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Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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14 21:31 Barbara [336071]
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Good Easter morning
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Easter indeed. My two oldest chilruns, ages 29 and 26 did the year long work and received their Catholic COnfirmation at Easter Vigil Mass.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2014 8:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Mazel Tov, Frank.
Posted by: Glarong Sneart4734 || 04/20/2014 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  to you as well!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2014 9:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Happy Easter or Happy Resurrection as my wife said to a neighbor.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/20/2014 9:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Happy Easter everyone!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 04/20/2014 11:17 Comments || Top||

#6  My two oldest chilruns, ages 29 and 26

Most excellent.
However, hummmmm...2 oldest, 2 oldest.... hummmm.
:)
Posted by: Shipman || 04/20/2014 11:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Happy Easter to everyone.

Congrats to your chillins, Frank.
Posted by: Barbara || 04/20/2014 12:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Congrats Frank.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/20/2014 13:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Whatever one's religious persuasion, it is a good day to reflect on the thought that there is a higher power in this old universe besides ourselves. It is humbling yet inspiring. And comforting.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2014 14:39 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
4 Taliban Insurgents Killed in Afghan Army Operation
[Tolo News] The Ministry of Defense stated on Saturday that at least four Taliban faceless myrmidons were killed and six others were maimed in an Afghan army operation early Friday.

The statement read: "within the last 24 hours, the Afghan army conducted several operations across the country killing four bully boys, wounding six others and arresting four armed bully boys."

Army specialists found and defused 55 roadside kabooms and landmines during the operation.

The statement did not offer details about Afghan army casualties during the operation.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Gunmen Abduct Foreigners from Sudan Oilfield
[An Nahar] Gunmen have kidnapped three workers including a Chinese and an Algerian from an oilfield in Sudan's West Kordofan province, the army said Saturday.

"Armed men yesterday (Friday) attacked the Kanar field in West Kordofan and kidnapped three workers -- a Sudanese, a Chinese and an Algerian," front man Sawarmi Khaled Saad told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He added that three attackers were killed in a firefight with guards at the site.

No further details were immediately available about the kidnapping, which has not been claimed by any group.

West Kordofan borders the province of South Kordofan where Sudanese government forces have been battling rebels for nearly three years.

The festivities in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states with fighters of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) have displaced or severely affected 1.1 million people, the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
says.

West Kordofan also borders Sudan's western region of Darfur, where the army and allied tribes have since 2003 battled rebels demanding an end to the region's economic marginalisation and power sharing with the Khartoum government.

China is the main investor in Sudan's oil sector, which is vital to the nation's economy.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
One killed as Muslims, Copts fight in Qalyubiya over traffic
[Egypt Independent] One person was killed and four others injured on Saturday in festivities between Moslems and Christians in Qalyubiya, reportedly due to a traffic dispute.

In a press statement on Saturday, Mahmoud Yousry, Qalyubiya's security chief, said there were no sectarian motivations behind the incident.

Security forces had managed to put the festivities in the town of Khosous under control after a shootout between disputing parties.

A security source said the festivities flared due to a wrangle over vehicle passing turns. Romani Milad, a Copt, was killed in the festivities.

Over the past years since the 2011 revolution, Egypt has seen chronic incidents of violence between the Moslem majority and the Coptic minority over multiple reasons including church constructions, conversions, and, sometimes, politics.

Khosous had seen sectarian festivities in April 2012 when abusive graffiti was painted on the walls of an Islamic institute. The festivities left six dead.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


New Militant Group Claims Responsibility For Friday Blast In Cairo
[Ynet] The Egyptian bad boy group Ajnad Misr grabbed credit on Saturday for a blast that killed one police officer in Cairo.

The bomb went kaboom! in Cairo's Leb Square on Friday night, killing the officer and wounding another.

Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, said in a statement on an Islamist website that its turbans had monitored a police checkpoint in the square before detonating the bomb.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  this group has had about a half dozen operations since early Feb

Posted by: lord garth || 04/20/2014 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Thank you, lord garth. Any idea if they are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula or some other pre-existing group?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/20/2014 6:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Here's what a quick google search yielded: link
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/20/2014 6:53 Comments || Top||

#4  tw,

tactics are AlQ-like. However, targets are the kind the MBrotherhood would choose.
Posted by: lord garth || 04/20/2014 8:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Certainly is comforting that we no longer have to be concerned with... "Core Al Qaeda."

[sarc off]
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/20/2014 9:15 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram Says It Bombed Abuja
[NY Times] Islamic snuffies on Saturday grabbed credit for the rush-hour kaboom on Monday that destroyed a busy bus station in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, killing at least 75 people and wounding 141.

"We are in your city, but you don't know where we are," the leader of the Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorist network, Abubakar Shekau, said in a new video that threatens more attacks.

"Yes, we are the ones who carried out the attack in Abuja," Mr. Shekau said in the video made available to news outlets.

The attack undermined claims by the government and military that they have contained the Islamic uprising to the northeast of the country, and it raised fears that the Boko Haram insurgency is spreading.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Two killed in Bahrain car kaboom
An explosion in a car killed two people and wounded a third in a village in Bahrain on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said on its Twitter account the explosion was in the village of Al Maqshaa', along the Budayya highway, outside of the capital Manama.

"Initial inspections uncovered two burnt bodies and a third with burn wounds was taken to hospital," the ministry said.
Third-degree burns? That's going to hurt...
There were early signs the car contained explosive substances, it added.
Really? What was your first clue?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under:


Air strike kills 13 hard boyz in central Yemen
A drone zap An air strike killed 13 suspected Al Qaeda militants in the central Yemeni province of Al Bayda on Saturday, security and tribal sources said.

"An air strike targeted cars that suspected Al Qaeda militants were in and killed 13 of them in the Sawma'a area of Al Bayda," a security source said.

The tribal sources said a drone had been circling Al Bayda for days and on Saturday struck two cars the suspected militants were in. Three civilians who happened to be in a nearby car were also killed, they said.

Nasser Salem, a witness who arrived at the scene after the strike, said: "We found a completely burnt car and body parts strewn around and we started picking them up," he said.
Relics?
Al Bayda has seen serious security incidents in the past. In December, 15 people on their way to a wedding were killed by an air strike after their party was apparently mistaken for an Al Qaeda convoy, according to security officials.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  I hope this is a drone harvest resulting from the recent Al Qaeda open-air leadership conference.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/20/2014 11:13 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
3 die in Matamoros


Three unidentified armed suspects were shot to death after firing on a Mexican Navy helicopter in the border municipality of Matamoros Friday afternoon, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to an official news report posted on the website of the Tamaulipas state government, the incident began Friday at 15:25 hrs, when a Mexican naval helicopter observed several armed suspects traveling aboard two vehicles on ejido Francisco I. Madero. Some of the suspects fired on the bird, causing naval personnel to return fire.

Naval return fire killed three. Others in the convoy escaped the scene. Mexican security forces seized a Chevrolet Equinox SUV and an AK-47 rifle. The dead were all men in their 20s.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Posted by: badanov || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Kidnapped French journalists found on Turkey’s Syrian border
Four French journalists held hostage in Syria since June were found by Turkish soldiers on its border with Syria on Saturday, Turkish media reported, and French President Francois Hollande said the four were in good health. Nicolas Henin, Pierre Torres, Edouard Elias and Didier Francois were found in Sanliurfa province blindfolded with their hands bound, Dogan News Agency said.

Hollande said the four were in “good health, in spite of the very gruelling conditions of their captivity.” They will be taken to France in the coming hours, he said in a statement.

Dogan said the journalists had been kidnapped by the rebel group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but that an unknown group brought the journalists to the Turkish border on Friday night. They would be handed over to French officials after medical checks, it said.

Francois, a veteran war correspondent working for Europe 1 radio, and Elias, a photographer, were abducted in early June on their way to Aleppo. Henin, who was working for Le Point magazine and Torres, reporting for French-German television channel Arte, were taken later that month.

Syria is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Three militants killed in Balochistan violence
[DAWN] Frontier Corps (FC) claimed to have killed three faceless myrmidons in 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...
's troubled Panjgoor district on Saturday evening, an official said.

Khan Wasey, the Spokesman for FC, said miscreants shot up the patrolling party of FC in Tasp area of Panjgoor.

He said security forces quickly responded and three attackers were killed.

"The miscreants left three cycle of violences as well," Wasey stated. The attack was followed by an exchange of fire between security forces and Death Eaters.

"Some miscreants were maimed during the exchange of fire," he said.

More personnel were called in the area to bring the situation under control. The situation was tense in the aftermath of armed clash in Tasp.

Panjgoor is considered to be one of the sensitive districts of Balochistan, Pakistain's least developed province.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Quetta violence claims at least four lives
[DAWN] At least four people, including a police officer and a 14-year-old girl, were killed Saturday in separate incidents of violence in Quetta, the capital of 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...

In the first reported incident, police said armed gunnies rubbed out a police officer and critically injured his son in the Sariab road area.

Imran Qureshi, the Superintendent of Police, said two gunnies on a cycle of violence sprayed bullets at the vehicle of Assistant Sub Inspector Police Kudratullah.

He said the son of the ASI suffered serious wounds as a result of the attack. "This was an apparent act of assassination," Qureshi said.

The gunnies sped away on their cycle of violence after the attack. However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
the police were quick to reach the site of attack and shift the injured son of the ASI to Civil Hospital Quetta for medical treatment.

Qureshi said the police officer was en route from his residence to the market when he was targeted by bully boys.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Quetta and other parts of Balochistan have seen a sharp rise in incidents of bombings and assassinations. The incident comes three days after gunnies killed two people in the same area.

In another incident of assassination, gunnies bumped off an Afghan national in the Satellite Town area.

Police said two gunnies on a cycle of violence shot up an Afghan national and killed him on the spot.

"The assailants had not covered their faces," a police officer, who requested anonymity, told Dawn.com. He added that "it was an act of assassination."

In a seemingly unrelated incident, two people were killed in a firing incident in the city's Kasi road area, police said.

A police official told Dawn.com that gunnies shot up a house in Kasi road area and killed the two people including a 14-year old girl. "This was an act of tribal dispute," said the police official.

The bodies were rushed to Civil Hospital Quetta for postmortem.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Police say two UN workers 'likely' abducted in Karachi
[DAWN] Police officials on Friday said two local workers of the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
have gone missing from Gulshan-e-Maymar neigbourhood of the port city fearing they might have been kidnapped, DawnNews reported.

According to initial reports both UN officials are residents of Hyderabad who were visiting 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...
for leisure. Police said their mobile phones are switched off which implies that they have been kidnapped.

They said UN workers Sami Nawaz and Farrukh Saleem came for a picnic at a water park located at Super Highway. Their search went underway after wife of one of them reached to police for help.

Police and Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) are looking into the incident.

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise began speaking in tongues...
three people including two political activists are allegedly taken away by faceless myrmidons in plain clothes from Shah Faisal Colony area of the city to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location, DawnNews reported quoting sources as saying.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Seminary teacher, student killed in 'sectarian attack'
[DAWN] A seminary teacher and a student were rubbed out in a sectarian attack on Shahrah-e-Noorjehan on Friday afternoon, officials said.

A brother of one of the victims was also maimed in the attack, the police added.

The victims were waiting for a rickshaw near a marriage hall close to the Sakhi Hasan traffic intersection when they were attacked, said Shadman DSP Iftikhar Lodhi.

The police added that Esar Qasmi was struck down in his prime while his brother Zia Rehman and Masood Shabbir were maimed.

The victims were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital from where they were taken to a private hospital on Stadium Road where Masood died during treatment.

"It was an act of assassination," the DSP said.

Shahrah-e-Noorjehan SHO Asif Munawwar said that the victims belonged to the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
(ASWJ). He added that the attack was the result of sectarianism.

The police seized nine spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol from the spot, he said.

Some witnesses said that gunnies were riding a cycle of violence while others said the attackers were travelling in a car, the police officer said.

An ASWJ spokesperson said that Masood was a seminary teacher in New Mianwali Colony of Manghopir while Esar Qasmi was a seminary student.

He said the victims were returning home after performing their "security duty" at the Siddiq Akbar mosque during Friday prayers when they were targeted
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
[BBC] Gunmen have shot and maimed one of Pakistain's best known television presenters in the city of 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...

Police said the attackers opened fire on Hamid Mir's car near the airport.

The presenter for Geo TV received three bullets, but was in a stable condition, the officials added.

There have been previous attempts on the life of Mr Mir, the first journalist to interview the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...
after 9/11. Pakistain is one of the most dangerous countries for the media.

The attack has been strongly condemned by Pak politicians, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...

Last month, Mr Sharif pledged to do more to protect journalists in Pakistain.
That's working well.

Car chase
Mr Mir had just landed in Karachi and was on his way to the studios of Geo TV, a private Pak news channel, when unidentified gunnies in a car and on cycle of violences reportedly tailed him before opening fire.

Police said he sustained three gunshot wounds, but that his life was not in danger.

In 2001, Mr Mir became the first journalist to interview Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks
Mr Mir's brother, a leading investigative journalist, has accused the country's intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), of orchestrating the attack, reports the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani, in Karachi.

According to his brother, Mr Mir had recently told family and colleagues that he had received threats from the ISI because of his political views.

In 2012, the Pak Taliban tried to kill Mr Mir by planting half a kilogram (1lb) of explosives under his car outside his home in the capital, Islamabad.

But the remote-controlled bomb failed to go off.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336086 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
Violence Kills 29 as Iraqi Forces Hit Militants
[An Nahar] Violence in Iraq killed 29 people Saturday, most of them snuffies who died in a security forces assault that pushed them out of an area west of Storied Baghdad, officials said.

Anti-government fighters have held shifting parts of Anbar lovely provincial capital Ramadi and all of the city of 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...
both west of Storied Baghdad, for more than three months, with security forces still struggling to bring parts of the province back under government control.

Early on Saturday, security forces assaulted the Al-Hamira area south of Ramadi, retaking it from bully boys, an army colonel and a police lieutenant colonel said.

The fighting killed 21 snuffies and two soldiers, the officers said.

The crisis in the desert province of Anbar erupted in late December when security forces dismantled Iraq's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp just outside Ramadi.

Militants subsequently seized parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the peak of the deadly violence that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

In Mishahada, north of Storied Baghdad, a jacket wallah targeted an army base on Saturday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding six, and bombings in the capital itself killed at least two people.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


Southeast Asia
Vietnamese officers shot dead by Chinese Uighur Muslims
h/t Gates of Vienna
Five Uighur Muslims and two Vietnamese police killed in gun fight

18 Uighur Muslims illegally entering Vietnam were arrested by Vietnamese police who received request from the Chinese authorities to send them back to China, but some of the arrested robbed an AK-47 from a guard and opened fire at police.
Islam, spreading it's blessings around the World
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/20/2014 01:42 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


#2  They may adopt the Indian Border Guards approach: shoot all trying to cross
Posted by: John Frum || 04/20/2014 9:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I wish WE would, John. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 04/20/2014 12:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Takfiris decapitate seven Syrian soldiers: Report
[Iran Press TV] In a recent heinous crime by snuffies in Syria, Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
turbans have captured and decapitated seven soldiers in the east of the Arab country.

The so-called Jund al-Aqsa terrorist group beheaded seven Syrian soldiers in the town of Banesh in eastern province of Idlib on Wednesday, the Syrian website Hadath News reported.

The turbans used cars to drag the soldiers on the streets before they killed and decapitated them.

The turbans also abused the corpses and used sharp instruments to distort their features.

Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in March 2011, many reports and videos have been released on similar horrific crimes committed by foreign-backed snuffies against the Syrian people and soldiers in Syria.

In February, a disturbing video emerged showing al-Qaeda-linked snuffies in Syria's central province of Homs beheading a man believed to have been a Shia supporter of the government.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which posted the video, said the beheading was conducted by snuffies from the so-called 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).
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

#1  Allan is pleased
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2014 1:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Remind me again which side we're on?
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 04/20/2014 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  In this particular case Mein Hare, heads or no heads, we're on the side of the highest body count.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/20/2014 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Mein Hare
Credit where due.... 9.74 on the icwutudidthar scale.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/20/2014 11:46 Comments || Top||


Syria Army Advances in Homs as Car Bomb Kills 14
[An Nahar] Syrian army forces advanced Friday around rebel-held areas of the Old City of Homs, as a boom-mobile hit a regime-controlled part of the city, killing 14 people.

Around 1,200 rebel fighters and nearly 200 civilians are believed to be inside the rebel-held parts of the Old City, under army siege for nearly two years.

The army, which began a broad offensive there on Tuesday, "is progressing daily by capturing buildings and tightening the noose around the terrorist groups", a security source said.

Syrian authorities refer to all those seeking the ouster of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
as "terrorists".

The source added that regime forces had seized a church in the Old City.

State news agency SANA said the army had captured buildings in the Bab Hud and Wadi al-Sayeh districts and "killed a number of faceless myrmidons in Homs city and around it".

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed the advance, saying the army was shelling Bab Hud and Wadi al-Sayeh.

But he said the regime had so far only captured buildings rather than whole streets and fighting was continuing.

"There are street battles, but the loyalist forces are not advancing much because the buildings are mined," said the head of the monitoring group, which collects its information from a network of medics on the ground and opposition activists.

The remaining rebel fighters in Homs "know the area very well and refuse to leave. They want to fight until the end", he added.

On Thursday, members of the U.N. Security Council expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
over the plight of Syrian civilians caught in the renewed fighting in Homs.

And they called for implementation of a resolution passed in February urging immediate access of humanitarian assistance in all parts of Syria.

The U.S. on Friday described the situation in Homs as "desperate and tragic" and called on the Syrian government to stop attacks in the city.

A State Department statement called for an "end to the barbaric acts committed against civilians".

In February, a U.N.-led operation evacuated around half of the 3,000 people trapped under army siege in rebel-held parts of Homs city.

On Thursday, U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Lakhdar Brahimi urged the Syrian government and opposition to resume discussions about lifting the siege.

"It is a matter of deep regret that negotiations were brutally stopped and violence is now rife again when a comprehensive agreement seemed close at hand," Brahimi added.

On Friday afternoon, state media and the Observatory reported, a boom-mobile went kaboom! outside a mosque in the government-controlled Homs district of Al-Walid.

State media said it detonated as people were leaving the mosque after weekly Friday prayers.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Livia grabbed for Jane's hair to make her point. Jane elbowed her in the face in rebuttal...
in northern Aleppo city, the Observatory said at least 10 people had been killed in shelling and aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas.

At least three children were among those killed, the monitoring group said.

The Syrian regime has waged a campaign of aerial raids including the use of explosives-packed barrel bombs that has prompted an exodus of civilians from rebel-held areas.

In recent days fighting between rebels and regime forces in the city has ramped up, with some 50 combatants from both sides killed in an opposition assault on a military base on an eastern outskirt of Aleppo, according to the Observatory.

And in Mleiha, in Damascus province, the Observatory said at least 15 air raids had been carried out as regime forces backed by fighters from Leb's 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...
battled rebels on the ground.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Two Children Killed, Three Injured in Dynamite Explosion in Akkar
[An Nahar] Two children were killed on Saturday and three others were injured when a dynamite stick they were playing with exploded in the northern plain of Akkar, the state-run National News Agency said. The children, mostly from al-Ali family, were playing in the al-Bahr neighborhood close to the northern Qulaiat airport base when the dynamite exploded.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


'Extremist' Syrians Arrested in Bekaa Ambush
[An Nahar] The army tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
on Saturday a group of "extremist" Syrians near the town of Beit Lahya in the Bekaa.

"Army intelligence was able to detain several bad boy Syrians in an ambush near Beit Layha," the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA noted that the captured men belonged to "an bad boy organization."

Later in the evening the military institution announced in a communique arresting six Syrian nationals for "illegally entering Leb."

Saturday's arrests come as army troops and security forces are implementing a security plan adopted by the cabinet to end the state of chaos in the North and the Bekaa.

The plan was first implemented in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
in an attempt to put an end to the festivities that frequently erupt between the city's rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

It was then implemented in the Bekaa region, with the security forces cracking down on gunnies, car theft gangs, and other outlaws.

The plan has resulted so far in the arrest of dozens of runaways.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Car Bomber Kills 6 At Syrian Government Checkpoint
[Ynet] A jacket wallah in a car went kaboom! at a checkpoint near a government-controlled town in central Syria early Saturday, killing at least six soldiers, activists said.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the bombing near Salamiya left an unknown number of civilian casualties.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under:


Report: Dozens Hurt In Chemical Weapons Attack In Homs
[Ynet] OPCW says Syria has gotten rid of 80% of chemical arsenal, if momentum kepts, all declared chemical agents will be out of the country by April 27.

Dozens of people were hurt in a chemical weapons attack committed by the Syrian army in Zita al-Gharbiyah in Homs, opposition sources said Saturday.

According to the Syrian opposition, helicopters belonging to Bashir al-Assad's army dropped barrels containing chlorine gas. Similar reports were made during the past week in several areas in Syria.

The Syrian opposition posted videos that indicate on "quite a number" of maimed suffering from suffocation. They were treated using oxygen masks. This report has no confirmation from official sources.

Al-Jazeera
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
quoted opposition sources who claimed some 100 suffered from suffocation, and that similar cases were documented at the village of Tamana al-Ghab.

Related stories:
Syria: US, Turkey, Israel behind chemical weapons attacks
UN reports: Chemical weapons used in Syria are from army stockpile
Syria rebels, government report poison gas attack

A week ago, the rebels accused the Assad regime of a similar attack in Hama. The Syrian government, on its part, accused the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front of that attack.

During the week, Al Arabiya reported that Assad's forces were using toxic gas in an attack in the Harasta area in the suburbs of Damascus. According to the report that cites opposition sources, nine people were maimed in the attack.

A video posted on YouTube shows several maimed being treated by a medics with the news hound announcing a "poison gas in Harasta."

Several days earlier, Syrian media reported on another chemical weapons attack in Zita al-Gharbiyah, in which two people were killed and some 100 more maimed.

Human rights organizations claimed that Syrian army jets dropped barrels of explosives with chemical substances in them. The kaboom caused smoke, a pungent smell, suffocation and poisoning.

Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
provided a different version of events, saying "we received information that snuffies from the Al-Nusra Front committed a chemical attack that caused the death of two and the injured over a hundred people suffering from suffocation."

The Syrian government warned that the Al-Nusra Front was planning to strike the Hama and Idlib areas as well.

Syrian opposition sources claimed that the Assad regime has committed 14 chemical attacks in 2014 so far. As a result of these attacks, 22 people were killed and 259 others hurt. The primary use of chemical weapons was done in Damascus and its suburbs, they said.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Saturday that Syria has shipped out or destroyed approximately 80 percent of its declared chemical weapons material. Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator of the joint mission of the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
and the OPCW, said if the momentum was sustained, Syria should be able to meet its April 27 deadline to hand over all declared chemical agents.
It's all the undeclared stuff that Pencilneck is using on his people...
"The renewed pace in movements is positive and necessary to ensure progress towards a tight deadline," Kaag said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul
Thu 2014-04-17
  Al-Nusra Chief Killed by Rivals in Syria
Wed 2014-04-16
  Deputy Minister Kidnapped in Kabul
Tue 2014-04-15
  Twin bomb blasts kill 71, injure 124 in Nigeria
Mon 2014-04-14
  Boko Haram massacres students, kills 200 others in Borno
Sun 2014-04-13
  Gunmen storm 'pro-govt' Pak village, kidnap 100 men
Sat 2014-04-12
  ISIS on retreat in Deir al-Zor after surprise attack
Fri 2014-04-11
  5 Killed as Houthis Press 'Advance' on Yemen Capital
Thu 2014-04-10
  Baloch separatists claim Islamabad terror attack; 24 killed
Wed 2014-04-09
  Netanyahu instructs government ministries to cease cooperation with Palestinians
Tue 2014-04-08
  Rebels claim gains in Aleppo and Qunaitra
Mon 2014-04-07
  Army Begins Removing Hizbullah Checkpoints in Baalbek, al-Hermel
Sun 2014-04-06
  Iraq forces kill more than 40 militants near Baghdad

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