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Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't think they have Proms (short for Promenade, I assume) in Italy.
Posted by: mojo || 11/30/2012 12:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Birthday Gam Shot

Elisha Cuthbert [Canuck][Filmography](age 30)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/30/2012 13:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Ballroom Dancing jeans ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/30/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder less about the prom and more about catching my breath!
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/30/2012 14:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Is that while dancing, or while staring at the wimmins, Skidmark?
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 11/30/2012 15:38 Comments || Top||

#6  "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti."

- Sophia Loren

Posted by: Pappy || 11/30/2012 17:52 Comments || Top||

#7  I knew there was a reason I love spaghetti.

(unfortunately it has the opposite effect on me :( )
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/30/2012 18:22 Comments || Top||

#8  CrazyFool I loved that, same thing.:(
Posted by: Dale || 11/30/2012 18:29 Comments || Top||

#9  Birthday Gam Shot

Charlene Tilton [Filmography](age 54)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/01/2012 4:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Roadside Bomb Kills 10 in Afghanistan
[An Nahar] A roadside kaboom killed 10 civilians, including a woman and five children, and maimed eight when it destroyed a van in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.

The families were on their way to visit a relative who had recently returned from Mecca when their vehicle was hit in Dih Rawud district in rural Uruzgan province, district governor Nematullah Khaliqi told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Four of the dead are men, one is a woman and the rest are children. Eight others, men, women and kiddies, are maimed," he said.

The corpse count was confirmed by Abdullah Hemat, a front man for the provincial governor.

Roadside bombs are the weapon of choice of hardline Islamist Talibs fighting Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
troops in an effort to topple the government of President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
While the Taliban say their targets are military, civilians using the same roads are frequently the victims.

Earlier this month a roadside kaboom killed 17 civilians -- mostly women and kiddies -- on their way to a wedding party in western Afghanistan.

Afghan weddings are often lavish affairs, drawing hundreds of relatives and guests from far afield in the war-torn land, and the blast took the total toll among wedding guests on the roads to 46 in less than a month.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Soldier Opens Fire on a Civilian Bus in Mogadishu,Kills One
[Shabelle] Witnesses said that a government soldier on Thursday opened fire on a civilian bus traveling at Tarabunka square in Mogadishu, Somali capital, killing civilian, injuring 2 others.

The incident took place after the driver of the vehicle ignored to pay illegal money demanded by the driver the soldier that led the death of a woman on the car.

"A government soldier killed the woman and maimed two others who were on board on a civilian bus that was traveling today on Tarabunka Street located south of Mogadishu," a Witness said.

Reports said Security forces reached at the area of the shooting minutes after the soldier managed to escape uncaught.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Gov't soldiers battle Al shabab in Gedo,southwest Somalia
[Shabelle] Heavy battle between Somali government troops backed by Kenyan army serving under AMISOM force and Al shabab Death Eaters broke out Thursday in the southwestern province of Gedo.

Locals say the fighting ignited when Somali forces moved closer to Burdhubo, a rebel-held city near Garbaharey town, the scenic provincial capital of Gedo. Reports said Kenyan warplanes were seen taking part the combat against Al shabab.

Lieutenant Col.Aden Hirse Rufle, has told Shabelle Media station by phone that several training camps and arms caches belonging to the Death Eaters were destroyed in the aerial attacks by Kenyan defence forces (KDF) during the skirmish.

"The offensive was a preplanned and took place at an Al shabab stronghold area called Burdhubo. So far, the exact number of the casualties is yet unclear as the fighting raging on," he added.

Al shabab officials have not yet released any word or comments on the Thursday's warfare in Gedo region, southwest Somalia.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Third day of protests in Tunisia, 250 injured
[Al Ahram] More than 250 Tunisian protesters were injured following clashes against security forces in a the southwestern town of Siliana, revealing public anger against socio-economic failures of the Islamist-led government in Tunisia
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
'Dangerous' Qaida Leader Arrested in South Yemen
[An Nahar] Security forces on Thursday placed in long-term storage
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
a "dangerous" al-Qaeda chief in southern Yemen who took part in several attacks, state news agency Saba reported.

The agency, citing police, said Suleiman Hassan Mohammed Morshad Awadh, also known as Abu Ussama al-Abiye, was "one of the most dangerous members of al-Qaeda and involved in several terrorist operations."

Awadh, whose name figured on a wanted list, was arrested in Zinjibar, capital of 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...
province, it said, without giving details.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Home Front: WoT
Two Brothers Arrested in Terror Plot
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday it has arrested two brothers in south Florida and charged them with conspiring to support terrorists in a plot to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S.

Law-enforcement officials were tight-lipped about what Raees Alam Qazi, 20, and Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, were suspected of doing. One law-enforcement official said the charges weren't the result of a sting operation. The official said investigators were actively pursuing leads in the case which could lead to further arrests.

The brothers are naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Pakistan, officials said.

A three-page indictment filed in federal court in Miami said the plot began in July 2011, and continued until the pair were arrested Thursday. Justice Department officials said the brothers conspired to provide property, funding and other services as part of a scheme to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Under federal criminal law, the term "weapon of mass destruction" can refer to anything from a homemade pipe bomb to a much larger explosive.

Lawyers for the two didn't immediately return messages seeking comment. If convicted of the more serious of the two charges, the pair face up to life in prison.

The two suspects were arrested Thursday in Fort Lauderdale. They made an initial court appearance there Friday afternoon, but it wasn't clear if any plea was entered. A follow-up hearing is scheduled next week.
Posted by: tipper || 11/30/2012 18:00 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Under federal criminal law, the term "weapon of mass destruction" can refer to anything from a homemade pipe bomb to a much larger explosive.

Goodness me -- how quickly the goalposts can be moved when the "right" party is in the presidency.
Posted by: Thusort Ebbomoting1144 || 11/30/2012 18:55 Comments || Top||

#2  WMD = CBRNE: chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and enhanced (conventional explosive) weapons.

It's been that defined that way for a number of years prior to Obama, Thusort.
Posted by: lotp || 11/30/2012 19:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Yuppers, I remember.
Tiz MSM goalposts I be referrin' to.
Posted by: Thusort Ebbomoting1144 || 11/30/2012 19:52 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Kildare || 11/30/2012 21:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Imambargah trustee gunned down in 'sectarian' attack
[Dawn] A septuagenarian trustee of an Imambargah was bumped off in Nazimabad on Wednesday evening, police said.

Police said that Hasan Mohsin Naqvi, 70, was sitting in a park after offering prayers at Imambargah Jamia Imamia in Nazimabad No 2 when assailants riding a cycle of violence emerged, one of them walked up to the victim and fired three shots and fled.

DSP Iftikhar Lodhi said that the victim suffered two bullet wounds in the head and one in the chest and was struck down in his prime.

Initial circumstantial evidence suggested that the killing was executed by sectarian motives, but it could be otherwise, as the victim had a dispute with another person over the trusteeship, said DIG-West Javed Odho.

The police collected three spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Later, the body was shifted to the Rizvia Imambargah where a large number of people had gathered.

Tension gripped the Gulbahar and Rizvia Society areas where angry protesters forced shopkeepers to close down their businesses.

A bus was also set on fire in the Gulbahar area. The incident caused a serious traffic jam during the evening rush hour.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi

#1  I haven't seen the cycle of violence in a while. Thanks.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/30/2012 22:17 Comments || Top||


Man held in Lakki with 'would-be bombers'
[Dawn] Police on Wednesday placed in durance vile
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
a man in Naurang town as he was taking three boys to North Wazoo Agency allegedly for training as jacket wallahs.

Police officials claimed that the man, Yahya, basically belonging to Wazirgai Mehsud area of South Waziristan Agency was currently living in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
's Sultanabad Colony.

They said the boys, including Shah Hussain, Rehan and Mukhtiar Ahmad, were the residents of South Waziristan Agency and were currently settled in Bloody Karachi's Awan Colony.

The boys aged between 12 and 14 years, they added.An official said the arrests were made by personnel of Shaheed Asmatullah Khan Khattak cop shoppe during a raid on a bus terminal on a tip-off when the four were riding a passenger coach.

He said police had learned during interrogation that Yahya belonged to a terrorist group, which consisted of some Mehsud rustics settled in Bloody Karachi.

The official said members of the group kidnapped boys before shifting them to North Waziristan Agency for training as suicide bombers.

He said the three boys were to be taken to a Taliban training camp of suicide bombers in Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else under sections 364A, 120B, 121, 34 and 7ATA in Shaheed Asmatullah Khan Khattak cop shoppe and began investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Eight killed in Karachi violence; police arrest 15 suspects
[Dawn] At least eight people were killed on Thursday in separate incidents of firing in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, DawnNews reported.

In the most recent incident today, a man and his wife -- both doctors -- were killed when armed gunnies shot up their clinic in Bloody Karachi's Abulhasan Ispahani road.

Meanwhile,
...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end...
the biggest incident of murder today took place in Quaidabad area when gunnies rubbed out four people traveling in a taxi. All four victims were activists of a political party.

Earlier, one person was killed when unknown gunnies opened fire on him on the Hub River Road in Bloody Karachi's Baldia Town area.

Another man was rubbed out in the Baldia Town's Abidabad area.

Separately, the police claimed arresting 15 people, including two suspected bank robbers.

The city's East Zone police conducted different operations and tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
13 suspects, including three proclaimed offenders. The police also recovered weapons from the arrested individuals.

Moreover, Gulistan-e-Jauhar police arrested two suspects allegedly involved in a bank robbery.

According to police sources, the suspects looted a private bank on Bloody Karachi's University Road and managed to flee with Rs 36 million.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistani Warlord Wounded in Suicide Attack
[An Nahar] Pak warlord Mullah Nazir, who sends men into Afghanistan to fight US soldiers, was maimed Thursday in a suicide kaboom that killed two other people, security officials said.

Nazir is the main warlord affiliated to the Pak Taliban in South Wazoo, one of seven districts that make up the semi-autonomous tribal belt considered a base for al-Qaeda and other Islamist turbans.

The bomber went kaboom!" near Nazir's vehicle as it passed through the market in Wana, the main town of the district, the officials said.

Two people were killed and at least five others were maimed, including Nazir, the officials told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity, though accounts differed over the gravity of the warlord's injuries.

"The bomber was a boy aged 13 or 14. Five to seven people were maimed, including Mullah Nazir. His condition is said to be not serious," one of the officials said.

But another official in Wana said Nazir was "seriously maimed" in the attack.

An intelligence official based in the neighboring district of Tank said there had been a suicide attack and that firing subsequently broke out in the main market of Wana.

"The bazaar is closed now. We're trying to get more information," he said.

Sources in Wana said Nazir, who has survived murder attempts in the past, had fallen out with Uzbek fighters he had expelled from South Waziristan several years ago.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Nazir, guess you're not Holy enough.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/30/2012 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  If he survived the bombing, he ain't holey enough either...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/30/2012 17:10 Comments || Top||


US drone appears to miss target in South Waziristan: officials
[Dawn] A US drone fired two missiles into open fields in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt on Thursday, causing no apparent damage or casualties, local security officials said.

It is highly unusual for no casualties to be reported when unmanned American aircraft target Taliban and al Qaeda-linked gunnies in Pakistain's semi-autonomous tribal belt.

The attack came in the Shin Warsak area of South Wazoo about 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the Afghan border.

The area is a stronghold of Pak warlord Mullah Nazir, who officials said was maimed in a suicide kaboom in the district's main town of Wana earlier on Thursday.

"Two or three gunnies were walking in a cultivated field. A US drone fired two missiles but no one was hurt," a security official based in the northwestern city of 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.
told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A second security official in South Waziristan confirmed the drone strike and said that "so far" there was no report of any damage.

DawnNews earlier reported that two suspected gunnies were killed in the strike.

The majority of US drone strikes target gunnies in the neighbouring district of North Waziristan and the last reported attack in Pakistain was on October 24.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  The two militants were walking in a field and originally reported killed, but now they say no one was hurt? Does that mean the militants were not hurt or that they cannot find any pieces of them?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/30/2012 7:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe an idiot on the stick?

Or, misguidance, as reported in the Indiana explosion.
Be interesting if there is a embedded, immediate 'go to ground' command when C2 drops.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/30/2012 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Or real innocents wandered into the line-of-fire, if such exist in South Wazoo.

Posted by: Shipman || 11/30/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||


Fresh US drone strike kills four in northwestern Pakistan
[Iran Press TV] A fresh US liquidation drone strike has claimed the lives of at least four people and severely injured several others in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt near the mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan.

The causalities come after the aerial strikes targeted a vehicle and a residential compound in the Shane Warsak area of Wana, the capital town of South Wazoo on Thursday evening.

Local security officials say the CIA-operated unmanned vehicles also fired multiple missiles into open fields across the volatile region.

Witnesses say the drones were still hovering over the troubled region, triggering an unprecedented scale of horror and panic among the local residents.

The aerial attacks were initiated by former US President George W. Bush, but have escalated under President B.O..

Pak tribal regions are the target of US terror drones, with Washington claiming that its unmanned aircraft are targeting thugs. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
casualty figures clearly indicate that Pak civilians are the main victims of the assaults.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US VIEWS MIDDLE EAST [Arab-Muslim World] AS TEST SITES FOR DRONES, ARMS: ANALYST.

versus

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA TO REPLACE CARRIER PILOTS WID SOFTWARE, i.e. Drones.

ARTIC = AGE OF MANNED AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS FOR CHINESE CV'S COULD VERY WELL BE A SHORT ONE, US hopes to be able to begin unit-sized, routine UAV flightops aboard USN CVNS come 2014.

Year 2014 strikes again.

["THE TERMINATOR" DA ARNUULD + "WAR OF THE MACHINES" here].

Civil War II + Robot War???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/01/2012 0:10 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Court Sentences Fugitive VP's Guards to Death
[An Nahar] Four of runaway Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's bodyguards were sentenced to death on Thursday for killing a civil defense officer and his wife, judicial front man Abdelsattar Bayraqdar said.

The sentences were handed down by the Central Criminal Court for the killings in west Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
in 2011, Bayraqdar told AFP.

Death sentences were given to two Hashemi guards on November 8 and six on November 6. The Thursday sentences bring the total number of sentences handed to Hashemi's guards to 12, but it was not immediately clear if some guards had received multiple sentences.

Hashemi, a top Sunni official and a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
, has himself been handed four death sentences on twelve systems in absentia. He dismisses the charges against he and his staff as politically motivated.

Hashemi, his secretary and his guards were originally accused of running a death squad in mid-December 2011 as the last U.S. troops left the country.

He fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which declined to hand him over to the federal government, and then embarked on a tour that took him to Qatar and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
, and finally to Turkey.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336093 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  LOL

Soddy Arabia. Like it.

A country that is permitted to kill 3000 people in NYC city and the US "retaliates" by attacking several of their regional rivals, while making not a single strike on Saudi itself.

Saudi inmates released from Gitmo at insistence of Saudi Govt, then sent on "art therapy" classes - promptly rejoin Al Qaeda in Yemen.

The US won't touch Saudi. Can't touch it. US president bows to their King.

If Saudi did that to Israel, it would retaliate and the Saudis know that.
Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff || 11/30/2012 7:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Chuffing's got a good point - POTUS does bow to King Soddy.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/30/2012 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Its not just Obama. Bush was good friends with them all. No airstrikes on them on his watch either.
Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff || 11/30/2012 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  A country that is permitted to kill 3000 people in NYC city and the US "retaliates" by attacking several of their regional rivals, while making not a single strike on Saudi itself.

Saudi Arabia did not kill 3000 people in NYC. Al Qaeda did. Note that the Chinese government killed 100K GI's in Korea and Vietnam, and no retaliatory strikes were mounted in China proper. The animus against the Saudi royals is misplaced. They're a bunch of skirt-chasers hiding behind a facade of religious piety, while a simmering cauldron of religious zealots in and out of Saudi Arabia snipe at their every move - accusing them of corruption at every opportunity because they - as custodians of both the Muslim holy places, and owners of unimaginable oil wealth - have not mounted the go-for-broke jihad to conquer the world that Muhammad insisted was the sacred duty of every Muslim.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/30/2012 19:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Hush, Zang. You'll harsh his mellow.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/30/2012 23:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Hush, Zang. You'll harsh his mellow.

I was merely pointing out that the Saudi royals are doing about as much as they can to help us, given the nest of vipers/den of troglodytes over which they rule. Desert Storm was the only war of necessity we mounted in which an ally covered all our expenses. The Saudis and the Kuwaitis covered close to 90% of the $60b it cost for us to mount the operation. After WWI and WWII, the Brits paid us back what they had borrowed from us, but they never covered our expenses. Apart from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, I can't think of any other ally that has ever covered our expenses for a war in its defense. In looking at the actual facts rather than the windy rhetoric coming from the misinformed, the Saudi royals have been better than the average ally.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/01/2012 0:05 Comments || Top||


Attacks against Shiites kill 31 in Iraq
[Al Ahram] Bombs targeting Shiite Mohammedans in areas south of Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
on Thursday killed 31 people and maimed 98, security and medical officials said.

The attacks marked the second wave of bombings against Shiites this week after three car booms went kaboom! near their places of worship in Storied Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 50.

In Thursday's attacks, two roadside kabooms targeting a group of Shiite pilgrims in the city of Hilla killed 26 people and maimed 85, police and medical sources said.

The dead included two women, three children, two medics and a civil defence member, they said.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area of the blasts and set up checkpoints in the city to search cars, an AFP correspondent said, adding that shops near the site were shuttered after the attack.

In the shrine city of Karbala, a car boom went kaboom! under a bridge, killing five people and wounding 13, a police front man and a medical official said.

The front man said that security forces closed off all roads leading to the old city, where Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam, is buried, and were searching for a second car boom.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336061 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians win UN state recognition
[Al Ahram] The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a non-member state, handing a major triumph to president Mahmud Abbas in the face of fierce US and Israeli opposition
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Call them a state, tell them the very next attack will be considered a declaration of war and when it happens, destroy them utter and claim the land as spoils.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 11/30/2012 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  All that land was gifted by the creator to the Jews. It says that in the christian bible, but still the vermin claim some rights to it.

They won't get it. The UN has no troops to match the IDF.

Backward Christian soldiers! :)
Posted by: Deadeye Snamble1967 || 11/30/2012 2:38 Comments || Top||

#3  A state that

- uses Israeli currency because they have none of their own
- a President whose term ended 5 years ago and who never seems to get around to authorizing a new election
- a President whose life would be ended if he entered Gaza - which is supposedly part of the state
- a State that gets about 60% of their national income from donor countries
- a state that names streets and town squares after suicide bombers
Posted by: lord garth || 11/30/2012 6:42 Comments || Top||

#4  "a President whose term ended 5 years ago and who never seems to get around to authorizing a new election"

To be fair that applies to most of our allies in the region - Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, etc
Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff || 11/30/2012 7:32 Comments || Top||

#5  To be fair that applies to most of our allies in the region - Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, etc

Hereditary monarchies and sultanates and such don't elect their leaders, as I recall, and all terms of office are for life.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/30/2012 12:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Separately, Israel has responded to the UN vote by approving building permits for 3,000 units in the West Bank and Jerusalem. link
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/30/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||

#7  pure coincidence, TW, since cause-and-effect has no place in Paleo Culture
Posted by: Frank G || 11/30/2012 14:30 Comments || Top||


Jenin Man Sentenced To Lifetime Hard Labor For Collaboration
[Ma'an] A Nablus court on Tuesday sentenced a Paleostinian man to a lifetime of hard labor for collaborating with Israel.

The 21-year-old man from Qabatiya in Jenin, identified by his initials J.A., was convicted of serving a hostile army and of providing Israeli agents with information about Paleostinian runaways who were eventually killed by Israeli forces, a Ma'an news hound said.

He was sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor for serving the enemy under article 110 of the Paleostinian Basic Law, and received another life sentence of hard labor for premeditated murder under article 327.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Two Austrian Soldiers Wounded in Damascus Shooting
[An Nahar] Two Austrian soldiers stationed with the U.N. force on the Golan Heights were shot and maimed in Syria while their convoy was traveling to Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
airport on Thursday, the defense ministry in Vienna said.

The two troops, whose lives were not in danger, were part of the Austrian contingent of the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
Disengagement Observers Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights and were traveling to Damascus airport to fly back to Austria after their tour of duty, the ministry said.

Two more soldiers in the Austrian convoy were lightly injured by fragments, it added.

It was unclear whether the shooters were Syrian government forces or rebels fighting to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
's regime, according to a ministry front man.

One soldier was shot in the arm and the other in the shoulder, but both were quickly treated by an accompanying doctor and the convoy was now at the airport.

Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger and Defense Minister Norbert Darabos condemned the attack, adding they would file a loud protest with the U.N. Security Council.

"That Austrian peacekeepers are shot at must be condemned in the strongest terms and demands appropriate consequences," they said in a joint statement.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria rebels assault army base as fighting rages
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels Thursday launched an assault on Wadi Daif, one of the last military bases in northwestern Syria still under the regime's control, while fighting also erupted around Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
, a watchdog said.
Several rebel brigades joined forces for the attack on the fortress-like base in Idlib province, while the army responded with heavy fire and shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Further south, rockets struck areas between Al-Hajar al-Aswad and the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in Damascus province, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

It added that warplanes bombed orchards in a rebel-held zone extending from Kfar Sousa near Damascus to Daraya in the southwest, where fighting has been raging for weeks. In video footage the rebels announced on Wednesday they are holding the representative of the interior ministry for the town of Daraya, the de facto local head of police.

Elsewhere, a rebel was killed in festivities in the city of Deir Ezzor in the east, while another was killed in a village near the central city of Homs, said the Observatory which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground. On Wednesday, at least 158 people were killed in Syria, including 99 civilians, the Observatory said in its daily toll.

The watchdog has recorded more than 40,000 people killed since a popular uprising against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
broke out in March last year.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
just outside Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.
Residents also reported Internet connections in the capital were down and mobile and land telephone lines working only sporadically in what appeared to be the worst disruption to communications in Syria since an uprising began 20 months ago.

The past two weeks have seen rebels overrunning army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds.

Rebels and activists said the fighting along the road to Damascus airport, southeast of the capital, was heavier in that area than at any other time in the conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a opposition monitoring group, said festivities were particularly intense in Babbila, a suburb bordering the jihad boy stronghold of Tadamon.

Nabeel al-Ameer, a front man for the rebel Military Council in Damascus, said that a large number of army reinforcements had arrived along the road after three days of scattered festivities ending with rebels seizing side streets to the north of it.

"There are no festivities directly around the airport; the fighting is about 3 or 4 kilometres away," he said via Skype, adding that rebels had taken control of many secondary roads and were expected to advance towards the airport.

He said that he hoped the proximity of the rebels to the airport would dissuade authorities from using it to import military equipment, but the priority now was to block the road.

A Syrian security source told Rooters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

Residents said the Internet in Damascus crashed in the early afternoon and mobile and land telephone lines were functioning only intermittently.

A blog post on Renesys, a U.S. company which tracks Internet traffic worldwide, said that at 12:26 p.m. in Damascus, Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down completely.

Emirates said it was suspending daily flights to Damascus "until further notice", but other airlines continued operations.

Airport sources in Cairo said an Egypt Air flight that left at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) had landed in Damascus as scheduled.

"The Egypt Air plane has arrived ... and passengers are all safe but the pilot was instructed to take off back to Cairo without passengers if he felt that the situation there is not good to stay for longer," an official at Cairo airport said.

Elsewhere in Damascus, warplanes bombed Kafr Souseh and Daraya, two neighbourhoods that fringe the centre of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units, according to opposition activists.

"Not Last Days Yet"

A senior European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
official said that Assad appeared to be preparing for a military showdown around Damascus, possibly by isolating the city with a network of checkpoints.

"The rebels are gaining ground but it is still rather slow. We are not witnessing the last days yet," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

In the north of the country, rebel units launched an offensive to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway that would allow them to block troop movements and cut Assad's main supply route to Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, Syria's biggest city.

The Observatory said that rebel units from around Idlib province massed early on Thursday morning to attack Wadi al-Deif, a base east of the rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan.

Wadi al-Deif has been a thorn in the side of rebel units who first besieged the station in October but met fierce resistance from government forces, backed up by air strikes.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform but escalated, after a military crackdown on protesters, into a civil war in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad but stopped short of arming rebel fighters as they fear heavy weapons could make their way into the hands of radical Islamist units, who have grown increasingly prominent in the insurgency.

Rebels decry their supporters for not providing them with surface-to-air missiles that they say they need to counter the air force. But recent looting of anti-aircraft missiles from army bases has allowed them to shoot down helicopters and jets.

"So far, there is no evidence that any of the surface-to-air missiles used to date have come from outside Syria," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
"The limited number of surface-to-air missiles that have shown up all appear to have come from Syrian military stock captured by the armed opposition."

He said the number of these missiles in rebel hands was probably over 20 but that will rise significantly as rebels are capturing military bases on an almost-daily basis.

The relatively small number of anti-aircraft missiles looted so far means that many rebel-controlled areas of the country remain vulnerable to air strikes. The Observatory said 15 citizens, including children and women, were killed during a bombing in Aleppo's Ansari district on Thursday.

Activist video footage showed the bodies of at least four children, wrapped in red blankets and apparently wearing pyjamas. Another video showed the immediate aftermath of the attack, with the bodies of children in the street and covered in cement dust. Half of one young boy's head was missing.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria shuts off internet access across the country
[Guardian.CO.UK] Syrian officials shut down nationwide internet access on Thursday and closed Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
airport as rebels mounted offensives nearby and tried to advance on the capital from four directions. Phone networks were also crippled in much of the country, causing fear and confusion on both sides and fuelling claims that a new rebel push was gaining momentum.

Syria's information minister blamed "terrorists" for the outage, but the communications shutdown was seen as an attempt to stymie rebel moves as militias try to co-ordinate an assault on Damascus. It was also thought to be aimed at thwarting any plans for advances in other towns and cities.

Opposition groups have also been advancing in northern Syria, particularly near the second city, Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, where the downing of two regime aircraft with surface to air missiles this week has given impetus to a rebel campaign that had become a series of attritional battles.

While officials have frequently shut down internet and mobile phone access to opposition-held areas since the uprising began in March 2011, sometimes for weeks at a time, they have never before cut web and voice communications nationwide.

Soon after noon on Thursday, all 84 of Syria's ISP address blocks were unreachable, web specialists Renesys said. Five ISP addresses did continue to function. Renesys analysts said they were used to deliver malware to anti-regime activists earlier this year, a fact that would appear to link the addresses to the government.

Landline phones began to slowly come back on line later in the day.
Posted by: Fred || 11/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  No loss, stay shut for all I care.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/30/2012 1:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Why are we calling them rebels?

Normally when Islamists blow up buses and let off car bombs in market places we'd call them something else?
Posted by: Deadeye Snamble1967 || 11/30/2012 2:41 Comments || Top||

#3  it's teh Grauniad news - you're lucky they didn't call them Freedom Fighters
Posted by: Frank G || 11/30/2012 9:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, where's the LEVANT these days? Don't we usually get treated to his smug little boasts whenever there's a dust up in that neck of the woods?

LEVANT!!! How's it going, dude? No internet? Too bad.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/30/2012 11:27 Comments || Top||

#5  WHAT? No more orders for RPG's on Ebay? This could be quite a setback :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/30/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Making the case against government control of the internet.
Posted by: mojo || 11/30/2012 13:57 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir
Wed 2012-11-28
  Packed Tahrir Square defiant as deadlock prevails
Tue 2012-11-27
  30 Inmates Escape as Gunmen Attack Nigerian Police Unit
Mon 2012-11-26
  Syrian Rebels Claim Capture of Helicopter Base Near Damascus
Sun 2012-11-25
  Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
Sat 2012-11-24
  7 People Killed in Pakistan Shiite Procession
Fri 2012-11-23
  IDF, Shin Bet Arrest 55 Terror Operatives In West Bank
Thu 2012-11-22
  Mashaal: I accept a Palestinian state on '67 borders
Wed 2012-11-21
  'Bomb blast' on bus in Tel Aviv
Tue 2012-11-20
  Female Suicide Boomer Targets Qazi
Mon 2012-11-19
  Israeli Strikes Kill 21 Palestinians, Gaza Rockets Wound 10 Israelis
Sun 2012-11-18
  Israeli air strikes pound Gaza as death toll hits 38
Sat 2012-11-17
   Israel air strikes hit Hamas HQ
Fri 2012-11-16
  Israel Warns of Escalation After Tel Aviv Missile Firing

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