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Today: 56 articles and 151 comments as of 9:52.
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Israel Seizes Iranian Ship Packed With Advanced Rockets Bound For Palestinian Terrorists In Gaza
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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7 21:23 Alaska Paul [2] 
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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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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Jolene Blalock[Filmography](age 39)



Vulcan Design

Long Stroke Motorboat


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/05/2014 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The Long Stroke, a logical choice.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2014 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Dolly Parton country song:

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can.


I can see why such songs are written.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2014 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  One neat thing is, if you slow it down, it sounds like Kansas.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/05/2014 14:24 Comments || Top||

#5  That is so wrong
Posted by: PJO, twins with twins || 03/05/2014 15:17 Comments || Top||

#6  So everyone has had a printer moment, amirite?



Take away, Keyboards are steady, mice hardworkers, CPUs, maybe to indulgent.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/05/2014 18:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Or well, not meant to be put here, but meh. It works.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/05/2014 18:21 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Bomb in Heliwaa market
An explosion today was targeted at troops from the Somali Federal government in the Suuqa Xoolaha neighbourhood in the Heliwaa district of Banaadir.

This IED bomb was buried underground and detonated at a public area in Suuqa Xoolaha. The numbers of fatalities are unknown but the entrepreneurial vibe of the market were haltered after soon after the explosion with many businesses closing their shops.

There have been no comments from officials or heads of the Heliwaa district administration in Banaadir.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IED. Buried underground. In a public area. Nobody saw nothin'.
??????
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 03/05/2014 7:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh noes! Haltering of the entrepreneurial vibe?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2014 7:24 Comments || Top||

#3  An uptick in market activity
Now shuttered by local proclivity
To trade mostly in violence,
For the moment is silenced
By a boom in explosive festivities.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/05/2014 13:20 Comments || Top||


Mortar shelling last night in Baidoa
Last night, mortar shells were flung at different areas in Baidoa, provincial capital city of Bay. The shells were chucked at the entrance of the Baidoa airport and some other areas within the city.

It is not known the amount of casualties sustained by the mortar shelling but locals have reported to Radio Shabelle that the fatalities were severe.

For the past few days in Baidoa, there were various conferences going on to elect the president of the South-Western state.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When diplomacy calls for no quarter,
And the longer way there is the shorter,
Last resort, or for sport,
Her report is the mort,
Then it's child's play to up and transport 'er.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/05/2014 20:34 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria uncovers Libyan weapons
[MAGHAREBIA] An Algerian counter-terrorism operation netted weapons smuggled from Libya, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Monday (March 3rd). ANP troops found anti-tank rockets, bombs, guns and ammunition, the defence ministry said.

Six terrorists were killed during the security sweep, which began last week in the Sid Ali Bounab region between Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes. According to the official report, the terror group may include foreign nationals.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Morocco gang robs armoured car
[MAGHAREBIA] Moroccans were taken by surprise when masked gunnies attacked a money-laden armoured car last week in broad daylight in downtown Tangier.

The February 24th burglary of the Attijariwafa Bank left authorities puzzled despite the intervention of special units.

Eyewitnesses said two private security guards walked from the armoured vehicle to the bank in a routine cash-in-transit operation. Upon their return to the car, three gang members in sport outfits attacked them with automatic pistols.

Despite circulating reports about the arrest of the culprits, investigations are still ongoing according to media24.com.

"This operation might be tied to a lot of scenarios, including terrorism," said Mohammed Agdid, security analyst at the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN).

One of the masked men fired shots in the air as well as one shot in the direction of one of the security guards, wounding one, the security expert said.

The gang members then escaped with four bags containing 5.5 million dirhams (490,000 euros) and foreign currency bills on board a black sports car driven by a fourth operative.

They drove away very fast in an unknown direction, just like in American movies, Agdid said.

Agdid did not discard the possibility that the robbery may have been conducted to secure cash for terrorist operations.

"I think it is high time to give the DGSN advanced logistical means to fight mafias and organised gangs," he told Magharebia "The robbery implementation method shows that the gang planned and prepared... in a professional manner unusual for Morocco."

Technical and judicial robbery and terrorism specialists are working together with members of the Directorate of the Protection of the Territory (DST) and intelligence, he noted.

"Officials instructed a special anti-gang squad belonging to the Judicial Police in Casablanca to arrest the alleged perpetrators as soon as possible for fear of a repeat operation targeting other institutions," Agdid said.

The robbery also raised the question of arming private security guards.

Parliament in 2010 gave contracted security guards the right to "be armed according to regulatory controls".

But this law has yet to be activated, according to Rachid Lemnasfi, president of the Moroccan Federation of Security Guards.

"The non-activation is due to the absence of a legal framework for private security companies in Morocco, poor training and supervision, and the blurry relationship between these companies and the state," he told Magharebia.

Security guard Hassan Zaoui, who works for a private company that transfers funds in Casablanca, said, "Our lives are at risk every day. How can we defend ourselves against robbers? The law of arming private security guards must be activated."

But law expert Fettah Ghouati said the concept of private security companies was not defined in Moroccan law. "Weapons are the property of the state, so they cannot be given to private entities," he explained.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They drove away very fast in an unknown direction, just like in American movies

High concept! It's Heat in Tangier:
Dashing robbers with tactical gear.
This go-round Bob's the dick
While ol' Al gets his kick
Taking scores down to fund the Emir.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/05/2014 16:04 Comments || Top||

#2  :)
High Concept Rulz.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/05/2014 18:23 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen Navy Admiral Escapes Qaida Attack, Guards Killed
[An Nahar] A Yemeni navy admiral escaped an liquidation attempt Tuesday in the south of the country blamed on al-Qaeda, but two of his guards were killed, a military source said.

Admiral Kassem Labbuza, who heads a force charged with protecting the Balhaf port on the Gulf of Aden, was unharmed in the attack near a gas complex, the source said.

Two of his guards were killed, however, and a third maimed before the assailants identified as "al-Qaeda members" expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.

The attack occurred during a security inspection of the site.

Al-Qaeda has been blamed by the authorities for numerous attacks against energy facilities and soldiers in south Yemen, a stronghold of the bully boys.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels...
tribal sources said six soldiers were freed after being kidnapped when their plane, a Russian-made Antonov AN-26, made an emergency landing in the country's southeast.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Bahrain arrests 25 suspects after terror attack
Twenty-five suspects have been arrested in connection with the bomb blast that killed three police personnel, including UAE Officer First Lieutenant Tareq Mohammed Al Sabi Al Shehi, in Daih near the capital Manama on Monday. More suspects are being tracked down to bring them to justice.

The Bahrain government has signalled that it is taking this attack very seriously and ministers at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday morning pledged to “take the necessary measures to eradicate terrorist groups and those who support them”, BNA state news agency said. The government asked the interior ministry “to carry on relentlessly its combat against terrorism”, it said.

Bahrain blacklisted three anti-government groups as terrorist organisations on Tuesday, the BNA said. The cabinet put the “so-called February 14 movement, Saraya Al Ashtar (Ashtar Brigade) and Saraya Al Muqawama (Resistance Brigade) and any group associated or allied to them on lists of terrorist groups”, the BNA said.

The decision effectively outlaws these groups and makes their members subject to imprisonment. Bahrain listed Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation last year.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Student in English Court on Syria Terror Charge
[An Nahar] A 20-year-old student appeared in an English court on Tuesday charged with aiding terrorism in Syria.

Mouloud Tahari is the third person charged in the investigation alongside his mother and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.

All three were incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
last week in England's second city of Birmingham.

Tahari spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth when he appeared at a London court.

He was remanded in jug to appear at the Old Bailey central criminal court on March 14 with his mother, Gerrie Tahari, and Begg, who were charged over the weekend.

Begg, who spent three years at the U.S. detention camp in Cuba before being released without charge in 2005, is accused of providing terror training and funding terror abroad.

Tahari and his mother are accused of being involved in a terrorist funding arrangement.

No plea was entered at Tuesday's hearing. Tahari's lawyer Gareth Peirce said outside court that he denied the charge and would therefore plead not guilty.

A growing number of young people from European countries are facing legal charges over going to fight in Syria, where a civil war is raging involving Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
's forces, rebels and Islamist fighters.

Britannia too has seen a major increase in Syria-related arrests in recent months. Begg is the first former Guantanamo detainee to be arrested in Britannia in connection with Syria.

Eight men aged between 29 and 43 have also been arrested as part of an alleged charity fraud in which police believe money intended to help victims of the Syrian conflict could have been used for terror or criminal activities.

They arrests came after after cash totaling over $75,000 (almost 55,000 euros) in pounds sterling, dollars and euros was seized at the southeastern English port of Dover in December 2012, police said.

"We are working with our partners around the country to ensure money intended to help those in need in Syria is not used for criminal activity or in the terrorist arena," said Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Hogben.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Caribbean-Latin America
25 dead found near Guadalajara


A total of 25 individuals were found in a series of graves in Jalisco state, near Guadalajara in central Mexico, according to Mexican news reports.

An APRO wire dispatch which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Coahuila news daily said that the dead were found between Tlaquepaque and Tonala municipalities near a break in terrain known as Cerro del Gasto. The exhumation of the dead has been ongoing since March 1st.

Six were discovered thanks to an anonymous telephone call to authorities.

According to the report, a total of 109 unidentified individuals have been exhumed from graves, colloquially known as narcofosas in Jalisco state since last November. A total of 67 individuals were found in November and December, 2013 in La Barca, Jalisco and Vista Hermosa, Michoacan. Another 19 dead were exhumed in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga municipality last February.

Michoacan state is the coastal Mexico state in which indigenous Indians have been frustrating narcotraffickers with their grupos autodefensas or self defense groups since last summer. It is unknown as of this report if the dead have anything to do with Michoacan autodefensas. Normally in Mexico when this many people are buried in one spot, they are usually kidnapping victims or individuals who fell afoul of local narco gangs.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and Borderlandbeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Posted by: badanov || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Kunming terrorism: first responders took on assailants bare-handed (Xinhua)
KUNMING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- After twenty minutes of brutal close fighting between railway police and attackers, shots by a police officer from an emergency response team finally halted the terrorist attack Saturday night in the southwestern city of Kunming.

Without warning, knife-wielding attackers appeared at the main railway station in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province on Saturday and began slashing at crowds, killing 29 people and injuring 143.

The health authority on Monday said that 20 of the 143 injured in Kunming are still in critical condition.

When policeman Zhang Liyuan recalled the night at the hospital, he seemed calm. Zhang's finger had been chopped off while fighting barehanded against one of the attackers.

Railway police in China usually do not carry guns. Guns were kept together at police stations, according to police.
When seconds count the police are just minutes away, and their guns mere hours behind...
"The railway police station received a report of the attack at 9:15 p.m," Zhang said. "There was no time for me to think. I rushed out of my office and headed to the square to save people while calling for more support."
Brave man.
Zhang said he saw the attackers were hacking people at random. He shouted, "Come attack me!" to attract the attention of the attackers and lead them to a parking area where there were fewer people.

"But they did not follow me and they ran toward the crowds, so I chased them," Zhang said.

When Zhang saw a railway security guard had stopped one attacker and others came to attack him, Zhang went up to help.

"One of the attackers turned around and cut right on my hand," Zhang said.

More people would have been injured or killed if the police officer who was the only one carrying an automatic rifle did not arrive in time.

"I fired several warning shots after I arrived at the scene, but the attackers did not stop their frantic slaughter," said the policeman from the Guandu sub-bureau of the Kunming Municipal Public Security Bureau.

"I was 15 meters away from the attackers then. I saw them slicing the victims one by one," the policeman said. "I shouted out, 'put down your knives' and fired warning shots before they all turned to me."
Next time, no warning shot.
"When a thin, black-masked attacker approached to less than one meter away from my gunpoint, I shot the attacker down. The other four attackers,however, did not back off and continued to run at me with knives, so I fired at all of them," he said.

"After all five attackers were shot down, the first one stood up again and threw a knife at me, I tilted my head and avoided the weapon," he said.

"I had to shoot them down, because if I didn't, I'm sure the attackers would have harmed more civilians, and they would have hurt me as well if I had fired more slowly. They all came to me with knives 60 to 70 centimeters long," he said.

The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement that a terrorist gang led by Abdurehim Kurban was responsible for the attack.

Police shot and killed four of them and captured an injured female attacker at the scene on Saturday night, according to the statement. Police on Monday said that three suspects involved in the terrorist attack had been captured two days after the terrorist attack took place.
The only thing missing would be the shouts of "Allahu Akhbar", but stay tuned...
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 01:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whatever they pay those guys, isn't enough.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  More people would have been injured or killed if the police officer who was the only one carrying an automatic rifle did not arrive in time.

I think this statement gained something in translation.
Posted by: gorb || 03/05/2014 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Chinese grammar & syntax be hard.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 13:37 Comments || Top||

#4  US police take note: this is what it means to protect and serve, not beating down unarmed joggers.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/05/2014 13:38 Comments || Top||

#5  More local commentary (Xin Hua)
BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) --
The Great Hall of the People, the very center of the state, witnessed two silent tributes this week from China's most powerful people to victims of a shocking terrorist attack.

On Wednesday morning, at the opening meeting of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, around 3,000 deputies lowered their heads and stood in silence for a minute for the dead in the killing spree at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming.

Last time the NPC paid silent tribute at its annual session was in March 1997 for Deng Xiaoping, the prominent Chinese leader who passed away in February of the same year...Behind such respect to life of ordinary people is the Chinese government's people-oriented governance approach, a gradual, but visible, change in recent years.

In his debut speech as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in November 2012, Xi Jinping told media "to meet their (the people's) desire for a happy life is our mission."

As for China's fight against terrorism, those moments of silence may endow it with more strength.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 13:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Local politician comments (Xin Hua)
Nur [? equivalent to Noor] Bekri, chairman of the regional government:
Any country under the rule of law and any individual with conscience will not tolerate such an act, he said.

"We should see through the ugly nature of terrorists. They are anti-humanity and sociopathic."

The people in Xinjiang support the Party and the government's efforts to fight terrorists and safeguard stability, he said.

Terrorists are common enemies to all people, including every ethnic group in Xinjiang, he said.

"They do not represent any ethnic group, and their activities are not about ethnic or religious issues," he said. "The battle against them is life-or-death."

I think he gets it.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 13:45 Comments || Top||

#7  knives 60 to 70 centimeters long
70cm = .76yds = 2.3ft = 27.5in
Quite a knife, about the size of a machete.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2014 14:11 Comments || Top||

#8  A media kerfluffle in China about an online vendor selling black T-shirts (in Chinese, T恤衫, believe it or not) with Arabic-like writing on it, and the star & crescent symbol.
See here for a screen capture, not very clear but the best I can do for now:
https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2014/03/05/2.jpg

In related news a popular online shopping website in China on Monday banned sales of t-shirts that closely resemble the one worn by one of the attackers in the rampage.

The advertisement on Taobao, the consumer-to-consumer retail platform of the Alibaba Group, first emerged after police over the weekend displayed on television a black t-shirt bearing designs that they had taken from a terrorist shot dead in the wake of the attack.

The advert on the virtual store explicitly touted for pre-sale of the t-shirts and clearly related it to the terrorist attack.

“Taobao will never tolerate such commodities. [We] resolutely oppose to any anti-humanity conduct such as this,” the online shopping website said in a statement on Monday.

The virtual store had already been permanently closed and all orders had been scrapped, it added.

The online community has widely applauded Taobao's action. Many voiced support and condemned the vendors for lacking conscience. “You asked for it,” many of them said on the internet.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2014 14:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Skid, it's a historical anomaly that Chinese has that the word for straight sword, jian, is translated 'sword' but curved swords are called 'dao,' which is also used to refer to the common knife.

I'm not sure of the history, but I think they've given up on long curved dao three or four separate times in their history only to have to reinvent it the next time they wound up having to fight the Mongols.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/05/2014 14:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Good guys. Need a raise.
WRT dao. Had a fencing coach tell me that "draw", or slicing, is more effective than simply smashing. That's not true against armor, of course.
And curved blades have the draw built in. Hence, for example, the scimitar.

Same thing could happen in, say, NYC or any campus. In fact, it's more likely than, say, a firebombing, since the mooslim grad students can't seem to build one of those right.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 03/05/2014 14:47 Comments || Top||

#11  The attackers could not have been Muslims. After all, Islam is a religion of peace. They were probably Amish or Methodists or something. /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/05/2014 14:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Rambler: at least that's what the local party guy in Xinjiang said in #6.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/05/2014 16:42 Comments || Top||

#13  Terrorists create the most terror when they attack the most innocent.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 03/05/2014 17:16 Comments || Top||

#14  Backing OE9815:

Zhang said he saw the attackers were hacking people at random. He shouted, "Come attack me!" to attract the attention of the attackers and lead them to a parking area where there were fewer people.

"But they did not follow me and they ran toward the crowds, so I chased them," Zhang said.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/05/2014 18:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Feds seek Tsarnaev friend who posted jihadi images from Chechnya
Federal agents are frantically searching for a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after the young woman left her suburban Boston home on a trip to her family's native Chechnya last year and never returned.

Heda Umarova, 23, reportedly stayed at the end of the August 2013 trip to marry a man she met there while her parents returned to their Massachusetts home. But in the interim, Umarova has posted "alarming" photos to social media sites, causing fear the young woman has been radicalized just like family friend Tsarnaev.

Heda Umarova online postings included "depictions of Chechen jihadis brandishing weapons and a photo-shopped image of a U.S. passport in a carry-on bag bearing the black flag of jihad".

A ranking law enforcement source involved in the Boston Marathon investigation said, "No one is calling Heda a terrorist but her travel has certainly garnered some attention. People are concerned that a 23-year-old is in Chechnya, a country that she fled from ... and now she is deciding to stay on her own."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was close friends with Umarova's two brothers, Adam and Junes, who themselves were eyed by the police because of support they showed for their jailed friend online. They also reportedly tweeted back and forth with Dzhokhar just a day before the bombings.

Those messages led investigators straight to the Umarov family's Chelsea home shortly after the bombing during the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers. The family allowed law enforcement to search the home, but to no avail.

The source said, "We were already concerned about the social media exchanged with her brothers, who remain on the radar, especially the younger brother Junes, who was Dzhokhar's best friend."

Last June, Heda Umarova was quoted in a news story about listening to conspiracy radio host Alex Jones, who has put forth a theory that the marathon bombing was perpetrated by the U.S. government - which has used the Tsarnaevs as scapegoats. Umarova admitted in the story to actively advancing the theory that her friends, the Tsarnaev brothers, were not involved in the bombings.

"A lot of it is 'Oh my god, he is crazy,' but a lot of stuff he says make sense. He brings up a lot of valid points." she said of Jones.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was close friends with Umarova's two brothers, Adam and Junes, who themselves were eyed by the police because of support they showed for their jailed friend online. They also reportedly tweeted back and forth with Dzhokhar just a day before the bombings.

Those messages led investigators straight to the Umarov family's Chelsea home shortly after the bombing during the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers.


The above represents a curiously incongruous sequence of events, to say the least.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2014 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  From Jihad Watch.

Comment from JW:

pongidae rex
March 4, 2014 at 4:02 pm

So they enter this country as ‘refugees’, then return a few years later to the country they fled, as affluent tourists with USA passports…
The State Department of the USA is a pack of fools.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2014 4:27 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Terrorists Militants seize Iraq city council HQ, take hostages
Terrorists Militants seized the city council headquarters in the Iraqi city of Samarra and took employees hostage on Tuesday, officials said, the second such del>terrorist attack in recent months.

Two terrorists militants, possibly wearing explosives-rigged vests or belts, seized the Samarra city council building on Tuesday morning with an unknown number of employees inside, security officials said. Clashes broke out between the del>terrorists militants and security forces, and a del>splodydope suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near police and Sahwa anti-Al Qaeda militia forces when they arrived at the scene.

The blast wounded 24 people, most of them police, a doctor and an officer said. The doctor also said that the deputy head of the city council was wounded in the bombing.

Salaheddin province is also home to the Sulaiman Bek area, where del>terrorists militants repeatedly battled security forces for control earlier this month.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel Seizes Iranian Ship Packed With Advanced Rockets Bound For Palestinian Terrorists In Gaza
..Panamanian-flagged cargo ship. Why the Israelis do not adopt a doctrine that all vessels found carrying cargo like this will be seized/scuttled is beyond me..
They seized this one. Seems like the Phester Doctrine is working...
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/05/2014 10:25 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Background information:

General cargo vessel Klos C [ex-KLOSTERTAL], IMO , dwt 6985, built 1996, flag Netherlands Panama, manager/owner WHITESEA SHIPPING & TRADING CO*, Marshall Islands (IMO 5682159 8918710 ; Majuro MH Marshall Islands). Nationality og the owner unknown.

Company procured KLOS C C in July 2012, according to Equasis. Since then, vessel was trading in Persina Gulf and Red sea until August 2013. In August vessel was relocated to Black sea and made several voyages in Black sea. Vessel left Istanbul on Dec 27, and arrived to Bandar Abbas on Jan 23. Missiles trip started from Bandar Abbas. Pic of Klos C under previous name.


* per web site, "WhiteSea Shipping & Supply LLC (WSS) provides marine support to the offshore oil and gas industry. Based in the UAE, the company owns and operates a large fleet of offshore support vessels including AHTS, DP 1, Maintenance Vessels, four point mooring, crane vessels and other specialised craft."
Posted by: Pappy || 03/05/2014 12:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "They seized this one. Seems like the Phester Doctrine is working..."

..it's the "scuttled" part that makes for good youtube..glub..glub..glub
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/05/2014 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  I think that they should either return the rockets to Iran or forward them on to Gaza.....one at a time.....on a ballistic trajectory.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/05/2014 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  I think that they should either return the rockets to Iran...

Wrapped around a nuke.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/05/2014 16:19 Comments || Top||

#5  There's a Juice in every port with seein eyes, it a Hank Williams Jr. thing.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/05/2014 18:27 Comments || Top||

#6  OTOH see TOPIX > [Free Republic] US: WE WERE READY TO ACT AGZ IRAN ARMS SHIPMENT BUT ISRAEL VOLUNTEERED.

Things that make you go HMMMMMM ... ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/05/2014 19:48 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't know what the big deal is. These are not nukes, so it is ok.

/sarc
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/05/2014 21:23 Comments || Top||


Top Hamas operative, wanted for 16 years, arrested by IDF
[Times of Israel] top operative of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank who was suspected of being involved in the planning of several terror attacks was arrested during an IDF raid in Hebron, the Israeli military said Tuesday.

Ayyub al-Kawasma, 50, had been on Israel’s wanted list since 1998. He had allegedly taken part in organizing terror activities during the Second Intifada, which began in 2000, Ynet reported.

Kawasma was released from Palestinian Authority custody two weeks ago and immediately began organizing terror activities for Hamas, the IDF said.

He had served time in a PA prison since 2010.

He had been in hiding since being released from PA custody, and was arrested after a Shin Bet investigation uncovered his location.

Palestinian sources reported that an undercover IDF unit arrived in a car with Palestinian license plate and arrested Kawasma at his family’s store in Hebron. He was then taken in for questioning at nearby army base.

Following Kawasma’s arrest, IDF soldiers confiscated a computer as well as cameras that were around the store, Ynet reported.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arab-Israeli Islamist Jailed for Jerusalem 'Incitement'
[An Nahar] An Israeli court sentenced firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
Islamic preacher Sheikh Raed Salah Tuesday to eight months in prison for inciting Moslems to violence over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque.

Salah, leader of the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was convicted in November of inciting "all Moslems and Arabs" in 2007 to "start an intifada (uprising) to support holy Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque."

In addition to the eight-month sentence, Salah will serve a further eight months if he repeats the same felony within three years, according to a court document.

Salah, who was born in the northern Arab-Israeli city Umm al-Fahm in 1958, is no stranger to run-ins with the authorities.

In 2011, he was tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
at the Allenby border crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan after allegedly striking a member of the security forces who wanted to question his wife.

The previous year, he spent five months behind bars for spitting at an Israeli policeman.

The Islamic Movement is tolerated in Israel but is under constant surveillance because of its perceived links with the bad boy Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement that controls the Gazoo Strip, as well as with other Islamist groups worldwide.

The 2007 offence took place during a demonstration against Israeli construction work near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem's Old City, and Salah's speech was followed by festivities during which a number of Israeli coppers were maimed.

Fighting between police and Paleostinians is frequent at the compound, which sits above the Western Wall plaza and houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, and is Islam's third-holiest site.

It is also Judaism's holiest place, being the site of the first and second Jewish temples.

Demands by Jewish hard boyz to be allowed to pray there are perceived in the Moslem world as attempts to "Judaise Jerusalem."
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Maoist landmine explosions injure 16 in Mindanao
Twelve soldiers and four civilians including a Red Cross worker were injured in two landmine explosions thought to have been set off by members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Davao del Sur province in Mindanao.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Norman Zuniega said the first blast occurred on Sunday morning while the soldiers were patroling a remote village in the town of Bansalan, Davao Del Sur, injuring 12 including two junior officers. The Red Cross worker and the three others injured were aboard an ambulance on their way to aid the 12 soldiers and bring them to the nearest hospital when the terrorists insurgents set off another landmine explosion.

“Zuniega said, We condemn to the highest degree the barbaric and brutal act of the NPA, clearly violating human rights and international humanitarian laws."

Joining Zuniega in condemning the attack was Brigadier General Sonny Tutaan, the spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, who said they would file charges against the NPA for violating international humanitarian laws.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Three killed in separate incidents in southern Thailand
Four gunmen gunned down a former police sub-lieutenant in front of his home in Narathiwat province on Monday night. The attackers also planted two bombs near the scene, which later exploded without causing any injuries. Police found 20 spent bullets at the scene yesterday morning. A nearby construction shop and a six-wheel truck were damaged by the blasts.

Meanwhile, suspected terrorists insurgents on a motorcycle opened fire on a couple riding another motorcycle in Yala province yesterday. Angkhana Nudaeng was killed, while her husband was slightly injured when the motorcycle turned over. On Monday night, a villager was gunned down in the same province.

The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) yesterday cited the recent arrest of two paramilitary rangers for the fatal shooting of three boys in Narathiwat province on February 3 as a lesson for the public not to trust rumors without fact-checking. Confirming that the attack was motivated by personal revenge, ISOC spokesman Colonel Banphot Poonpien said people should beware of such rumors, which could be spread by insurgents attempting to stir up violence against officials.

The arrests in this case demonstrated Thailand's sincerity in resolving the unrest because, although the suspects were rangers, state agencies proceeded with the investigation and made arrests without protecting the suspects, the spokesman said. He said, "It is sad that children are the victims of violence stemming from adults' conflicts. It is sadder that insurgents use it as a reason to launch attacks, including a Pattani drive-by attack that killed six innocent people."
Posted by: ryuge || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
LA gang bangers in Syria vid. - Caution: Very bad language.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2014 12:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Everyone fits in somewhere...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/05/2014 18:43 Comments || Top||

#2  This Artic worries me because, back in the mid-late 1990's, there were rumors about Guam of major LA Street Gangs, i.e. Crips + Bloods, attempting to set up here on Guam.

True or not, iff US Gang-bangers are learning how to wage Islamic/Islamist Jihad in Syria + elsewhere, it adds a potentially dangerous dimension to street activities in MainStreet/
AnyTown, USA includ heavily Catholic Guam-WESTPAC.

Moreso iff these Personages also learn how to effec handle IEDS + espec Nukes-WMD "dirty"? techs.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/05/2014 19:54 Comments || Top||

#3  How long until these dirt bags bring it back to the US?
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/05/2014 22:28 Comments || Top||

#4  How long until these dirt bags bring it back to the US?

They gotta survive first, and the way they looked doing it that ain't gonna be for long.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/05/2014 23:40 Comments || Top||


ISIL Claims Rocket Attack on al-Labweh as Syrian Air Raid Targets Arsal
[An Nahar] Three rockets fired from Syria struck residential neighborhoods in the Bekaa town of al-Labweh on Tuesday, in an attack that was swiftly claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which prompted some residents to block the road to nearby Arsal and assault passersby.

The "Damascus Prefecture" of the Qaeda-inspired ISIL grabbed credit for the attack on its Twitter account and published pictures of rockets and masked fighters.

"Five Katyusha rockets were fired at the strongholds 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...
) in the Lebanese area of al-Labweh in retaliation to the party's attack on the Sunnis in (Syria's) Yabrud," the group said.

Earlier on Tuesday, state-run National News Agency quoted al-Labweh municipal chief Ramez Amhaz as saying that the rockets caused material damage but no casualties.

"Youssef al-Itawi's house was among those damaged," NNA said.

Voice of Leb radio (93.3) said "Youssef Itawi was hit by a vehicle as he was escaping the rockets."

In the wake of the shelling, "the al-Labweh-Arsal road was blocked in protest and gunnies appeared in the area as a number of al-Labweh residents smashed two cars belonging to residents from Arsal," the radio station said.

However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
the road was quickly reopened, according to al-Labweh mayor Amhaz, who said his town was not targeted by rockets from Syria but rather by mortar shells that were fired from Arsal's outskirts.

He warned Arsal's residents that the situation might go out of control should such attacks continue.

Agence La Belle France Presse said gunnies quickly deployed in the area, only meters away from a Lebanese Army checkpoint.

"Some of those who gathered in the location were carrying batons with which they started to smash the glass of every car traveling from and to Arsal," AFP said.

Angry protesters told news hounds that the rockets were fired from "the Wadi al-Raayan area in Arsal's outskirts, not Syrian territory."

Later on Tuesday, a Syrian military helicopter fired three missiles on Arsal's Wadi al-Arnab area and two on Wadi al-Raayan, causing no casualties, according to NNA.

The al-Labweh road is the only route that links the border town of Arsal to its Lebanese surroundings. Residents of the town often complain that they are suffering a "siege" by the neighboring towns, accusing the army of contributing to it through its checkpoints that are heavily deployed at Arsal's entrances.

On Monday, four people were maimed when eight rockets fired from Syria hit the Bekaa town of Brital and its surroundings, in an attack that was claimed by the Qaeda-inspired al-Nusra Front in Leb.

"With God's help, the heroes of al-Nusra Front in Leb fired several Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
on the dens of the 'party of Satan' (Hizbullah), in retaliation to the continued massacres of the party of Iran," the Front said, calling on what it called "our people in Leb" to be "patient."
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


Security Source Says Arsal Route for Gunmen
[An Nahar] A Syrian officer and his men took a breather Tuesday outside a mosque in dusty village of Sahel as they awaited the greenlight to resume their offensive on nearby Yabrud.

The rebel-held town in the Qalamoun mountains lies on the strategic highway linking Damascus to Homs, Syria's third city. Close to the Lebanese border, it is crucial to rebel supply lines.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
's army launched an offensive three weeks ago to capture Yabrud. On Monday, the troops entered Sahel, only about two kilometers (just over a mile) away.

"Our morale is high. We feel that the turbans are confused," said the officer, using the regime term for rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Surrounded by news hounds, including an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent on an army-organized tour of the region, he pointed beyond the hilltop village of Sahel to Yabrud.

"We are about to tighten the noose around Yabrud," he said.

The army, backed by fighters from 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...
, has been battling with Sunni jihadists of Al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, in Qalamoun since December, according to activists and a monitoring group.

"We are awaiting orders to advance on Flita," he said of the last rebel post before Yabrud.

Another officer said Flita "is the gunnies's last escape route for Arsal," across the border in Leb, whose residents support the revolt against Assad.

The town has become home to thousands of Syrians who have fled the nearly three-year conflict.

On Monday, Syria's air force launched two strikes on the outskirts of the frontier town, according to Lebanese security sources, the latest in a string of cross-border raids.

In Sahel, a small hamlet abandoned by its residents, the soldiers flash a V-for-victory sign and wave Syrian flags while other walk about with light weapons or drive past in military vehicles.

Gunfire crackles intermittently in the distance where fighting is apparently taking place.

Suddenly there is a loud blast.

"It is an air raid on specific targets," said the first officer.

Earlier Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria with the help of activists on the ground, said two army helicopters dropped explosive-packed barrels on Yabrud.

The strikes come a day after at least 15 rebels were killed fighting in the area, said the Britannia-based monitor.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman says the army does not want to enter Yabrud, but only to "seize the surrounding villages and hills, to completely besiege the town.

The army has used the siege tactic in several towns and cities from the onset of the nearly three-year war that has now killed an estimated 140,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The battle for Yabrud is crucial for Hezbollah, which says rebels are using it as gateway to sending boom-mobiles that have caused death and destruction in Leb.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
4Arab Spring
4Govt of Pakistan
2Commies
2Hezbollah
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda
1al-Nusra
1Govt of Syria
1TTP
1Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
1Palestinian Authority
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in North Africa

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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 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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-03-05
  Israel Seizes Iranian Ship Packed With Advanced Rockets Bound For Palestinian Terrorists In Gaza
Tue 2014-03-04
  Egypt bans Hamas activities in Egypt
Mon 2014-03-03
  A day after Taliban ceasefire: jets bomb Taliban hideout; five killed
Sun 2014-03-02
  Blasts targeting polio team kill 11 in Khyber agency
Sat 2014-03-01
  ISIL Jihadists Retreat from Parts of North Syria after al-Nusra Ultimatum
Fri 2014-02-28
  PTI ends Nato supply blockade
Thu 2014-02-27
  Al Nusra jihadists declare war on ISIS jihadists
Wed 2014-02-26
  Jets pound militant hideouts in Waziristan; 30 killed
Tue 2014-02-25
  Gunmen Kill Senior Pakistan Taliban Commander
Mon 2014-02-24
  Zawahiri's Representative Killed in Syria Suicide Blast
Sun 2014-02-23
  Nine killed as gunships strike militant hideouts in Hangu
Sat 2014-02-22
  Gunmen storm Presidential compound in Mogadishu
Fri 2014-02-21
  40 killed as fighter jets bomb Taliban in Waziristan, Khyber
Thu 2014-02-20
  6 Dead as Qaida Claims Suicide Blasts in Beirut's Southern Suburbs
Wed 2014-02-19
  Taliban kill senior army officer near Peshawar

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