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Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Isla Fisher [Scottish/Australian][Filmography](age 37)



Intelligent Design

Bridget Regan's Gams turn 31


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/03/2013 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Good thing Sabrina has long arms, otherwise she couldn't reach the plate.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/03/2013 9:15 Comments || Top||


Africa North
French army continues strikes in northern Mali
[CHRON] La Belle France's Defense Ministry has said the country's military forces continued aerial strikes in northern Mali, just a few hours after a visit to the country by President Francois Hollande.
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...

French troops bombarded Islamist sites in Kidal and Tessalit in northern Mali overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to a defense official Sunday who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be quoted by the media.

The official says "(the strikes) were targeting logistical arms and fuel depots near the Algerian border." He could not confirm that the latest attacks also targeted armed Islamist training camps.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 09:51 || Comments || Link || [336132 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


#2  Besoker have you been to the 8th's museum in Pooler?
Posted by: Beavis || 02/03/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  No, just Duxford.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Duxford is an amazing warbird museum. In 1992, there were 5 hangers full of birds, including a P-38 and B-29. Plus a WHOLE LOT MORE. Talked to a mechanic overhauling a Merlin engine. Talk about power density. You can really see it when the heads are off the engine.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/03/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Nothing comes close to sitting in the old RAF Duxford briefing room seats and watching a recorded WWII pre-mission brief, then going out on an active flight line and watching and smelling the old war birds taxi. Probably as close to going back in time as one can go. The museum was a treat as well.

Had a friend at RAF Molesworth that spent his week ends digging up old crash sites. He had is office decorated in the stuff, along with framed prints. We used to frequent a pub in nearby Oundle. Brings back memories.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 13:38 Comments || Top||

#6  AP: You remember the old '12 O'clock High' teevee series? Pilots and navs would access the front of the plane by reaching up and flipping themselves through the front fuselage access door just to the rear of the cockpit. Tried that once on a CAF B-17...failed miserably, not once but three times. [quite embarrassing with an audience at hand, by the way]
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 13:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Circa 30 strike aircraft from the French Armee L'Air agz different targets.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2013 22:12 Comments || Top||


Egypt's Government Apologizes After a Beating Is Televised
[NY Times] Egypt's Interior Ministry issued a rare apology on Saturday, a day after a group of its officers were seen beating a naked man two blocks from the palace of President Mohamed Morsi, an episode captured by television cameras and broadcast live during festivities between protesters and riot coppers.

In a statement, the ministry said it regretted the beating and called it an "individual attack" that did not reflect police doctrine. The police were performing their duties "with a new spirit" of Egypt's revolution, the ministry said, adding that the beating would be investigated with "objectivity and transparency."

Mr. Morsi's office also issued a statement saying it was "pained by the shocking footage."

More than 50 people have been killed over the last 10 days during fighting in several Egyptian cities in some of the worst violence since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
almost two years ago. That uprising was set off in part by widespread anger with the ministry's long record of police brutality.

The beating, though, provoked a different kind of outrage, crystallizing for many the collapse of order and civility that has derailed Egypt's transition from its authoritarian past. And even if most Egyptians could agree that the beating was vile, they could agree on little else.

Beneath the official pronouncements of regret, supporters and opponents of Mr. Morsi continued to blame one another for the festivities on Saturday, each citing the unrest as evidence to support their political complaints.

By Saturday evening, even the essential details of the attack were in dispute as the victim, Hamada Saber, gave an interview on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
asserting that the coppers who beat him had actually been trying to help him.

Speaking from his hospital bed, he said that the riot officers had come to his aid as he was running from protesters who stripped and robbed him. He said the attack started after he felt what might have been a bullet or birdshot that struck him in the leg, which came, he said, from the "side of the protesters."

"I was afraid," he said, adding that as he ran, officers came to his aid. "They tried to help me," he said.

His account contradicted the reports of witnesses, as well as the video, raising the question of whether he was intimidated or coerced by security officials.

The graphic images of the beating showed Mr. Saber naked and being dragged and beaten by riot coppers with his pants pulled down around his ankles. A witness, Mai Sirry, said she and others watching the protests from her apartment saw officers beat Mr. Saber and strip him of some of his clothes. Officers were cursing at him as they dragged him on the street, his pants around his knees, she said.

Later Saturday, the interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, repeated Mr. Saber's account, though he still acknowledged that the officers' conduct was "excessive," and said he had ordered an investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336101 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  For letting it be televised?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2013 5:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Yep. The Instaprof has a on going program of posts documenting American cops going after anyone filming their public actions (ridiculous given that COPS has been airing for a couple of decades on national television and infinite reruns on independent TV channels).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/03/2013 8:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry you had to see that. We'll make sure you don't see it anymore...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/03/2013 12:35 Comments || Top||

#4  At least it wasn't a cheesy, amateurish video belittling Mo...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/03/2013 13:13 Comments || Top||


Egypt Protesters Stone PM's Motorcade
[An Nahar] Protesters threw stones and bottles at the Egyptian prime minister's motorcade on Saturday as he tried to enter Cairo's Tahrir Square after overnight festivities nearby and at the presidential palace, media reported.

Dream Live, a private television station, reported that Prime Minister Hisham Qandil left the scene after the attack. His office said in a statement, without elaborating, that he had been "confronted by youths and troublemakers."

"I preferred to avoid a confrontation between them and security personnel," Qandil said later on his Facebook page.

Dozens of protesters remained in the square on Saturday after several thousand demonstrators rallied there on Friday against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Hundreds of people had clashed with police in a nearby street.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Christians Forced To Leave Libya
[Tripoli Post] Christians are being driven out of eastern Libya by Muslim fundamentalists, the Catholic Church's main clergyman in the country said.

The situation was "critical" and the "atmosphere very tense" in the Cyrenaica region, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli said in the interview with the Vatican missionary news agency Fides.

He said two religious communities are leaving "after being pressured by fundamentalists", adding that the Apostolic Vicar of Benghazi was cautioned to take shelter ahead of a large-scale demonstration on 20 February.

"In past days, the Congregation of the Holy Family of Spoleto who had been there for nearly 100 years were forced to abandon Derna," east of the main eastern city of Benghazi, he said.

"In Barce [located between Benghazi and Derna] the Franciscan Sisters of the Child Jesus will leave their home in coming days."
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336137 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Well, I'm surprised!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2013 5:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothin' but goodwill toward people of the book.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 9:14 Comments || Top||

#3  How about the Jews of Libya - how are they doing?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/03/2013 9:16 Comments || Top||

#4  UNPOSSIBLE! Islam is the religion of tolerance!

(/SARC: Sorry - just couldn't say that with a straight face...)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/03/2013 9:30 Comments || Top||

#5  "How about the Jews of Libya"

Are any left in Libya? (Alive, I mean.)
Posted by: Barbara || 02/03/2013 11:16 Comments || Top||

#6  barbara

officially, Libya has been Judenrein since 2004 or so

in 2011 there was an attempt to repair a historic synagogue and one or two former Libyan Jews came for it but that effort ended about a week after it began and has not been restarted
Posted by: lord garth || 02/03/2013 11:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Judenfrei, LG
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Judenfrei = 'free of Jews' could be
-if no Jews were ever there or
- if they were there and left on their own or
- if they left under coercion

Judenrein = cleaned of Jews would be if there were Jews and they left under coercion

In the case of Libya, the Govt claimed there was no official written coercion policy and I acknowledge that this claim is probably correct so, by their standard the correct word would be Judenfrei.

However, almost everybody acknowledges that the neighborhoods in which the Jews lived had become hostile and the Jews were getting threat and taunts frequently and that the sermons in the mosques were getting harsher and more anti-Jewish. By that, it would be Judenrein.
Posted by: lord garth || 02/03/2013 14:47 Comments || Top||

#9  The Government of Libya rounded up and deported the Jews of Libya many years ago. They were sent by plane I believe, to Italy.
The correct term is therefore Judenrein.
Posted by: djk || 02/03/2013 16:07 Comments || Top||

#10  my correction stands correction then :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2013 16:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Apparently 'Responsibility to Protect' isn't an inclusive policy.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/03/2013 20:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Its any + all non-Islam + anti-Sunni, aka SHIA.

The fact that Syria's Govt. is in formal alliance wid Shia Iran seemingly means little or nothing to ordinary Syrian Sunnis + anti-Assad Rebels.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2013 22:26 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Kenyan Suicide Bomber Suffers Premature Detonation...
They don't pick their best and brightest to be jacket wallahs.
A suicide bomber was killed in Kenya after the bomb he was carrying exploded before he could reach his target.

The explosion, which injured several by-standers, occurred in Wajir late on Saturday evening. "The bomber was presumably headed towards his target, but didn't make it", reported an anonymous source in the security forces. The area targeted is mainly inhabited by Somalians. . .
Posted by: tipper || 02/03/2013 11:14 || Comments || Link || [336112 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Condolences and best wishes to the injured... otherwise a feel good story.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/03/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
[An Nahar] Yemen's armed forces killed 12 suspected al-Qaeda bully boyz in an assault on their mountain hideout in the country's restive south, an official in the region said on Saturday.

The military used artillery and aircraft to target the hideout near Shaqra, 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the 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...
capital of Zinjibar, in the operation late on Friday, the official said.

Among those killed was Belidi Tawfiq, the brother of one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Abyan province, the official added.

Luhishi Hussein, a leader of a paramilitary unit that supports the military against the jihadist network in southern Yemen, said the operation resulted in "more than 10 deaths in the ranks of al-Qaeda."

The bully boyz had been holed up in the area after being driven out of cities and towns in the region following a military offensive launched in June last year.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336139 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Bangladesh
Twenty cops assaulted
[Bangla Daily Star] They promised peaceful rallies and processions. They got permission. The result -- at least 20 coppers injured, two critically.

In keeping with the pattern of their assaults on the law enforcers over the last few months, Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
yesterday brutally attacked police in Narayanganj, Bogra, Bagerhat and Joypurhat.

In the capital, stick-wielding Jamaat-Shibir activists brought out a procession in Bijoynagar area. They blasted hand-made bombs before staging a rally at Shapla Chattar.

Mehedi Hasan, additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Motijheel), told news hounds that Jamaat-e-Islami had promised to stage a peaceful procession and rally. "That's why we gave the permission."

Witnesses said there was no resistance or provocation from the cops yesterday, yet the Jamaat-Shibir cadres ran riot in the capital and elsewhere, beating up police.

Narayanganj witnessed fierce violence as Jamaat-Shibir went on the rampage, blasting cocktails and assaulting police.

At least 15 coppers were maimed in the mayhem with Sergeant Delowar and ASI Abu Jafar critically hurt.

Before the attack on Delowar and his colleagues, the activists had assured police that they would just hold a peaceful rally on Chashara intersection.

"But soon, Jamaat-Shibir men -- many with sticks and brick chips in bags -- took position at Sayam Plaza, Khanpur Hospital and Tolaram College points.

"All of a sudden, they launched synchronised attacks on police from three sides," Narayanganj Superintendent of Police Sheikh Nazmul Alam told The Daily Star.

"It seemed their attack was pre-planned and guided by big shots holed up nearby."

Videos and photographs show Shibir men indiscriminately hitting Delowar with large sticks, pelting him with brick chips and kicking him until he lapsed into unconsciousness.

Jamaat-Shibir men also attacked from behind a group of police personnel standing in front of the Shaheed Minar, locals said.

Later, additional police force turned up and fired over 30 rubber bullets and several tear-gas shells to save their fellows. Some of the activists were maimed at that time.

At least five cops suffered injuries in Bogra, Bagerhat and Joypurhat in the festivities yesterday.

While enforcing hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
in Bogra, Jamaat-Shibir men hurled several cocktails at a police van in the morning. Police were seen trying to save themselves hiding inside the van.

On January 31, the Jamaat called the dawn-to-dusk hartal protesting the killing of its three members.

During the hartal hours, they blasted at least four cocktails in front of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Hospital.

They also vandalised seven vehicles on the Bogra-Dhaka highway at Sherua Bottola area around 8:00am.

In Bagerhat, the officer-in-charge of Rampal Police Station said, a group of Jamaat-Shibir cadres attacked police from a procession in the afternoon. Two of the activists were locked away
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
In Joypurhat town, the activists attacked a police van.

Meanwhile,
...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline's mayonnaise had erupted in flames again...
Jamaat in a blurb announced protest rally across the country tomorrow demanding the government stop the war crimes trial and unconditionally release its leaders. It also threatened to enforce a countrywide non-stop hartal if its demands were not met.

Fearing verdicts in the war crimes trial, Jamaat and its student front started a campaign of terror last year, mostly targeting police, claiming they were not being allowed to hold "peaceful" procession and rallies.

The trial of those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War has been a national demand since the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

Ahead of the 2008 general election, the Awami League pledged to try the war criminals if voted to power. The party won a landslide victory in the December 29 polls, and later the Jatiya Sangsad unanimously passed a proposal for the trial.

Some top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami are among those on trial. The party acted against the birth of the nation by collaborating with the Pak occupation forces in committing crimes including genocide, rape and arson.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


The Grand Turk
Marxists Claim Bombing of U.S. Embassy in Turkey
[NY Times] A Marxist group with a history of political violence in Turkey grabbed credit on Saturday for a suicide kaboom at the American Embassy in Ankara the day before, releasing a statement calling the United States "the murderer of the peoples of the world."

The statement, which also denounced American foreign policy, was released by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, and a translation was distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the communications of jihad boy groups. The message, which was posted on a Web site that has previously carried statements from the group, condemned Turkey for its cooperation with the United States and for its policy of supporting Syrian rebels fighting the government of 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...
After conducting DNA tests, the Turkish authorities on Saturday identified the man who let 'er rip at the embassy, killing himself and a Turkish guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 40, also known as Alisan Sanli. Mr. Sanli was a convicted terrorist who had twice attacked government facilities in Istanbul but was released from prison under an amnesty program. Earlier Saturday, officials in the Black Sea town of Ordu said he lived there.

The Ankara police said they had incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
three people thought to have helped Mr. Sanli and had found a handgun linked to the thug group. They also released security footage from the embassy in which Mr. Sanli was shown pretending to be a courier.

The statement by the group included two photographs of Mr. Sanli. In one, he is holding an assault rifle, and a banner bearing the hammer-and-sickle symbol of communism is behind him.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336121 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Marxists are using suicide bombers now? That's news...as atheists they are annihilated after they die.
Posted by: gromky || 02/03/2013 5:30 Comments || Top||

#2  By most accounts many Marxist-Commie, other Socialist groups are still colluding or cooperat, i.e. "doing business", wid Radical Islamist groups, networks etc. around the world.

Have to admit though that a Marxist suicide kaboomer is a rare bird - I would firstly believe that the Marxists prolly recruited or hired him from one of the local or linked Islamic/Muslim Radical groups.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2013 22:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I would firstly believe that the Marxists prolly recruited or hired him from one of the local or linked Islamic/Muslim Radical groups.

An interesting point. Thank you, JosephM.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/03/2013 23:18 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
IED blast kills two, injures three soldiers in Orakzai
[Dawn] Two security personnel, including an officer, were killed while three others sustained injuries in an IED blast in Ghunda Mela village of upper Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
, officials said.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) has confirmed that two soldiers "embraced martyrdom" while three others were maimed in the blast during search of an old compound.

Tehsildar Orakzai Agency Nauman Khan has also confirmed that the security forces convoy was hit by a discarded improvised bomb when they were searching an abandoned compound.

The dear departed were later identified as Captain Hasnat Ali and Naib Subedar Arif Khan.

Earlier, jacket wallahs had attacked a military checkpost in Lakki Marwat early on Saturday, killing 13 soldiers and 11 civilians.

Banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) later grabbed credit of the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Police patrol escapes blast in Peshawar
[Dawn] A police patrol on Friday morning narrowly escaped a terrorist activity in Shinwari Town in Paharipura area here.

An official of Paharipura cop shoppe said an bomb fitted to a timer and planted by a road went off at around 6am shortly after a police patrol van passed by.

An official of the cop shoppe said the bomb weighed around 500 grammes and was packed in a canister.

He said investigation into the blast had begun after the registration of a case against unidentified terrorists.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
according to him, no arrests were made by night.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336098 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Blast in Nowshera destroys internet cafe, music store
[Dawn] A music store and an internet café were destroyed in a kaboom in Nowshera's Shireen Kotha area on Saturday morning, DawnNews reported. Eighteen others shops were also partially damaged in the blast.

The perpetrators had placed kabooms in front of Iqbal Market's Palwasha Music Centre, located on GT Road. When the blast occurred, the music store, along with an adjacent internet cafe, were completely destroyed.

Police collected evidence from the scene of the crime and started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the unidentified culprits.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Violence claims three lives in Karachi
[Dawn] Three people were killed in incidents of firing in different areas of Karachi, DawnNews reported on Saturday.

One person was gunned down in the city's Agra Taj Colony area.

In another incident, one person was shot dead near Karachi's Burns Road.

Moreover, one person was killed and another was injured in an incident of firing in Karachi's SITE area.

Separately, the funeral of a man who was gunned down in the city's Liaquatabad area was held at the Rizvia imambargah today.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under:


Taliban attack at Lakki Marwat checkpost claims 24 lives
[Dawn] Suicide bombers attacked a military checkpost in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Saturday, killing 13 soldiers and 11 civilians, officials said, in an assault claimed by the Taliban.

"Thirteen security personnel and 11 civilians were killed in the attack," a security official said of the raid which happened around 240 kilometres south of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Another official said that the civilians were killed when one of the suicide bombers ran into a house as security forces attempted to repel the attackers from the checkpost.

"A suicide bomber entered a nearby house in a residential colony of the irrigation department and blew himself up. Four children, three women and four men were killed there," said Nisar Ahmed, a senior government official.

He said four houses were also damaged in the attack.

"The explosion damaged four houses in the colony. Civilians who were killed in the attack were residents of these houses," he said.

The security official said that eight soldiers were injured also.

The attack was on a joint checkpost of the Pakistan army and a paramilitary force in the Serai Naurang area of Lakki Marwat district.

Another security official in Peshawar said security forces killed 12 militants.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the attack but disputed 12 militants were killed, saying they had sent only four suicide bombers.

"We sent only four suicide bombers to attack this checkpost. We attacked it to avenge the killing of two of our friends in a recent drone strike," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the TTP.

Ehsan added that the attack was in revenge of Pakistan's "assistance to the US for drone strikes."
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336099 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Iraq violence: 'Dozens dead' in Kirkuk police HQ attack
At least 30 people have been killed as a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police say.

A city official told AFP news agency that militants had tried to seize the compound but were unsuccessful.

No group has said it carried out the attack.

Kirkuk is ethnically mixed, and at the centre of a dispute between the Iraqi government and Kurds over oil and land rights.

Two weeks ago at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party in the city.
Posted by: tipper || 02/03/2013 03:43 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Abu Sayyaf members behead MNLF fighters in S. Philippines
The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a terrorist organization operating in southern Philippines, reportedly beheaded four fighters of the Muslim guerilla faction of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in a clash between the two groups in southern Philippines, police said Sunday.
The consequences of that particular choice should be interesting...
The clash broke out when the MNLF forces under spiritual leader Ustadz Habier Malik reportedly attacked the Abu Sayyaf group that refused to free captive Jordanian broadcast journalist Baker Adbullah Atyani Sunday morning in the mountains of Patikul township in Sulu province, island of Jolo, a police security official said.

At least 5 MNLF guerilla members were killed by the Abu Sayyaf militants in the assault. Four of the victims were subsequently beheaded, police said.

Jordanian broadcast journalist Baker Atyani and two Filipino companions were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Jolo, Sulu on June 13 of last year. The Filipino companions were released by ASG on Saturday night.

Nearly 500 MNLF fighters rushed to the camp of the Abu Sayyaf in the village of Buhanginan in Patikul town early Sunday and were met by around 300 militants, according to police.

Government security forces from police and marines have been deployed at the border to avert the escalation of the fighting between the two forces as fighting continued intermittently, according to the Sulu provincial police office.
Posted by: tipper || 02/03/2013 04:03 || Comments || Link || [336115 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yahoo! A little red on red here.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/03/2013 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Let me get this right. 5 of the MNLF were killed - and then 4 of them were beheaded? Boy I bet the 5th one feels lucky!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/03/2013 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  well this tells you a couple of things. First ... the mad dogs Abu Sayyaf, who really are nothing more than a high-powered gang, are now at odds with other Islamic on the same terrority. But also, it's pretty clear that local police and army units do not have any control over stretches of that southern island. When you've got factions running around with hundreds of members - obviously they control some exclusive turf of their own. So despite rumors that police are "hunting" for kidnapped hostages ... they sure aren't hunting in some places.
Posted by: Raider || 02/03/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#4  ... they sure aren't hunting in some places

Sounds like London, Birmingham, Dearborn, Malmo....
Posted by: AlanC || 02/03/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  No picking winners and losers! Clandestinely arm both sides with Chinese made weapons, then join the UN in a demand to an immediate end of the violence.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 11:25 Comments || Top||

#6  And enforce the blockade, no blood for Buri.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/03/2013 12:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Let 'em kill each other. Then, when they get sick of that and meet for peace talks, bomb the peace talks.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/03/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#8  "And enforce the blockade, no blood for Buri."

The Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Liberation Front have a history as pirates. We're not talking Johnny Dep here. These guys are the real deal. They have been pirates since the days when the Spanish sailed galleons across the Pacific. They know the waters of SE Asia like the back of their own hand. They have fast boats with low profiles, and smuggling is a way of life to them. That's why AQ teams up with these guys - they are facilitators for moving illegal goods across the ocean. Hence, blockades are pretty much impossible.
Posted by: Raider || 02/03/2013 14:03 Comments || Top||

#9  "Let 'em kill each other. Then, when they get sick of that and meet for peace talks, bomb the peace talks."

Works for me.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/03/2013 14:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Raider, I think it's been the case for a long, long time that the government doesn't control the South. I don't think we really controlled it back when we owned the Phillipines, and I don't think the Spanish ever really controlled it either.

It's another situation where the smart solution would be to let the south go its own way and see if you could get some reasonable strong man to be Emir, sorta like Brunei, and keep the peace. The northern part of the Philippines could then go on its way and develop as a modern state.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2013 14:19 Comments || Top||

#11  The PHIL is of course important to US interests in East Asia, but personally I'm also concerned about Indonesia, PNG, etc. in SOPAC + SWPAC.

Iff Syria + Central, West Africa is any measure, ABU SAYAFF + OTHER PRO-QAEDA AREN'T GOING TO STAY PUT IN THE PHIL FOREVER. There are Repors on the MSM-net about PAKISTANI TALIBAN + LeT fighting in Syria.

The day is coming when the PHIL + SE Asia Nations will see AFPAK Militant andor other foreign Islamist fighters traveling + intervening in already tense or volatile Muslim-vs-non-Muslim local rivalries + situations.

* IIRC TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > PAPUA NEW GUINEA - THE FORGOTTEN JIHAD.

Won't be "forgotten" or quiet for much longer once Qaeda + Taliban, etc. Hard Boyz get firmly established.

Muslim Pacific Islanders from Polynesia are allegedly involved.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2013 18:38 Comments || Top||


Three killed, ten injured in attack on Thai farmers
Two farmers were gunned down and 10 others wounded in Pattani province, where a third man was also killed in a separate incident late Friday.

The attack on the farmers occurred about 5 p.m. on a rural road in Yaring district. It could lead to a shutdown of the promising state project which aims at reviving rice farming in the deep South. The farmers said they will return home and relatives began arriving on Saturday to take them out of the South.

Witnesses said that 12 farmers from Singburi were traveling in a pickup truck when gunmen riding pillion on two motorcycles fired on them with assault rifles. The attackers then fled.

Saneh Khunnain and Ekarin Homchoey were hit several times and died on the spot. Their ten colleagues were injured and taken to the hospital. Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.

The farmers from the central region were working with the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) to teach rice growing techniques to local farmers. The SBPAC started the project to rehabilitate abandoned rice fields in the three southernmost provinces.

A separate attack on Friday night in Yarang district took the life of a local villager.

Pol Lt Col Thawatchai Sangkamitkol, the deputy chief of Yarang police station, said he received a report of a shooting on a local road about 9:50 p.m. He led a police team to the scene where witnesses said that the victim, Abdularsi Sa, had been shot several times and taken to the hospital. He was later pronounced dead.

The witnesses said that Abdularsi was walking to a teashop in the village when gunmen in a pickup truck fired on him with M16 and AK47 assault rifles. The assailants then fled.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Activists Say Key Aleppo District Comes Under Rebel Control
[An Nahar] Syria's rebels have seized a key district in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a resident and activists told Agence La Belle France Presse on Saturday, as troops again bombarded areas south of Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
"Rebel fighters seized total control of Sheikh Said in southern Aleppo, after troops exhausted by 48 hours of fighting withdrew from the district," one resident of the area said.

"Most neighborhood residents fled the area after rebels took control."

The takeover was a strategic victory for the rebels, as it secured a key route linking Syria's second city to its international airport.

Activists said the takeover also severed regime forces' access to a military airfield.

"Rebel fighters have seized Sheikh Said, which was the last land route linking Nayrab airport to the city," the anti-regime Aleppo Media Center said.

According to the AMC's Abu Hisham, the battle for Aleppo's airports has become a key rebel objective.

Violence went kaboom! in the city on July 20, when the army launched an all-out bid to prevent a rebel onslaught on what was once the country's commercial hub.

South of Damascus, meanwhile, the army pounded the rebel enclave of Moadamiyet al-Sham on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, in a renewed effort to suppress the insurgency on the capital's doorstep.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336096 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Several Residents Arrested as Leb Army Draws Tight Dragnet Around Arsal
[An Nahar] The Lebanese army arrested several residents of the northeastern town of Arsal on Saturday a day after two soldiers were killed when gunmen ambushed a military patrol, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the men were arrested either for the possession of illegal arms or for failing to stop at several checkpoints set up by the military at the entrances of the town.

The agency said the military sent armored vehicles to the northeastern Bekaa valley starting 3:00 am, drawing a tight security dragnet around Arsal by 8:00 am.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn reiterated on Saturday that it was unacceptable to attack the military a day after an army communique said Friday that a patrol was ambushed by Arsal gunmen as it was hunting a man wanted for several terrorist acts.

The clashes that ensued left an officer with the rank of captain, Pierre Bashaalani, and Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman dead, and several military personnel wounded, it added.

NNA said Saturday that the patrol's vehicles were carrying military license plates unlike what several residents of Arsal claimed to be plainclothes men in humvees.

Zahraman's relatives blocked for a short period on Saturday al-Sheikh Mohammed and Halba roads in the northern district of Akkar with burning tires to protest the failure to hand over several of the gunmen involved in the ambush.

Bashaalani's family had also blocked al-Mreijat and Tal Amara-Riyaq road in the Bekaa.

Zahraman was laid to rest on Saturday afternoon while Bashaalani's funeral will be held on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336102 views] Top|| File under:


Hizbullah Buries Member in Arabsalim, Says Died Performing Jihadi Duty
[An Nahar] Hizbullah held a funeral on Saturday for Hussein Mohammed Nether in the southern town of Arabsalim, a member who died while "performing his Jihadi duty", the party said in a released statement.

"The funeral procession marched from Ragheb Harb Hospital in Nabatieh towards Arabsalim where the martyr was buried," it explained.

The procession was lead by party official Ali Daoun and the member of the central political bureau Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, in addition to prominent figures in Hizbullah.

The party has been accused of allegedly sending members to fight alongside the Syrian army in the neighboring country's conflict.

The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported in January that around 1,500 men are receiving salaries and being trained in the Bekaa camps to fight in Syria and defend Shiite villages and towns against the rebels.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
the Saudi al-Watan daily had reported that some 5,000 Hizbullah members have been fighting alongside regime troops in the restive suburbs of Damascus.
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the fighters crossed the border into Syria last month. But they said that around 300 of them were killed in the fighting in the past few days.

Battles have flared in areas around Damascus as rebels seeking to topple Assad try to push into the city itself.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336096 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Got a bit hot in Jamarya did it ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 2:23 Comments || Top||


'Israeli Jets Struck Several Targets In Syria'
[Ynet] TIME magazine quotes Western intelligence officials as saying that 'at least one to two additional targets' were hit in alleged Arclight airstrike Tuesday night, Israel had 'green light' from Washington to launch yet more such strikes

American TIME magazine reported Friday evening that Israeli warplanes struck several targets inside Syria in an alleged raid Tuesday night, including a biological weapons research center that was reportedly flattened out of concern that it might fall into the hands of Islamist snuffies fighting to topple the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
The report is based on comments made by Western intelligence officials.

TIME explained that only two Arclight airstrikes had been publicly reported, amid a flurry of conflicting initial reports: Syria officially complained of the destruction of the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Jamarya, northwest of Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
, and a variety of news organizations reported that Israeli jets hit a convoy carrying advanced anti-aircraft defense systems toward Leb's Beqaa Valley, presumably for delivery to Hezbollah.

"A Western intelligence official indicated to TIME that at least one to two additional targets were hit the same night, without offering details. Officials also said that Israel had a 'green light' from Washington to launch yet more such strikes."

The American magazine stressed that "Hezbollah is not Israel's only concern -- or perhaps even the most worrying. Details of the Israeli strikes make clear the risk posed by fundamentalist forces of Evil sprinkled among the variegated rebel forces fighting to depose Assad."

According to TIME, among the buildings leveled at the military complex at Jamarya, outside Damascus, were warehouses stocked with equipment necessary for the deployment of chemical and biological weapons," relatively complicated systems typically manned by specially trained forces."

The magazine also reported that lab facilities dedicated to biological warfare were of special concern, given both the damage that could be done by even small amounts of biological agents, and the interest expressed in such weapons by the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now beyond all cares and woe...
's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
One Western intelligence official told TIME the US military was poised to carry out similar Arclight airstrikes around Aleppo if rebels threaten to take sites associated with weapons of mass destruction in that region, the magazine said.

Earlier Friday, Leb's official news agency reported that Israeli warplanes had been flying over Nabatieh, al-Tufah, Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil in the south of the country since 9:30 pm.

According to the report, the planes were conducting "mock raids" over Leb.

A Lebanese website reported Friday morning that Israeli warplanes were flying over the areas of Marjayoun, Hasbia and Rashaya al-Wadi in southern Leb, as well as over the Shebaa area and Mount Hermon.

The website also reported that the Israel Defense Forces was patrolling the border fence area along the Blue Line.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/03/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the report, the planes were conducting "mock raids" over Leb.

Anti-aircraft radar testing. No need for alarm.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Western intelligence officials


I love this phrase!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2013 5:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Who else would leak talk to Time magazine.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2013 7:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Time magazine still exists?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/03/2013 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, it's called Time Beast or Time Caller or some such. I hope to win Time Beast's Avatar of the Years.

It's virtually assured.

Posted by: Shipman || 02/03/2013 8:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Long as Obama's around, ya got no shot, Ship...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/03/2013 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Israel had 'green light' from Washington to launch yet more such strikes

We, the US gave the green light? Israel is doing its dirty work to survive while the O admin puts in their little bit claiming credit. Grandstanding from behind.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/03/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2013-02-03
  Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
Sat 2013-02-02
  Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
Fri 2013-02-01
  Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Thu 2013-01-31
  Boko Haram 'commander' declares ceasefire
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant

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