[TOWNHALL] According to a local news report from KVOA News 4 out of Tucson, Arizona, at least one Mexican military helicopter crossed into the United States early Thursday morning, shot at Border Patrol agents using lethal force and then flew back to Mexico. Once the helicopter was back on the ground in Mexico, an apology was issued.
"The incident occurred after midnight and before 6 a.m. Helicopter flew into the U.S. and fired on two U.S. Border Patrol agents. The incident occurred west of the San Miguel Gate on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation," Border Patrol Tucson Sector Union President Art del Cueto told KVOA News 4 in a statement. "The agents were unharmed. The helicopter went back into Mexico. Mexico then contacted U.S. authorities and apologized for the incident."
U.S. Border Patrol Spokesperson Andy Adame issued a similar statement and said the incident is under investigation.
According to a recent story in the Washington Times, armed Mexican soldiers regularly cross over into the United States, which prompt stand offs and altercations with U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2014 11:35 ||
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#1
It's easy to win a war when the other side isn't shooting back.
#6
Reports are two, count 'em, two shots were fired in the direction of the agents.
A report I wrote three years ago stated that the Mexican Army had something like a 13.8 to 1 kill ratio, and that's when the bad guys were armed. Mexican Marines in 2011 has a 34 to one kill ratio.
I'd say the shooting was accidental.
For more information, click here to purchase a copy of Volume Three of the Wounded Eagle, which is a compilation of all Mexican Drug War news written for Rantburg.com 2010 to 2012.
#7
Militia started setting up a blockade today along the Laredo, Tx border. A spokesperson said they are well aware that they could be shot at by gangs, cartels, smugglers, their own government so they will be armed, but will not shoot unless shot at.
#8
Looks like NAFTA, etc.-led OWG NAU + TPP, TAP have outstanding issues to discuss.
Clearly the answer is to take away the guns from US Border Patrol officers + ordinary Civilians in order to preclude unecessary threats to innocent helpless Helicopters???
[Tolo News] In southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province the clash between the Afghan cops and Taliban forces of Evil has led to the death of 70 Taliban and injuring hundreds of others in Nawzad district of the province, local officials said on Thursday.
Nawzad District Governor, Sayed Murad Agha, said that during the clash 15 coppers were killed and seven others maimed.
Agha said that heaving fighting is still ongoing in the districts of Mosa Qala, Kajaki, Sangin and Nawzad districts.
The ongoing festivities have left over 2,000 families displaced as they fled their homes in search of security.
Additional security forces have been deployed to Helmand as festivities continue to intensify.
The government of Afghanistan believes that the attacks are being supported from outside of the country; in particular the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) say that Pakistain's military and turbans are involved in the attacks.
MoI Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said, at a presser on Thursday, that in order to clear the area of forces of Evil a special operation will be executed.
"We have started our special operation and offensive, which will be led by our Special Forces," Sediqqi said.
The insurgency began five days ago in Sangin district that later spread to other districts of the province such as Kajaki, Mosa Qala and Nawzad districts.
"The Pak military dressed up as the Taliban," MoD Spokesman Zahir Azimi explained. "Most of the forces of Evil were Uzbeks and Punjabis that were from the Jaish-ul-Mohammedanin group."
Afghan military have killed 150 Taliban and maimed 90 others. Twenty-five Afghan army soldiers were killed or maimed, 30 coppers were killed and 40 others maimed.
Helmand borders Pakistain where parts of the province have faced disturbances for years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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At least five people have been killed in a new attack on Kenya’s coast, officials said Tuesday, one week after some 60 people died in twin massacres nearby. The attack took place overnight on a small village near the town of Witu, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) on the mainland west of the tourist island of Lamu.
“There is another attack where five people were killed,” a police officer in Lamu said on condition on not being killed anonymity.
Lamu County Commissioner Stephen Ikua confirmed there had been a new “unfortunate attack”, the third in the area this month, but said he could not confirm casualties.
“We have sent our officers to the ground to get more details,” Ikua said.
Attacks last week on the nearby coastal Mpeketoni district left at least 60 dead and were claimed by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents, though President Uhuru Kenyatta blamed “well-planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence” carried out by “local political networks”.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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Hiram Province, Somalia -- At least two people among them a Djibouti an Official and soldier were killed in Bulo-burde town of Hiran region after suicide bomb hit a Amalow hotel in the town. An eyewitness who declined to be named
"Please don't kill me!"
told Shabelle Media that the gunmen believed to be Al Shabaab militants rammed into hotel and killed Djiboutian Official and soldier.
Commissioner of Bulo-burte for Somali Gov't said that Somali troops along with AU forces completed the operation against Al Shabaab raid in the town adding that the Hotel under control allied forces.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but Somali Officials accused Al Shabaab is being mastermind the bomb that targeted on the Amalow Hotel in Bulo-burte town.
Fighting flared up in Buloburde after Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants launched heavy assault against on bases manned by Somali Federal Gov't troops in the town. The gun battle between Somali troops and Al Shabaab are continued in the area as both warring sides used heavy and slight weapons during the battle.
Somali Officials in Bulo-burde were unenviable to reach on the phone for comments on the skirmishes.
This writer's English is almost as good as the guy at KCNA...
The fighting came months after Al Shabaab militants were pushed by Somali troops backed AU mission in Somalia "AMISOM" from the town.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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The death toll in Lamu fresh attacks rises to 11 after more bodies were discovered. Unknown assailants attacked Pandanguo village in Witu on Monday night.
The incident happened about 30 kilometers away from Mpeketoni where more than 60 people were killed last week. Police said those killed were from different communities. One survivor is in hospital with deep wounds. The village is dominated by small-scale farmers from diverse backgrounds.
Tension remained high in the area even as more police were sent to beef up security. Police boss David Kimaiyo said they are yet to know the motive of the attack but officers were on the ground pursuing the attackers.
“We are informed a number of armed bandits raided the village and killed at least five people. We are on the ground and more information will be issued later,” said Kimaiyo.
Last week, a gang raided Mpeketoni and Kibaoni and shot dead more than 60 people at close range before fleeing. President Uhuru Kenyatta blamed the attacks on ‘local political networks’ despite Al-shabaab claiming responsibility.
The military later claimed it had killed five of the attackers in Tana River area but locals have since said the deceased were herders who were mistaken as bandits. There are many theories being fronted as the cause of the Mpeketoni incident including terrorism by Kenyan terror cells, land and tribal fallout.
Many pundits believe land is the main reason for the attacks. A new police commander has been posted to Lamu County after Mpeketoni massacre. Ephantus Kiura will replace Leonard Omollo who was moved to Vigilance House while Mr Njenga Miiri will replace Mr Rashid Yakub of Administration Police.
Senior security officials led by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku visited the scene and camped there for almost a week in a bid to address fears and threats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Kenyan police have tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! the governor of the coastal Lamu district in connection with three recent massacres in which over 60 people were killed, officers said Thursday.
Governor Issa Timamy was arrested late Wednesday in connection with killings last week over two consecutive nights in the town of Mpeketoni and a nearby village that claimed nearly 60 lives. Another attack this week left at least five dead, officials said.
"The governor is in jug," Kenya's Criminal Investigations Department chief Ndegwa Muhoro said, adding he was due in court Thursday.
"There are various charges lined up for him that are related to the attack," he said, without giving further details.
Despite an immediate claim of responsibility from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab for the Mpeketoni attack, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has blamed "local political networks" along with an "opportunist network of other criminal gangs."
The accusations have stoked already tense political rivalry between Kenyatta and opposition parties.
Timamy is a member of the opposition CORD party, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy.
Survivors of the attack in Mpeketoni reported gunnies speaking Somali and carrying Shabaab flags, executing non-Mohammedans and saying their actions were Dire Revenge™ for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as part of the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force fighting the Islamists.
Police on Wednesday also arrested 13 alleged separatists suspected of planning more attacks in the country's coastal region.
An interior ministry statement said those detained were plotting "ethnic cleansing" attacks and were members of the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), which campaigns for independence of the coastal region.
After the attacks, Kenyan security forces killed five people they suspected of involvement in the massacres, recovering AK-47 assault rifles as well as ammunition.
Three others have also been charged in connection with the killings, including a police officer, the owner and driver of a vehicle used by the attackers, and a suspect accused of running fake Shabaab social media accounts.
[AnNahar] Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab commandos on Thursday attacked an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... military base in central Somalia dressed in stolen government army uniforms, killing at least two soldiers from Djibouti, the AU force said.
The Shabaab said their gunnies stormed the compound of a hotel where Djiboutian troops with the AU force were based in the town of Bulla Burde, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, their front man Abdulaziz Abu Musab told AFP.
"The area command headquarters (of the AU force) was attacked, these attacks will continue," Musab said, boasting to have killed six AU troops.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Elio Yao, front man for the U.N.-backed AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM), rejected the claims, saying the gunnies failed to enter the compound but had killed two Djiboutians in a firefight.
The two Shabaab fighters "dressed in military fatigues or uniform" were also killed, Yao said.
"There was an exchange of fire at the check point, during that exchange the two Djiboutians were killed... the attackers were not able to enter the compound," he added.
The attack is the latest by the Shabaab in retaliation for the AU offensive to root them out of areas of the war-torn country still under their control.
Residents reported a heavy blast followed by fierce gunfire and kabooms for about hour, beginning around dawn on Thursday.
"There was a loud kaboom before a firefight broke out," said Ahmed Abdirisak, a local resident.
"There was heavy exchange of gunfire, it continued about an hour.. dead bodies were strewn around," said resident Hassan Mohammed.
The town was seized from the Shabaab in March.
After withdrawing from fixed positions in the capital Mogadishu nearly three years ago, the Shabaab have lost most large towns to the AU and government soldiers. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... they still regularly launch guerrilla raids.
Recent Shabaab attacks in Somalia have targeted key areas of government, or the security forces, in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities and AU troops that they are winning the war.
The Islamists have also launched attacks against AU nations in the region who have contributed troops to the force.
In May, at least one person was killed and several maimed when two jacket wallahs blew themselves up in a restaurant in Djibouti, the first attack claimed by the Shabaab since Djibouti joined the AU force in 2011.
The Shabaab have also claimed massacres on Kenya's coast region in which over 60 people have been killed, although Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has blamed "local political networks" for the attacks.
Survivors of the attacks last week in Kenya's Lamu district reported gunnies speaking Somali and carrying Shabaab flags, executing non-Moslems and saying their actions were Dire Revenge™ for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as part of the AMISOM force.
[AnNahar] Human rights activist Salwa Bugaighis was rubbed out by unknown assailants at her home in the restive east Libyan city of Benghazi late Wednesday, hospital and security sources said.
"Unknown hooded men wearing military uniforms attacked Mrs Bugaighis in her home and opened fire on her," said a security official, who did not wish to be named.
She was shot several times and taken to hospital at death's door, where she died shortly afterwards, a front man for the Benghazi medical center said.
Continued on Page 49
[AnNahar] Suspected Al-Qaeda gunnies stormed and briefly seized an airport in Yemen's southeastern Hadramawt province Thursday, just as a civilian airliner was landing, but the airfield was retaken by the army, officials said.
Three soldiers were killed in the attack on Sayun airport, while another five died in a simultaneous suicide kaboom at a nearby military headquarters, the officials said.
Troops retook the airport, killing six gunnies and freeing hostages taken seized from the control tower, a security official said.
Four gunnies were captured, and others fled.
Attackers bumped off the three soldiers at the entrance to the airport, which is also used by the air force, before capturing parts of the facility, including the control tower, a security official said.
The assault took place as a Yemen Airways plane landed, a military official said.
Troops scrambled armored vehicles to confront the gunnies and evacuate the flight's passengers in army buses through the northern gate of the airport, the official said.
Sayun is the main town in the Hadramawt valley, a jihadist stronghold in the province's interior.
Hadramawt's rugged terrain provides hideouts for gunnies of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as the jihadist network's most dangerous affiliate.
On May 24, gunnies launched a massive pre-dawn assault on Sayun, in which they attacked police and army bases and public buildings with jacket wallahs, rocket-launchers and heavy machineguns.
Before withdrawing, they also ransacked the main post office and two banks.
Scores of gunnies and 15 soldiers and police were killed.
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi fired Sayun army commander General Mohammed Somali over that attack, replacing him with one of his own loyalists, General Ahmed Ali Hadi.
He had ordered security forces on high alert nationwide, including in the capital, after the army launched a ground offensive against Al-Qaeda in late April in two southern provinces further west -- Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwa.
The operation aims to expel the gunnies from smaller towns and villages in the two provinces that escaped a previous sweep in 2012.
Hadi has vowed to press the offensive until jihadists are eradicated from all of Yemen's territory.
Taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that forced Hadi's predecessor, veteran strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , from power, Al-Qaeda seized swathes of the south and east.
Although government forces have captured several major towns, analysts say the army's gains may have been the result of a tactical retreat by Al-Qaeda in coordination with Yemen's powerful tribes.
The army says 500 Al-Qaeda gunnies have been killed in its latest operation, while 40 soldiers have died.
Al-Qaeda has launched a spate of spectacular attacks on army headquarters around the country in recent months.
In December, it assaulted the defense ministry in the heart of the capital, killing 56 people.
An April attack on army headquarters in the main southern city of Aden left at least 20 people dead.
AQAP has also been targeted in an intensifying drone war this year.
The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but U.S. officials rarely acknowledge the covert operations.
Around 60 suspected jihadists were killed in a wave of strikes against AQAP bases and training camps in mid-April.
The drone program has been defended by both the White House and Hadi, but has been sharply criticized by human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups for its civilian toll.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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The man spins like a top, lightly popping up hither and yon, meeting with these and those, this one and that one, accomplishing absolutely nothing of value except to joggle the elbows of those frantically trying to get necessary things done before it's entirely too late.
[Ynet] Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... is meeting with America's top Sunni state allies in the Mideast to discuss the growing turmoil spawned by a Sunni Moslem insurgency group.
Kerry calls the threat posed by the 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... a concern and critical issue for all of the nations represented at Thursday's meeting in Gay Paree.
They include Jordan, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Oh no, the rest of the world merely needs to take up fracking at a pace that Saudi oil no longer has value. There they'll be, a few years from now, with valueless oil and a temporarily large amount of money in the bank, watching it trickle through their fingers and disappear into the sand. Ozymandis won't be a patch on them, by the time the House of Saud returns to their natural state of oasis bandits at the end of a side route on the camel trails.
and the United Arab Emirates.
All of the above, ditto.
Kerry also met earlier Thursday with the Sunni former prime minister of Leb.
#4
Which side is Obama on in this fight? It is not clear to me.
Mr. Obama is on Mr. Obama's side. As for Mr. Kerry, he's being received out of politeness by two of the three. IMNSHO, the House of Saud and the UAE have pretty much discounted any efforts by the administration.
#5
Bring a dip of diplomatic arcana
And a couple more pat memoranda
Backed by will o' the wimp
With the spine of a shrimp
And we'll meet at the fata morgana!
[Iraq Sun] Iraq plunged deeper into crisis as Syrian army aircraft bombed Sunni Death Eater targets inside Iraq even as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... rejected calls for forming an emergency government to help the country counter a surge by Sunni Islamist Death Eaters.
The sectarian conflict in Iraq threatened to spill beyond its borders as warplanes of the Syrian Army bombed Sunni strongholds in western Iraq and Iran has reportedly begun to send in military equipment and is flying unarmed surveillance drones over the country.
The developments led U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... , who is on a tour of the Middle East, to warn Mideast nations against taking new military action in Iraq that might heighten sectarian divisions.
The Pentagon said that 90 additional U.S. troops arrived in Iraq, which are part of the 300 military advisers that President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... said he would deploy in Iraq to help with the situation. A statement said that U.S. aircraft are now flying 30 to 35 manned and unmanned daily surveillance flights over Iraq.
Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the initial group sent to establish an operations center included intelligence analysts and logistics experts as well as special operations troops.
Another 50 U.S. military personnel working in the region are expected to arrive within the next few days to create four additional assessment teams, he said. The US military advisers met Storied Baghdad's operations commander and agreed to set up a joint operation command, reports said.
In a televised address, the Iraqi prime minister said: "The call to form a national emergency government is a coup against the constitution and the political process."
"It is an attempt by those who are against the constitution to eliminate the young democratic process and steal the votes of the voters," he said, referring to the April 30 parliament election results.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Besides being in violation of Iraq's post-Saddam Constitution, Maliki must be counting on support from Iran's alleged 10 Divisions worth of Iranian + IRGC Quds Force troops massed on Iran's border wid Iraq.
IRAN = TEN DIVISIONS + HEZBOLLAH + QUDS FORCE ALREADY INSIDE IRAQ, OBAMA = NONE.
[Iraq Sun] At least 19 people were killed and 41 were wounded in a bomb explosion in the Iraqi capital Thusday, a police source said.
A suicide bomber blew up himself at a popular market in a Shiite-majority of Kadhimiyah area, north of Baghdad, leaving 19 people dead and 41 others injured, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Iraq is witnessing some of its worst violence in recent years.
According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iraq Sun] As Iraq's Sunni faceless myrmidons and their allies add border crossings near Syria and Jordan to their list of captured territory, many observers wonder what's next. U.S. officials have warned that the myrmidons, from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), could spread into Jordan, while some see them moving toward the Iraqi capital. Some analysts say ISIL's strategy is just part of the group's greater agenda of erasing modern borders and building a caliphate across the whole region.
The takeover of the Traibil border post with Jordan and the Al-Wajeed entry point to Syria were part of the ISIL's primary agenda of creating a cross-border state, according to Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation.
"ISIL does not want to take over Iraq as it is currently constructed. In fact, I think that ISIL is probably going to be perfectly content not to try its hardest to take over Storied Baghdad. I think what ISIL is looking to do is create a jihadi state in the primarily Sunni areas of western and northern Iraq and into eastern Syria," says Fishman.
Fishman says the way the faceless myrmidons will carry out their strategy can be seen from how they operated in Syria. ISIL is fighting in the country's civil war and has taken control of towns along Syria's eastern border.
"This is not a group that has tried to go on the offense against Damascus. This is not a group that is trying to dominate every square inch of Syria. And they're going to do the same thing in Iraq. They're going to say: What can we control? Where can we dominate? Where can we establish governance? And, where can we establish a base of operations for the long term?" ndash; says Fishman.
Part of ISIL's success, according to Fishman, lies in its ability to form alliances with local Sunni militias, tribal groups and other organizations, one of the most surprising being the Naqshbandi army, a group closely associated with the remnants of the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Hussein's old regime.
"This is not a natural alliance. Jihadis and the old Iraqi Baath party don't like each other. They have very, very different ideologies, very different ideas of who should be in charge and what the rules for society ought to be. And yet they've been able to cooperate, it seems in recent days, for this military offensive," says Fishman.
He says the best way to attack ISIL is not through military actions but by breaking the political alliances that have given it strength.
"It was losing those alliances originally that weakened the group in 2007 and it is regaining them; that has given it renewed strength today," says Fishman.
U.S. officials are urging Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... to form a new, inclusive government that will encourage the country's Sunni population to re-assess and potentially break their allegiances with the myrmidon group.
U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... said these new alliances could potentially affect military efforts in the country.
"So there's a window of opportunity here, I think, to get the Sunnis to re-assess. If you could find a new government that they felt hopeful about, I think we could form an alliance politically and militarily that would affect the momentum on the ground," says Graham.
Maliki has rejected the calls, saying any new government that ignores the results of the country's April election would be a "coup against the constitution and the political process."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2014 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Two Hamas ...an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood...
operatives from the southern West Bank city of Hebron are believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens who went missing two weeks ago, the Israeli Shin Bet Security Agency revealed on Thursday.
In a statement, the agency said that Marwan Al-Quasma and Amar Abu Aisha, two central Hamas operatives who used to be imprisoned by Israel in the past, are the main suspects behind the abduction. Following the news of the kidnapping, Palestinian security forces delivered the names of the two to their Israeli counterparts, after their families reported that they did not return home two weeks ago.
They'll be taking dirt naps real soon now...
According to the Shin Bet, Al-Quasma is the nephew of a former Hamas militant commander who was involved in attacks against Israeli civilians and was arrested several times. Abu Aisha also comes from a family of Hamas operatives. His brother was killed in a clash with the Israeli army in 2005.
A family member of Amar Abu Aisha told Walla that Israeli security forces had arrived at their house in Hebron and taken family members for questioning regarding Amar's possible whereabouts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Shin Bet's announcement shows that Hamas is behind the attack.
"We said that those who committed this crime were Hamas militants and today the Shin Bet published the names of two members of this group, Hamas men," Netanyahu said at a military ceremony at the southern Negev desert.
"I expect (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas, who said important things in Saudi Arabia, to stand by his words and dissolve his agreement with the terrorist organization that kidnaps teens and calls for the destruction of Israel," the prime minister added.
[Ynet] Palestinian media sources reported Thursday that an unfamiliar organization known as "Regiments of Hezbollah" had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Isreal's three missing teens though it was unclear how realistic the claim may be.
According to reports, the group cited the killing of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah as motivation for the attack. "Regiments of Hezbollah" is now the third group to have claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the previous two are considered to be illegitimate.
...bedouin capitol in the Negev, largest bedouin community in the world...
residents for selling ready-made bombs, weapons and drugs. Police undercover agents purchased from the suspects bombs, ammunition and cocaine and afterwards arrested them.
The Police said that five additional suspects would be arrested soon to come.
#1
Everyone laughed behind his back at abu Mohammed for wearing an off the rack bomb jacket. It was the best his poor (albeit damn well armed) family could afford, and he was proud of it. Little did he know the Lucas ignition system could be set off by a toilet flush.
#2
Yakub's boom of a thousand one colors
Was the envy of all of his brothers.
When he blew up a goat,
Spattered shreds of his coat
Were stuck up on the fridge by his mothers.
...called by some "Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe", and by others "Joe"...
was acquitted by a Jordan court Thursday of plotting an attack on the American school in Amman but he faces another terrorism charge and will remain in prison.
"The court did not find evidence to support charges against Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman (Abu Qatada) that he conspired in late 1998 to carry out a terror attack on the American school in Amman," judge Ahmad Qatarneh said in a ruling.
"Based on that, the court unanimously declares the innocence of Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman for lack evidence," added Qatarneh, before asking journalists to leave the court.
The holy man, who was deported from Britannia last July after a 10-year legal battle, burst into tears when the judge made the ruling and members of his family rushed to hug and kiss him.
The Paleostinian-born preacher was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 by an Amman court for conspiracy to carry out an attack on the American school. The sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.
A year later, he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for plotting to attack tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.
More specifically, according to Ynet, "...of involvement in a plot to target Israeli and American tourists and Western diplomats in 2000."
In line with Jordanian laws, he is now appearing in a retrial and has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to all charges.
The court adjourned the trial until September 7.
Reacting to the ruling, British Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said the retrial was made possible due to the British government's "determination to successfully deport him from the UK."
"While the courts in Jordan have acquitted Abu Qatada of one of the two charges against him, it is right the due process of law is allowed to take place in his own country," Brokenshire said in a statement.
[AnNahar] A quantity of ammunition was seized on Thursday as army troops raided the house of a runaway in the town of Fneideq in northern Akkar.
"An army force raided the house of Ali Mohammed Kanaan in Fneideq," the military institution said in a communique.
Kanaan is wanted on several arrest warrants and was not found in the house during the raid, the statement elaborated.
"Forty-two dynamite sticks and 34 120-millimeter and 80-millimeter mortar shells, 14 propellant charges for the mortar shells, and 36 stun grenades were seized during the raid," the army revealed.
[AnNahar] Jihadists from the 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... bolstered their presence Thursday in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the move came a day after members in the town of al-Qaeda's franchise in Syria, Al-Nusra Front, pledged loyalty to ISIL, giving it control over both sides of the frontier.
ISIL, which aspires to create an Islamic state that straddles Iraq and Syria, has spearheaded a lightning jihadist offensive that has already captured swathes of territory north and west of Storied Baghdad.
Pro-ISIL snuffies posted videos on YouTube showing a convoy of cars and trucks entering Albu Kamal and flying the jihadists' black flag.
Other supporters announced the reinforcement on Twitter, with one saying: "ISIL convoys enter Albu Kamal after conquering it, thanks to Allah."
A statement from Al-Nusra released in the town said the al-Qaeda franchise pledged loyalty to ISIL in Albu Kamal to prevent bloodshed between the two rival jihadist groups.
Albu Kamal is located in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where ISIL and Al-Nusra, who have been fighting to topple the Syrian regime, have also been fighting each other since January.
Romain Caillet, an expert on Islamists groups, said Al-Nusra fighters pledged allegiance to ISIL in the border town because "it is powerful, they fear it and they have been weakened on the ground".
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[Ynet] Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... tells Lebanese Sunni Moslems 'kill and assassinate soldiers of the Party of Iran (Hezbollah)'.
The al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades had urged Lebanese Sunni Moslems to attack the Iranian-backed Shiite bad boy group Hezbollah a day before Wednesday's suicide kaboom in central Beirut.
No claims of responsibility have been made for the attack but the Abdullah Azzam Brigades says it has carried out recent bombings in Leb, including an attack on the Iranian embassy in November which killed 23 people, mostly civilians.
The group posted the message on Twitter on Tuesday, before a jacket wallah - said by Lebanese authorities to be a Saudi national - maimed three security officers in a hotel in the capital close to the Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n embassy.
Escalating sectarian violence in the region has seen Hezbollah send hundreds of fighters to neighbouring Syria to boost the forces of its ally Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... against mainly Sunni rebels seeking to topple him.
Gulf states fear Sunnis in Leb, Syria and Iraq face oppression at the hands of Iran and its Shi'ite allies in the region.
"The soldiers of the Party of Iran (Hezbollah) and its leaders are beneath you, so gain the approval of Allah by killing and assassinating them!" Sirajuddin Zurayqat, a holy man for the group, said in the audio message.
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[AnNahar] The military prosecutor charged on Thursday 15 suspected faceless myrmidons for plotting to carry out attacks and target a top security official in northern Leb, the state-run National News Agency reported.
NNA said Judge Saqr Saqr charged the suspects, only six of whom are in detention, for belonging to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... and Jund al-Sham in northern Leb.
The six men have been apprehended in the northern region of Qalamoun, it said, although the Lebanese army claimed on Wednesday the arrest of five suspected terrorists.
It identified then as Wassim Ahmed al-Qass, Wissam Ahmed al-Qass, Dani Ahmed al-Qass, Amjad Nouhad al-Khatib and Nabil Kamel Bayda.
The suspects attended training sessions on preparing explosives, using arms and booby-trapping cars, the agency said.
The charges also include complicity with a plot to assassinate a top General Security officer and to carry out terrorist attacks across Leb, NNA added.
Saqr referred the suspects to First Military Examining Magistrate Riyad Abou Ghida.
Al-Joumhouria daily said Thursday that the target of the plot could either be the chief of the army's intelligence in northern Leb Brig. Gen. Amer al-Hassan or Lt. Col. Khattar Nasereddine, who heads the General Security bureau in the North.
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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.
[Iraq Sun] Iraq plunged deeper into crisis as Syrian army aircraft bombed Sunni
[Iraq Sun] At least 19 people were killed and 41 were wounded in a bomb explosion in the Iraqi capital Thusday, a police source said.
[Iraq Sun] As Iraq's Sunni 
Nouri al-Maliki
Lindsey Graham
JERUSALEM, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Two Hamas 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
