing any casualties or damage, Israeli officials said.
A statement from the military said the rocket hit the Eshkol region, with a police front man telling Agence La Belle France Presse it caused no damage.
A front man for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... was responsible for all rocket fire from Gazoo.
"PA President Abbas is responsible and accountable for rockets that are fired at Israeli towns and cities by forces of Evil in the Gazoo Strip," Ofir Gendelman wrote on Twitter.
Some 140 projectiles fired by snuffies in the Gazoo Strip have hit southern Israel since the start of 2014, according to the military.
On June 1, two rockets from Gazoo hit Israel, following which the Israeli air force launched raids on the Paleostinian enclave.
A notorious militant leader with links to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya and wanted both by the Philippines and the United States was injured in a clash Tuesday with Philippine troops in Maguindanao province.
Brigadier General Edmundo Pangilinan said Abdul Basit Usman managed to escape a military dragnet, but two other suspected militants were killed by soldiers who raided a hideout of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The slain were identified as the grandfather and uncle of Usman's wife, who was also captured along with her two children who were turned over to social workers.
Three other women - two of them Indonesian nationals and a native of Sulu province - were also arrested and that one of them is the wife of Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, the leader of the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia, who was reportedly killed in an American-backed airstrike in February 2012 in Sulu province, but his body had not been found or recovered.
Pangilinan said, "Usman was wounded, but he managed to escape and troops are tracking him down. Two other rebels were also killed in the fighting."
He said they recovered a cache of weapons and improvised explosives. Troops also recovered a van and 7 motorcycles ready to be rigged with explosives. A wallet with Usman's picture was recovered in the area as well.
Pangilinan said the raid was launched after a long surveillance operation and intelligence provided by civilians. He said, "This clearly shows that Usman has a connection with the BIFF which was behind the series of attacks and bombings in Maguindanao and nearby provinces."
Pangilinan said troops clashed with about two dozen militants for 45 minutes.
Two recently arrested suspects identified Rorki Dorloh, 30, as a mastermind behind bomb-attack plots. The two suspects, Maruwan Salae and Ayu Ma-ae, were arrested last week while allegedly working on bomb-making materials at a house in Yala province. The 41st Ranger Regiment's deputy commander, Lt-Colonel Sittisak Jenbanjong, said, "They have provided useful information."
Sittisak said that both have implicated Rorki, accusing the man of ordering bombs. Rorki is facing arrest warrants in a number of security cases already. In one, he allegedly participated in an attack on rangers in which five troops died and three others were wounded.
Meanwhile, a former ranger was gunned down at his home in Pattani yesterday morning. Police believe the shooting was linked to the southern insurgency.
#1
How many times do I have to tell you, when speaking of evil masterminds, the only correct answer is Bush. Or Cheney. Or Bush AND Cheney.
I can't believe I'm still having to explain this.
Oh, and HALLIBURTON!
(I wish it was just snark. Somewhere, somebody is nodding their head...)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/11/2014 7:42 Comments ||
Top||
[AnNahar] Syria has begun releasing prisoners, many of whom were held without charge, under the broadest amnesty the country has seen since the Assad clan took power nearly 50 years ago.
The amnesty declared by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... came a week after his controversial re-election as he seeks to portray himself as the champion of reconciliation in the war-torn country.
Clearing the decks for action, as well as displaying the traditional Muslim ruler's generosity when celebrating a win. Multi-tasking is an important managerial skill.
Assad is due to be sworn in for a new term on July 17.
"This is the most important amnesty since Hafez Assad (the president's father and predecessor) came to power nearly 45 years ago," said human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... lawyer and ex-prisoner of conscience Anwar al-Bunni.
He said the amnesty should cover "tens of thousands of prisoners behind bars because of the anti-terror law passed in July 2012", more than a year into an anti-regime revolt.
According to Bunni, "dozens of prisoners began to be released from Adra prison (in Damascus province) yesterday (Monday) and the releases will continue today."
State television showed dozens of prisoners being freed in Hama in central Syria.
The amnesty is unprecedented because it extends for the first time to those accused under the country's anti-terrorism legislation.
The government has dubbed all of those opposed to Assad's rule -- armed opposition fighters and peaceful activists alike -- of "terrorism", and used the law to imprison high-profile dissidents.
The amnesty is also the first to offer clemency to foreign jihadists fighting for the opposition, as long as they hand themselves in within a month.
Army deserters will be given full pardons if they hand themselves in within three months of the decree, according to the text.
But it was unclear how many prisoners might be freed under the amnesty, as previous clemency decisions have not seen large numbers of detainees released.
"This amnesty should not be yet another false promise, and the released should not be replaced by new activists being wrongfully imprisoned," Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... 's Middle East and North Africa division, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Lawyer Michel Shammas said it was unclear how the decree would apply for thousands of people detained in branches of Syria's notorious security establishment, where torture is systematic.
But both he and Bunni said several prominent figures were expected to be freed.
"Mazen Darwish, Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir will be released, as will activist Leyla Awad, psychologist Jamal Nawfal and Raneem Maatuq, daughter of (locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! lawyer) Khalil Maatuq," Shammas said.
"But there is no meaning for an amnesty if it doesn't include all the detainees, and we don't know yet how the decree will be applied for more than 50,000 people being held in security branches."
Darwish, Ghreir and Zaitani were jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! in February 2012 in a raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) where they work.
The three face trial for activities "such as monitoring online news and publishing the names of the dead and disappeared".
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi told Agence La Belle France Presse that more than 100 people who handed themselves over to authorities after being trapped by a nearly two-year siege of the central city will be at home within 72 hours.
Assad issued the amnesty five days after securing another seven-year term in Syria's first multi-candidate presidential vote, which the opposition and much of the international community denounced as a "farce".
Voting took place only in regime-held territory, amid a raging conflict that has killed more than 162,000 people in three years, and excluded any anti-regime opponents from standing.
On Tuesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast footage of Assad meeting Maher al-Hajjar and Hassan al-Nuri, the two regime-approved candidates who stood against him but who together secured less than 12 percent of the votes cast.
During their meeting, Assad said "the citizens' turnout showed very clearly the strength of the Syrian people and their determination to decide their destiny all alone, despite very difficult circumstances".
Since the anti-Assad revolt erupted, the regime has blamed all violence on a foreign-backed "terrorist" plot.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/11/2014 09:31 ||
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#1
Freeing the known extremists with the rabble, watch them cluster then poison the anthills.
[AnNahar] An Egyptian national was released at dawn on Wednesday after a four-day kidnap ordeal and the payment of a ransom to the kidnappers, media reports said.
Voice of Leb radio (93.3) reported that the abductors were paid L.L. 40 million and 8,000 dollars worth of jewelery to release Mohammed Saeed Ibrahim Mahmoud, 32, who was kidnapped last week.
Whoever took is now a good deal richer. And kidnapping is a favourite fundraiser for a number of Al Qaeda-linked terror groups. I've no idea if Hizb'allah has picked up the practice.
VDL (100.5) said that the man was dropped in an area near his house in Hawch-Bay in Baalbek, without citing the payment of any ransom.
On Friday night, 22-year-old Hanine Othman, a Saudi-Egyptian national pressed charges at Chmestar cop shoppe against unknown assailants after her husband Mohammed Saeed Ibrahim Mahmoud, 32, was kidnapped at gunpoint.
Hanine said that she was on her way back home with her husband in their white Mitsubishi when four assailants in a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee intercepted their vehicle.
The offenders forced her husband out of the vehicle at gunpoint and fled to an unknown destination.
Mahmoud is reportedly the owner of several farms and a livestock dealer.
BEIRUT -- Syrian activists say more than 630 people have been killed and at least 130,000 have been displaced in more than a month of rebel infighting in an eastern province near the Iraqi border.!
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 39 civilians are among the 634 people killed in Deir el-Zour province since April 30.
The fighting is between Islamic rebel battalions and the al-Qaeda breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Observatory said Tuesday the tally includes 354 rebel fighters, including many from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, and 241 gunmen from the Islamic State.
Islamic rebels and more moderate factions have been locked in a brutal fight against the Islamic State across opposition-held northern Syria since early January.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/11/2014 00:29 ||
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[11131 views]
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Gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front kidnapped on Tuesday several Lebanese, Syrian and Turkmen workers in the outskirts of the Ras Baalbek region in the Bekaa.
"Ten workers, the majority of whom are Syrians, were kidnapped in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek by Nusra Front gunnies," reported LBCI television, noting that the abduction caused tension in the region.
LBCI revealed that two Lebanese were among the kidnapped, one of them hails from Ras Baalbek and the other from the border town of Arsal.
But OTV later said that three Lebanese were among the abductees.
"They are employees at a stone crushing plant operated by the Meshref family," it detailed.
The state-run National News Agency identified the Lebanese men as Mikhail Mrad, Alaa Ezzeddine and Mohammed al-Hujairi.
It added that one Turkmen was also held.
NNA elaborated on the incident: "The gunnies attacked Rifaat Meshref's stone crushing plant and seized a bulldozer and two trucks."
Army forces were chasing after the abductors, the NNA assured.
Later in the evening, NNA said six of the seven kidnapped workers were released.
It remarked that the group included three Lebanese, three Syrians andr a Turkmen.
"Six were released while Mikhail, who's the owner of the plant, is still kidnapped and negotiations are ongoing to free him," it explained.
Last week, Syrian minor Khaled Mustafa was also kidnapped in Arsal by the same myrmidon group.
And on Sunday, Nusra gunnies kidnapped three youths who hail from Arsal, only to release them later at dawn.
Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, Arsal has served as a key conduit for refugees, rebels and maimed people fleeing strife-torn Syria.
British exiled terrorist radical preacher Omar Bakri, an Islamic cleric who is believed to be linked to the London bombers is facing the death sentence in Lebanon, after the authorities here charged him on Monday with a host of terrorist indictments.
Old habits die hard...
Bakri was arrested on May 25, after a crackdown by the Lebanese government on terrorist extremist groups operating in Tripoli in northern Lebanon. According to reports on Tuesday, a military judge has formally charged Bakri with being the mastermind of a terrorist cell in Tripoli, Lebanon, his adopted home since fleeing the UK in 2005.
It's the second time in Lebanon that he has faced charges of terrorist activities. In 2010 Bakri was held briefly on similar charges before Hezbollah group struck a deal with him and released him. He was held under house arrest since.
Is there a reason why we can't just drone-zap him?
According to reports, Bakri, who was once the subject of terrorist investigations in the UK, was interrogated by a Lebanese military judge on Monday before being charged with organising a terrorist cell in Northern Lebanon responsible for a number of attacks on Army and civilian locations - which claimed the lives of 30 earlier in the year.
Bakri, whose real name is Omar Bakri Fustoq, was arrested on May 25 and has always denied being part of Al Qaeda although he regularly speaks highly of their affiliated terrorist groups both in Syria and in Lebanon. His own terrorist extremist group in the UK also had many Al Qaeda amongst its ranks.
Authorities here believe that he is linked to Al Qaeda and is responsible for a series of terrorist attacks both on Army personal in recent months and inciting sectarian fighting in Tripoli which left 30 dead and over 160 wounded.
Omar Bakri, believed to be 54 now, was previously the London-based spiritual leader of the terrorist extremist group Al Muhajiroun. Bakri was under investigation by UK police after he called for young British Muslims to take up arms and join Al Qaeda.
On the London bombings It was also reported that Bakri referred to the four suicide bombers who killed 56 people on July 7 as "the fantastic four". He said the British people were to blame for the terror attacks on the capital because they "did not make enough effort to stop its own government committing its own atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan". He also sparked outrage when he said on TV that he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning a bomb attack on a train in the UK and supported Muslims who attacked British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In March he told Khaleej Times when speaking of the troubles in Tripoli "only jihad salafi can save it and save Lebanon" adding "and this country needs to be made an Islamic state, obviously" he says. "Guys like me thrive on chaosâŚand that is what you have in Lebanon now" he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
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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.
MARKA, Somalia -- At least 13 Al Shabaab militants have been reported dead in fierce clashes near Bakool regional capital of Hudur of southwestern Somalia on Monday morning, Garowe Online reports.
Sheikh Mohammed Idris, chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, was killed close to a mosque near his home by a group of gunmen. Reports say he had previously been threatened by radical Muslim youths and had said he feared for his life.
Lord Dannatt, a former head of the Army, cautioned against rushing to apocalyptic judgments about what was left of Britains legacy in Iraq.
By late Wednesday, witnesses in Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad, were reporting that the militants, many of them aligned with the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS, were on the outskirts of the city. They said the militants demanded that forces loyal to the government leave the city or a sacred Shiite shrine there would be destroyed. Samarra is known for the shrine, the al-Askari Mosque, which was severely damaged in a 2006 bombing during the height of the American-led occupation. That event touched off sectarian mayhem between the country's Sunni Arab minority and its Shiite majority.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Iraq's prime minister has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency after Islamist militants effectively took control of Mosul, the country's second-largest city, and much of its province of Nineveh June 9, in another blow to the authorities, who appear incapable of stopping rebel advances, Agence France-Presse reported.
Two recently arrested suspects identified Rorki Dorloh, 30, as a mastermind behind bomb-attack plots. The two suspects, Maruwan Salae and Ayu Ma-ae, were arrested last week while allegedly working on bomb-making materials at a house in Yala province. The 41st Ranger Regiment's deputy commander, Lt-Colonel Sittisak Jenbanjong, said, "They have provided useful information."
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
British exiled 
