[ToloNews] The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) seized hundreds of bottles of Potassium Chlorate disguised as baby powder in a raid in Kabul on Sunday.
According to the NDS the substance, used to make explosives, was packed in baby powder bottles -- 384 in total. The bottles were in cardboard cartons and were seized at a warehouse belonging to an import company in District 8 -- Shah Shaheed - in Kabul.
The NDS said in a statement that the bottles had been imported by the Haqqani murderous Moslem network from outside the country.
"The potassium chlorate was transferred from outside [the country] for the launching of the suicide kabooms and blasts," read the statement.
Two years ago Pentagon research showed that faceless myrmidons in Afghanistan had started using potassium chlorate to make homemade bombs. This is the same substance used to make matches catch fire.
According to their study, they found that over 60 percent of IEDs were being made from this substance -- a material that is however considered extremely unstable.
[ToloNews] European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Police Mission (EUPOL) in Afghanistan has confirmed the death of one of their contract workers in Sunday's suicide boom-mobileing that occurred close to the Kabul airport.
According to a spokesperson from the mission, a EUPOL mission vehicle was targeted. One person was killed and three others were maimed.
According to the spokesperson, the three injured mission members are in a stable condition and "have been taken to a safe place". The spokesperson said the person killed was a contract worker.
Earlier, Ministry of Interior front man Sediq Sediqqi said at least three people were killed and 18 injured in the attack.
Among the dead are two women. The injured include eight women, three children and seven men.
According to officials, the bomber appeared to have targeted foreign troops in the area.
A spokesperson for Resolute Support Mission said shortly after the incident that they had not had any reports of foreign troop casualties as yet.
The blast took place in a fairly well populated area and severe damage was done to vehicles and buildings in the immediate area.
This is the second blast Sunday morning in Kabul city. The first occurred in the Kart-e-Now area but no casualties were reported.
This comes after yet another IED went kaboom! on Saturday night at the University of Kabul, injuring two lecturers.
The Taliban has grabbed credit for the fatal bombing. The group's apparent front man said on Twitter that the suicide boom-mobileer had been driving a Toyota Corolla and was from Paktia province.
At least three people were killed and 18 injured early Sunday morning in a suicide boom-mobileing close to the Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... International Airport in Kabul.
The blast took place during busy rush hour in a densely populated area and severe damage was done to vehicles and buildings in the immediate area.
[ToloNews] A Taliban capo Muallah Mohammad and his four fighters were killed in a security force operation in northern Faryab province, local officials said on Sunday.
The incident happened in Khan Chahar Bagh district on Saturday after a joint military operation launched to clear the murderous Moslems, Provincial Police Chief Abdul Nabi Elham said.
He said that the Taliban capo last year kidnapped a number of police officials and killed them in Khan Chahar Bagh.
He added that the civilians and military forces were not harmed in the operation.
The Taliban have not yet commented on the incident.
Khan Chahar Bagh is one of the insecure areas in the province in which forces of Evil have activity and target local security forces.
[AA.TR] A suspected U.S. drone has crashed in a town previously overrun by the Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... holy warrior group in the southwestern Bay region, local residents said Sunday.
Locals in Somalia's Burhakaba city told Anadolu Agency that the drone crashed in the nearby Bashir town earlier on Sunday.
They added that the holy warrior group cordoned off the crash site.
The pro-Al-Shabaab Andal us radio, meanwhile, quoted a group leader as saying that his group had seized a U.S.drone which had been on a reconnaissance mission above territories captured earlier by Al-Shabaab.
Several senior Al-Shabaab members have been killed by U.S. drones in the past months.
In September, the group's leader Ahmed Godane Abu Zubeyr was killed in a drone attack in southern Somalia.
Al-Shabaab, which is waging an insurgency against the Somali government, has recently suffered several significant blows, losing most of its strongholds in southern and central Somalia to government and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops.
Nevertheless, the group has continued to launch deadly attacks on government officials and security personnel.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The trial was the first concerning the Sinai-based holy warrior group Ansar Beit El-Maqdis
Egypt's prison authorities carried out six death sentences early Sunday in the case known as "Arab Sharkas," where the convicted were tried over connections with the Sinai-based Islamist holy warrior group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.
A military court had sentenced seven Egyptian men to death, including one in absentia, and two to life in prison on charges of terrorism in October 2014.
The men were charged with planning terrorist operations, shooting at security forces, attacking military facilities and naval ships and being members of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.
Among the incidents the accused were charged with involvement in were the planning of an attack on the Mustorod checkpoint in Qaloubiya that killed six soldiers and an attack on Cairo's security directorate headquarters in January 2014.
The case became known as Arab Sharkas as it was named after a village in the governorate of Qaliubiya, north of Cairo, where security forces carried out a raid in March 2014 against a terrorist cell. The operation claimed the lives of two military officers.
The defendants had filed an appeal that was rejected in March 2015.
In civil trials, the general prosecution usually appeals death sentences. The second verdict can still be appealed with the Court of Cassation. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... in military courts defendants are only allowed one appeal request.
The rights group "Against the Death Penalty" had sent a letter to the National Council for Human Rights on 9 April calling on it to take action to stop the executions. It said the death penalty is an "an irreversible punishment" and "requires a very sound and strict system of justice where investigations [are] ... accurate, transparent and professional, and where the defendant should enjoy all rights securing a fair trial."
It said a military trial does not fulfill this criteria "at a time where the minimum required standards for justice are lacking."
Egypt's 2014 constitution gives military tribunals jurisdiction over crimes committed against army facilities and personnel, an authority that caused controversy as opponents of the article insist civilians should not be subject to military trials.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has grabbed credit for many of the attacks against army and police forces in Egypt following the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.
Egypt carried out the first execution related to the violence that followed Morsi's ouster on 7 May, when an Alexandrian man was hanged for the killing of a young man in 2013.
A criminal court returned the verdict as the man appeared in a video throwing two off a high ledge on the roof of a building onto the terrace below in Alexandria's Sidi Gaber district at a time of heightened tensions between opponents and supporters of Morsi, who had just been ousted.
[AA.TR] Several 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... holy warriors have been killed and ten camps fallen as government troops intensified operations to flush the myrmidon group out of its hideouts in the northeastern region, the Nigerian army said Sunday.
"An unconfirmed number of forces of Evil died on Saturday as ten additional camps used by forces of Evil were overrun in the continuing offensive operations in Sambisa forest," Defense Spokesman Chris Olukolade said.
"The Dure camp -- one of the most prominent camps in the forest -- witnessed the fiercest battle as special forces descended heavily on it before it finally fell," he added in a statement.
Olukolade noted that at least a soldier was killed and two others injured by a landmine.
He said four Boko Haram camps were in Iza locality within the forest, while three other camps were believed to have been recently set up by the myrmidons.
"The forces of Evil lost a number of vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns as well as armored vehicles," the defense front man said.
"Some of the forces of Evil who beat feet from the camps also died as they ran into an ambush," he added.
He noted that the troops were on alert as fleeing holy warriors engaged in suicide kabooms.
"Some of the fleeing forces of Evil have engaged in suicide missions at Bitta where they encountered the Nigerian troops across the border in Niger Republic," he said.
"The operation to clear the forces of Evil in Sambisa and other forests is continuing as troops in all fronts have been alerted to be on the lookout for fleeing terrorists," he added.
He said Nigeria's air force maintained an active air surveillance to track the movement of Boko Haram holy warriors for appropriate action as the operation continues.
As Nigeria intensified the operation to decimate Boko Haram, nearly 1,000 hostages have been freed from the Sambisa hideouts of the myrmidons.
Olukolade said recently that the operations sought to free all hostages and clear the holy warriors from Nigerian territories.
After a months-long lull following heavy bombardment of their hideouts, the holy warriors have in the past few days staged skeletal attacks in some parts of northeastern Borno and Yobe, mostly deploying jacket wallahs to gain entry.
At least 50 people died in attacks on villages near Maiduguri, capital of Borno, last week, while nine persons died from a suicide attack in Damaturu in Yobe state.
The army dismissed the attacks as tactics to divert the attention of troops plummeting their strongholds across the region.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart Londonistan] The Islamic State (IS) are smuggling fighters into the EU posing as refugees according to a Libyan government adviser. Abdul Basit Haroun told the BBC that the terrorist state was able to bypass European Police and knew which of "their people" they needed to gain access to the EU.
Thousands of North Africans have fled the fighting in their home countries to come to Europe. Most have entered the continent using people traffickers. They have received the de-facto assistance of European naval forced by picking up people from sinking smuggler boats and bringing those on board to Europe.
Mr Haroun claimed they included IS fighters, and the system was being used in a calculated way to bring forces across the Mediterranean sea. He said IS was using the boats: "for their people who they want to send to Europe, as the European police don't know who is from IS and who is a normal refugee or not".
It has long been a stated aim of IS to land troops in Europe via refugee boats, but so far the EU has denied the existence of the problem. The issue was raised last month by Nigel Farage, according to the Daily Mail the UKIP leader expressed fears that up to 500k Islamists could enter Europe via this route.
At the time one of his aides said: "If there is going to be one country where these guys are going to head to, it is going to be us because of the Iraq war and our involvement in Afghanistan and against Islamic State."
So far the EU has insisted naval forces pick up the 'refugees' and take them to which ever European country the forces originate from. A number of countries, including Britain, have refused so far but if the refugees are given EU citizenship London will be powerless to stop them coming to the UK.
Egypt's ambassador to the UK had already wanred of "boats full of terrorists" coming to Europe if nothing is done to stop them.
#1
what are national borders for? send these economic migrants straight back to where they came from. If it's that bad they should fight their own despotic rulers and make their own countries better - not run away
#2
in world war II when we couldn't tell enemy from friend among the German and Japanese parts of our population we put them into internment camps, across the five-eyes.
I think we should do this with muslims until the war ends. Free to leave if it means returning to country of origin never to return. Otherwise wait out the war in internment camps.
#8
If it's that bad they should fight their own despotic rulers and make their own countries better - not run away
They're colonizers, not migrants.
I am not aware of the internment of American citizens of German descent during WWII based solely on their ethnic affiliation.
anon1 is in Australia, and they might have interned Germans.
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#9
I am not aware of the internment of American citizens of German descent during WWII based solely on their ethnic affiliation.
The operative word is 'citizen', immigrants (Italian and German) who had not been naturalized were initially interned. What we know now with the release of the Japanese diplomatic traffic in '95 is that the consulates claimed sympathizers in the local communities to include the West Coast where between LA and Seattle accounted for over 90 percent of all American aircraft production.
[AnNahar] An Austrian teenager suspected of having links with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group is to appear in court Tuesday accused of planning to bomb a Vienna train station when he was just 14.
Now aged 15, the boy who comes from a Turkish background, is accused of "participating in a terrorist group." His case will be heard at a Sankt-Polten court, west of the capital.
Arrested at school in October 2014, police said the boy has admitted he was trying to make a bomb, and that he was planning to plant it at one of Vienna's main stations.
Investigators said they found IS propaganda images on his computer, phone and video game console.
Prosecutors said he was "actively" seeking to make a bomb, but his lawyer Rudolf Mayer told AFP he had only been "playing with the idea."
The teenager has also admitted he wanted to travel to Syria to join the IS' ranks. He broke his bail conditions and tried to flee in January with a 12-year-old friend, with both apparently trying to reach the war-torn country.
Because of his age, the maximum sentence he could face is five years in prison.
According to unconfirmed press reports, IS had promised the teenager 25,000 euros ($28,000) to commit the Vienna attack.
Vienna says at least 200 people from Austria, including women and kiddies, have traveled to Syria and Iraq, where the IS controls vast swathes of territory and commits horrific abuses.
Some 70 suspects have since returned to the country, and several of them are in jug pending judgment.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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A 15-year-old Austrian schoolboy with alleged ties to Islamist extremists and accused of intending to launch a bomb attack in Vienna last year will be tried on May 26, officials said Monday.
Mertkan G. was arrested in October 2014 when he was 14 and allegedly had contacts with supporters of the jihadist group Islamic State and al-Qaida, a court in his hometown Sankt-Poelten where he will be tried said.
"In addition he is suspected of obtaining instructions on how to make an explosive device from an al-Qaida website... in order to carry out an attack in Vienna," the court in eastern Austria said.
According to the charge sheet, the teenager, who immigrated from Turkey in 2007, wanted to carry out the attack before traveling to join "holy war" in Syria and was in contact with IS recruiters in Vienna.
Police had said at the time of the arrest that he made "concrete inquiries about buying ingredients" for a bomb and "planned to explode the devices in public places, such as the Vienna Westbahnhof," a major train station.
His lawyer Rudolf Mayer told AFP that his client had only been "playing with the idea" of making a bomb.
Previously officials had said that the trial would take place on May 19. He has been in custody since January after breaking the terms of his parole. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
[DAWN] CHARSADDA: The local police thwarted a terror bid and seized a 14-kilogram bomb, boom jacket and other explosives during a search operation in Prang area here on Saturday.
District Police Officer Shafiullah Khan told journalists that they acted on a tip-off and recovered the kaboom which had been hidden under a bridge on the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... River in the district.
He said that the seizure included a 14-kg bomb, a boom jacket, 42 dynamites, 28 device cells, 74 device batteries and other material that could be used in terrorist activities.
The DPO said that DIG Saeed Wazir had alerted the district police to increase security and search and strike operations after receiving information that faceless myrmidons were planning to carry out a sabotage activity in Charsadda. He said that police had set up checkposts along the roads to check vehicles coming and going out of the district.
The official said that police received information that some suspicious items were lying under the bridge on the Swat River. Police and bomb disposal squad reached there and recovered the explosives. Police registered the case and started investigation.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Rangers on Saturday claimed to have killed four suspected faceless myrmidons of the banned Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Liberation Army (BLA) in Pak Colony in a first such action that suggested the presence and operation of Baloch Lions of Islam in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... .
A Rangers front man said in a statement that the paramilitary troops also jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! six accomplices of the slain faceless myrmidons after an exchange of gunfire that took place near Naik Muhammad Village in Old Golimar.
"Pakistain Rangers, Sindh has conducted an intelligence-driven targeted operation in the Old Golimar area against hard boyz of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang warfare and the banned Balochistan Liberation Army," said the statement. "The criminal started indiscriminate firing on Rangers troops. Rangers returned fire killing four notorious hard boyz of the gang warfare and the BLA besides apprehending six others."
The dead were identified as Babul Baloch, Chhota Sajid, Rafique and Khalid Mandhi.
The statement said that they along with their aides were involved in "anti-state activities with BLA" and other numerous crimes, including assassinations, extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Five coppers and their in-charge were suspended and tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... for shooting and killing two motorcyclists in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Bahadurabad area early Sunday morning, Senior Superintendent of Police East Syed Pir M Shah said on Sunday.
The motorcyclists, Danish and Ali, were rubbed out by a patrol party of Bahadurabad cop shoppe at 2:15 am Sunday.
Police claim that the the victims, along with four others on three bikes, refused to stop at a police checkpoint near the Tipu Sultan signal.
The police opened fire on 20-year-old Danish and 22-year-old Ali, who were both killed on the spot. The police said they were killed by a single bullet.
According to the SSP East, the patrol party had earlier been tipped off about the alleged involvement of the motorcyclists in the looting of citizens on Shaheed-e-Millat Road.
The SSP has contacted the parents of the dear departed, and will register a First Information Report (FIR) against the police officials involved on the request of the family.
Earlier this week, the brutal murder of 45 members from the Ismaili community prompted the civilian and military leadership into expanding operations to rid Karachi of crime and terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[The Times of Israel] Shiite militia groups converged on Ramadi Monday to help Iraqi security forces wrest the city back from Islamic State fighters who seized it in a deadly three-day blitz. The effective loss of the capital of Iraq's largest province was Baghdad's worst military setback since it started clawing back land from the jihadists late last year. The seesawing goes on between Sunni and Shia.
Posted by: JohnQC ||
05/18/2015 12:04 ||
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#1
This might be entertaining. I think 'Tater ought to come down to lead the militia though.
Ramadi strikes me as the kind of village we should destroy in order to save.
#2
With what amounts to zero ROE limitations, ISIS will burn down any Shia mosques, and the militias will simply burn obstacles to the ground as they go. Ramadi is dead unless they rise up and kill every ISIS goon there themselves.
#7
IMA a little over half-way thru Nick Turse's Tomorrow's Battlefield. Some very excellent perspectives on AFRICOM's involvement in at least 49 of the 54 nations on the continent of Africa:
Hearts and Minds - Page 88:
When I spoke with Chris Gatz of the Army Corps of Engineers, the first project he mentioned and the only ones he seemed eager to talk about were those of African nations. In 2014, $6.5 million in projects had been funded when we spoke and that, the majority were "humanitarian assistance" (HA) costruction projects, mostly in Togo and Tunisa, and "peacekeeping" operations in Ghana and Djibouti.
Probably little more than a coincidence, State Department connection, Foundation, mysterious e-mail server, Benghazi, etc. Link
#11
Best solution is to give 72 hours evac notice, then launch Operation Dresden II. Anyone in this circle is going to be firebombed. Don't be near this circle 72 hours from now,
[Ynet] 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.... said its fighters had taken full control over the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday after overrunning a military base on the edge of the western historic provincial capital.
In a statement, the group said it had seized tanks and killed "dozens of apostates", referring to Iraqi security forces.
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[Rudaw] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group seized control of the city of Ramadi on Sunday, sending Iraqi forces racing out of the city in a major loss despite the support of U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes targeting the turbans.
Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment purportedly speeding out of Ramadi, with some soldiers gripping onto their sides. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the gunnies could capture the entirety of the vast Sunni province that saw intense fighting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
‘103 PEOPLE FROM MY BRIGADE DIED THERE’ – SOLDIER’S TWEET ABOUT FALL OF RAMADI GOES VIRAL [LINK]
[Rudaw] Kurdish forces backed by coalition Arclight airstrikes repulsed an ISIS assault on a main road northwest of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , killing several bad boys, a Peshmerga commander told Rudaw on Sunday.
"The gunnies used two Hummers rigged with explosives to launch the assault near the villages of Abtashiya and Mahalabia close to the Aski Mosul-Kaske main road,": said Colonel Dilshad Maulood, a Peshmerga commander on the Mosul Dam war front.
"With the help of the warplanes the Peshmerga managed to defeat the attack," he said, adding that all the gunnies in the Hummers were killed in the Arclight airstrikes.
Last week, warplanes from the US-led coalition bombarded ISIS positions near the main Mosul-Tal Afar road, reportedly killing 10 of the group's bad boys.
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[Rudaw] In a continuation of military operations in Salahaddin province against ISIS Lion of Islams, Iraqi joint forces have captured a strategic area in the city of Baiji , the defense ministry announced.
"Iraqi forces are advancing in areas near the Tigris River and have been able to recapture Biaji village, a strategic area we can use as a key position to retake the whole town," read the statement released Sunday.
According to the statement, Hashd al-shabi Shiite militias and tribal gunnies were backing the Iraqi security forces during the operation in Baiji.
Iraqi joint forces captured three strategic areas in the city of Baiji as well as three watch towers inside the Baiji oil refinery earlier in May.
On May 10, Iraqi security forces broke an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... siege of the key Baiji oil refinery, Iraq's largest refinery, following a joint assault with Shiite militia and tribal groups.
The claimed progress in Baiji comes just after ISIS turbans took control of the Anbar city of Ramadi following intense fighting with government-backed troops there.
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[Gulf Today] Heavily-armed New People's Army militants ambushed and killed two soldiers and injured another on the island province of Samar in the Visayas in Central Philippines.
Regional military spokesman Major Amado Gutierrez said the soldiers were returning to their camp on motorcycles after buying provisions in Catbalogan City on Friday morning when the militants attacked along a provincial road in the town of Paranas, Samar. Two soldiers died at the scene, another was injured while the fourth managed to escape.
Gutierrez said, "The soldiers were on three motorcycles. They were in civilian clothes and were unarmed," noting the increase in NPA attacks since the collapse of their negotiations with the government in late 2013.
[Manila Standard] Philippine security forces in Mindanao said Saturday they were pursuing a Malaysian bomb expert who might be helping the Abu Sayyaf. The suspect, Mohammad Najib, is thought to have fled after troops overran a bomb-making camp in Basilan on Thursday. Three insurgents and a soldier were killed when soldiers seized the camp.
Col. Joselito Rolando Bautista, Basilan’s military commander said, "Mohammad Najib has been helping Ustadz Abbas Alam, the Abu Sayyaf leader in the area in making bombs and recruiting young people."
Basilan Mayor Jain Pawaki said residents had reported that a Malaysian had been assisting the Abu Sayyaf in bomb-making.
Bautista and Pawaki made their remarks as they escorted reporters to the Abu Sayyaf outpost and showed captured transceiver radio sets, nails, ammonium nitrate, rolls of wire, electrical components and iron pipes rigged with explosives. They also showed several black flags that are similar to the ones used by the IS.
Bautista said, "The recovery is a big blow to the operation of the Abu Sayyaf and their plots to stage bombings were prevented."
Last week, acting National Police Chief Leonardo Espina said authorities were targeting Malaysian bomb maker Amin Baco after the slaying of terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir of Malaysia and Basit Usman.
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05/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
More "Malay" this post-DOLPHIN sunny-wet Guam AM ...
Besides supporting its rival MILF's call for the Phil Congress to pass the proposed BBL now,
* GLOBALNATION.PH > MNLF PROPOSES THREE [new] OPTIONS FOR BANGSAMORO INDEPENDENCE, namely ...
> Phil Congress to adopt the "MALAY-SINGAPURA" FORMULA-MODEL.
> PH to involve + work directly wid the USA in order to right the wrongs committed by the post-1898? US agz the Philippine peoples, IIUC espec vee the US' "mistaken" incorporation of Bangsamoro = Muslim Mindanao/Moros? into the sovereign territory of the Catholic Philippines???
> KOSOVO/KOSOVAR-STYLE "remedial secession".
Again IUC, a sovereign independent Bansamoro City-State widin a Manila-controlled Mindanao???
FYI I may be mistaken in my interpetation of certain aspects or sub-details of the options described or denoted in the Artic.
[Ynet] The Syrian army has killed five 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.... leaders in an attack in eastern Syria, Syrian state TV reported on Saturday.
A headline bar quoting the state TV correspondent in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor identified the five as Saudi, Turkish, Chechen, Jordanian and Iraqi.
The United States said on Saturday its US special forces had carried out a raid that killed a Tunisian identified as a leading Islamic State member in the same area of Syria
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[Rudaw] A Syrian official said Sunday that the situation is "fully under control" in Palmyra despite breaches by 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.... gunnies who pushed into the historic town a day earlier.
Syrian opposition activists also confirmed that gunnies withdrew from a government building they had seized in the northern part of the town on Saturday, as festivities between the two sides continued.
Palmyra is home to one of the most famous world heritage sites in the Middle East, renowned for its Roman-era colonnades and 2,000-year-old ruins. The gunnies entered from the north Saturday and have not reached the UNESCO world heritage site, which is southwest of Palmyra.
Islamic State gunnies have destroyed and looted archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria. The group's advance on Palmyra has sparked alarm in the region and beyond. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova has said she is deeply concerned and called on all parties to spare Palmyra from the fighting.
Gov. Talal Barazi of Homs province said Syrian troops recaptured two hills from the gunnies late Saturday. He told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that army reinforcements have been sent to shore up existing troops.
"Palmyra is safe and the road linking Homs with Palmyra is absolutely safe," he later told the state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA. The agency said the army inflicted heavy losses on gunnies in the IS-held villages of Sukhneh and Arak northeast of Palmyra.
An opposition media collective for Palmyra said life inside the town was normal and stores and businesses were gradually reopening. Clashes were continuing in surrounding areas.
The fall of Palmyra to IS gunnies would be an enormous blow for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , not only because of its cultural significance but also because it would open the road to Homs and the capital, Damascus.
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[AnNahar] Syrian troops pushed Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group jihadists back from the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday, easing fears over the world heritage site, after fighting that left hundreds dead.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said nearly 300 people have been killed in four days of fighting since IS launched an assault on the desert oasis city on Wednesday.
The toll comprised 123 soldiers and loyalist militiamen, 115 IS fighters as well as 57 civilians, dozens of whom were executed by the jihadists, the Observatory said, quoting sources on the ground.
On Saturday the jihadists pressed their offensive and seized the northern part of the modern town of Palmyra, known as Tadmur in Arabic, but were driven out by regime forces.
"IS' attack was foiled," said provincial governor Talal Barazi.
He told AFP the army was "still combing the streets for bombs" after recapturing the northern districts.
"The situation in the city and its outskirts is good," he said.
But the Observatory said festivities were still under way Sunday in the northern suburb of al-Amiriyah, around the prison east of the city and around Haql al-Hail gas field northeast of Palmyra.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the jihadists were still just a kilometer (less than a mile) away from the UNESCO-listed heritage site and its adjacent museum housing thousands of priceless artifacts.
"IS is still present outside the city, to the south and east," Abdel Rahman said.
Syrian antiquities chief Mamoun Abdulkarim expressed relief that IS, known for its wanton destruction of archaeological sites in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, did not attack the site.
"We have good news today, we feel much better," Abdulkarim told AFP by telephone. "There was no damage to the ruins, but this does not mean we should not be afraid."
The jihadists launched their offensive from their stronghold in the Euphrates Valley to the east, triggering ferocious fighting with the army, which has a major base just outside Palmyra.
The antiquities chief said he had been "living in a state of terror" that IS would destroy the first and second century temples and colonnaded streets that are among Palmyra's architectural treasures.
Abdulkarim said he remained concerned for Palmyra in light of the destruction wreaked by IS on pre-Islamic sites such as Nimrud and Hatra in neighboring Iraq.
On Thursday, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova appealed to Syrian troops and jihadists to spare Palmyra, which the organization describes as one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world.
Governor Barazi, meanwhile, voiced concern for the population, saying the fighting had forced civilians in the countryside to swamp Palmyra, home to 70,000 people.
"We are taking all necessary precautions, and we are working on securing humanitarian aid quickly in fear of masses fleeing from the city," he said.
Barazi said the army had recaptured strategic locations including hilltops, checkpoints and Palmyra's television tower in the northwest which IS had overrun.
Troops also killed more than 130 jihadists, he said.
IS posted pictures online of what it said was one of two checkpoints fighters seized inside Haql al-Hail gas field, triggering more festivities with pro-regime forces.
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[AnNahar] A U.S. special forces raid in eastern Syria killed 32 members 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.... jihadist group, including four leaders, a monitoring group said Sunday.
"The U.S. operation killed 32 members of IS, among them four officials, including IS oil chief Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... , the deputy IS defense minister, and an IS communications official," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
U.S. officials have said "about a dozen" people were killed in the operation on Friday night, which was conducted by Iraq-based U.S. commandos in order to capture Abu Sayyaf.
Abdel Rahman said three of the four leading officials killed in the raid were from North Africa, but that the IS communications official was Syrian.
U.S. President Barack Obama teachable moment... approved the special forces operation, a rare use of "boots on the ground" by the United States, which has fought the jihadists almost entirely from the air.
The operation targeted an IS compound at al-Omar, one of Syria's largest oil fields, which is located in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.
A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... said the commandos engaged the jihadists "at very close quarters... there was hand-to-hand combat".
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter called the operation a "significant blow" to IS, while Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said U.S. attacks "have put increasing pressure on the economics undergirding the terrorist organization".
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#1
Why do we acknowledge such raids? Shouldn't we just credit UFOs for them?
[AnNahar] The Lebanese army targeted on Sunday bully boy posts in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported.
According to the news agency, troops targeted Death Eaters positions and movements with with mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades.
The NNA said the army's endeavors are to prevent jihadists from infiltrating into Leb.
On Saturday, Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... claimed a major achievement in the battle with jihadists in the Syrian border region of Qalamoun.
The Qalamoun region straddles the Syria-Leb border and was a stronghold of rebel forces until a major operation by Syrian regime troops backed by Hizbullah fighters last year.
While most of the region was recaptured, opposition Death Eaters and jihadists remain entrenched in the area along the porous and ill-defined border.
From there, jihadists have launched attacks inside Leb.
[Ynet] US and allied forces have launched 18 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq since Saturday morning, including seven near Ramadi, the western provincial capital recently seized by the militant forces, the US military said.
The strikes near Ramadi hit targets including tactical units, a facility producing improvised explosive devices, and other buildings, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Sunday.
Islamic State militants seized most of Ramadi on Friday and overran one of the last remaining districts held by government forces on Sunday.
Other air strikes in Iraq hit near Baiji, Fallujah, Mosul, Sinjar and Tal Afar, the statement said.
US and coalition forces also launched eight air strikes in Syria, including near al Hasakah and Kobani, the task force said.
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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
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