Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Even though Memorial Day is coming up, I would like to honor a special group immediately upon breaking news that these honorable veterans were on a secret waiting list for treatment for injuries that could not wait. Or being denied access to memorials by DC police. Or any other disgraceful act imposed upon these Heroes of Liberty and Freedom currently or during the past year.
Was going to recommend linking up with the already existing local already established VFW Chapter to make a more powerful influence but I am not so sure the top VFW guy is responding to this crisis by endorsing Obama's speech today. So call your congressman, local media, the White House, or whoever and express yourself. And keep watch over the wounded and maimed veterans stateside.
#4
Soooo angry. Seething, really, that he has to pretend care about these corpsemen
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2014 9:29 Comments ||
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#5
The only reason he's angry is that the news got out and makes him look bad.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/22/2014 12:31 Comments ||
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#6
VFW can kiss my ass if thats how they are going to play it. The American Legion seems to be taking a hard line, they will get my support. PUFL Legion anyways. Might hold off on my VFW because of this.
#7
Is the VFW taking that position, or just some elected guy at the top? Because if the latter, I would suspect he'll face some serious pushback now and serious challengers later.
[DAWN] Insurgents have killed 16 coppers in Afghanistan in the space of one day and beheaded eight of them, officials said Wednesday, as security forces prepare to guard a second-round election.
Villagers in the southern province of Zabul Tuesday found the decapitated bodies of eight local coppers who were seized two weeks ago, deputy provincial governor Mohammad Jan Rassoulyar told AFP.
The coppers were snatched by turbans after an attack on their convoy.
"Their bodies were discovered in Nawbahar district and we have sent elders to bring them to Qalat (the picturesque provincial capital)," he said, adding they had their heads chopped off on Tuesday and found soon afterwards.
The deputy police chief of Zabul, Ghulam Jilani Farahi, said the coppers were first shot and then decapitated.
Talibs, who are responsible for many attacks on Afghan police, were not immediately available to comment.
Also on Tuesday at least eight coppers were killed when Taliban fighters stormed checkpoints in the northern province of Badakhshan, said Gul Mohammad Bedar, the deputy provincial governor.
"The Taliban attacked from the surrounding mountains with rockets and small arms. Eight police were killed after they ran out of ammunition," he said.
"We have sent reinforcements and ammunition to help around 40 other police who are still in Yamgan district."
Deputy provincial police chief Abdul Qadir Sayad confirmed the attack, saying 13 Taliban were also killed.
The Taliban grabbed credit and said they had taken control of the remote district.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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News reports from Buloburde district in Hiran region indicate that that a fierce confrontation erupted today between pastoralists and Al-Shabaab insurgents on the outskirts of the town.
Beware the heavily-armed shepherd...
'Twas ever so. One lad and his sheep against the predators of the wild... why a boy could learn to slay a Goliath that way.
The territory known as Jameeco Mubaarak is approximately 30km east of Buloburde and it was invaded by Islamist militants of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab. The fighters demanded scores of money from pastorals in the town and then attacked them when they refused to pay the money.
Witnesses described to Shabelle that in the battle, two were killed from the fighters and pastorals.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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Garissa, Somalia -- A suspected grenade blast near a mosque wounded 11 people in Garissa town on Tuesday, police and disaster officials said. The attack happened a day after suspected Somalia al Shabaab militants killed at least 12 people in Mandera County in an ambush.
Kenyan warplanes have been targeting al Shabaab positions in Somalia over the past days, as the country pursues the militants who have carried out a series of gun, bomb and grenade attacks on its territory. It sent in troops in 2011.
Police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi said one of the 11 wounded was in a serious condition but the rest were out of danger. A second grenade failed to detonate, he said.
The National Disaster Operations Centre said on its Twitter feed the blast occurred near a mosque and that three suspects had been arrested. Neither explicitly said al Shabaab was to blame, but suspicion is likely to fall on the al Qaeda linked Islamist group.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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The African Union force in Somalia, AMISOM, has launched new airstrikes aimed at militant group al-Shabab. AMISOM says the attack near the southern town of Jilib on Tuesday killed more than 50 al-Shabab insurgents. There has been no independent confirmation of the claim.
AMISOM said on its Twitter feed that the airstrike targeted a hideout where senior leaders and foreign fighters of the al-Qaida-linked militant group had gathered. The old secret meeting at the hideout at 2 a.m.
AMISOM has Twitter?
Just about everybody does -- Instapundit, ryuge, trailing daughter #1...
This is the second airstrike by AU forces against al-Shabab this week. On Sunday, Kenyan fighter jets bombed an al-Shabab base north of Jilib.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
A little combat command time never hurts the old resume'. Get it where you can.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/22/2014 5:10 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Malian army troops have pulled out from the key northern town of Kidal after intense fighting with local Tuareg fighters.
The festivities took place early on Wednesday near the governor's office of the flashpoint city.
The fighting erupted after a weekend of violence, which killed dozens of people.
Mohammed Ag Rhissa, one of the leaders of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), said that his group had taken "control of the whole town of Kidal" and that "we have prisoners."
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... called for an immediate ceasefire in the northern town.
The appeal came after a UN source in Mali reported that the fighters had killed or captured a number of government troops.
"The noise of gunfire has stopped... There are prisoners and deaths among the Malian army's ranks," the source said.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council also condemned the recent deadly festivities in Mali, calling for an immediate end to the ongoing violence in the West African country.
The 15-member council said in a statement that those responsible for the recent fighting in northern Mali should be "identified and held accountable."
The festivities erupted first during a visit to Kidal on Saturday by Prime Minister Moussa Mara, whose government is backed by French soldiers, who invaded the former colony in January last year under the pretext of halting the advance of the Tuareg fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Saiqa Special Forces ...Libya's elite army unit, insofar as they have one, formed from a mixture of paratroopers and commandos. The group emerged from a militia with the same name in 2010. It now numbers a few thousand and reports to the Ministry of Defence. It deployed in Benghazi in an attempt to control the carnage. As a result, it has been attacked and several of its officers murdered. The force is popular in Benghazi for its stance against Ansar al-Sharia group... in Benghazi have thrown their weight behind General Khalifa Hafter and his Libyan National Army saying they will "strike with an iron hand" all those who stand against the revolution.
Speaking at a brief televised presser this evening Benghazi Special Forces Commander Wanis Bukhamada said the 'Dignity Operation', the name given by Hafter to his crackdown on Islamist brigades in Benghazi, was "the work of the people" and that attacks against the homeland would be "crushed by the people's will".
He said that the members of Saiqa had themselves suffered at the hands of what he called "criminal takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... gangs", a reference to Islamist groups including Ansar Al-Sharia, and had "struggled continuously over the last year and a half to beat terrorism".
Bukhamada said ultimately "it should be us or them" and that the Special Forces supported the building of the state and the construction of a free Libya.
Saiqa forces remained, at least nominally, neutral during festivities on Friday between forces loyal to General Khalifa Hafter and Ansar Al-Sharia and February 17 Brigade. Special forces clashed with Ansar Al-Sharia at the beginning of this month when the latter attempted an assault on Benghazi Security Directorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room ...used to be officially tasked with protecting the capital. However, it was stripped of this power by parliament, the General National Congress (GNC), after its members kidnapped then Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in October 2013..... (LROR) has called on its members serving in the armed forces to desert their posts saying it does not need the support General Khalifa Hafter. Hafter appears to be one of the few sane people in Libya. I'm sure he'll loon out sometime soon. It's something in the air, I believe.
In a statement yesterday, the LROR told its forces to temporarily withdraw from the Army and disclose to their commanders the names of anyone involved in attempting to kill off officials and members of the security forces. It said it would then seek their prosecution through the Attorney General's office.
The LROR said it would be "the head of the spear" which would deter criminals in the country and that it would carry out its mission without the aid of General Haftier and his Dignity Operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Two Niger nationals and one Egyptian were killed and two other workers maimed last night when five rockets hit the capital's Salaheddin area last night. Speaking by phone with Libya Herald, the outgoing head of the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... Local Council, Sadat Elbadri said the rockets were fired from somewhere around the Airport Road.
Elbadri also said that the Air Defense Camp in Tajoura was entered by gangs and a number of weapons confiscated. He could not say to where these forces owed their allegiances.
Elbadri plans to release a bulletin on last night's events at 8 pm this evening.
Elsewhere, the High National Electoral Commission's Tripoli office sustained some minor damage last night when armed festivities were taking place in the area near the office. A spokesperson from HNEC told this newspaper that no one was injured in the incident, though some materials were lost or damaged.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... to three years in prison on charges of stealing public funds.
"The court orders Mohammed Hosni Mubarak to be sent to jail for three years," said judge Osama Shaheen as Mubarak looked on from a cage flanked by his sons, who were sentenced to four years in jail on the same charges.
The court fined Mubarak and his sons 21.197 million Egyptian pounds ($2.98 million) and ordered them to repay about 125 million Egyptian pounds of funds the court said they had stolen.
Mubarak's former intelligence chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is poised to be elected president next week.
The verdict may please some Egyptians who lived through three decades of autocracy under Mubarak, but analysts say that businessmen still loyal to him are still influential.
Rights groups say that abusive practices of the Mubarak regime are alive and well as another former military man prepares to take the reins of power.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] An Egyptian anti-terror court on Wednesday sentenced 54 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... to life in prison for taking part in violent protests, judicial officials said.
The defendants, who stood trial in several cases, were convicted of belonging to a "terrorist" group, attempted murder, rioting, carrying out acts of violence, taking part in unlicensed protests and damaging public and private installations, the sources added.
Another 104 defendants, including three female students, were sentenced to jail terms of between one and 10 years over similar convictions
Since the military ousted Morsi in July last year, his supporters have been staging weekly protests calling for his reinstatement.
The rallies have often degenerated into violent street festivities with security forces and civilian opponents.
In November, the military-installed authorities adopted a law banning all but police-sanctioned protests.
The interim government also blacklisted Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist group in December, without providing any hard evidence of the group's involvement in deadly Death Eater attacks targeting security forces since the Islamist's overthrow.
The group has condemned the violence and said repeatedly it is committed to peaceful protests.
At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in street festivities since Morsi's overthrow, and more than 15,000 have been tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! Hundreds have been sentenced to death after speedy trials.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A Chinese construction engineer has been killed by unidentified gunnies in Libya's restive second city Benghazi, medical and security sources said on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old was rubbed out on Tuesday just four days after an offensive led by a former rebel commander to purge the city of Islamist militia left 79 people dead.
"Unidentified gunnies forced two other Chinese construction workers to show them the office of the site foreman and then went in and shot him several times," a security source said.
[AnNahar] The Libyan navy's chief of staff, his driver and two guards were maimed on Wednesday when gunnies attacked his convoy in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , the navy front man said.
Rear Admiral Hassan Abu Shnak was on his way to work when gunnies blocked his convoy in a western district of the capital and opened fire, Colonel Ayub Kassem told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"He was lightly maimed in the head. A driver and two guards were also maimed, but their injuries are not life threatening."
[Fox News] The Obama administration has deployed 80 military personnel to Chad to help locate the nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Islamist militants Boko Haram. Say what? Where are the French? It's their turf, no ? Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Myles Caggins said the team will mostly be made up of Air Force personnel responsible for operating a single unmanned, unarmed drone. The drone will be flying out of an airstrip in Chad -- which shares a portion of its western border with northeastern Nigeria -- with a mission to search for the girls in Nigeria. 20 USAF drone support personnel, 60 USAF personnel to support billeting, AC units, rec center, and the procurement of French rations.
Other U.S. service members will be assigned to act as an armed security force tasked with protecting the team. The team was scheduled to arrive Wednesday. Other "service members" .....intentionally undefined.
Obama formalized the decision with a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and the Senate notifying lawmakers about the steps underway to assist in the return of the abducted girls. The Champ desperately needs a win, any win. Wednesday's news conference was definitely not a win. Admission of any type of healthcare failure IS NOT AN OPTION! Shinstucki is stuck until this piece of crap blows over and we can get Pogoskid Duckworth spun up to replace him in the Fall. Nobody will attack her, nobody. Come on people, make it happen.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The French way would be the sudden appearance of the girls in a safe area and deafening silence from Boko Haram.
All radical groups, be they Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia, or Democrats eventually over reach the tolerance of the general public and that is their downfall. Nigeria has reached its limits with these clowns.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/22/2014 14:52 Comments ||
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#2
Kidnapped in Nigeria; looking in Chad.
Not a geographic expert on Africa. Are they looking under the street lamp because that's where the light's better? Or have they got some - you know - actual intelligence?
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/22/2014 15:36 Comments ||
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#3
Needless to say, logistics would be a challenge. I'd wager it to be Cameroon or Chad, well away from their operational headquarters. Just a guess however.
#5
Refresh my memory... how many military personnel were sent into Bengazi?
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/22/2014 16:24 Comments ||
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#6
Other U.S. service members
If he is interesting in finding sex slave girls, this is his secret service detail.
One drone for the area of something like Texas 4 weeks+ after the crime? Talk about doing the absolute bare minimum to not embarrass the wife. Hell those girls were sold wedded bedded or deaded before michelle even deactivated the safeties on our hashtags.
[AnNahar] A Bahraini youth was killed on Wednesday in festivities with police at a Shiite village near the capital Manama, the main Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq said.
"Mahmud Mohsen succumbed to his wounds after being hit by buckshot on Wednesday in Sitra," Al-Wefaq said on Twitter.
The interior ministry said police had been notified that a dead person was admitted to a clinic in Sitra, and added that an investigation was underway.
Witnesses said the festivities broke out in the afternoon during a ceremony to mark the death of a Shiite killed in an kaboom on Friday last week.
Bahrain remains deeply divided three years after security forces crushed an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, with persistent protests sparking festivities with police, scores of Shiites tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! on "terror" charges and reconciliation talks deadlocked.
Attacks on the security forces have intensified in the Sunni Mohammedan-ruled kingdom, mainly in Shiite-populated villages surrounding the capital.
[AnNahar] Dutch police have jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! a 21-year-old man who fought in Syria as he was allegedly about to commit an armed robbery "to finance jihad", the public prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The man spent six months in Syria last year "taking part in jihad" fighting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's regime, the prosecutor said in a statement.
As part of an undercover operation upon his return, he told police that he could obtain weapons and acquired a shotgun, a Magnum revolver and a small handgun.
Police arrested him on May 15 as he was allegedly on his way to carry out a robbery at a yacht marina in Scheveningen, a coastal suburb of The Hague.
He has been remanded in jug and faces charges of planning a terrorist attack and illegal firearms possession.
"He wanted to use the spoils from the hold-up to finance international jihad," the prosecutor's office said.
Spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP that he wanted the money "for the fight in Syria".
More than 100 young Dutch citizens have so far traveled to Syria to fight against Assad's forces in the three-year conflict in which more than 162,000 people have died, according to NGO estimates.
[Rooters] A sophisticated hacking group recently attacked a U.S. public utility and compromised its control system network, but there was no evidence that the utility's operations were affected, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Could be Russia, China, Iran, jihadis or one flavour or another, even just black hats exploring their limits. Your thoughts, dear Readers?
DHS did not identify the utility in a report that was issued this week by the agency's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT.
"While unauthorized access was identified, ICS-CERT was able to work with the affected entity to put in place mitigation strategies and ensure the security of their control systems before there was any impact to operations," a DHS official told Rooters on Tuesday.
[DAWN] A Tajik Death Eater was rubbed out by unidentified gunnies in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... bazaar of North Wazoo Agency in the wee hours on Tuesday.
Sources said that a local Death Eater was injured in the incident, who was taken to hospital at death's door.
They said that the attackers escaped the area. The sources claimed that several forces of Evil had been killed in fighting between rival Death Eater factions in the agency.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... a man was rubbed out by his rivals, also in the Miranshah bazaar. Local residents said that motive behind the incident was stated to be an old enmity.
On the other hand, a medical store was blown up by unknown persons in the cattle market in Miranshah on Tuesday. No group grabbed credit for the attack.
And in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , the building of a private school was partially damaged in a blast on Tuesday morning.
Principal of the Peshawar Modal School, Dalazak Road, Ms Noor Afsha, told police that someone hurled an improvised bomb at the school early in the morning which went kaboom! with a bang.
An official of Pahari Pura cop shoppe told Dawn that windowpanes and doors of the school were damaged in the blast. He said that the IED weighed around three kilograms. Police registered case and began investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Gunmen Wednesday killed a teacher and five members of his family in Pakistain's southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , officials said, adding that separatist rebels were believed responsible.
The attack happened in the Panjgour district of Balochistan, about 650 miles (1,000 kilometers) west of the quiet provincial capital of Quetta.
Balochistan is home to a long-running separatist conflict that was revived in 2004, and teachers are routinely killed both by nationalist organizations and security forces on suspicion of spying.
"Gunmen stormed the house of Abdul Hameed, a schoolteacher, shooting him and five of his family members present at the house," Mumtaz Ali, a senior administration official, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The attackers fled after the killings.
Another senior administration official confirmed the account and said Hameed had had problems with the Baluch Liberation Front, which had accused him of spying for the country's intelligence agencies.
He added that the teacher had come under suspicion because he had been posted from another part of the province.
According to a 2010 Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... report, educational establishments have been particularly targeted by rebels because "bully boyz view them as representatives of the Pak state and symbols of perceived ... military oppression."
The idea of giving greater autonomy to Balochistan, the size of Italia but with only nine million inhabitants, is highly sensitive in a country still scarred by the breakaway in 1971 of its eastern portion, now Bangladesh.
Balochistan, spread over an unforgiving landscape of mountains and deserts abutting Iran and Afghanistan, is rich in gas and mineral deposits -- adding a financial dimension to the battle.
In recent years many people suspected of links to separatist groups have mysteriously disappeared, allegedly at the hands of the intelligence agencies.
[Times of India] ISLAMABAD: At least 60 militants were killed today in precision bombing by air force jets on Taliban targets in Pakistan's restive tribal region on the Afghan border, military officials said.
Air force bombers pounded rebel positions in North Waziristan, which is one of seven tribal agencies where the al-Qaida-linked Pakistani Taliban have strongholds.
A military official said on condition of anonymity that there were confirmed reports about the presence of the militants in the targeted areas.
"As per reports so far, 60 hardcore terrorists including some of the important commanders and foreigners were also killed in the strikes and around 30 were injured," the official said.
He said, a huge cache of arms and ammunition including IED-making explosive material has also been destroyed in the strikes.
"There are confirmed reports that terrorists involved in recent attacks including IDP (internally displaced people) camp blast in Peshawar, IED (improvised explosives device) attacks in Mohmand and Bajaur killing innocent civilians and security forces and IED attacks at security forces convoy in NWA (North Waziristan Agency), were hiding in these hideouts," said the official.
There was no independent confirmation of the reported strikes and death toll as the areas are remote and out of reach of the news media.
Pakistan's army has adopted a policy of aerial strikes in response to bombings by the Taliban.
General Raheel Sharif since taking over as army chief last year has announced tough measures in response to Taliban attacks on security forces and civilians.
Use of aerial strikes was put on hold after announcement of talks by the government in January but negotiations are stalled and the Taliban have resorted to bombings, forcing the army to launch new air attacks.
An AFP news hound in the district said helicopter gunships and ground troops were firing on targets in and around the town of Mir Ali, and local rustics had been ordered to evacuate.
An intelligence official added that the Datta Khel and Ghulam Ali areas were also targeted.
North Wazoo is one of the seven rugged semi-autonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border, an area long tagged by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world.
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... 's government began negotiations with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) through intermediaries in February, with a ceasefire beginning March 1 but breaking down a month later.
Analyst Hasan Askari said the strikes were in line with the military's policy of retaliating to attacks the bad boys' headquarters.
"There is also realization among government that the dialogue is more or less dead," he added.
Since the TTP launched their insurgency in 2007, more than 6,800 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks around Pakistain, according to an AFP tally.
There have also been festivities between supporters of TTP commander Khan Said Sajna and followers of the late TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
The group has long been riven by infighting and the feud began after Sajna, a senior commander, was rejected for the leadership following the killing of then-leader Mehsud last November, gunnies say.
Sajna had been seen as a strong candidate to become TTP chief following Mehsud's death.
But the movement's ruling council at the last minute elected Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... , who hails from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.
#1
The image from the original article shows (correct me if I am wrong) Indian air force Su-30's. Is it that hard to find an image of an F-16 dropping bombs?
#2
Squinty, the label on the photo is Pix/dornier17.jpg in the Rantburg image file, which no doubt means something. I found it under Bombers. This is the extent of my knowledge on the subject, I'm afraid.
#4
Squinty, the label on the photo is ix/dornier17.jpg in the Rantburg image file.
Yes, I know. And a nice picture it is. I appreciate the humor shown by its choice. Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to the picture in the linked article. It is showing what I think are Indian Air Force SU-30's but I am not sure and was wondering if anyone could confirm.
The question about the F-16's was directed to the author of the Indian Times article, not the Rantburg article. They picked an Indian Air Force pic to describe a Pakistani attack. But perhaps they were being humorous too, but I think not.
#7
Good lord, Besoeker. Now I know not to marry an elderly Pakistani in the Olde Countrie who doesn't like my cooking, too. It's been an educational day, thus far. ;-)
Squinty, I'm glad I amused, if not informed. No doubt someone here will have the answer, eventually.
The missiles, reportedly modeled after the Chinese M-11 missiles, will give Pakistan the capability of matching India's Prithvi.
The existence of the factory was disclosed in a classified US National Intelligence Estimate on China'smissile-related assistance to Pakistan, says the Post.
The intelligence report also says that Pakistan may have developed nuclear warheads for the missile. The factory, located in a Rawalpindi suburb, is expected to be fully functional in a year or two, according to the report. The Post cites varying opinions in the US intelligence community about the factory's abilities.
Some officials believe the factory will be capable of producing complete replicas of the M-11 missiles, while others believe that it will only be capable of manufacturing some components.
The existence of the factory opens up the possibility of fresh US sanctions against China for violating the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a pact that restricts export of missiles or missile technology capable of carrying nuclear warheads beyond 185 miles. The M-11's range is a little over 185 miles.
The sanctions include a ban on most exports to the US for two years, a move that would put immense strain on Sino-US ties. You guys can't cut the range down by a few miles?
And allow our beloved president to save face? Why on earth would they do such a thing?
The possibility of similar sanctions was averted earlier this year after Chinese officials told Washington they were unaware of the sale of ring magnets, used to enrich uranium, to Pakistan. We don't know nuttin about that.
US intelligence officials told the Post they believed the missile factory was the result of a secret contract signed between Pakistan and China. The contract, in their opinion, provided for building a missile factory, plus transferring about three dozen missiles to Pakistan.
Officials from both China and Pakistan denied any knowledge of the factory to the post. We don't know nuttin about that either.
[AnNahar] Israeli soldiers on Wednesday pointed their weapons at a Lebanese Army post near the Fatima border gate as other troops opened fire towards a Lebanese citizen.
Twenty Israeli soldiers "loaded their individual weapons and pointed them towards an army post at the Fatima gate, hurling insults at its troops," a Lebanese Army statement said.
Golly. What d'you suppose happened just before that, that the clever reporter neglected to mention?
The post's members "took the appropriate defensive measures," the statement added.
Separately, Israeli troops stationed at the Roweisat al-Alam post in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills "threw a smoke grenade and opened fire towards a Lebanese citizen who was grazing his flock inside Lebanese territory, 150 meters from the Blue Line," the statement said.
Possibly a simple but well armed kind of a Lebanese citizen, who'd once upon a time taken a correspondence course in assassination from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard?
No one was hurt in the incident according to the Lebanese Army.
Last week, President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... asked Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil to file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council over recent Israeli violations.
Israeli military aircraft violate the Lebanese airspace on near daily basis while manned patrols frequently cross the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line on the border between the two countries.
Several Lebanese shepherds have also been kidnapped by Israeli troops in recent months before being released shortly after interrogation.
[Ynet] Several mortar rounds fell near active IDF forces on the Gazoo border Wednesday morning. No injuries were initially reported. An explosive was set off near the soldiers shortly after.
IDF troops responded with live fire against areas of suspected terrorist activities on the Gazoo side of the border.
Communist militants on Wednesday took responsibility for Monday's near-simultaneous raids on two mining facilities in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, and Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, but were silent about Tuesday's attack in President Roxas town, North Cotabato, in which five insurgents were killed.
In a statement, New People's Army spokesman Dencio Madrigal said, "The punitive action is also a continuing enforcement of the policy of the People's Democratic Government to defend national patrimony by opposing operations of foreign large-scale mining companies."
Madrigal hinted that Monday's raid will not be the last. He said the militant group's tactical offensives "will continue" against mining firms with "environmentally destructive operations".
The NPA, meanwhile, was silent about Tuesday's clash in North Cotabato. The number of NPA rebels killed in that attack rose to five with the death of another militant during pursuit operation conducted by the military.
Col. Nilo Vinluan, commander of the 57th Infantry Battalion, identified three of the slain insurgents as Ronald Arnado, alias Commander Revo, an alias "Totoy Gamay", and Ibot Gumay.
North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza condemned the NPA attack, calling it atrocious and an act of terror.
A retired soldier and a former official of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Center (SBPAC) were both killed in Pattani and Yala provinces yesterday.
The first slaying happened in Pattani's Kapho district when Sub Lt Perm Petnui, a retired solider, was riding a motorcycle. Attackers shot him and then set fire to his body.
Charming
The victim was also the elder brother of Thung Yang Daeng district chief Sawate Petnui.
Officials believe the attack was linked to the southern insurgency.
The other killing was that of Wuthisak Suwan, the former director of a local economic development unit. He was found shot dead in a pickup truck on the side of a road in Yala's Muang district. He had been driving home when an assailant in another car opened fire at him. The attacker's car was later seen speeding off in the direction of Pattani.
Meanwhile, security teams yesterday examined houses and a high-voltage power tower which came under a bomb and gun attack in Pattani's Nong Chik district Tuesday night. A grocer was injured in the bomb explosion. His shop was badly damaged in the attack.
Several houses and a car were found riddled with bullets. An improvised explosive device was hidden at the electric tower to target officers who were to investigate earlier gun attacks in the area, but the bomb went off before they arrived. It was the second bomb attack in the area in recent months.
[Iran Press TV] In Syria, at least five civilians have been killed and tens of others maimed in a mortar attack by foreign-backed Death Eaters in the country's Aleppo city.
According to reports, a market in Aleppo's al-Midan district was targeted in the attack, which also left at least 40 people maimed in the northern city.
On May 19, mortar shells fired by Death Eaters fighting against the Syrian government hit residential areas in the al-Qas'aa neighborhood of the capital, Damascus, leaving at least 13 citizens injured.
Cities and towns across Syria have frequently come under kabooms as well as mortar and rocket fire by the foreign-backed Death Eaters since the crisis erupted in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The army announced on Wednesday that it jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! over the past three days a number of Syrians in the eastern Bekaa region of Arsal for illegally entering Leb.
It said that 18 Syrians were arrested at Arsal checkpoints for entering the country with fake Lebanese General Security documents.
The General Security confirmed, after investigations with some of the detainees, that they had entered Leb through forged documents.
The Syrians confessed that they had each paid USD 250 for the documents.
On May 2, the army said that it had arrested seven Syrians for also illegally entering the country.
A number of Syrians have in recent months been arrested for attempting to infiltrate Leb through illegitimate means.
Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, Arsal has served as a key conduit for refugees, rebels and maimed people fleeing strife-torn Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Doesn't seem fair given all the Hezbullies going the other way. Still, if I was Lebanon I would also have a wide open out-door and a very tightly controlled in-door.
BTW, I guess the papers didn't come with a money back guarantee.
[AnNahar] Syria's army has launched a fierce assault on rebel fighters in a bid to break their year-long siege on Aleppo's central prison, a monitor, state media and activists reported Wednesday.
The rebels and their allies from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front have been trying to overrun the jail, which remains in government control, to release political prisoners reportedly held in very poor conditions.
"The army, the (pro-regime) National Defense Forces militia, Arab fighters and Leb's 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... are in fierce combat against jihadists from Al-Nusra Front and Salafist tough guys in the Sheikh Najjar industrial area, one kilometer (0.6 miles) from Aleppo's central prison," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... had broken through on the road leading to the prison, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that ending the siege "would constitute a strategic victory for the regime".
State news agency SANA said, meanwhile, that "the army has taken over the village of Hilan, and is advancing towards other areas that surround Aleppo prison."
An activist in Aleppo, Mohammad Wissam, gave AFP a similar account.
"The regime wants to reach the prison. (Troops) have not managed to do so yet, but if they do... they can then reach the Castelo road, which links Aleppo's liberated (rebel-held) areas to the northern countryside," he said.
Rebels in Aleppo city, once Syria's commercial capital, rely on supply routes leading to the countryside as a rear base.
The northern countryside of Aleppo borders Turkey, a key supporter of Syria's revolt and home to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the country's violence.
On Wednesday, near Aleppo prison, rebels blew up the Al-Kindi hospital, which the loyalist army had used as a position before its takeover by the opposition.
"The building is very big, and it could be used by regime troops (should they reclaim it) to monitor supply routes used by the revolutionaries," Wissam told AFP via the Internet.
"Everyone is afraid the regime might besiege (rebel areas of) Aleppo," he added.
Elsewhere in Syria, four Kurdish fighters and seven pro-regime snuffies were killed in fighting in the majority Kurdish province of Hasakeh, said the Observatory.
And in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, four Islamist fighters were killed in an overnight battle against the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... Activists and the Observatory say ISIL has recently launched a fresh bid to set up an Islamic state under its control along the Syrian border with Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/22/2014 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
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.
[DAWN] Insurgents have killed 16 
News reports from Buloburde district in Hiran region indicate that that a fierce confrontation erupted today between pastoralists and Al-Shabaab insurgents on the outskirts of the town.
The African Union force in Somalia, AMISOM, has launched new airstrikes aimed at militant group al-Shabab. AMISOM says the attack near the southern town of Jilib on Tuesday killed more than 50 al-Shabab insurgents. There has been no independent confirmation of the claim.
[Iran Press TV] Malian army troops have pulled out from the key northern town of Kidal after intense fighting with local Tuareg fighters.
[AnNahar] Dutch police have 
Wazoo
[Times of India] ISLAMABAD: At least 60 militants were killed today in precision bombing by air force jets on Taliban targets in Pakistan's restive tribal region on the Afghan border, military officials said.
The image from the original article shows (correct me if I am wrong) Indian air force Su-30's. Is it that hard to find an image of an F-16 dropping bombs? 
The missiles, reportedly modeled after the Chinese M-11 missiles, will give Pakistan the capability of matching India's Prithvi.
[AnNahar] Israeli soldiers on Wednesday pointed their weapons at a Lebanese Army post near the Fatima border gate as other troops opened fire towards a Lebanese citizen.
Communist militants on Wednesday took responsibility for Monday's near-simultaneous raids on two mining facilities in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, and Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, but were silent about Tuesday's attack in President Roxas town, North Cotabato, in which five insurgents were killed. 
A retired soldier and a former official of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Center (SBPAC) were both killed in Pattani and Yala provinces yesterday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
