Hi there, !
Today Fri 05/29/2015 Thu 05/28/2015 Wed 05/27/2015 Tue 05/26/2015 Mon 05/25/2015 Sun 05/24/2015 Sat 05/23/2015 Archives
Rantburg
531183 articles and 1854386 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 68 articles and 139 comments as of 23:05.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Suicide bomber blows himself up during Rangers operation in Karachi
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
25 23:16 Shipman [336082] 
2 22:25 JosephMendiola [336073] 
3 13:23 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [336063] 
0 [336065] 
0 [336063] 
0 [336063] 
1 21:05 phil_b [336092] 
0 [336078] 
0 [336063] 
0 [336084] 
0 [336066] 
0 [336066] 
2 23:13 Shipman [336069] 
0 [336066] 
0 [336067] 
0 [336064] 
0 [336066] 
0 [336078] 
0 [336066] 
0 [336065] 
0 [336067] 
0 [336084] 
0 [336063] 
0 [336079] 
0 [336065] 
0 [336063] 
0 [336066] 
0 [336063] 
0 [336064] 
Page 2: WoT Background
2 23:34 DarthVader [336076]
4 13:37 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [336065]
1 02:53 JosephMendiola [336067]
0 [336066]
0 [336063]
0 [336064]
0 [336061]
0 [336074]
2 11:51 Rex Mundi [336069]
1 07:29 lord garth [336067]
0 [336069]
2 23:19 Shipman [336081]
0 [336067]
0 [336067]
1 08:46 ed in texas [336070]
0 [336066]
1 01:56 3dc [336065]
0 [336073]
0 [336067]
0 [336065]
0 [336070]
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 23:22 Shipman [336078]
7 23:25 Shipman [336074]
2 15:50 Rex Mundi [336068]
10 15:32 gorb [336064]
6 23:03 USN, Ret. [336076]
1 09:57 Frank G [336067]
6 16:59 lord garth [336065]
2 14:38 rjschwarz [336065]
0 [336065]
11 21:36 JohnQC [336078]
2 18:04 Zenobia Floger6220 [336065]
1 11:02 DarthVader [336063]
1 11:40 OldSpook [336067]
9 20:50 Zenobia Floger6220 [336082]
Page 4: Opinion
10 20:20 Deacon Blues [336078]
Page 6: Politix
6 22:02 Neville Unusonter7252 [336074]
9 20:47 Mullah Richard [336072]
5 16:55 Iblis [336063]
Afghanistan
One Policeman Killed, Five Injured in Taliban Ambush in Farah
[Tolo News] A policeman was killed and five others injured in a Taliban ambush in western Farah province on Sunday night, local offices said.

The incident took place in Farah city after a number of Taliban forces of Evil attacked local coppers, provincial police chief, Fazel Mohammad Samadyar said.

"The injured coppers were taken to a nearby hospital in the city and they were in stable, pH balanced condition," Samadyar said.

He said that the Taliban forces of Evil also suffered casualties in the clash but no details were available.

The Taliban have not yet commented on the incident
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336092 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Note, how Afghanistan has almost completely disappeared from the media.

The Left's 'good war' is a big a disaster as Iraq, but they don't have anyone to blame, so just ignore it.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/26/2015 21:05 Comments || Top||


Four Killed, 73 Injured in Zabul Suicide Bombing
[Tolo News] At least four non-combatants were killed and 73 people -- including children and women - were maimed in a powerful suicide truck bomb in southern Zabul province on Monday, local officials said.

The attack took place in Qalat the capital of the province after a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosives near the provincial council building, deputy police chief, Ghulaam Jelani Farahi said.

"Most of the victims are civilians. Women and children were among the injured people," he said.

The kaboom caused extensive damage to the provincial council building as well as to other buildings in the area including a hospital and the provincial education department.

Farahi said that the police have launched an investigation into the attack.

Officials said that no member of the provincial council has hurt in the attack.

The Taliban have grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


52 Insurgents Killed in Countrywide Operations
[Tolo News] At least 52 Taliban holy warriors were killed and 27 others injured in Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) operations in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Monday.

One other holy warrior was tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
during the operations.

The operations were conducted in Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
, Laghman, Baghlan, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Sar-e-Pul, Pashtun-infested Logar, Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
, Farah, Nimroz and Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
provinces, the statement said.

"During the same 24 hour period, Afghan National Police discovered and defused six different types of IEDs placed by enemies of Afghanistan for destructive activities in Balkh, Pashtun-infested Logar, Paktika and Farah provinces," the statement added.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
the Ministry of Interior did not provided details about casualties of ANSF memsbers during the operations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Bombs kill 11 in Afghanistan as Taliban, IS supporters clash
[DAWN] A suicide truck kaboom and a separate roadside kabooming in southern Afghanistan killed 11 people and maimed dozens more on Monday, as the Taliban clashed with supporters 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....
(IS) group in the west, officials said.

Gov. Asif Nang said the Taliban have been clashing with rival gunnies claiming allegiance to the IS group for three days in the western Farah province, leaving at least 10 Taliban fighters and 15 IS supporters dead.

He provided no further details.

The festivities provide the latest indication of a small but growing Islamic State presence in the country. Afghan and foreign officials differ over the extent to which the myrmidon group -- which rules large parts of Syria and Iraq -- is able to operate in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been waging war against the Western-backed government for more than a decade.

The truck bomb struck the gate of the provincial council's compound in the capital of Zabul province, killing at least five people and wounding 62, council director Atta Jan Haqbayan said.

Three of the maimed were council members, including two women, and children were also among the maimed, Haqbayan said.

Mirwais Noorzai, Zabul's police chief, said the attacker used a small truck. President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
condemned the attack for which no group immediately grabbed credit.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks in recent months in Zabul, which borders Pakistain, and a number of Hazara Shia men have been kidnapped in the province.

Later on Monday, a roadside kaboom went kaboom! in the neighboring Kandahar province, killing six people, according to the governor's front man, Samim Khopalwaq.

Three coppers were killed elsewhere in Kandahar when a firefight erupted between two groups of officers, said provincial police front man Zia Durrani. Four officers expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, he said, adding that the incident was under investigation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the gondola was dangling by a single thread of rope.
Jack! Cynthia cried. I just realized I'm afraid of heights! I don't even like high heels!...

in northern Sari Pul province, police said the body of a local official in charge of religious affairs, Abdul Wodod, was found Monday, three days after he was kidnapped. Gen. Habib Gulbhary, the provincial police chief, said the man was kidnapped by unknown assailants.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa North
Egypt official says Sinai extremists kill soldier in clashes
[Ynet] An Egyptian army official says hard boyz have killed a conscript and maimed an officer in festivities in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

The fighting on Monday near the town of Sheikh Zuweyid pitted troops against Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, snuffies who pledged allegiance to 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 last year. The long-restive northern Sinai has seen a spike in attacks targeting security forces since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


Tunisian soldier shot dead after killing 7 comrades, wounding 15
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A Tunisian soldier opened fire on colleagues at a military base in the capital Tunis on Monday, killing an officer and 6 others and wounding 15 more before being rubbed out himself, Tunisian authorities said.

It was not immediately clear what had triggered the shooting at the Bouchoucha base in Tunis, but it alarmed a capital city still on edge after an attack in March by Islamist gunnies on the Bardo national museum.

Two military helicopters hovered overhead as police searched a nearby mosque and cars travelling on the main road between Bardo and the base. A local school was evacuated.

Three soldiers were killed and 15 maimed before the gunman was shot by his colleagues, state news agency TAP reported, citing medical sources. An army colonel was among the victims, a security source said.

Tunisian forces have been carrying out operations against Islamist fighters since March when two gunnies opened fire on tourists at the Bardo museum, killing 21 foreigners in the worst attack in Tunisia in more than a decade.
Al Ahram has the answer:
Soldier who killed 7 comrades at Tunis barracks had "psychological problems" : Ministry

"He attacked one man with a knife and took his gun before shooting at his comrades who were saluting the flag.

"He had family and psychological problems" and because of this had been "forbidden from carrying arms" and given "non-sensitive duties", Oueslati said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
With Help From ISIS, a More Deadly Boko Haram Makes a Comeback
[Daily Beest] The Nigerian terror organization's ties to the 'caliphate' in Iraq and Syria appear to include training and propaganda operations.

LAGOS -- The Nigerian terror group Boko Haram, after some much heralded reversals on the battlefield, has made a dangerous comeback, unleashing female suicide bombers, carrying out a series of deadly attacks, and seizing a highly strategic town.

Having fled the larger part of their stronghold in Sambisa forest, the sect's soldiers regrouped in Marte, a town 112 kilometers north of Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's embattled northeastern Borno state. Although government officials say Marte was seized last Friday, local sources have confirmed that the militants began to occupy the town at the end of April.

"They [Boko Haram] have been in Marte for a long time strategizing," said a local community member. "They came in large numbers last month, but more members recently joined following the offensive in Sambisa forest by the military."

This is the fourth time Boko Haram has seized control of Marte, a key battleground for their six-year insurgency. The town is among several retaken in recent weeks by Nigeria's military. Sources said on Saturday that the insurgents have hoisted their flags on the recaptured territory, and have been coordinating attacks from there.

All this comes amid reports that Boko Haram may be receiving training from the self-proclaimed Islamic State, widely known as ISIS, which operates in Iraq and Syria. A group called the Mosul Youth Resistance Movement, apparently formed to fight ISIS in and around the major Iraqi city it conquered almost a year ago, killed five Boko Haram members there, according to the Iraqi Kurdish website BasNews. Saed Mamuzini, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Party is quoted saying, "The Nigerian Boko Haram militants were in Mosul to take part in a military training course conducted by Islamic State."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/26/2015 06:10 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I were the administration I'd crush Boko Haram first. Let ISIS grow and fight Iran. We are far better at dealing destroying nation states with targets they don't want damaged than we are at taking out groups hiding in someone elses territory. Let them grow, let them develop targets worthy of blowing up. Let the 80% of Muslims that Al Jazerra recently polled who agree with ISIS live under ISIS for awhile.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/26/2015 14:36 Comments || Top||

#2  It had to happen eventually - ISIS/ISIL cheating on Boko Haram wid Al-Shabaab.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/26/2015 22:25 Comments || Top||


Boko Haram Attacks NE Nigeria, Military Jets Pound Rebel Positions
[AnNahar] 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...
fighters hacked to death 10 people in remote northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
, a local government official said on Monday, as the military claimed to have thwarted a fresh attack.

The attack happened early on Friday in the village of Pambula-Kwamda, the local government chairman of Madagali in the north of Adamawa state told AFP.

"The attackers went into the village around 4:00 am (0300 GMT) while residents were still asleep and used machetes to attack their victims," Maina Ularamu added.

News of the killings only emerged on Monday because of the remote location and communications difficulties caused by the insurgency.

It followed Boko Haram assaults on nearby Sabon Gari Hyembula village last weekend, in which three people were killed and seven women were kidnapped, Ularamu said.

"We believe they were the same people," he added.

Northern Adamawa state, which the military declared "clear" of faceless myrmidons in March, has been hit several times as troops target rebels in their Sambisa Forest stronghold, just across the border in Borno state.

- Villages razed -
On Monday, defense front man Chris Olukolade said troops had thwarted an attack on Mafa, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

About 30 Boko Haram fighters were killed and "many others" maimed, he added.

Boko Haram on Saturday attacked the town of Gubio, 95 kilometers north of Maiduguri, with many feared killed, locals and vigilantes said.

Fleeing residents meanwhile said Nigerian fighter jets razed four villages occupied by Boko Haram near the border with Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
At least three jets bombed Duwu, Jarawa, Mallum Maja and Mudu in the Kalabalge area of Borno state over six hours on Sunday.

"It is very unlikely if anyone in the villages survived, going by the scale of the bombardment," said Idris Hassan, from the nearby Malawaji village.

- 'Crying for relatives' -
Hassan was one of many locals who fled to Fotokol, across the border in northern Cameroon, to escape the aerial assault.

Residents there reported hearing huge kabooms from the direction of Kalabalge from morning until afternoon on Sunday.

"Refugees from the affected villages living here have been crying for their relations trapped in the villages who were held hostage by Boko Haram," Umar Babakalli said.

Boko Haram fighters have flooded the Kalabalge district for the last two months as a result of a sweeping military offensive that drove them out of their Gwoza and Bama strongholds in Borno.

Thousands fled across the border into Chad and Cameroon as a result.

But the faceless myrmidons prevented residents from leaving the Kalabalge area in the past two weeks, said Yamani Bukar, who managed to escape from Jarawa on Saturday.

"Boko Haram gunnies would not allow people in the villages to leave and would return anyone they saw trying to leave, saying we must stay and die with them," he added.

He said the faceless myrmidons were short of weapons and had resorted to using crude weapons including bows and arrows, machetes and swords.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Houthis suffer first serious setback in south Yemen fighting
Aden -- Local Sunni militia ejected Houthi rebels from much of the southern Yemeni city of Dalea on Monday, residents and combatants said, inflicting the first significant setback on the Iranian-backed rebels in two months of civil war.

Dalea had been a bastion of southern secessionists in Yemen before the Houthis took widespread control of the city in March, after having seized the capital Sanaa in the north in September, toppling President Abdrabbo MansourAl Hadi, and then thrust into the centre and south of the country.

After two months of fighting in which much of Dalea has been destroyed, Sunni fighters on Monday turned the tide by seizing a key military base and the main security directorate in the city, militia sources and local residents said. Twelve Sunni fighters and 40 Houthi rebels were killed, they said.

“In intense fighting lasting from dawn until this afternoon, the southern resistance succeeded in cleansing our city of Houthi elements,” a front-line militiaman said.
Congrats. You now own a pile of rubble...
Eyewitnesses said local forces in Dalea, which has an estimated population of 90,000, were backed by weeks of air strikes on Houthi positions as well as weapons drops which intensified in recent days.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Fighting Engulfs Yemen's Taez after U.N. Talks Put Off
Since all parties involved know what hudna really means, why bother? This way they can get the population back to the carrying capacity of the land as it will be once much of the infrastructure is destroyed that much sooner.
[AnNahar] Fierce fighting on Monday between Iranian catspaws and pro-government forces in Yemen's third city Taez killed and maimed dozens of people, residents and an official said.

The festivities came a day after a U.N. official said a proposed peace conference for the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country had been postponed indefinitely.

Witnesses said the fighting in several districts of Taez on Monday morning sparked panic among residents.

The festivities, which erupted on Sunday and raged overnight, have killed at least 30 Houthis and allied forces, the local official told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He said a provisional toll showed at least five loyalists of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi were also killed.

For a second consecutive day, rebels and their allies targeted several Taez neighborhoods with rocket and tank fire, residents said.

Medics and residents told AFP late Sunday the bombardment had killed 10 civilians and maimed 80.

"There's a real massacre going on in Taez, the city that spearheaded the revolt" which caused the departure in early 2012 of president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
who supports the Huthis, resident Bassam al-Qadhi said.

"Saleh has aligned himself with the rebels to take Dire Revenge," he added.

Officials in neighboring Daleh province said pro-Hadi fighters had retaken several positions from the rebels, including a military camp, in dawn fighting.

Clashes were ongoing mid-Monday, they said, especially at a now rebel-held base of the 33rd Armored Brigade.

Pro-government forces have seized six tanks during the fighting, they said.

Clashes were also reported in other southern provinces of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
on Monday, including Aden, Shabwa and 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...
It followed a day of intense raids by Saudi-led coalition warplanes targeting rebel arms depots and positions, witnesses said.

The postponement of the planned U.N. peace conference came just four days before it had been due to open in Geneva.

There had been growing uncertainty over who would attend the talks, and the postponement is a further blow to U.N. efforts to broker peace in a country where nearly 2,000 people have been killed since March.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Bangladesh
One killed in Jatrabari gunfight
[Dhaka Tribune] A wanted criminal
...wanted on twelve planets, 'e was, and rightfully so did they want him, the miscreant!
was killed in a shootout with police in the capital's Jatrabari area yesterday.
They didn't want to shoot him, but after the things he said, really they had no choice.
The dead was identified as Natai Sohel, 25.
A two-namer, so middle class. Your lower classes have but one name apiece, you see, and the poorest of them need to share, being no more than Mohammed #17 and Mahmud One-Eye #8.
A subordinate of Sohel, Md Sajeeb,22, also received bullet injuries during the shootout.
Disappearing as if you'd never been is clearly a learnt skill, which our friend Md Jeeb (is that a name or a Punjabi translation of "Peg-leg #43"?
Sub-Inspector Atikur Rahman of Jatrabari cop shoppe said the shootout took place when criminals opened fired at police and hurled a crude bomb
A bomb?! How déclassé!
during a raid near Balur Maath of Shantek Bashpotti area around 12pm.
Good lord, that's the middle of the day. But it is the police instead of the RAB, and such deviations can't be helped, I suppose.
Sohel and Sajeeb were shot, while their cohorts managed to flee the area,
...as if they'd never been, having practiced the skill to the point of mastery, unlike poor Md Sajeeb...
he said. Sohel died after being brought to the Nitor hospital.
"Paging Dr. Quincy. Dr. Quincy to the white courtesy phone."
Jatrabari police OC Abani Sarker said Sohel was an accused in eight cases, including a murder case and Sajeeb has several cases against him.
And so all were satisfied with the outcome, except perhaps a pair of unsatisfactory mothers.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mohammed! Mohammed! Mohammed!
I just met a girl named Mohammed,
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same
To me. Wait, a girl named Mohammed?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/26/2015 20:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I have never been near this souk before,
But now I can't stay away anymore
Knowing this is souk where you shiv.

Other pyscos call, they don't bother me
There is no where north of mekka I'd rather be
Knowing this is the souk where you shiv.


There that oughta hold the little bastards
Posted by: Shipman || 05/26/2015 23:13 Comments || Top||


Two arrested in Bangladesh over ISIS recruitment: police
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Two members of a banned Bangladeshi radical group have been tossed in the clink
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
for trying to recruit young Moslems to fight with ISIS, police said Monday.

Aminul Islam Baig, 40, and Shakib bin Kamal, 30, were both arrested on Sunday night during raids at two addresses in Dhaka in which officers also recovered jihadi literature and computer equipment, police added.

Dhaka police front man Jahangir Alam said both men were members of the banned Islamist bad boy outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

"They are active members of JMB and admitted their connection with [ISIS]," Alam told AFP.

During questioning, Baig and Kamal provided a list of 20 accomplices who had been helping them try and persuade young Moslems to join the thousands of foreigners already fighting alongside ISIS, which has declared a "caliphate" across vast parts of Syria and Iraq.

"They have been trying to recruit people all over the country to fight with the ISIS forces of Evil in Syria and other countries of the Middle East," Alam added.

Another police front man, Monirul Islam, told a news conference in Dhaka that Baig was the head of IT at a multinational company in Bangladesh, without naming the organization, while Kamal was a teacher at a renowned school.

Islam said the pair would be produced before court soon, adding that police would "seek remand for further interrogation".
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


China-Japan-Koreas
China Busts 181 'Terror' Gangs in Year-long Crackdown
[AnNahar] A "strike hard" campaign against what China calls terrorism in the largely Moslem region of Xinjiang and beyond has seen 181 gangs busted, authorities said Monday, a year after the controversial measures were launched.

Rights groups have labelled the crackdown discriminatory, raising further concerns after Beijing announced in January the measures would be extended until at least the end of 2015.

Authorities launched the campaign after 39 people were killed last May in a bloody market attack which was blamed on separatists in Urumqi, the capital of the vast, north-western region of Xinjiang.

Scores of people have been sentenced to death as part of the drive, while hundreds have been tossed in the clink
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
or detained on terror-related offences.

"As of April 30 this year, 181 violent terror gangs have been destroyed, with 96.2 percent being thwarted at the planning phase," Xinjiang's government-run Tianshan news site reported, adding that 112 suspects surrendered to the police.

Clashes between authorities and alleged Islamist separatists -- as well as attacks killing civilians -- have spread in recent years, both in Xinjiang, which is home to just over 10 million of the mainly Moslem Uighur minority, and outside it.

More than 200 people died last year in violence either in or traced back to Xinjiang, according to media reports.

Among the most shocking incidents was a deadly rampage by knife-wielding assailants at a train station at Kunming in China's southwest, when 31 people were killed and four attackers died.

Three men convicted on terror charges were executed this March for their part in the attack.

Authorities have also targeted religious practices, such as the wearing of veils, which activists say has created an atmosphere of repression and led to violence.

China defends its policies, arguing that it has boosted economic development in the area and that it upholds minority and religious rights in a country with 56 recognized ethnic groups.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Greece to Question Syrian over Turkey-bound Bullet Haul
[AnNahar] Greek Sherlocks were to question Monday a Syrian caught trying to sneak tens of thousands of bullets into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, a police source said.

The 28-year-old man was detained over the weekend at the Kipi customs post in Evros, the northernmost part of Greece, after police foud parcels of bullets concealed in special caches in his car.

The authorities said they were not ruling out the possibility that the ammunition was destined to rebels of the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
The suspect's vehicle had Austrian registration plates but he was carrying a fake British driving license, police said.
Geez louise! Tradecraft, dude, tradecraft. Honestly, what are they teaching these youngsters nowadays?
Evros is a central hub on the route connecting Europe and Asia, where smugglers routinely attempt to pass guns, drugs and migrants, from or into Turkey, which shares 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of border with Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Troops Dead in Indian Kashmir Gunbattles with Militants
[AnNahar] Four soldiers were killed on Monday in two separate battles with suspected gunnies in Indian Kashmire, officials said, shortly after a mobile phone shop employee was left dead in another attack in the disputed region.

A military front man said two soldiers were killed in a firefight when suspected gunnies were found trying to cross from Pakistain into Tangdhar in India, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the region's main city of Srinagar.

"During the firefight, four jawan (soldiers) sustained injuries,of which three succumbed and one is out of danger," N. N. Joshi said in a statement.

The attack came hours after another soldier was killed in a separate incident further south in Kulgam district. Two suspected rebels were killed in both incidents.

The disputed Kashmire region has been wracked by separatist violence for more than two decades that has left tens of thousands dead, mainly civilians.

Also on Monday, a mobile phone shop employee was bumped off when another group of suspected gunnies attacked a shop in the northern town of Sopore, around 35 kilometers from Sringar.

"An employee of a telecoms franchisee was killed while two others were maimed when gunnies fired upon (their)... office," a separate police statement said.

Several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence or a merger of the Himalayan territory with Pakistain.

Kashmire has been divided between India and Pakistain since the two countries won independence from Britannia in 1947.

Violence in the region has steadily declined during the last decade, but armed encounters between rebels and government forces still occur regularly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under:


Suicide bomber blows himself up during Rangers operation in Karachi
[DAWN] A loud kaboom was heard 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 Orangi Town area late Monday night, DawnNews reported.

According to police, the blast took place during a Rangers operation in the area.

Talking to Dawn, Karachi-West Deputy Inspector General Feroze Shah said an alleged jacket wallah went kaboom! in Faqir Colony of Orangi Town during a Rangers search operation.

Shah said when the paramilitary force encircled the suspect, he first hurled hand grenades at security officials and later went kaboom!.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Three killed, six injured in Quetta shootings
[DAWN] Three people were killed and six injured in three separate firing incidents in Quetta on Monday, leaving the city in a state of panic.

On an incident on Jinnah Road, gunnies opened fire, killing two and injuring four, including two women, said police sources. The victims belonged to the Hazara community of Quetta, said rescue sources.

The assailants escaped unhurt from the spot, and the injured were rushed to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for medical treatment.

Police and Frontier Corps personnel reached the spot and began an investigation into the incident.

A separate shooting incident on Jinnah Road left two injured.

Earlier in the day, gunnies shot up a shop on Shahrah-e-Iqbal in Quetta, killing one.

The attackers beat feet from the spot, and shopkeepers pulled down their shutters after the incident.

Police termed the three incidents as murders.

Members of the Hazara community staged a protest outside the 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...
Police Chief's office, calling for the arrest of the attackers.

Majlis-e-Wahdatul Moslemeen MPA Raza Agha also joined the protesters, who rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the police and other law enforcement agencies due to their failure to protect the people.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Jundullah


Yet another 'Desecration': mob lets loose ire on police
[DAWN] LAHORE: Police arrested a man for allegedly desecrating pages of the Holy Quran at Gulshan-i-Ravi on Sunday.

Humayun Faisal Masih has been booked in a case lodged by Syed Zeeshan under 295-B (Defiling, desecrating etc. of Holy Quran) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The suspect is a resident of Dhoop Sarri area of Sanda and he allegedly set a box on fire that contained holy script pages. A number of people started gathering at the Ravi Road police station and demanded that he be handed over to them. Police dispersed the crowd which then made for the suspect’s house, where it tried to torch a church.
Of course. That's why they're built, after all.
As DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf and other policemen tried to disperse the mob, some miscreants attacked and injured them. A policeman told this reporter that the mob was enraged and wanted to torch a church but police controlled the situation. Police also registered a case against the assailants and arrested some of them.

He said police responded to an emergency call that a man was burning pages of the Holy Quran. He said police took Humayun into custody and also recovered the box which was partially burnt and contained sacred pages. He said the box was installed at a pole at Gulshan-i-Ravi.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Main suspect of vigil attack arrested
[DAWN] LAHORE: Police claimed to have incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
on Sunday the main suspect involved in attacking activists of civil society at a vigil held to mark the death anniversary of slain Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

governor Salman Taseer in January this year.

Mumtaz Sindhi was wanted by police which did not reveal from where the suspect was arrested but said he belonged to the Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
Police had earlier arrested seven suspects Adeel, Furqan, Iftikhar, Kashif, Deen Muhammad, Sajid and Wazir Ali and booked them under Section 7 of the ATC and sections 365, 427, 183, 148 and 149 of the PPC in the same case.

An anti-terrorism court had rejected the bail of these suspects. The Lahore High Court later granted bail to these suspects with a direction to the ATC to decide the case within three months. The case is still under trial in the ATC.

Complainant Abdullah Malik claimed that Mumtaz Sindhi was allegedly leading a group which had attacked and injured a journalist and a rights activist besides destroying a portrait of the slain governor during a vigil.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Ban on pillion riding in Peshawar
[DAWN] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
district administration on Sunday imposed section 144 banning riding double for a month keeping in view the fragile law and order situation and to ensure peaceful holding of the forthcoming local government elections.

According to a statement, Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud said that the ban was aimed at maintaining law and order situation in the provincial metropolis. He said that riding double, firing in the air, waving guns and the use of loudspeakers in public gatherings and political rallies was also banned until June 23.

The decision to impose section 144 was taken to avoid any untoward incident during the local government elections which have been scheduled to take place on May 30, he maintained.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Three killed in blast targetting Pakistan president's son
Islamabad -- At least three people were killed and over a dozen injured in a blast targetting Pakistan president's son outside a restaurant in a Balochistan town, media reported on Monday.

Police sources said the device was placed on a motorcycle parked outside the restaurant at the industrial town of Hub and targeted President Mamnoon Hussain's son Salman's convoy on Sunday, Dawn online reported.

Salman was uninjured in the bombing attack, reports said.

Hub is 31 km from the port city of Karachi.

Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the blast and announced free medical treatment for those injured.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Joint Chiefs Chairman says U.S. blindsided by fall of Mosul
Outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey admits in a new interview that the U.S. military had done no contingency planning to prepare for the fall of Mosul when Islamic terrorists swept into Iraq's second-largest city last June and seized control.

"Well, no, there were not," Dempsey replies in the interview with Frontline's Martin Smith when asked if there were any contingency plans inside the Pentagon for how to respond if Mosul were to fall to terrorists from the Islamic State (or ISIL, as the group is sometimes called.)

"So, look, there were several things that surprised us about ISIL," Dempsey adds. "The degree to which they were able to form their own coalition, both inside of Syria -- and inside of northwestern Iraq; the military capability that they exhibited -- the collapse of the Iraq Security Forces. Yeah, in those initial days, there were a few surprises."

Dempsey's frank comments would appear to raise fresh questions about the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies in tracking the rise of IS as well the state of planning inside the Obama administration as it continues to grapple with a war against the Islamic State terrorists.

John Maguire, a former senior CIA officer in Iraq, called Dempsey's remarks "stunning" and described his admission of the failure to do any planning as comparable to the intelligence failures prior to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He noted that Islamic State terrorists had been on the march inside Iraq for months before Mosul was attacked and that IS had already seized huge swaths of territory, including the city of Fallajuh, the previous January.

"Good lord, he should resign," Maguire told Yahoo News, when read a transcript of Dempsey's comments for the Frontline show, "Obama at War," which airs Tuesday night on PBS.

"The highest ranking military officer in the country is surprised by an issue that has been percolating for over a year?" said Maguire, who now serves as an advisor to the Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State. "That is breathtaking. Where in hell is the Central Intelligence Agency? We've got a $75 billion intelligence budget. There is no excuse for this."

Dempsey is not the first senior official to acknowledge that U.S. intelligence officials and the White House itself missed the ferocity of IS's advance. President Obama, in an interview with the New Yorker in January, 2014, referred to IS as the "jayvee," as in a junior varsity athletic team. And Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged last September that U.S. intelligence officials underestimated" IS and the ability of the Iraqi Army to fight back against the terrorists.

"I didn't see the collapse of the Iraq security force in the north coming," Clapper told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius in a Sept. 18, 2004, interview. "I didn't see that."

But Dempsey's remarks would appear to take the issue to a new level by admitting the lack of any "worst case scenario" planning inside the Pentagon despite months of warnings from some U.S. intelligence officials that IS was advancing rapidly through northern Iraq and Syria. "ISIL probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, as demonstrated recently in Ramadi and Fallajuh," Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, then the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, stated in an annual "threat assessment" report to Congress on Feb. 14, 2014.

Smith, the Frontline correspondent who conducted the interview with Dempsey, said he, too, was taken aback by the general's comments, noting the Pentagon routinely does contingency planning for all sorts of scenarios. "I can't explain it," said Smith about Dempsey's comments. "We had invested how many billions in the Iraqi Army? It's something you would think they would keep an eye on. Yet they seemed entirely blindsided."

Underscoring just how blindsided officials were, are comments in "Obama at War" from another former senior Pentagon official.

"The fall of Mosul was something that we had not anticipated," Derek Chollet, the former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, says in the film. "And the suddenness with which that fall occurred was something that -- that was a shock. They seized everything from small arms to light-armored vehicles- to anti-aircraft weapons. When terrorists of this kind get their hands on weapons, it was a huge concern to us. I don't think we truly understood the depth of the problem until the fall of Mosul."

Today, nearly a year later, Mosul -- a city of more than one million -- remains firmly under IS control and the Iraqi government, working closely with the U.S. military, has pushed back plans to retake the city.

The Frontline film reviews the Obama White House's efforts to grapple with the mounting crisis in Iraq and Syria during a time it was attempting to withdraw U.S. troops from the region.

In another part of his interview with Smith, Dempsey describes how the Pentagon was "on the trigger," ready to launch military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2013 after U.S. officials had concluded he had launched a sarin gas attack against a rebel holdout in a suburb of Damascus, thereby crossing a "red line" that the president had publicly said he would not permit.

The consensus was that the Pentagon would launch strikes in Syria on Saturday, Aug. 31, Smith reports in the film.

"Our finger was on the trigger," Dempsey says in the film. "We had gone through the targeting plans and the targeting solutions. The crews were alerted. And so we had everything in place and we were just waiting -- for instructions to proceed."

But then after the British House of Commons voted not to support the action, Obama began to pull back.

"It was a Friday night and I got a call from the president of the United States," Dempsey reccalls. "And he said to me, 'I am considering an alternative course of action.' And he wanted me, overnight, to consider whether a delay would, in any way, affect our ability to be effective with our military options."
Posted by: gorb || 05/26/2015 12:46 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I think that's Simon and Garfunkle.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/26/2015 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Or Thomas Dolby maybe
Posted by: Shipman || 05/26/2015 13:04 Comments || Top||

#3  What's that word again? Ah yes, unexpected.

Bunch of Yes Men and sycophants leads to a lot of 'unexpected'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/26/2015 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  But Dempsey's remarks would appear to take the issue to a new level by admitting the lack of any "worst case scenario" planning inside the Pentagon despite months of warnings from some U.S. intelligence officials that IS was advancing rapidly through northern Iraq and Syria.

Who has time for "worst case scenario's" or war gaming. We've got to get female sojurs through Ranger school dimmit !

Besides, the Champ doesn't want bad news, or a General Petraeus re-hash regarding the risks of a total U.S. pull-out of Iraq.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/26/2015 13:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Ok, so let's whiteboard all the possible downsides shall we? Not enuf space on a standard whiteboard? Ok, butcher paper then, lots of it, a dozen black markers, and 5 rolls of 90 mph tape. Someone order sandwiches and Pepsi. We'll likely be here most of the day.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/26/2015 13:17 Comments || Top||

#6  I'll bet they have the War on Global Warming down pat...
Posted by: Pappy || 05/26/2015 13:55 Comments || Top||

#7  a) blindsided
b) just not paying attention
c) don't really care anyway
d) golf!
e) all of the above
Posted by: Chick Glemp4272 || 05/26/2015 13:58 Comments || Top||

#8  admits in a new interview that the U.S. military had done no contingency planning to prepare for the fall of Mosul

Wouldn't have taken much planning - a few hundred surplus artillery pieces and plenty of shells pre-positioned in Irbil might have made a big difference.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/26/2015 13:58 Comments || Top||

#9  They were too busy watching me read Rantburg.
Posted by: KBK || 05/26/2015 14:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Must have misplaced that particular PowerPoint slide.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/26/2015 14:30 Comments || Top||

#11  I read a book once how the US was surprised at how quickly South Vietnam collapsed. Did anybody in power learn anything from our previous history?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/26/2015 14:34 Comments || Top||

#12  Promoting commanders for complaisance & compliance instead of competence and courage leads to credulity, corruption, and collapse.

-- Oldspook's rule of Military C's.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/26/2015 14:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Did anybody in power learn anything from our previous history?

Of course they did - the administration and Democrats (and not a few Republicans) have been trying to repeat that segment of history ever since the war started.

This makes perfect sense once you consider what the desired outcome is. (Hint: Repeat of Vietnam and the fall of Saigon - the liberal 'glory days'). Just ask 'the war is lost' Reid and company.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/26/2015 15:15 Comments || Top||

#14  Well CF, it was a pub war.... right? Can't stumble around sustaining pub efforts, past or present, now can we ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/26/2015 15:20 Comments || Top||

#15  "Did anybody in power learn anything from our previous history?"

History began when obama took office.
Posted by: newc || 05/26/2015 15:38 Comments || Top||

#16  History began when obama took office.

Except for that which is BOOSH'es fault!

I hear you Besoeker. Liberals don't have any 'victories' or 'good works' they can lay claim to so they resort themselves with tearing everything else down to their level.

It would be pathetic if it weren't for all the innocents killed in the process.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/26/2015 16:02 Comments || Top||

#17  Repeat of Vietnam and the fall of Saigon - the liberal 'glory days'

Can't have it without draft, CF.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/26/2015 16:10 Comments || Top||

#18  Actually the fact that we are all volunteers makes the failures even more aggravating - we *want* to fight the good fight.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/26/2015 17:06 Comments || Top||

#19  Exactly right OS. It still pains me to think what a thrashing an Army aviation elements at FOB Speicher or Balad could have handed ISIS recently.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/26/2015 17:38 Comments || Top||

#20  "US Blindsided .." > I doubt it, as Anti-US US OWG Globalist POTUS Obama + aligned are PCorrectly-Deniably helping IRAN [+ Putin Russia + China, etc.] expand their "Spheres of Influence".

Iff the fall of Mosul helps IRAN, E-T-A-L rise to MilPol/Geopol "Parity" wid the US as a "US-Style" OWG Globalist Co-Superpower, then the Bammer + Globies have succeeded.

* FYI FREEREPUBLIC > [New American] US INTEL: OBAMA COALITION SUPPORTED [preferred] ISLAMIC STATE IN SYRIA.

* CNN AM > GUEST ANALYSTS = denoted that CHINA IS MOVING = EVOLVING FROM A HISTORICAL OR TRADIONAL LAND-BASED, CONTINENTAL, + REGIONAL POWER, TO BEINGA GLOBAL NAVAL + MARITIME POWER.

* IIRC "MANILA BULLETIN" COMMENTARY = CHINA IS A [aggressive] RISING POWER, SEEKING TO INCREASE ITS [Mahanist?] GEOPOL INFLUENCE AROUND THE WORLD, WHEREAS THE US IS A [established]"STATUS QUO" POWER THAT SEES ITSELF AS A REFEREE.

-------------------

* Lest we fergit, OWG GLOBALISM = THE "TIP-OF-THE-SPEAR-IN-SETTING-UP-ANTI-US-OWG-NWO" US IS ULTIMATELY TO BE JUST ONE OF SEVERAL, MANY, OR MULTIPLE "PAR", "CO-SUPERPOWERS" IN THE WORLD.

Just as there is no conclusive evidence that the Global Secular Lefts can or will control the Global Jihad + Global Jihadists, THERE IS NO CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT ANY FUTURE, EX-"SOLE" SUPERPOWER-NOW-OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER USoAMERIKA CAN CONTROL OR DOMINATE ITS FELLOW CO-SUPERPOWER SIBLINGS + VARIOUS WANNABES.

UNTIL THEY DO, THE RISK OR SCENARIO IS THERE THAT ALL THE US, WESTERN GLOBIES ARE ACCOMPLISHING IS HELPING THOSE ENEMIES OR PROTAGONISTS THAT COULD OR WILL DESTROY THEM GET STRONGER.

> The US is helping IRAN to nuclearize, despite recogniz the risk that the Islamic World + espec the Hard Boyz may get access to the NucBomb Techs.
> The US is helping Iran + Russia + China, Other? to expand their spheres of influences to the detriment of US Regional Allies + US Strategic Interests.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/26/2015 20:10 Comments || Top||

#21  As for GUAM-WESTPAC, ETC...

* FREEREPUBLIC > [Telegraph.UK] US-CHINA WAR "INEVITABLE" UNLESS WASHINGTON DROPS DEMANDS OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA.

Earlier this week ...

* RELATED SAME > CHINA STATE PAPER [Global Times] WARNS OF WAR IN SCS UNLESS US BACKS DOWN.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US WARNS "NEXT STEP" COULD BE TO [militarily] TEST BEIJING'S TERRITORIAL CLAIMS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA.

* SAME > US HAS DENIED CHINA'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER SPRATLYS AND PARACEL ISLANDS, CHINA [+ Asia?] MAY FACE 2-3 FRONT WAR.

* MANILA TIMES > US: NO STOPPING SPY FLIGHTS [Air + Sea Patrols] ON SOUTH CHINA SEA RECCE.

* GLOBALNATION.PH > AQUINO: PH WILL NOT YIELD TO CHINA'S AIRSPACE CLAIMS, in disputed SCS = Sea Territories.

* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CHINA HITS BACK AT US PATROLS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA WID PLAAF H-6K BOMBER INCURSIONS INSIDE JAPAN'S SOVEREIGN MIYAKO STRAIT. CHINA REMAINS LIKELY TO STRIKE/ATTACK ANY + ALL MAJOR US BASES IN PACIFIC IN CASE OF US-CHINA SOUTH CHINA SEA WAR.

GUAM + CNMI is at the other end of China + PLA's straight-line, "Strategic Direction/Route of Attack" thru SCS + Northern Philippines into WESTPAC.

IFF SYRIA + IRAQ FACE THE SPECTER/PROPECT OF PARTITION, IN SUPPORT OF THE GLOBIE AGENDA ALA IRAN, SO ALSO CAN THE PHILIPPINES + MARIANAS, ETC. IN SUPPORT OF THE GLOBIES' AGENDA ALA CHINA.

Iff the US can sink Guam + other Paxcific isles one day in order to deny to China or Nuclear Islam, etc. GLOBIE CO-SUPERPOWER "PARITY" + "GREAT GAME" SEZZES THE US ITSELF, OR LARGE PARTS OF SAME, CAN ALSO BE SUNK.

AREN'T MAINSTREAM AMERICA = AMERIKA GLAD OR HAPPY WE WERE ASKED TO VOTE FOR ALL THE ABOVE ...

Oh wait, we didn't vote ...

OOOOOOOOPPPPPSSSSSIES!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/26/2015 20:33 Comments || Top||

#22 
Or Thomas Dolby maybe


You know the connection between "She Blinded Me With Science" and the Green Berets?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/26/2015 20:41 Comments || Top||

#23  To be fair, Dempsey was busy with other pressing responsibilities: https://youtu.be/NwWYrmjqkbM

I mean - is that intimidating to the bad guys, or what???
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/26/2015 21:49 Comments || Top||

#24  Guts and Glory replaced with Gays and Global Warming.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 05/26/2015 22:09 Comments || Top||

#25  No, do tell Rob.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/26/2015 23:16 Comments || Top||


Peshmerga and US-led airstrikes pound ISIS positions east of Mosul
[Rudaw] Peshmerga forces in coordination with US-led Arclight airstrikes bombarded two ISIS convoys on the Tigris front east of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, killing seven murderous Moslems, a Peshmerga commander told Rudaw on Monday.

"With the help of the coalition Arclight airstrikes, the Peshmerga managed to bombard two ISIS convoys near a kerosene factory in the village of Ishk on the Tigris front," said Captain Dilshad Maulood, a Peshmerga commander.

Maulood said that several ISIS military vehicles were also destroyed.

Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Seven killed?

That's not much of an airstrike if you ask me.

An airstrike is something that scatters body parts over about 20 acres and leaves lots of big craters to remind the survivors.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/26/2015 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe our new kinder and gentler air strikes involve labor unions and higher pay for flight attendants?
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/26/2015 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Low budget, reality TV version of "Mad Max: Fury Road". Send in Charlize Theron & a couple of male gofers to load her weapons.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/26/2015 13:23 Comments || Top||


Baghdad: Iraqi forces strike back at ISIS bases
[Rudaw] Iraqi security forces have attacked at least nine ISIS bases and killed 37 bad boy fighters in two separate operations in Anbar, the Baghdad government said Monday.

"The military operation by security forces under the Baghdad command to recapture Garma is still underway," Iraq's Ministry of Defense announced.

The disputed town of Garma is in a strategic area of Anbar province to the west of the Iraqi capital.

"In their latest offensive in Garma, Iraqi security forces defused 25 planted bombs and three explosive-rigged homes, while destroying at least nine Daesh positions and two armored vehicles," the statement said.

According to the statement, at least two jihadists were killed in Garma. There has no mention of casualties on the Iraqi side.

In a separate statement, Iraqi commander Nasser Ghanem announced Monday that Iraqi security forces launched a successful counterattack on ISIS attack in the town of Baghdadi, killing at least 35 faceless myrmidons and destroying five of the group's armored vehicles and one military base.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nusra Front seizes ISIS-held town near Occupied Golan Heights
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Al Qaeda's Syria wing, the Nusra Front, backed by Islamist factions seized control of an ISIS-held town southwest Syria near the Occupied Golan Heights, a monitoring group said Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Nusra Front and Islamic factions have seize the town of Sahem al- Golan after violent festivities with ISIS-linked group Shohadaa al- Yarmouk Brigade.

On Sunday, Nusra fighters launched a major attack on ISIS-last stronghold southwest Syria.

The area has witnessed festivities when Shohadaa al- Yarmouk Brigade could seized in April 29 a headquarter of the Nusra Front in the town of Sahem al- Golan in west of Daraa after violent festivities between the two sides, the Observatory said.

At least 7 Nusra fighters and 2 members of Shohadaa al-Yarmouk Brigade were killed in the festivities, including one of the most prominent leading figure in the Nusra Front from the town of al- Shehil, SOHR said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Hezbollah seizes hills from al-Qaida in Syrian province bordering Israel
Hezbollah fighters have captured two hilltops from al-Qaida's Syria wing Nusra Front in areas close to the Lebanese border and have killed dozens of enemy combatants, Hezbollah-run Al-Manar television reported on Monday. It said in a newsflash that the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group had captured the hilltops of Quba'a and Naqar in Syria's southwestern Quinetra province, which lies in sensitive territory close to Lebanon and Israel.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's civil war. The group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah,
...who doesn't come up often for fresh air...
has vowed to clear the border area of Sunni Muslim militant groups that have carried out attacks on Lebanese soil. Nasrallah fully defended his group’s war in Syria on Sunday playing down the sectarian nature of the war and instead framing it in terms of defending Lebanon and the region from the jihadist threat.

Nasrallah told thousands of supporters via video link that Hezbollah was willing to increase its presence in Syria when needed and that the fight was part of a wider strategy to prevent groups like Nusra Front and Islamic State from taking over the region.

"Our presence will increase whenever it should... Yes, we are not present in one place in Syria and not the other. We will be everywhere in Syria," he said during a celebration to mark the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon.
You guys will be everywhere in Syria, and dying because of it. But Nasrallah will eat a goat in your honor...
He added that an offensive his group is leading in the mountainous region of Qalamoun along the border between Syria and Lebanon would last "until the borders are secured".

Nasrallah went on to accuse its domestic rivals from the Sunni Future Movement of supporting the jihadist groups and warned that “they will be the first victims,” according to Al-Manar. He addressed the Christians, asking who would protect them from this threat.

Nasrallah called on the peoples of the region to unite against the Jihadists. The Hezbollah leader also warned that the US could not help them against the jihadists.

"Soon, it will be the ISIS anniversary of occupying Mosul... The international coalition led by the United States, what have they done? Let’s not talk politics or intentions, but what have they done?" said Nasrallah, according to The Daily Star.

The head of the Future Movement, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, countered Nasrallah’s speech saying that the state is responsible for protecting the country, not Hezbollah.
Anytime the state wants to step up to do just that would be fine, Saad...
“We, in the Future Movement, declare publicly that the Lebanese state and its legitimate institutions are our guarantee, our choice and our salvation,” Harari said in a statement following Nasrallah’s speech, The Daily Star reported.

“Defending the land, sovereignty and dignity is not the responsibility of Hezbollah, neither in Arsal, nor in its outskirts, or in any other area,” said Hariri.

Hariri also rejected Nasrallah’s call for unity in Lebanon and the region to fight the jihadists: “The popular mobilization equation has no place in Lebanon. We will not cover any call for it under any circumstances,” he said.

“But if what is required is to disengage Lebanon from the fires in the region, the issue is very simple. We go back to the state, unite around its authority and support the Army and the legitimate security forces in protecting the borders and facing the dangers of terrorism, wherever it comes from,” added Hariri, according to the report.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Monitor: Syria Regime Launches 15 Air Raids Around Palmyra
[AnNahar] Syrian government aircraft launched at least 15 strikes in and around the ancient city of Palmyra on Monday, following its fall to the Islamic State group, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids were the most intense since the jihadists overran the city on Thursday.

"Since this morning, government aircraft have carried out at least 15 air strikes in Palmyra and the areas around it," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. He said there were reports of casualties but he had no firm toll.

The strikes targeted several areas of the city, including some close to the city's famed Greco-Roman ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site, he said.

IS is accused of executing hundreds of people in and around Palmyra since it swept into the oasis city last week after a lightning advance across the desert from its stronghold in the Euphrates Valley to the east.

The Observatory said on Sunday that it had documented the executions of at least 217 people, among them 67 civilians, including 14 children. Some of those killed had been beheaded, Abdel Rahman said, adding that the jihadists had also taken some 600 people prisoner.

Syrian state media said at least 400 civilians had been killed by IS in Palmyra, most of them women, children and old men. The pro-government al-Watan daily reported on Monday that the number of executions had risen to 450.
According to Al Ahram, they targetted buildings captured by ISIS:
Islamic State have killed at least 217 people execution-style in the area since May 16 including children, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

This was in addition to at least 300 soldiers killed 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....
in fighting leading up to the city's capture, according to the Observatory's toll.

It said the hardline group had detained around 600 soldiers, pro-government fighters and those accused of being loyalists in and around the city, also a key military gain as it stands on a crossroads to the cities of Damascus and Homs.

The air force carried out raids on targets including the military intelligence building and the city hospital, said Observatory founder Rami Abdulrahman, who gathers information from a network of sources on the ground.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Monitor: IS Executes 217 in, Near Syria's Palmyra in 9 Days
[AnNahar] 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 has executed at least 217 people, including civilians, in and around the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in the last nine days, a monitor said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the executions of 67 civilians, including children, and 150 members of regime forces by IS jihadists in different parts of Homs province since May 16.

"The Observatory has confirmed that the Islamic State has executed 67 civilians, including 14 children and 12 women in Sukhnah, Al-Amiriyah, the outskirts of the Officers' Housing and Palmyra," said the Britannia-based group, referring to several areas in the east of Homs province.

"IS also executed more than 150 members of the army, National Defense Forces and Popular Committees (pro-regime militias) and others accused of being 'informers loyal to the regime'," the Observatory added.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said whole families had been executed, including children along with their parents.

"Most of the deaths were in Palmyra, some of the executions were shootings, others were killed with knives and beheaded," he told AFP.

The toll from the Observatory came hours after Syrian state media said IS had carried out a "massacre" in Palmyra, slaughtering some 400 civilians, mostly women and kiddies.

The Observatory said the executions came in the days after IS began a sweep into Homs from their stronghold in neighboring Deir Ezzor province.

They captured the strategic town of Sukhnah on May 13, and took Palmyra some 24 hours later, prompting international concern about the fate of the city's famed ancient ruins.

Fighters entered the museum in the historic city and had placed guards at its doors, the country's antiquities director said on Saturday, though most of its treasures were removed and brought to Damascus before IS cemented its control.

The Observatory said another 600 people had been taken prisoner by IS in their sweep through the area, among them regime forces and pro-government turbans, but also civilians accused of ties to the regime.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


IS and Nusra Clash in Arsal Outskirts after Militant Abducted
[AnNahar] Clashes erupted on Monday in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal between the turban 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....
and al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front groups, state-run National News Agency reports.

The agency said the fighting broke out after the IS shot a man identified as Ahmed Seifeddine in the town before abducting him to its mountainous outskirts.

The abductee goes by the nickname Al-Silis and is a member of al-Nusra Front, NNA added.

The two groups have been clashing in the town's outskirts for months now.

Despite ideological similarities, al-Nusra and the IS are opposed and in conflict with each other in other parts of Syria, particularly in the north.

In August 2014, the two groups however joined forces and engaged in a deadly battle with the Lebanese army in and around Arsal. They were eventually ousted from the town but they kidnapped dozens of troops and coppers during their retreat.

Four hostages have been executed until the moment and the two groups have threatened further killings if Lebanese authorities do not fulfill their demands.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/26/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
6Islamic State
4Hamas
3Taliban
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Syria
2Houthis
2al-Nusra
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
1Arab Spring
1Hezbollah
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Jundullah
1Salafists
1al-Shabaab
1Boko Haram
1Commies
1Govt of Iraq

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2015-05-26
  Suicide bomber blows himself up during Rangers operation in Karachi
Mon 2015-05-25
  Syria: IS executes hundreds in Palmyra
Sun 2015-05-24
  Prayer leader explodes in mosque
Sat 2015-05-23
  Kunar Drone Strike Kills Four Taliban
Fri 2015-05-22
  Air strikes kill 15 militants in North Waziristan
Thu 2015-05-21
  Kurds advance against Islamic State in northeastern Syria
Wed 2015-05-20
  IS Attacks Syria Druze Village, Battles for Palmyra
Tue 2015-05-19
  US drone strike in North Waziristan leaves six 'militants' dead
Mon 2015-05-18
  ISIS confirms Ramadi capture
Sun 2015-05-17
  US special forces kill senior IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
Sat 2015-05-16
  Jury sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for marathon attack
Fri 2015-05-15
  Belmokhtar's Jihadist Group in N. Africa Pledges Allegiance to IS
Thu 2015-05-14
  ISIS acting leader al-Afri killed by US-led airstrike
Wed 2015-05-13
  Iraq Blast Kills Four including Peshmerga General
Tue 2015-05-12
  Drone Strike Kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen's Mukalla

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
18.205.114.205
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (21)    Non-WoT (14)    Opinion (1)    (0)    Politix (3)