[Libya Herald] It is reported that a truce has been signed this evening in Sebha between the warring Tebu and Tuareg communities. It was brokered by local tribes and those from the north west of the country.
There had been growing hopes during the day that the latest ceasefire in Sebha between Tebu and Tuareg fighters would hold as mediators from western Libya attempted to bring a permanent end to the festivities which in the three weeks since the present fighting broke are thought to have killed over 60 people.
The mediation has been carried out by a number of tribes including the Qaddadfa, the Warshefana, by Gharyan and Amazigh towns in the Jebel Nafusa, Suq Al-Juma and members of Misrata's Third Force, currently based in Sebha.
Under the deal, all displaced residents in Tiwari district near the airport, are to be allowed to return to their homes as of tomorrow, 26 July, and all prisoners held by either side released. Anyone that breaches the agreement will be held accountable politically, financially and morally by all the mediating parties and negotiations will continue to try and bring about a final peace deal between the two sides.
The festivities, which involved heavy weaponry, have caused substantial damage in Tiwari where previously both communities as well as local Arabs lived side by side in peace. Most residents left as it was impossible for anyone to live there while the fighting was going on. Those who could not stay with relatives have been housed in local schools.
The university and a place on the Obari road locally known as the "India Company have also been scenes of heavy fighting.
The main Tuareg demands in the negotiations, according to Mohammed Musa, deputy leader of the Tuareg Social Council, was that all newcomers to Tiwari leave the area, the Tebus hand over control of the checkpoint at the entry to it, and that an independent peacekeeping force take up positions to ensure that the truce lasts. It is not known if any of these conditions were addressed in the deal.
He had said that the Tuareg would uphold the current ceasefire but would respond if fired upon.
Specific casualty figures in the fighting are not known. Tuareg casualties are taken to Sebha Medical Centre which has reported over two dozen killed. Tebu dead and maimed are usually taken to the hospital at Murzuk.
Increasingly angry local Sebha residents had meanwhile demanded that that the two communities reach a permanent peace deal and that the Third Force police it to ensure it lasts. At a meeting on Thursday, locals said that if the force was unable to do so or cut back on soaring crime then it should leave the southern city. Supported by municipal councillors, they insisted that the Third Force stop gunnies from entering the centre of Sebha and ban all vehicles with tinted windows. They also demanded that local tribes ensure that their militias stay outside the centre of the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[EURONEWS] Tunisia's parliament on Saturday overwhelmingly approved legislation allowing the death penalty for those convicted on terrorism charges after Islamist holy warrior attacks that killed dozens of foreign visitors in the past few months.
Last month, a gunman killed 38 mostly British tourists in the Tunisian seaside city of Sousse. In March, two gunnies killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman at Tunis's Bardo Museum. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group.
MPs approved the bill by a margin of 174-0 with 10 abstentions early on Saturday after three days of debate in what parliament speaker Mohammed Ennaceur called an "extraordinary effort" to make the North African country a safer place.
Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... had criticized the bill, which also eases arrests of suspects, saying it "would open the way to prosecuting political dissent as terrorism, give judges overly broad powers, and curtail lawyers' ability to provide an effective defence".
The bill, which had been debated in parliament for years but put forward after the Sousse attack, will replace a law from 2003 which then-president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, toppled in a popular uprising in 2011, had used to crush dissent.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[LEADERSHIP.NG] Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai yesterday told men of the Nigerian Army that the era of playing the defensive role against the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... is over, saying, henceforth the army will play the offensive role against the sect until they are completely dislodged.
The Army Chief stated this in Kaduna during the graduation ceremony of Nigerian Battalion 37, United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), pre-deployment training at the Nigerian Army Peace Keeping Centre (NAPKC) and the combined graduation of basic airborne course 37 and basic rigger course 23 of the Airborne wing of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry (NASI), Jaji Cantonment.
He challenged the troops to adopt offensive disposition and respond quickly and appropriately to all situations.
The army boss also reiterated that the Army has the wherewithal to tackle its internal problems, assuring that it is on top of the situation in the Northeast.
According to him, his vision for the Nigerian Army is to be professionally responsive in the discharge of its constitutional roles.
"The cardinals of this vision are professionalism and responsiveness. In line with these, we must learn to adopt offensive disposition and respond quickly and appropriately to all situations taking into cognisance, our rules of engagement. The era of waiting in defensive positions for criminals to come and attack and run away must stop. We must take the battle to them and dislodge them wherever they are. I therefore want you to show your commitment to this vision," he said.
To the 658 troops deployed on peace keeping mission to Liberia, the Army Chief warned that, "the Nigerian Army will not accept any situation where its troops are seen as soft targets or conducting themselves in unprofessional manner such as trafficking in illicit substances of any kind, including alcohol and drugs, as these practices negate United Nations ethics.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAILYTIMES.NG] Cameroun has extended a ban on full Islamic veils in parts of the country as it seeks to curb 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... violence after a string of suicide kabooms by female attackers.
The decision comes less than a month after two exploding trollop female suicide bombers wearing full veils blew themselves up on the border with Nigeria in the north, killing 11.
Then on Wednesday twin suicide kabooms by two maidens of tender years killed 13 people in a market in Maroua in northern 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... The full veil is already banned in the northern and western regions of Cameroun. It is now also forbidden in the east.
The governor of the East Region chaired a security meeting Thursday that included Moslemholy mans where he "announced the ban of a full veil or burqa," Cameroun Radio Television reported.
Mireille Bisseck, official spokeswoman for the western Littoral region, where the economic capital of Douala is located, told AFP that "the manufacturing, sale and wearing of the burqa" has been banned.
Bisseck said that sermons during Moslem prayers would also be subject to increased surveillance.
Northern Cameroun has been hit hard by Boko Haram attacks, and authorities fear they might spread southwards and into big cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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It takes Al-Grauniad to expose Turk perfidy with ISIS?
When US special forces raided the compound of an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria in May, they made sure not to tell the neighbours.
The target of that raid, the first of its kind since US jets returned to the skies over Iraq last August, was an Isis official responsible for oil smuggling, named Abu Sayyaf. He was almost unheard of outside the upper echelons of the terror group, but he was well known to Turkey. From mid-2013, the Tunisian fighter had been responsible for smuggling oil from Syria's eastern fields, which the group had by then commandeered. Black market oil quickly became the main driver of Isis revenues â and Turkish buyers were its main clients.
As a result, the oil trade between the jihadis and the Turks was held up as evidence of an alliance between the two. It led to protests from Washington and Europe â both already wary of Turkey's 900-mile border with Syria being used as a gateway by would-be jihadis from around the world.
The estimated $1m-$4m per day in oil revenues that was thought to have flowed into Isis coffers over at least six months from late 2013 helped to transform an ambitious force with limited means into a juggernaut that has been steadily drawing western forces back to the region and increasingly testing state borders.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/26/2015 17:09 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Turkey has not really been an ally since they denied US forces during the Iraq War.
[BBC] Within a week, it has gone from a reluctant observer, abstaining from military action against so-called 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.... , to full-blown military strikes against the group, opening up its bases to coalition attacks and, simultaneously, the first aerial bombing of PKK Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq in four years.
Why the sudden turnaround?
For months, Ankara resisted military involvement in the US-led coalition of the willing. It insisted that the attacks also target Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's forces. Washington's reply was, in effect, that the immediate concern was IS and that the "Assad problem" needed to be put on the back burner.
But The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's second condition, that a no-fly zone be created in northern Syria, seems to have gained a little more traction.
Turkey's foreign minister now says a "safe area" along the Turkish border, free of IS bully boys, will be created, patrolled by coalition aircraft. That seems to have played a major role in jolting Turkey into action.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
on both sides
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/26/2015 9:48 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain ...think of the head of the Barzini clan, only in Urdu... has suspended the party's 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... Rabita Committee (Coordination Committee) for what he called its members inability to fulfill their responsibilities despite continual assurances, a blurb on the MQM's website said. Hussain is hoping to constitute a new coordination committee in Karachi, the positions for which he has invited senior party members to apply.
In the statement that was published on the website on Saturday, Hussain said a decision would be made on the future of the coordination committee in London either today or tomorrow.
The MQM chief has moreover invited senior party officials from different zones and sectors to apply for positions for a new coordination committee that he is hoping to constitute.
He said senior party officials who believe themselves to be capable of taking on the responsibility should submit their information at the party's Nine-Zero headquarters in Azizabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... said that it is not him but Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... who should apologise over the judicial commission's report, as all political parties are in agreement that there was rigging during the 2013 general elections.
In a much-awaited response to the report, Imran lashed out at the Election Commission of Pakistain (ECP), saying "ECP had no idea of how the elections were being conducted."
Quoting the judicial commission report, he said "ECP had no coordination with provincial election commissions."
Imran appreciated the performance of the judicial commission and said there was no conspiracy and the military's leadership was not involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Masoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region said he was saddened by the latest rising tensions between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Barzani expressed his deep concern regarding the recent dangerous developments and said he has urged the involved parties not to escalate the crisis further.
Peace is the only way to solve the problems and negotiation for years is better than one hour of war, Barzani stressed. "Kurdistan region will try its best to prevent further escalation of the situation. Returning to negotiation table is the best solution," said Barzani.
Barzani also stressed that he had done everything possible to make the grinding of the peace processor succeed in that past and would do everything in his power to deescalate the current tensions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades readies recruits in summer program for 'spiritual, intellectual and physical' struggle for 'liberation'
The military wing of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, opened a Gazoo summer camp on Saturday, providing combat training for 25,000 Paleostinians as young as 15.
Hamas, an Islamic krazed killer group that is the de facto power in Gazoo, is currently engaged in indirect contacts with Israel to try to reach a long-term truce, but a year after last summer's devastating 50-day war the terrorist movement has kept up the fighting talk.
"The goal of these military training camps is to train the vanguard for liberation -- spiritually, intellectually and physically -- to be ready and able to play its role in liberation," said a statement by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing.
It said that participants, aged 15-60, would spend two weeks being "trained in military techniques and in firing live ammunition" as well as "first aid and rescue techniques."
As with all the brigades' activities the camps will be conducted out of public and media sight.
Hamas has long run summer camps devoted to sport and study of the Koran in Gazoo but over the winter the al-Qassam brigades launched a new kind of camp, giving military training to 15 to 20-year-olds. Human rights activists condemned it as a forced militarization of Gazook society and a violation of children's rights. Brushing off the criticism, the brigades are repeating the exercise with the summer camp, while raising the upper age limit to 60.
Avowedly committed to the destruction of Israel, Hamas has fought three rounds of conflict against Israel since it took charge, most recently a 50-day war last summer. It has bragged since that it is again digging tunnels to the Israeli border and developing and manufacturing new rockets for use against Israel.
Under the guise of a program named "Pioneers of the Resistance", Paleostinian youths -- aged 15 to 21 -- have undergone intensive military training, including exercises simulating operations of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, naval commandos.
The participants of the bad boy camp were also trained in firing sniper rifles, using the portraits of Israeli leaders for targets. The Paleostinian youth simulated attacks on Israeli destinations through model terror tunnels, meant to recreate the experience of infiltrating Israeli territory.
Recently Hamas claimed that demand for a place in the camp had exceeded the planned quota and they were forced to make changes to accept all the applicants. The group's leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... attended a graduation ceremony for the thousands of future Hamas holy warriors earlier this year.
[Ynet] US source says about 16 decommissioned attack helicopters given to Jordan last year to fend off potential attacks from ISIS.
Israel has given retired US-supplied Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan to help the Hashemite kingdom fend off Death Eater threats on the Syrian and Iraqi borders, a US official with knowledge of the deal said.
The handover, initiated last year, was approved by Washington, which provided mechanical overhauls for the aircraft before they were incorporated free of charge in Jordan's existing Cobra fleet, the official said.
"These choppers are for border security," the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Rooters.
Asked how many Cobras were transferred, the official said: "Around 16, though some may have been used by the Jordanians for spare parts" rather than kept intact.
Jordanian and Israeli officials declined comment, as did the Pentagon.
Israel and Jordan, as well as 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 the Soddy national face... and Iraq, this week hosted US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who offered reassurances about the regional fight against 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 the July 14 international deal curbing Iran's nuclear program.
Israel originally had two Cobra squadrons - each consisting of around 30 of the aircraft, which are designed to back ground troops with aerial surveillance as well as machine gun and rocket fire, and to be nimble enough to elude surface-to-air missiles.
One of the squadrons was disbanded in the mid-2000s and the other in 2013, with Israel's air force preferring the more powerful, US-supplied Apache helicopters also in its fleet and an expanded role for its thrifty and versatile death droids.
The Jordanian air force has 25 Cobras in service, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Cobra's manufacturer is Bell Helicopter, a Textron company.
Israel has pledged to step in should Amman be threatened by Islamic State or other bully boyz rampaging elsewhere in the Middle East.
#2
"retired" choppers and inshallah maintenance.....
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/26/2015 8:19 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Jordan actually has a professional military and its equipment is kept up pretty well so those Cobras will be put to good use. Jordan is gonna need them.
[Ynet] Iran has completed negotiations with some European companies wanting to invest in projects in the country following a nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers this month, an Iranian deputy minister said on Thursday.
"We are recently witnessing the return of European investors to the country. Some of these negotiations have concluded, and we have approved and granted them the foreign investment licences and protections," Mohammad Khazaei told a conference promoting trade between the EU and Iran.
"Even in the past couple of weeks we have approved more than $2 billion of projects in Iran by European companies," he said, without naming any of the firms or providing further details on the deals.
There will be an awful lot of very displeased people if Congress turns down the opportunity President Obama has given them to go along.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, all these "social justice" projects have to be paid for somehow.
#2
As I understand it, if the Congress turns down the deal and US sanctions remain intact, all commercial entities who have just initiated business with Iran would face reprisals by the USA. (Not by the Obama administration, of course, but certainly by a Republican administration should it win the next presidential election.)
[ALMANAR.LB] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... issued a decree announcing a general amnesty for military deserters who violated the country's compulsory military conscription law, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said on Saturday.
The decree, which was announced on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, said the law that would lift legal penalties against thousands of army deserters, applied to those outside and inside Syria.
The Syrian army, one of the region's largest, has been overstretched by a four-year long insurgency where it is battling on several major fronts and fighting terrorist turbans who have occupied large swathes of territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Really!
I mean srsly, alle, alle alle sind frei!
Come out, come out wherever you are.
[ALMANAR.LB] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Friday that the Zionist entity could find itself more isolated and more blamed by the international community if a nuclear deal with Iran is overturned by Congress.
"What happens is if the United States Congress unilaterally walks away from this agreement that we have reached, we go right back to square one where we were with no alternative, Iran is enriching, we have no inspections ... and we are going to have the conflict," Kerry said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Congress began Monday a 60-day review of the agreement reached July 14 between Iran and the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members - China, La Belle France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. - plus Germany.
The administration is seeking congressional support, particularly in the Senate, to ensure that politicians do not have a two-thirds majority in each congressional chamber to override a potential veto of legislation that undermines the accord.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel is already isolated---except for Indians, Russians, & Chinese---who want to buy our high tech, Jawn.
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.
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.
[Libya Herald] It is reported that a truce has been signed this evening in Sebha between the warring Tebu and Tuareg communities. It was brokered by local tribes and those from the north west of the country.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[DAWN] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ALMANAR.LB] US Secretary of State 
