[Ynet] A jacket wallah in a truck went kaboom! at an intelligence headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least two people and setting off an intense firefight with security forces, officials said.
After the bombing outside the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... in Jalalabad, snuffies battled with security forces for an hour before authorities were able to put down the attack, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a front man for the Nangahar governor.
[AnNahar] African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... forces claimed to have liberated a former Shabaab stronghold in Somalia on Saturday as part of a joint offensive with government troops aimed at capturing key ports from the Islamist fighters.
The AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said it had captured the town of Bulomarer, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
The town was the scene of an attempted raid by French commandos in January 2013 to free a secret agent being held hostage.
The bid failed and resulted in the death of two French soldiers and the hostage.
The new offensive is aimed at capturing key ports from the Lion of Islam group in an effort to cut off one of its main revenue sources.
"Operation Indian Ocean started late last night... The enemy is fleeing and the forces are making successful advances so far," said Abdukadir Mohammed Nur, the governor of southern Somalia's Lower Shabelle region.
Witnesses reported hearing booms from heavy shelling and seeing convoys of tanks and armored vehicles southwest of Mogadishu.
AMISOM and Somali government troops were also seen on roads towards Barawe, the last major port held by the hardline gunnies on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.
"The operations will not stop until the al-Qaeda gunnies are eliminated," Nur added.
The al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab are still a powerful and dangerous force but have lost a string of towns to the 22,000-strong AU force.
Deployed in Somalia in 2007, AMISOM has made a series of advances in the past three years, but the launch Saturday of a new offensive targets the Shabaab's lucrative charcoal trade.
In previous offensives by AU troops, Shabaab fighters have fled in advance of the main column but later returned to stage guerrilla-style attacks.
Shabaab fighters continue to launch attacks even in the heart of Mogadishu, including recent brazen commando raids on the presidential palace and parliament.
Ali Mohammed, who lives close to the Bulomarer, reported hearing "heavy shelling", while another resident, Hussein Mumin, described seeing military convoys including "several tanks."
Somalia's government in a statement claimed Shabaab fighters were "fleeing in the face of advancing Somali and AMISOM forces," adding that Barawe was the "next objective".
The southern port of Barawe is now one of the few major settlements under their control, and is vital to Shabaab finances, as the main hub of a multi-million dollar charcoal trade.
Charcoal, which is mainly exported to Gulf nations, generates at least $25 million (19 million euros) a year for the Shabaab, according to U.N. estimates.
The Shabaab are fighting to topple Somalia's internationally-backed government, and regularly launch attacks against state targets, as well as in neighboring countries that contribute to the AU force.
The fighting comes as the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... and aid workers warn thon the lam areas of Somalia are struggling with dire hunger and drought, three years after famine killed more than a quarter of a million people.
Somalia's government, selected in a U.N.-backed process in 2012, was widely hailed as offering the best chance in decades to repair the war-ravaged country.
But the return of extreme hunger, accusations of corruption and continued Shabaab attacks in even the most heavily defended zones have cast a shadow over the government's record.
BULO MARER, Somalia -- Somali Government Forces aided by African Union peacekeepers have taken control of strategic town in southern Somalia after heavy battle according to army commanders on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.
'Squeeze' -- I like that almost as much as I'd like 'blasted'...
"Squeeze" makes me think "pimple."
Gen. Abdirizak Khalif Elmi, armed forces commander-in-chief on the frontline confirmed the seizure of Bulo Marer to state-run station, Radio Mogadishu. Witnesses say the battle lasted for hours as Al Shabaab posed stiff resistance to allied forces onslaught.
Somali government forces alongside African Union troops are heading to Al Shabaab's last bastion, Barawe coastal town with well-informed sources revealing that Al Shabaab pre-transported broadcast equipments of Radio Andulus and Al Furqaan.
Militants fled Bakool regional district of Tiyeeglow last week, proving vulnerable. Bulo Marer, 120 km south of Mogadishu had since been springboard for Al Qaeda inspired fighters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] A day after a Sinai terrorist group announced it had beheaded four Egyptian men for spying for Israel, villagers in Rafah on Friday discovered the beheaded corpse of a young man.
Rooters' Egyptian website, Aswat Masriya, reported that the villagers, residents of Nagaa Shabana in north Sinai, found the body of a 23-year-old man who eyewitnesses said was kidnapped on Thursday near his house by gunnies driving an SUV.
The severed head was reportedly placed in the mortuary of a nearby hospital as Egyptian police worked with local rustics in the restive peninsula to identify the perpetrators.
In a video released Thursday, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis ...Supporters of Jerusalem, the current pen name of al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula... grabbed credit for the execution and said the young man and three others had provided intelligence to Israel's Mossad agency.
The video showed men in black masks beheading the accused collaborators as they kneeled on the ground, according to Rooters.
The terror group said that the men provided intelligence to Israel used in a July Arclight airstrike on northern Sinai, in which three Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis fighters were killed. The Egyptian army said at the time of the strike that no Israeli aircraft had been in Egyptian airspace.
Two of the executed men served time in Israeli jails for smuggling, and two had said the Mossad had paid them for information, the group asserted in the video.
Earlier this month, the decapitated bodies of four men were found in the Sinai Peninsula, with Egyptian security forces suspecting they had been killed for aiding the Egyptian army.
Egypt's military has been carrying out a vast offensive against jihadist groups in the north of Sinai since bully boyz stepped up attacks following the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July last year.
Militants in northern Sinai, which also borders Israel and the Gazoo Strip, have launched a number of attacks in retaliation for a government crackdown on supporters of Morsi.
At least 1,400 people have been killed in the crackdown, mostly Islamist supporters of Morsi.
The holy warrior attacks usually target security forces, but they have also led to civilian casualties.
[AnNahar] A double overnight attack, one a suicide boom-mobileing, by Qaeda bad boyz on a barracks in southeast Yemen killed four soldiers and 10 Lions of Islam dead, a military official told Agence La Belle France Presse Saturday.
The suicide car driver rammed his booby-trapped vehicle into the perimeter wall of the barracks at Qatan in restive Hadramawt province while Lions of Islam stormed the entrance with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the official said.
"The soldiers responded and repelled the attackers" after violent festivities leading to the death of "four soldiers and 10 myrmidons, as well as maimed people on both sides," the official added.
Fighting between the army and the attackers in Qatan carried on "until dawn", while military planes flew overhead, residents contacted by telephone said.
On Saturday morning "traffic in the city was almost at a standstill after a terrible night," worsened by a power cut, one resident said.
Attacks on the army are frequent in Qatan, where three soldiers and six Lions of Islam died on August 17 during four hours of fighting after the army attacked a house where al-Qaeda gunnies had barricaded themselves in.
In Shibam, a historic town also in Hadramawt province known as the Manhattan of the Desert, three suspected Qaeda gunnies died on Saturday when the army bombarded the house where they were holed up, another military official said.
A fourth member of the cell, which was readying attacks on the army, was tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... while trying to flee from the house, the official said.
The army has strengthened its presence in Hadramawt province with a view to a crackdown on the bully boy network after an increase in armed attacks attributed to al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network, is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran 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...
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08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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At least ten men from local militias and from the Yemeni army were killed on Saturday in clashes with Houthi hard boyz fighters who were trying to seize a road that links the capital Sanaa with oil-rich provinces, local government officials said.
The Houthis have fought against the Yemeni government for years, demanding more power for their Zaydi sect in the predominantly Sunni country.
Starting two weeks ago, the Houthis massed tens of thousands of supporters on the outskirts of Sanaa to press the government to quit and to restore fuel subsidies. The standoff has raised fears for the stability of Yemen, an ally of the United States and neighbour of major oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
On Saturday, Houthi fighters tried to gain control over a road that links Sanaa with the southern provinces of Marib, Shabwa and Hadramout, where the majority of Yemen’s oil supplies are located.
“The Houthis were planning to close the road from the provinces to the capital in order to stop the supply of fuel and cooking gas to the population in most provinces of the country, but the military sent reinforcements to stop them,” one of the local official in Sanaa told Reuters.
He said militias captured 11 Houthi fighters on intersections of the road and that they were armed with guns and rocket launchers. The captured men were handed over to the military, the officials said.
The government’s decision last month to raise fuel prices was part of efforts to rein in its budget deficit and helped the impoverished Arab state to conclude talks on a $560 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Last year, the country spent about $3 billion on the fuel subsidies, nearly a third of all state revenues. A previous attempt to cut subsidies, in 2005, led to unrest in which about 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. The reform was cancelled.
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[IsraelTimes] The son of the president of Suriname pleaded guilty on Friday to US charges he sought to offer a home base in his South American country to the Lebanese turban group Hezbollah.
Dino Bouterse, once picked by his father to lead a counterterrorism unit in Suriname, told a judge in federal court in Manhattan that as part of the scheme he provided a false Surinamese passport to a person he believed was a Hezbollah operative. He also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and firearms charges.
The guilty plea came a year after Bouterse's arrest in Panama on charges he conspired to smuggle cocaine into the United States. He had already been extradited to the United States and tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! when authorities added terrorism charges accusing him of agreeing to accept a multimillion-dollar payoff in exchange for allowing large numbers of Hezbollah fighters to use Suriname as a base for attacking American targets.
An indictment detailed an elaborate international sting in which Bouterse was recorded meeting in Greece and Panama with people posing as Hezbollah operatives and Mexican narcos. The operatives were actually confidential sources and undercover agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the indictment said.
At a meeting last year in Greece, the indictment said, Bouterse agreed to take a down payment of $2 million. In return, he said he would help Hezbollah fighters settle in Suriname, give them fake identities and arm them with surface-to-air missiles and other weapons for attacks on the US and the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial ruler.
Bouterse also told the American agents that he was interested in using Hezbollah "tough guys" for operations inside Suriname.
"We need a little fort that we can depend on. And we can call them at any time," he said, according to the indictment.
Bouterse's father, Desi Bouterse, led a military dictatorship in Suriname in the 1980s, then returned to power when he was elected president by the country's parliament in 2010. He has been accused of human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations, dating to the period when the country was under military rule, and he was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands on drug trafficking charges in 1999.
Desi Bouterse has previously said he was shocked by his son's arrest but added he was "responsible for his own actions."
"But Daaaaaad, all the cool kids are doing it!"
The son faces a prison term of 15 years to life at sentencing on Jan. 6.
[IsraelTimes] Two teenage French girls, tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! last week in a crackdown on citizens who consider traveling to other countries to join "jihad," were planning to attack a synagogue in Lyon with a suicide bomb, French media revealed Friday.
The two, 15 and 17 years old, were detained and interrogated last week in Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon in southeastern La Belle France, and Tarbes, a town in the south, after French authorities uncovered a plan to bomb the Great Synagogue of Lyon. They were charged for conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Two had never met but communicated via social media, the investigation revealed.
"These girls were part of a network of young Islamists who were being monitored by security services," an unnamed security source was quoted by Newsweek as saying.
They're neither the first adolescents nor the first females arrested in La Belle France. Some after returning from Syria or fetched by families at the Turkish border.
The girls are among some 60 people being investigated in La Belle France for criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, in one example of how La Belle France is taking judicial action against citizens suspected of seeking careers as imported muscle, even if they have yet to leave French soil. Thousands of European citizens have made the trip to Syrian battlegrounds, but there is no unified plan of action in Europe.
La Belle France is leading the way in Europe in the battle against this problem, and its sweep could get even wider with a planned law that would allow passports to be confiscated from those suspected of planning to fight in Syria or Iraq, and would create new measures to prosecute jihadi wannabes or returnees. La Belle France also is planning to join other European countries in blocking Internet sites that espouse the jihadi cause.
All of Europe is worried about the return of battle-hardened citizens looking to continue their jihad in their homeland.
The concern has grown acute with the beheading of American journalist James Foley -- by an executioner with an English accent. The group calling itself the Islamic State -- now regarded by Western authorities as the most brutal among jihadi organizations -- grabbed credit last week by posting a video of the slaying on the Internet.
La Belle France also points to the suspected killer of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, Frenchie Mehdi Nemmouche, who fought in Syria, as evidence of the need to prevent potential catastrophes.
"Must I wait for a new Mehdi Nemmouche to fire before I act?" Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a recent interview with the online publication Mediapart. He was referring to the tough new measures to be debated this fall -- and contending they will not compromise civil liberties.
La Belle France, with a Moslem population estimated at 5 million -- the largest in Western Europe -- is particularly concerned about the flight of youths to the battlefields.
French authorities say there are some 900 people from La Belle France who have been implicated in jihad -- meaning they have taken part in one, plan to join one, or are returning from one. Several dozen have been killed.
[AnNahar] Iraqi security forces, Shiite forces of Evil and Kurdish fighters launched a major operation Saturday to break the more than two-month jihadist siege of a Shiite Turkmen-majority town, officials said.
The operation has been in the works for days, with Iraqi aircraft carrying out strikes and forces massing for the drive toward Amerli, which has been besieged since murderous Moslems led by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group launched a major offensive in June.
Residents face major shortages of food and water, and are in danger both because of their Shiite faith, which jihadists consider heresy, and their resistance to the Lion of Islams, which has drawn harsh retribution elsewhere.
Army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi said the operation to free Amerli from the jihadists has been launched with support from Iraqi aircraft, vowing that "we will be victorious over them".
Karim al-Nuri, front man for the Badr Organisation militia, said thousands of its fighters were taking part alongside civilian volunteers and security forces.
Forces from two other Shiite militias -- Asaib Ahl al-Haq and powerful Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... 's Saraya al-Salam forces -- had also been gathering north of Amerli for the attack.
And Karim Mulla Shakur, a Kurdish political party official, said that Kurdish peshmerga fighters were also involved.
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08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A jacket wallah detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a checkpoint south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least seven security forces members, security and medical officials said.
There was no immediate claim for the attack in Yusufiyah, which also maimed 23 people, but suicide kabooms are a hallmark of Sunni krazed killers, including those from powerful jihadist group the Islamic State (IS).
Security forces and allied Shiite Death Eaters are battling hard boyz in several areas south of the capital, the southern front in the fight to regain ground lost to an IS-led offensive that overran large areas of Iraq in June.
While the turbans' relentless advance has since been checked, Iraqi forces are struggling to push them back, and there is no resolution to the crisis in sight.
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[Ynet] Arab youth threw stones at a police force at the Gate of the Moors during dispersal of Moslem worshippers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Waqf officials prevented the rioters from continuing the stone-throwing and took them inside the mosque. Jerusalem District police tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! two Arab minors suspected of throwing the stones. No injuries or damage reported.
That quiet Hamas work-study program once again yields its fruits.
[AnNahar] Israeli forces detained 597 Paleostinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in August, raising the number of Paleostinians in Israeli prisons to more than 7,000, the Paleostinian Prisoners Club said.
The majority of the arrests took place in East Jerusalem and Hebron, which is situated in the south of the West Bank, the NGO, based in Ramallah, said in a statement.
Many were incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! during demonstrations in support of Paleostinians in Gazoo, which was the focus of a deadly 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the de facto ruler of Gazoo.
So it's safe to assume the incarcerated are members of Hamas...
Since the June kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the southern West Bank, at least 2,000 Paleostinians have been questioned and detained, according to the NGO.
An international organisation involved in assessing post-conflict reconstruction says it will take 20 years for Gaza's battered and neglected housing stock to be rebuilt following the war between Hamas and Israel.
The bunkers and tunnels, of course, will be rebuilt first...
Since they can't seem to go longer than four years without picking a fight with Israel, I'd say it's going to take them longer than that.
The assessment by Shelter Cluster, co-chaired by the UN refugee agency and the Red Thingy Cross, underscores the complexities involved in an overall reconstruction programme for the Gaza Strip, which some Palestinian officials have estimated could cost in excess of $6 billion.
Any effort to rebuild Gaza will be hindered by a blockade imposed by Egypt and Israel since Hamas seized power in 2007. Israel has severely restricted the import of concrete and other building materials into Gaza, correctly understanding fearing that militants will use them to build rockets and reinforce cross-border attack tunnels.
Egypt and Norway have raised the possibility of convening a Gaza donors' conference at some point next month, but no firm arrangements have been made.
Iran is already willing to fund the reconstruction of the Hamas war machine. What more need be done at a "donors conference" other than the vapid, empty promises that are never quite fulfilled?
With a population of 1.8 million, Gaza is a densely populated coastal strip of urban warrens and agricultural land that still bears the scars of previous rounds of fighting.
Move the civilians to Mauritania and let the hard boyz and IDF go at it...
In its report issued late on Friday, Shelter Cluster said 17,000 Gaza housing units were destroyed or severely damaged during this summer's war and 5,000 units still need work after damage sustained in the previous military campaigns. In addition, it says, Gaza has a housing deficit of 75,000 units.
Shelter Cluster said its 20-year assessment is based on the capacity of the main Israel-Gaza cargo crossing to handle 100 trucks of construction materials daily.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Idiot, it depends on what "Rebuilt" means,since they live in smashed mud-brick hovels, it will be "Rebuilt" shortly.
Trashed homes equal trashed culture.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/31/2014 6:43 Comments ||
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#2
Gazoo and a group with "Cluster" in their name are a perfect match
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2014 8:32 Comments ||
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#3
Seems like there is an analogy with Ferguson, MO. I'm just not getting an exact fit.
There are members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) in Saudi Arabia who plan to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A reliable source in Jeddah said they have been holding planning meetings. But so far none has been able to get to Syria from Jeddah because Saudi officials have clamped down, particularly with the arrest early this week of eight Saudi nationals who were accused of recruiting members for a foreign extremist group. "Please don’t mention my name,” said the source.
Abu Misry Mama, spokesman for the BIFM/BIFF confirmed some of his followers are in Saudi Arabia and some other Middle East countries. He said there were no reports yet whether any of the BIFF members were able to infiltrate Syria or Iraq.
Mama said, "But it is not impossible there may already be some of our members there (with the ISIS)," citing the mubaaya (pact) that BIFM Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ustadhz Ismael Abubakar and ISIS chieftain Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Mama said his group will certainly provide fighters to the ISIS if asked.
Posted by: ryuge ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
So does the muslim brotherhood, new black panthers, eric holder, and ACORN.
Philippine troops joined policemen and jail personnel in a manhunt for an undetermined number of detainees who escaped during a jailbreak that triggered a shootout killing three and injuring eight others in the Muslim south.
Sr. Supt. John Enguerra, provincial police chief, said the jailbreak was staged by detainees of the Siocon town jail in the early evening Friday. Siocon, a municipality in the greater Zamboanga province, is part of the so-called "Triple S" complex - Siocon, Sirawai and Sirawai - where Muslim militants the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have a camp, particularly on the hinterland border with Zamboanga City - a majority Christian city in the predominantly Muslim south.
Enguerra said escapees and a guard were killed, while two policemen, two other guards and four detainees were injured in a shootout that broke out minutes after the jailbreak was detected.
The MNLF besieged Zamboanga on September 13 last year to protest a peace deal between breakaway group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government. The siege left some 300 people dead and over 100,000 displaced. The chief of the armed forces has said that the army is beefing up troops in the area as the anniversary of the attack approaches.
In April 2007, a communist band led by Mindanao Regional Guerrilla Unit-Pulang Bagani Command ransacked the armory of the penal farm and seized over 100 guns in a pre-dawn raid in Kidapawan City in North Cotabato.
[Ynet] Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... network reports that UNDOF soldiers in southern Syria abandoning posts, fleeing to Israeli side. Meanwhile Phillipine official says Syrian rebels who seized 43 Fijian United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... peacekeepers attacked Filipino troops in Golan Heights.
The Al-Jazeera network reported Saturday that members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force stationed in Daraa in southern Syria are abandoning their posts and fleeing to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.
In another report published simultaneously, Philippine officials said Syrian rebels holding dozens of Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage attacked Filipino troops in the Golan Heights on Saturday.
Philippine peacekeepers at one UN encampment were attacked, but those at another were "extricated," Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told news hounds in a series of text messages, adding that the attack started early Saturday Syrian time.
Philippine military front man Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala told news hounds, "There is an ongoing firefight, but all Filipinos are safe."
The UN did not say whether the 44 Fijian soldiers had been released, but a statement suggested progress was being made in negotiations to secure their freedom.
"The United Nations has received assurances from credible sources that 44 peacekeepers from UNDOF who were taken from their position... are safe and in good health," said a statement from the front man.
"UNDOF has not yet had direct contact with the peacekeepers."
There were 40 Filipino troops in the encampment that came under attack, and 35 in the second, according to the Philippine military.
The Syrian rebels seized 44 Fijian peacekeepers on Thursday. The rebels then demanded that the 75 Filipinos manning two separate UN encampments 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) apart surrender their weapons, but they refused.
The situation of the peacekeepers, whose mission monitors a 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel, remains "very, very fluid," the UN secretary-general's front man, Stephane Dujarric, told news hounds Friday at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
The UN said in a statement that it had received assurances from credible sources that the Fijian peacekeepers "are safe and in good health."
The statement added that they had been informed "the intention behind holding the peacekeepers was to remove them from an active battlefield to a safe area for their own protection."
In Australia on Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop condemned the detention of the Fijian peacekeepers and called for their release.
"As a member of the UN Security Council, Australia demands the unconditional and immediate release of all the detained United Nations peacekeepers," Bishop said in a statement.
Bishop said she telephoned Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola to express Australia's strong support, including Australia's intelligence resources.
Bishop also said she assured them that Australia will use its position on the UN Security Council to maintain focus on this issue.
UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... also has condemned the detention of the Fijians and called for their immediate release.
#2
Standard operation for UN Peacekeepers is to maintain the peace as long as all sides remain peaceful. Once any side decides otherwise, they withdraw, surrender, or otherwise abandon their mission. They are, at best, like canaries in coal mines. Unfortunately even in peacetime they do nothing to prevent or warn of arms build ups by anyone. They do have nice parties and award ceremonies though.
#3
Dijk. Un pecekeepers are just a buffering force aimed at ensuring peace betweentwo opponenets who want peace. It ensures the conflict doesn't rekindle because some nervous soldier fired at a rabbit thibnking it was an enemy trying to inflitrate then other soldeiers join and soon you have artillery and tanks joining the fun. When there is a UN buffer and you hears something you can assume it is a rabbit and if you fire at it there is no enemy thinking you have fired at him and retaliating.
But for active operations you carry artillery and tanks and your vehicles and helmets are camouflaged instead of being painted in white and silly blue respectively.
#8
The Mideast in a nutshell. When someone is wanting to save their skin, Israel looks mighty good; trash-talking about the Israelis suddenly becomes passe.
[AnNahar] The Moslem Scholars Committee, who was tasked with negotiating with jihadist fighters on the case of troops kidnapped during the Arsal festivities on the border with Syria, could not deny or confirm on Friday reports about the slaughtering of an army sergeant who hails from the northern Akkar town of Fneideq.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... the Islamic State-linked Fajr al-Islam Brigade aired late on Friday a videotape featuring several kidnapped army troops calling on their parents to block roads and pressure the cabinet to release them in exchange for Islamist inmates held in Roumieh.
"Otherwise, we will be slaughtered," they warned.
You mean, like the Iraqi and Syrian soldiers?
Two of the troops also remarked that their execution will take place in three days if the demands of their abductors were not met.
Earlier in the day, the Moslem Scholars Committee said in a statement that it cannot confirm or deny anything about "circulated images of a Lebanese soldier being executed."
The statement explained that its uncertain stance in this regard stems from the "the suspension of negotiations with the jihadist fighters and the lack of direct communication with the kidnappers."
"We urge media outlets not to adopt any reports except those issued by the Committee and published on its official webpage," the Moslem Scholars Committee stressed.
But the father of Ali al-Sayyed, the army member who is reportedly featured in the video, told LBCI television that the Committee has confirmed the sergeant's death.
We blame the army leadership and the cabinet, he added.
The sergeant's uncle also confirmed to al-Jadeed television the death of his nephew, assuring that al-Sayyed is the person featured in images circulated on social media platforms.
"We have been reaching out to concerned authorities for a month to solve the issue of the kidnapped soldiers, although kidnappers had sent a videotape to the cabinet for the sake of negotiations and in which al-Sayyed appears, but nothing happened," he expressed. "We wonder why the government did not negotiate with the abductors," he said.
Because the purpose of the abductions is primarily to shield the abductors from attack, and so they haven't bothered demanding a ransom?
On Thursday, an alleged Islamic State bully boy calling himself Abu Musaab Hafid al-Baghdadi posted pictures on his Twitter account that show him cutting off the head of a blindfolded man with a medium beard.
He identifies the supposed victim as "Ali al-Sayyed, an apostate soldier belonging to the 'army of the cross' (Lebanese army)."
The bully boy says the purported execution is in response to "the attempts of the 'party of Satan' (Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... ) to torpedo the negotiations" over the captive Lebanese soldiers and coppers who were kidnapped after jihadists overran the Bekaa border town of Arsal on August 2.
The unconfirmed reports of al-Sayyed's beheading sparked protests and road blocking in Akkar on Thursday.
...Which accomplished nothing except to interfere with government control of the area...
And on Friday morning, protesters continued to block roads in Akkar and the Akkar plains with burned tires to protest the reports.
"We vent our spleen! We vent our spleen! Yeaaaaargh!"
Jihadists from the IS and the Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front kidnapped 36 army troops and Internal Security Forces members and took them to Arsal's outskirts as they withdrew from the town following several days of deadly festivities that started on August 2.
Working together instead if fighting to the death for supremacy? That's not how the narrative is supposed to go.
Al-Nusra for its part posted a video featuring eight ISF members and an army soldier as the fate of the other security personnel remained unclear.
There's their problem. Most people don't celebrate arse-holes.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/31/2014 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
So, the sergeant in question has become "Schrodinger's sergeant", who has and has not been beheaded, depending on some quantum event occurring at the Muslim Scholar's Committee, which is "do we admit it or not?"
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/31/2014 12:57 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] The Syrian army and Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... fighters are locked in a fierce battle with Islamist gunnies to control the Lebanese eastern border village of Tufail, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Saturday.
Security sources told the newspaper that the Syrian army, backed by Hizbullah, is advancing from the north on the outskirts of Tufail village.
Syrian warplanes reportedly shelled the largest factory for manufacturing booby-trapped vehicles, destroying five cars rigged with explosives.
The newspaper said that a cave that contains three tons of explosives was discovered and another factory for manufacturing rockets, bombs and cannons was controlled by the Syrian army.
Media reports said last week that the Syrian government had urged the residents of Tufail to evacuate it ahead of a planned shelling.
The troops have alleged that gunnies were in the area.
In April, Tufail was isolated after the only road that leads to the town came under the control of Syrian government troops.
The town is located at the end of the eastern mountain belt's plains, in an area that is 24 kilometers inside Syrian territories. Tufail is surrounded by Syrian lands to its north, east and south, and by the Lebanese villages of Ham, Maarboun and Brital to its west.
More than 4,000 Lebanese nationals reside in Tufail, Christians and Moslems, among them there are around 25 soldiers in the army and some 5,000 Syrian refugees.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Two Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... members were killed on Thursday in Syria's al-Qalamun region in festivities with opposition forces battling the Damascus regime including al-Nusra Front fighters, an NGO reported on Friday.
"Two Hizbullah members were killed yesterday and six others were maimed" during festivities against fighters of Islamic brigades and al-Nusra Front in al-Qalamun, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Party members were also involved in fierce festivities near Ras al-Rafii hill in Ras al-Maarra region, and in the ongoing fighting in the Flita plains of al-Qalamun.
The Observatory noted that Syrian troops, aided by other fighters, ambushed opposition forces in the same Qalamun region.
"At least 10 supporters of al-Nusra Front and of the Islamic brigades were killed in the ambush," the Britannia-based monitoring group revealed.
Rounds of festivities also took place at the outskirts of the eastern Jobar neighborhood, according to the same source.
"Hizbullah used Iranian surface-to-surface missiles in the Jobar battles," it said.
And late on Thursday evening, al-Zahra neighborhood to the west of Aleppo witnessed festivities between opposition fighters and regime forces, aided by members of Hizbullah and of Baathist brigades.
The festivities took place near the air force intelligence building, the Observatory remarked.
Hizbullah has been involved in the Syrian turmoil for over one year and a half alongside Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's forces. Party chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... has repeatedly assured that "Syria, the backbone of the resistance, will not be left alone."
Hizbullah says it is fighting in Syria to prevent murderous Moslems from entering Leb, and the group dispatched thousands of fighters to al-Qalamun in particular, just across the border from Arsal.
...Where Al Nusra and ISIS are holding about three dozen Lebanese troops hostage.
The group's fighters helped regime forces recapture most of al-Qalamun earlier this year, with opposition fighters taking refuge in mountains along the border.
[AnNahar] The General Directorate of State Security jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! on Saturday a fraud ring in the eastern city of Zahle.
The ring is reportedly specialized in counterfeiting currency, passports and entrance and exit paper from and into Leb.
State Security officer Hussein Salman told MTV that a large number of the forged passports are sent for terrorist organizations in Arab countries.
The network is comprised of six Syrians and eight Lebanese nationals, who confessed to forging 100 dollar bills and Euro currency.
The state security unit seized forged Lebanese and Arab security seals.
In addition, to seals in names chiefs and officers in major airports, including Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Jordan, Syria and Paleostine.
Other seals for religious judges were also confiscated.
State Security officer Hussein Salman told MTV that a large number of the forged passports are sent for terrorist organizations in Arab countries.
The Philippine defence chief says Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights have been attacked by Syrian rebels who are holding dozens of Fijian troops hostage.
Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told reporters on Saturday in a series of text messages that Filipino troops manning one UN encampment have been “extricated,” while soldiers in another encampment were “now under attack.”
He said the attack started early Saturday Syrian time. Gazmin did not say whether there were any casualties. Asked how the troops were doing, he said they had “high morale.”
So they're not Uruguayans...
The Syrian rebels have seized 44 Fijian peacekeepers and demanded that the 75 Filipinos manning two separate UN encampments surrender their weapons, but they have refused.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Moqtada 
An international organisation involved in assessing post-conflict reconstruction says it will take 20 years for Gaza's battered and neglected housing stock to be rebuilt following the war between Hamas and Israel.
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the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
