Hi there, !
Today Mon 10/20/2014 Sun 10/19/2014 Sat 10/18/2014 Fri 10/17/2014 Thu 10/16/2014 Wed 10/15/2014 Tue 10/14/2014 Archives
Rantburg
531705 articles and 1855997 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 79 articles and 301 comments as of 15:09.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
ISIS Retreats From Kobani
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
6 13:18 swksvolFF [] 
1 06:01 g(r)omgoru [] 
0 [] 
17 21:26 OldSpook [1] 
1 02:36 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
4 19:37 tu3031 [] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
7 23:08 gorb [1] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
2 07:33 Shipman [] 
0 [2] 
9 13:01 Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
7 19:31 Pappy []
8 16:05 Shipman []
1 07:24 g(r)omgoru []
5 21:46 newc [2]
4 23:06 Glolulet Thud5403 [1]
1 11:50 USN, Ret. []
0 []
0 [1]
3 18:20 swksvolFF [1]
0 []
0 [1]
9 20:49 Rambler in Virginia [1]
0 [1]
3 16:48 irishrageboy [1]
2 09:39 Besoeker [1]
1 07:32 Pappy []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 [2]
0 [1]
1 23:29 Glolulet Thud5403 [2]
Page 3: Non-WoT
9 22:06 newc [2]
7 18:19 OldSpook []
4 19:32 Cheanter Ebbaper3878 []
0 []
9 19:40 phil_b []
5 14:27 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
3 10:08 AlanC []
7 13:53 rammer []
2 09:04 Shipman []
1 03:16 newc []
5 14:31 3dc []
0 [1]
1 23:26 Glolulet Thud5403 [1]
3 21:29 OldSpook [2]
5 12:20 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
9 22:45 Zenobia Floger6220 [1]
7 18:46 Glolulet Thud5403 [1]
2 09:29 Procopius2k [1]
12 18:36 swksvolFF []
9 17:27 swksvolFF []
1 18:31 swksvolFF [1]
5 12:01 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
13 20:06 SteveS [1]
Page 4: Opinion
12 22:09 newc [2]
0 [1]
5 15:01 Zenobia Floger6220 []
Page 6: Politix
11 22:56 Glolulet Thud5403 [1]
2 16:34 g(r)omgoru []
13 20:29 JosephMendiola [1]
20 18:17 SteveS []
10 16:31 Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 [1]
1 11:26 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
16 15:14 AlanC [1]
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Key Taliban Commander Killed in Herat
[Tolo News] Mullah Abdul Rahman Maldar, a high-ranking Taliban capo, was killed on Wednesday night in Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
province, local officials said on Thursday.

According to a provincial official, the commander was killed alongside 14 other Taliban in Loka Sang area of Oba district of Herat province in a foreign drone attack.

Mullah Abdul Rahman was reportedly the commander who issued most threats to the head of the Salma Dam construction project in Chisht-e-Sharif district of Heart. Moreover, based on the statements of Heart security officials, the commander was also accused of killing nearly 80 Afghan police and army troops.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Son of Jalaluddin Haqqani captured in Afghanistan
[DAWN] Afghan cops said Thursday they have captured two big shots of the feared Haqqani network, a hardline group behind sophisticated attacks on Afghan and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
forces.

Anas Haqqani, the son of the network's founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, was jugged
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Mogadishu car bomb attack kills Intelligence official
MOGADISHU -- National Intelligence and Security Agency official has been killed in Car bomb attack in Mogadishu’s Yaqshid district according to witnesses on Wednesday, Garowe Online reports.

Local reports say, the suicide bombing also left at least four civilian bystanders dead and seven others including his bodyguards wounded. Thunderous explosion could be heard after a suicide bomber in car packed full of explosive hit the official’s luxury car at Afarta-Jardino junction, sources said.

Security forces cordoned off the roads leading to the blast site by pushing ahead with search operations.

Nobody claimed credit for the car bomb attack but as has been the case beleaguered Al Shabaab group targets government officials and foreigners in suicide bombings, planned assassinations and military-style ambushes.

The attack marks the second as car bomb claimed at killed nearly a dozen at a café popular with youth and Diasporans over the weekend after days of relative calm.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Three Ethiopian Peacekeepers Killed in Darfur Attack
[An Nahar] Three Æthiopian peacekeepers were killed Thursday in an attack in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, the joint U.N.-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...
mission said, the latest deaths in increasingly dangerous peace operations in Africa.

They were guarding a well in Karma, North Darfur state, when they were attacked by gunnies, who fled afterwards, the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
-African Union Mission in Darfur said.

Two of them were killed in the attack and the third, gravely maimed, died later.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa North
Two Bombs Wound 8 in Egypt
[An Nahar] Two bombs went kaboom! near a mosque Thursday in Egypt's Nile delta city of Tanta, wounding at least eight people, security and medical officials said.

"Eight people were maimed... when shrapnel hit them in the arms, legs and faces," said Magdy Awad, chief of ambulance services for Al-Gharbiya province, of which Tanta is the capital.

A security official said the bombs were placed at the rear end of the mosque at a time when residents in the area were participating in a ceremony.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


Moroccan Accused Of Bringing Kids To Extremists
[Ynet] Morocco's government says a father has been detained as he tried to take his two small daughters to join the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

The group has been recruiting women and families as it seeks to create a state in Syria and Iraq. Morocco has been a large source of recruits for murderous Moslem groups.

The Moroccan state news agency MAP, quoting an Interior Ministry statement, reported Thursday that the Moroccan man was detained at the Casablanca airport on Wednesday with a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, both French citizens. Their French mother was not with them, it said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Thinni praises Benghazi operation as at least 12 are reported killed in clashes
[Libya Herald] Interim Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni lauded the efforts of Operation Dignity following the largest gains by pro-government forces in months.

Speaking on Sky News Arabia yesterday, Thinni said the campaign by Dignity forces in Benghazi and its support from the people were a reaction to terrorism and the desire of young people to protect their neighbourhoods.

The Prime Minister said the routing of Benghazi Revolutionaries' Shura Council (BRSC) positions and operations in the aftermath of yesterday's fighting were all part of a plan, devised by the state and executed by the Chief of Staff Abdul Razzaq Nazhuri.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Al-Qaeda seizes Yemen town to counter Houthis
[ARABNEWS] Suspected Al-Qaeda holy warriors have captured a town in southwest Yemen in a deadly attack seen as a counter move to advances by Iranian catspaws sweeping across the strife-hit country.

Rival groups are seeking to exploit a power vacuum in impoverished Yemen, which has been in a political deadlock since the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to Americaâ¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
Iranian catspaws took control of the capital Sanaa last month.

Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, considered by the United States to be the deadliest branch of the bad boy network, has vowed to fight the rebels in defense of Sunnis.

Its holy warriors stormed the town of Udain overnight, setting fire to the police headquarters and attacking the offices of the local government, a security official and local sources said Thursday.

Five coppers were reported dead.

The offensive came just hours after Iranian catspaws overran the lovely provincial capital of Ibb located 20 km to the east.

Already in control of Sanaa and the strategic port city of Hudeida, the Iranian catspaws on Wednesday appeared to have taken control of the Dhamar and Ibb provinces, security officials said.

Just as in Sanaa and Hudeida, the Houthis faced no opposition as they entered the centers of the two provinces and set up checkpoints, the officials said.

They have been taking advantage of the political crisis in Sanaa to seize control of significant areas, threatening the authority of the Sunni-led central government.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Europe
German Arrested Over Link To Syria Al-Qaeda Branch
[Ynet] German prosecutors say a German man who spent nearly a year in Syria has been placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
on suspicion of membership in the al-Nusra
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
Front, an al-Qaeda allied organization fighting the Assad regime.

Federal prosecutors said the 27-year-old, identified only as Soufiane K. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

They said Thursday that he traveled from his hometown of Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, to Syria in July last year and had joined al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
by September 2013. He's accused of undergoing battle training and carrying out guard duty with the group, as well as acquiring a Kalashnikov rifle and a machine gun.

Prosecutors say the man returned to Germany in June. He faces possible charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


India-Pakistan
Blast inside Peshawar shrine
[DAWN] A kaboom took place on the premises of a shrine at Peshtakhara in the suburbs of 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.
on Wednesday, but no one was hurt in the kaboom.

The shrine of Syed Abdul Qudoos Shah commonly known as Hazrat Baba is located in the graveyard near Peshtakhara cop shoppe.

A complainant Iftikhar Ali Shah told local police said that the bomb had been packed in a black plastic bag.

"I usually come to the shrine in the afternoon for cleanliness but on Wednesday arrived two hours before routine. I saw a black shopper beside the saint's grave and upon checking found a mobile phone and explosives in it," he said.

The complainant said that he left the packet on the same place and ran out of the premises, but as he came out a huge blast took place. He said that no one was hurt in the blast as the shrine was deserted at that time.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Gunmen kill retired Ahmadi air force official in Attock
[DAWN] Gunmen in northwest Attock district have rubbed out a retired air force official who was a member of the country's Ahmadi minority, police said Thursday, bringing to seven the number of people killed in violence against the persecuted community this year.

The incident took place in Kamra, Attock district, around 64 kilometres north of the capital Islamabad on Wednesday, a front man for the community said.

"Latif Aalam Butt, a well-known Ahmadi was killed outside his house in Kamra, district Attock. He was returning home from his stationery store, when unknown assailants repeatedly fired at him," Saleem ud Din said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Bara suicide blast leaves seven dead
[DAWN] Seven members of a pro-government group were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide kaboom in a remote area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Wednesday, sources said.

They said that a young boy detonated his explosive vest in Pir Mela area where some activists of the Tauheedul Islam group had gathered. The attack was carried out at around 8am and it is pertinent to mention that a large number of shoppers visit the Pir Mela market in the morning.

Officials in Bara said local people were among the injured.

The dead and the injured belonged to the Zakhakhel tribe.

A front man for the Bara-based outlawed group Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
, which has been at loggerheads with Tauheedul Islam for about four years, denied involvement in the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


21 suspected militants killed as jets bomb hideouts in Khyber
[DAWN] At least 21 Death Eaters killed and five hideouts were destroyed on Thursday as security forces carried out air strikes in parts of Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said.

The jets targeted Death Eaters hideouts in Akakhel and Sipah area, however, this information could not be independently verified as the access of journalists is limited in the region.

Moreover, security forces sealed all the roads leading up to Khyber's Bara, where an operation is expected to begin soon. Security forces also launched a search operation in the Shakas area of Khyber.

On the other hand, anticipating a military operation more than 500 families had left their homes in Dars Jumaat, Shaddaly, Darota and Kulla areas of Akakhel in Tirah valley during the last three days, sources said.

The strikes are part of the ongoing military operation named Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
, initiated on June 15 first against anti-state Death Eaters hiding in the North Wazoo Agency.

The operation was launched after the Taliban and their ethnic Uzbek allies both grabbed credit for the attack on Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport and peace talks failed between the government and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) negotiators.

Nearly a million people have fled the offensive in North Waziristan, which is aimed at wiping out longstanding bully boy strongholds in the area.

Khyber, where the recent strikes targeted suspected bully boy hideouts, is one of Pakistain's seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lies near the Afghan border. The Taliban and other Al Qaeda-linked groups, who stage attacks in both countries, are known to have strongholds in the zone.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  A lonely hill fort up the Khyber:
"Allah, please connect us with fiber!
This radio's okay --
It beats semaphore-play --
But we can't see our goats when we cyber."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 10/17/2014 1:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol, that's not funny, that's sick.
No, wait.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/17/2014 7:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Attacks In Shi'ite Areas Of Baghdad Kill At Least 36
[Ynet] Four car kabooms and a mortar strike around Shi'ite parts of northern Baghdad killed 36 people and maimed 98 within a span of two hours Thursday afternoon, police and medical officials said.

A suicide boom-mobile hit an army checkpoint near a restaurant in the northern district of Talibiya at 2:30 p.m., killing nine people; 45 minutes later, a pair of boom-mobiles went kaboom! in the district of al-Dawlai in western Baghdad, claiming the lives of 16 people and wounding 35 others.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran sends M-60 tanks into Iraq to help Kurds
On Aug. 21, Kurdish social media activists published pictures that appear to depict elements of the Iranian 81st Armored Division entering Kurdistan via Khaneghein, north of Jalawla. The 81st is a battle-hardened division that fought hard during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. And before that, it had fought Kurdish insurgents in Iran’s restive northern provinces. Today the 81st Division is fighting alongside the Kurds.

After the Iran-Iraq War, the division reorganized and re-armed. As other units gained Russian T-72 tanks, the 81st gathered up all the leftover, American-made M-60s, M-48s and M-47s. More recently, the 81st broke into three largely independent brigades—the 181st and 281st Armored Brigades plus a mechanized brigade. The units the activists spotted in Kurdistan most likely are elements of the 181st, as it’s responsible for defending the Sar-e-Pole Zahab border town near Khaneghein. Previously, there had been a build-up of armored units on the Iranian side of the border.

Iranian army aviation stations Cobra attack helicopters in the vicinity of the 81st Armored Division. Iranian AH-1J Cobras are old by world standards, with outdated electronics and limited missile compatibility. But their crews possess a wealth of experience battling Kurdish separatists. They know how to fight fleet-footed insurgent troops.

Even during the war with Iraq, Iranian armored divisions were too outdated to risk a direct confrontation with more modern Iraqi forces. Iranian tanks instead functioned as mobile artillery, following behind the infantry. This likely would be their role in the war against Islamic State. The Kurds are a light infantry force with few vehicles of their own and almost no artillery. Even aged M-60s fill a gap in the Kurdish order of battle.

The Iranian M-60A1s that activists spotted in Khaneghein are vulnerable to the Islamists’ RPG-7 rockets, but if the tanks coordinate closely with Kurdish infantry, they could survive … and prove deadly against the terror group’s pickup trucks.

To be clear, we don’t know whether Tehran intends to directly support the Kurds. It just seems unlikely the tanks would risk combat on their own. And in any event, the armor deployment marks a major escalation of the fighting—and a big boost for Iran’s role in the campaign.
Posted by: frozen al || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  IMO read, IRAN = EAT MY DUST, TURKEY!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/17/2014 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  IRAN PICKING UP THE ISIS/ISIL GAUNTLET???

As perhaps due to ... ...

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ISIS SEIZE THIRD LARGEST MILITARY BASE [Hit] IN WESTERN IRAQ + TAKE ITS TANKS, HEAVY WEAPONS, + SUPPLIES - IRAQI NEWS.

* SAME > VIDEO: ISIS: "THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BE AN ISLAMIC STATE".

Move along, people, clearly there is no Global Jihad, Global Nuclear Jihad, Neo-Ottoman Nuclear Turkey + US Convert to Islam aka Islamic Mahdi/Hidden Imam 2030-2050 here!

YOOHOO, FBI-CIA, INTEL-PYWAR, I'M A'LOOKIN AT YOU!

* TOPIX > ISIS, SHIA MILITIAS CONTROL OPPOSITE SIDES OF EUPHRATES.

As I've said before, the ISIS/ISIL threat to Baghdad + Shia-led Iraqi Govt is also IMO a threat to IRAN.

Will the ISIS/ISIL "Cross the Rubicon" + attack both Baghdad proper + ultimately SHIA IRAN???

--------------

* FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN REPEATS IT MAY SEND MILITARY FORCES INTO PAKISTAN | PRESSTV - IRAN TO TAKE [unilateral = direct] ACTION IFF ISLAMABAD REFUSES TO SECURE BORDER - IRAN GENERAL.

IRGC Deputy Commander BGEN. Hossein Salami.

* TOPIX > [NewsKerala] AL-QAEDA, ISIS MAY JOIN INDIA MUJAHIDEEN, LeT [+ Other(s)] + ATTACK INDIA: NSG GENERAL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/17/2014 2:33 Comments || Top||

#3  This war just gets stranger and stranger. Don't you people have sides?
Posted by: SteveS || 10/17/2014 3:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Me thinks the Iranians, who have their own Kurdish population, have woken up to the strife the Kurds are capable of causing (as per Turkey and Syria). Their real enemy is The Iraqi Sunni's, and so angling to keep the Kurds on side with military support gestures. The Kurds, of course, have no real affiliation with anyone, since they've been clobbered historically from all angles, and been kept without a state. Now finally is the chance for the Kurds to form their own state with the break pending break-up of Iraq. This is exactly where the Iranians want the Kurdish State to be, as opposed to Iran.
Posted by: Incredulous || 10/17/2014 5:35 Comments || Top||

#5  SteveS, if you're looking for sides there are two options. 1. think icosahedron, 20 sides; or 2. Moibus strip, 1 side, their own.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/17/2014 7:25 Comments || Top||

#6  SteveS; Iran fears ISIS more than it fears Kurds' aspirations.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/17/2014 7:29 Comments || Top||

#7  You have to bear in mind that sunni-backed ISIS was created (formed, it's semantics at this point) as a counterweight to Hezbollah, which is an Iran-sponsored Shiite formation.
The problem here, as always, is collateral bystanders. (What we need here is a middle east cage match.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 10/17/2014 7:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Not unexpected.

Bad news for Turkey. 95% of their borders will be with Shiia states and their allies, after western bombing etc knock out ISIS.

And we all know how Sunni and Shiia love to sing Kumbaya.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/17/2014 8:59 Comments || Top||

#9  ISiS is selling enslaved Yazidi women for $10 each on ISIS slave markets.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 13:01 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas Derides Hamas Talk Of 'Victory' In War Against Israel
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
derided Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, claims of victory in the conflict it waged against Israel this summer.

In an interview with Egyptian television on Wednesday, Abbas also castigated the Islamist group for orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank on June 12 -- the act that sparked the escalation of hostilities that led to the war.

According to Israel's Channel 2, which screened clips of the interview on Thursday, Abbas also said he would not compete for another term as PA president if elections were held in the near future, since he needed a rest from political life. The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation process provides for parliamentary and presidential elections, but no date has been fixed, and while the "unity" government backed by the rival factions held a first cabinet meeting in Gazoo last week, the partnership is highly strained.

"What did we get out of it?" Abbas asked rhetorically, speaking about the Israel-Hamas conflict in July-August, in a section of the interview shown on Channel 2.

"For what did we suffer through those 50 days? We had 2,200 fatalities, 10,000 injured, 40,000 homes and facilities and factories destroyed. Tell me, what did we achieve?" (Hamas and the UN say most of the Gazoo fatalities were civilians; Abbas used his speech to the UN General Assembly last month to accuse Israel of perpetrating genocide; Israel says some 1,000 of the dead were Hamas and other gunnies, and blames Hamas for all civilian casualties since it emplaced its war machine in Gazoo residential areas.)

While Hamas has boasted that it was victorious in the summer conflict -- it fired over 4,600 rockets at Israel, and staged several attacks through its cross-border tunnels, killing 72 Israelis, 66 of them soldiers -- Abbas took a different view.

"I don't want to delude my self by saying: It was a victory," he said. "What victory?"
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Abu Mazen is a teddy bear. Years of terror and wearing down Israel takes it's toll. When they are older, Israel still stands as they die in time.

Wisdom should not be so hard to Pray for in the First place.
Posted by: newc || 10/17/2014 3:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Abbas is one duplicitous snake. If this account can be taken as correct he seems to be steering the blame of the recent Gaza conflict onto Hamas for kidnapping the 3 Israeli youths. He recognizes the subsequent destruction of Gaza as directly related to these actions. Not long ago he was fingering Israel as the perpetrator and agreed to form a coalition with Hamas. Nothing that comes out of this man's mouth can be believed.
Posted by: Incredulous || 10/17/2014 5:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Abbas knows that the only victories Arabs win against Israel are at negotiating table.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/17/2014 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I remember a time when we had men who knew how to handle snakes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/17/2014 7:24 Comments || Top||

#5  If that was victory I would hate too see what defeat would look like. Well not really in this case.
Posted by: chris || 10/17/2014 8:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Defeat is when the foreign investments for the next war stop.

Which I don't understand. Even if I were a paleo pumper, at this point it seems like hedging the farm on a beta-max comeback.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/17/2014 13:18 Comments || Top||


Firebombing Palestinian Yoot Killed Near Ramallah, Firebombs Thrown At J'lem Building
[Ynet] IDF open fire at youth who threw Molotov cocktail during West Bank clash; in separate incident, Molotov cocktails thrown at police car, building in capital.

A 13-year-old Paleostinian boy was killed on Thursday by IDF fire after he threw a Molotov cocktail during festivities in the Paleostinian town of Beit Liqya in the West Bank.

In a separate incident, four Molotov cocktails were hurled at a residential building in Jerusalem. Also on Thursday, vandals threw Molotov cocktails at a police car and at a vehicle belonging to an Arab resident of Silwan in east Jerusalem.

In Beit Liqya, Bahaa Samir Badir (13) was killed during festivities that erupted between IDF troops and locals. The violence broke out when the forces entered the village after rioters threw stones at the security fence. An initial investigation by the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division revealed that local Paleostinians began throwing Molotov cocktails at army jeeps that were leaving the area.

After one of the Molotov cocktails was hurled from a close range, the troops felt their lives were in danger and thus opened fire. No injuries were sustained by IDF soldiers. A Military Police investigation will be carried out into the incident.

Director Ahmed Betawai of the Ramallah Hospital said that 13-year-old Badir was shot three times in the chest and died of his wounds about two hours after the incident.

A senior Paleostinian official said that the festivities between the town locals and IDF troops had erupted following the death of the boy.

Tensions between Israelis and Paleostinians have spiked in recent days amid Paleostinian charges that Israel is unfairly limiting access to Paleostinian worshippers at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

In Jerusalem's Nof Zion neighborhood, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a building. Passersby reported that the rioters had attempted to throw one of the Molotov cocktails inside one of the building's rooms through a window.

A local resident said the neighborhood has been suffering from the escalation of violence. "It all started with Operation Protective Edge; people hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails and now it got worse."

He added that "in the past, a number of cars were burned by Molotov cocktails. Now there are security guards here patrolling the area, but they can't do anything against fireworks fired from a distance."

Earlier Thursday, stones were thrown at the light rail station in Shu'fat. No injuries or damages were reported.

In the morning hours, dozens of masked men, including children wearing school uniforms, threw fireworks and stones at Jewish housing projects in Ras al-Amud in East Jerusalem. Border Police officers used crowd dispersal means to clear the area. One officer sustained wounds to the neck from a firework and was evacuated to the Hadassah Har Hatzofim medical center in light to moderate condition.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Obama had a son...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/17/2014 6:01 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Abu Sayyaf hostage forced to sit inside grave
Viktor Stefan Okonek, a 71-year-old German doctor being held captive by Abu Sayyaf terrorists, on Wednesday said he had been sitting in a "deep hole" with ten other men since Tuesday.

Okonek said, "They told me this is my grave. They pushed me inside this hole and I am sitting here with 10 men since [Tuesday night]. I'm here in a hole. It's a big hole 3 meters [by] 5 meters. I hope I will still get out of here … but I have not seen anyone from the government to get into the situation that tries to get us out."

The terrorists have been demanding $7 million for the release of Okonek and a female companion, Henrite Dieter, and for Germany to withdraw support from action against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami said his group would execute the doctor at 3 p.m. on Friday if the ransom were been paid by then.

Rami said that Okonek would be buried in the grave if negotiations failed.

Okonek said he was getting very weak because there was not enough food and ten gunmen were watching over him 24 hours a day. In a video provided by the kidnappers, Okonek can be heard crying while being physically abused. Some of the gunmen slapped him.

Rami said local contacts identified with Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima had been trying to negotiate for the release of the captives. But he said the Abu Sayyaf only wanted to talk to representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Gen. Gregorio Catapang, Armed Forces chief of staff, has deployed seven battalions of soldiers and Marines to Sulu and will not pull out the troops from Sulu despite the threat to behead the German hostage by Friday. He said, "We should take them seriously. Our intelligence is on the ground validating information and [trying] to locate them."

Catapang said the military was prepared to conduct rescue operations and was just waiting for the go-signal to launch it as negotiations were being conducted on the local level.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf

#1  Macalanang = PHIL Govt. appears to had been caught off guard that Abu Sayaff had ten additional prisoners besides the two German hostages.

Anyhoo, Abu Sayaff now says its willing to consider extending its Friday deadline, which is today Guam time - not that they will, but they will think about it.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/17/2014 2:36 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS Retreats From Kobani
[TIME] The Syrian city of Kobani, just across the border from Turkey, breathed easier Thursday as U.S. coalition Arclight airstrikes helped dislodge jihadist fighters from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) from several neighborhoods.
They've retreated some in the west but are advancing in the eastern part of the town, according to Ace last night.
Speaking by phone from Kobani on Thursday, Anwar Moslem, the head of the local government, told TIME that the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish forces defending the enclave, were now in control of 65 to 70 percent of the besieged city. In neighborhoods in the south and east, he said, ISIS fighters were in partial retreat. In the west, they remained about three miles away.

But he cautioned against premature optimism. ISIS had lost many men, he said, but they keep sending boom-mobiles, mortar shells, and yet more fighters into the area.

He claimed there were more than a thousand civilians still trapped in the city center. With ISIS snipers and mortars targeting neighborhoods close to the border crossing with Turkey, it's too dangerous for the people to leave, he said. We are asking the U.S. and the U.N. to set up and operate a humanitarian corridor to Kobani.

Turkish officials, however, insisted that only Kurdish and ISIS forces remained inside the city. "There are no civilians left in Kobani," Bulent Arinc, the country's deputy prime minister, told news hounds on Wednesday. "All of them are in Turkey."

The Kurdish forces were bolstered by heavy air assaults from U.S. jets. In a statement posted on its website, the U.S. Central Command said that American fighter jets had conducted 14 Arclight airstrikes around the city since Wednesday. The U.S. forces said they struck 19 ISIS buildings, two ISIS command posts, three ISIS fighting positions, three ISIS sniper positions, one ISIS staging location, and one ISIS heavy machine gun.
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  France to supply Kobane with advanced weaponry.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  As ISIS retreats, rainbow appears over Kobane.


Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 0:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice - hope it lasts...
Posted by: Raj || 10/17/2014 1:33 Comments || Top||

#4  France to supply Kobane with advanced weaponry. Posted by Ebbomosh


Which side ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/17/2014 1:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Silly Rabbits...the surge of reinforcements to Kobani will weaken defense of other targets. Be interesting to see what Turkey's ransom was.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/17/2014 5:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Guess we'll have too hear one of Obumbles rambling ass speeches about how he saved the day.
Posted by: chris || 10/17/2014 8:42 Comments || Top||

#7  The battle of Kobani would make a great movie:

You have 'good' defenders facing almost overwhelming odds - everyone feels they are doomed. But somehow, they fight on.

You have a truly evil invaders who are hell bent on raping and killing everyone.

You have the good looking, female, Kurd leader of the defenders.

You have the collation coming in to help - making the U.S. Military look good.

And if they win you have a good ending and if they lose you have a 'last stand - at least they put up an excellent fight' ending.

Unfortunately here's how Hollywood would write it:

Replace ISIS with Christian fundamentalist - and of course depict them as being the majority of Christians.

Replace the Kurds with the Gay and Abortion community.

Replace the beautiful Kurd leader with Abortion Barbie - oh and make her a bisexual transgender.

Replace the collation bombing with U.S. and EPA Attorneys dropping lawsuits and subpoenas on the Christian churches (See Houston Mayor).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/17/2014 11:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Send in the Lancers - Operation Don Garcia
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/17/2014 11:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Rihana who gained notoriety for killing over 100 ISIS was martyred in yesterday's Kobane battles.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 12:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Fok'n Champ should have dropped the Ready Brigade of the 82nd Airborne behind their arses and pushed them into the Turks. RIP Rihana.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/17/2014 12:09 Comments || Top||

#11  Is she real?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/17/2014 12:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Actually, it doesn't matter if she was real.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/17/2014 12:59 Comments || Top||

#13  Give the Kurds ARTILLERY. Thats what they need. Lots of artillery and lots of ammunition for it.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/17/2014 13:45 Comments || Top||

#14  Observers have discovered ISIS is moving even more reinforcements, as many as 10,000 reinforcements, towards Kobane.

Airstrikes have killed an estimated 1,000 ISIS in an attack on one of the convoys headed toward Kobane.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 16:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Kurds are also sending in reinforcements to Kobane. These are YPJ, female Peshmerga moving towards Kobane today.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 16:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Per the US DOD, ISIS has now made taking Kobane its main effort. In Iraq, Iraqi forces move to retake Tikrit.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 10/17/2014 17:06 Comments || Top||

#17  That's where air power can work: interdiction. Basically set up a zone 2k fwd of the FLOT, extend that out 30k, there's your kill box. If it moves in there, kill it.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/17/2014 21:26 Comments || Top||


US Says It Conducts 14 Air Strikes Against Islamic State Near Kobani
[Ynet] US military fighter and bomber planes carried out 14 air strikes against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
targets near the Syrian border town of Kobani on Wednesday and Thursday, the US military's Central Command said.

The air strikes appear to have slowed the bully boy group's advances, but "the security situation on the ground in Kobani remains tenuous," it said in a statement on Thursday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Meanwhile, not to be outdone by the USAF ...

* GROONG > [FrontPage Magazine = David Greenfield] INSTEAD OF BOMBING ISIS, TURKEY BOMBS KURDS WID US PLANES.

TAF F-16's.

VERSUS

* OTOH SAME > TURKEY WILL NOT ALLOW ITS CITIZENS TO FIGHT IN KOBANE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/17/2014 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  14 air strikes?? WTF, that isn't even one regular cycle launch from a CV.

bambi too busy with ebola-otics to work the day's target approval Ouija board?
I did read that has soon as he appointed the day's ebola czar he went back to the campaign tail, gotta make up that lost time. what a complete POS
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/17/2014 18:52 Comments || Top||

#3  14 air strikes?? WTF,

So could we, like, bomb Turkey with the ones we aren't using? Everyone else is fighting everyone else. No sense missing the fun!
Posted by: SteveS || 10/17/2014 19:35 Comments || Top||

#4  If you can count them, there aren't enough...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/17/2014 19:37 Comments || Top||


The IS man who begged for death ... and got it
[ARABNEWS] Kurdish grocer Cuneyt Hemo remembers the moment he crossed paths with a Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) prisoner inside the besieged Syrian town of Kobani.

"He begged us to kill him so he could go to paradise and be rewarded," Hemo told AFP, in a rare glimpse of life inside the town.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/17/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I think that coating the bullets in bacon fat and wrapping them in pigskin before we shoot them would catch their attention.

So would feeding the bodies to dogs.
Posted by: frozen al || 10/17/2014 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Expect HRW inquiry in 5..4..3
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/17/2014 10:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Should have had one of those female Kurds execute him. That way he wouldn't get his virgins.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/17/2014 10:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Lets hope that the person who shot him was a girl... then no paradise.

He might qualify as one of the 72 virgins...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/17/2014 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  The ISJV and Baghdadi killed that murderer, not the residents of Kobani.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/17/2014 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Culturally speaking, haning by strangulation would have been the better way to dishonor him whilst killing him. But the Kurds are a practical people.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/17/2014 13:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Have on of their women fighters kill him.
Posted by: gorb || 10/17/2014 23:08 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
46[untagged]
10Islamic State
3Arab Spring
2TTP
2Govt of Pakistan
2Lashkar e-Jhangvi
2Taliban
1Govt of Iran
1Salafists
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Sudan
1Hamas
1al-Nusra
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
1Abu Sayyaf
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
1al-Qaeda in Arabia

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2014-10-17
  ISIS Retreats From Kobani
Thu 2014-10-16
  Kurdish fighters gain ground in Kobane
Wed 2014-10-15
  Six top TTP commanders announce allegiance to Islamic State's Baghdadi
Tue 2014-10-14
  Kurds, IS in Heavy Fighting near Turkish Border
Mon 2014-10-13
  21 militants killed in Khyber, Waziristan strikes
Sun 2014-10-12
  Al-Qaeda convoy en route to Mali 'destroyed' by French
Sat 2014-10-11
  Islamic State Advances Deeper Into Syrian Town Of Kobani
Fri 2014-10-10
  Operation Dignity sinks ship attempting to enter Benghazi Port
Thu 2014-10-09
  Sanaa suicide bomber kills at least 40
Wed 2014-10-08
  After Fierce Gun Battle: 400 Boko Haram insurgents killed in battle to retake Bazza, Michika, Madagali
Tue 2014-10-07
  Derna's rival Islamist militias fall out over Caliphate allegiance
Mon 2014-10-06
  Huge Explosion at Iranian Explosives Plant
Sun 2014-10-05
  Patient Zero, Thomas A. Duncan is dead
Sat 2014-10-04
  Zarb-e-Azb: 15 more terrorists gunned down
Fri 2014-10-03
  Iraq Butcher's Bill: 40 jihadists, 17 police and army

Better than the average link...



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.
23.22.23.162
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (24)    Non-WoT (23)    Opinion (3)    (0)    Politix (7)