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Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Victoria Pratt [Canuck][Filmography](age 42)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/18/2012 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Get rid of the heels, they are going to cause some problems. Get rid of the shorts, they are going to cause some problems too.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/18/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Victoria does has appropriate wear for the beach. Yow.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/18/2012 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  More proof of Intelligent Design.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2012 9:01 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Car bomb hits US company in Kabul
[Al Ahram] A boom-mobile went kaboom! Monday at a compound owned by a US-based construction company under contract to the Afghan army, killing at least one person and wounding 15, police said.
Five foreigners including Americans and South Africans were among the maimed, a security source at the company told AFP.

"A small truck packed with explosives detonated between CONTRACK and Najeeb Zarab factories -- one person is dead and 15 others are maimed," Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.

"We don't yet know whether there was someone in the truck or it exploded remotely. We are investigating this right now. They were very powerful explosives."

CONTRACK is a US-owned company which builds Afghan army and police facilities, an employee said.

"We were sitting in the office. There was a massive kaboom. The ceiling collapsed over us and 10 to 12 Afghans in the office were maimed," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but similar attacks are usually blamed on Taliban hard boyz fighting the Afghan government and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
troops.

A front man for NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the kaboom but said it was not at NATO's Camp Phoenix, which is also in the area in the east of the capital near the scene of the bombing.

An AFP news hound at the scene said there were signs of a huge kaboom beyond an area blocked off by police, and some bystanders outside the compound had also suffered minor injuries.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Senior Al-Qaida Man Reported Arrested In Algeria
[Jpost] The number two in the Islamist organization Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been tossed in the slammer
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in northern Algeria, an Algerian news website reported on Monday.

The website of Tout Sur l'Algerie (TSA), an electronic daily, quoted security sources as saying that Salah Gasmi had been arrested on Sunday in front of a restaurant in the town of Cheurfa, about 90 miles (150 km) southeast of Algiers.

It was not possible to confirm the report immediately.

AQIM is a pan-Maghreb jihadist organization that has taken responsibility for a number of attacks, particularly in Algeria. It has sent fighters to Iraq and vowed to attack Western targets, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations website.

TSA said that Salah Gasmi was a communications specialist considered to be the criminal mastermind behind a series of suicide kabooms in Algeria in 2007.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2012 00:31 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Police stations blasted in Libya's Benghazi: security
[Al Ahram] Two kabooms rocked cop shoppes in the Libyan city of Benghazi early on Monday and police foiled a third attack, a security official told AFP, adding that there were no casualties.

Police in the eastern city had placed checkpoints and bolstered security around their stations following two Sunday attacks, blamed on radical Islamists, which claimed the lives of four officers, an AFP correspondent said.

The cop shoppes of Garyunes and Al-Oruba were targeted before dawn on Monday, the security official said on condition of anonymity, adding that a separate attack by a would-be bomber was foiled.

"A parcel of explosives was dropped from a speeding car in front of the Garyunes station. It went kaboom! but there were no casualties," said the source, adding that the culprit was captured shortly after.

A similar attack was staged outside Al-Oruba station, he added.

Security forces later jugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
the driver of a vehicle residents had seen circling Al-Hadaiq cop shoppe, a target of previous attacks. He had a grenade, a suicide belt and three rocket-propelled grenades in his car.

The man got out of the car clutching the grenade and threatened to blow himself up, but police were able to negotiate his surrender, the security source said.

The latest violence follows the arrest of a suspect for his alleged role in the killings of several police and military officers.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Stones thrown at Tunisian leaders in Sidi Bouzid
[Al Ahram] Protesters on Monday hurled rocks at Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the revolution that erupted exactly two years ago.

The incident began after a speech by Marzouki in the central Tunisian town, where celebrations are taking place to mark the anniversary of the revolution, and as Ben Jaafar was about to speak.

The security forces swiftly evacuated the two men to the regional government headquarters, an AFP journalist reported.

The protesters invaded the square where the head of state had been addressing the crowd, shouting "the people want the fall of the government."

The police held back, after violent clashes over the past few months, which have often followed attempts to disperse protesters angry over the Islamist-led government's failure to improve living conditions in the poor region.

Clashes and strikes, as well as attacks by hardline Islamists, have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia's revolution.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Eeeeevrebody must get stoned!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/18/2012 16:58 Comments || Top||


Egypt's new prosecutor-general tenders resignation
[Al Ahram] Judge Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah has tendered his resignation late Monday as Egypt’s prosecutor-general, succumbing to mounting pressure from judges and prosecutors only weeks after being appointed by President Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of judges and prosecutors had staged a protest at his office earlier in the day after marching from the Judges' Club building, in protest of President Mohamed Morsi's decision to replace Mubarak-era prosecutor-general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud with Abdullah.

Representatives from the protesters met with Abdullah's deputy Adel El-Said but failed to reach a conclusion. Accordingly, a group of protesters attempted to enter the prosecutor-general's office to demand a meeting, but security forces deployed to his office banned them from doing so.

Later in the day, El-Said presennted Abdullah's handwritten resignation to the protesters.

Al-Ahram’s Arabic news portal reported that Abdullah left his office shortly afterwards escorted by security forces. Protesters chanted in support of the decision.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Police Tear Gas Disperses Manama Protest
[An Nahar] Bahraini police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse dozens of anti-regime Shiite demonstrators who staged a protest in central Manama on Monday to mark the opposition's "Martyrs' Day", witnesses said.

The protesters had gathered in the financial district in response to calls by the online activist group February 14th Youth, they said, adding that plainclothes police made several arrests.

Demonstrators chanted anti-monarchy slogans, including "Down (King) Hamad," and the "people want the fall of the regime."

The demonstration was held despite tight security, as authorities have not authorized protests in Manama since a month-long protest camp was demolished in mid-March 2011.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Gunmen kill military intelligence officer in south Yemen
[Al Ahram] Masked men rubbed out a military intelligence officer in southern Yemen on Monday, a local security source said, the latest in a series of killings targeting security officials in the Arabian Peninsula state.

Two gunnies on a cycle of violence opened fire on Shaker al-Bani late on Sunday near his house in the southern city of Ghayl ba Wazir in Hadramout
...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard...
province, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool, the source said.

No one grabbed credit for the killing, but the source said he suspected that al Qaeda Death Eaters, who are battling the U.S.-backed government, were behind it.

There have been a number of killings of security officials and politicians in the impoverished and often chaotic country since Yemen's army drove Islamist fighters out of several southern towns earlier this year with Washington's help.

Last week, masked gunnies rubbed out Colonel Ahmed Barmadah, deputy head of the Political Security Office, the domestic intelligence service, in Hadramout.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Bangladesh
Jamaat leader Tasneem held
[Bangla Daily Star] Law enforcers placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
Tasneem Alam, central publicity secretary of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition....
, at his Uttara residence in the capital yesterday for possession of anti-government leaflets and booklets.

Police also rounded up 21 female members of Jamaat and its women students' wing Islami Chhatri Sangstha from the latter's office in Moghbazar for their suspected link to “subversive activities.”

The detainees include Sanowar Jahan, wife of Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah, who is now facing trial on charge of committing crimes against humanity.

Protesting the detention of Tasneem, Rajshahi city unit Jamaat yesterday announced an eight-hour hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
in Rajshahi division for tomorrow.

In an email sent to local journalists, Ataur Rahman, ameer of Rajshahi city unit Jamaat, said they will enforce the shutdown from 6:00am to 2:00pm, reports our Rajshahi correspondent.

Police jugged
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
Rajshahi University teacher Shah Hossain Ahmed Mehdi when he was in a meeting with some Jamaat leaders at a house in Rajshahi city. Two Jamaat men were detained at the meeting.

A local court last night sent the teacher to jail after police produced him before it, said SM Moniruzzaman, commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

Contacted, officer-in-charge of Uttara Police Station (West) Khandaker Rejaul Hasan said the seized leaflets and booklets are provocative and offensive.

Police were conducting drives in different areas in the capital along with detained Jamaat leader Tasneem Alam, he added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!...
at least 25 people including seven coppers were maimed when Jamaat-Shibir men fought pitched battles with law enforcers in Shibganj and Kadamtoli in Sylhet city yesterday afternoon during their processions in support of tomorrow's half-day (6:00am to 2:00pm) hartal in Sylhet division, adds our Sylhet correspondent.

Jamaat announced the shutdown demanding release of its acting secretary general Shafiqur Rahman. He was arrested on Thursday at his Dhanmondi residence in the capital in a case filed under the anti-terrorism act. The following day, a Dhaka court placed him on four-day remand.

Regarding the detention of 21 female leaders of Jamaat and Chhatri Sangstha, police said Sanowar Jahan is a central working committee member of Jamaat, while the rest are students of different educational institutions in the city.

Acting on a tip off, law enforcers raided the Chhatri Sangstha office and recovered a huge number of 'Jihadi' books and leaflets, said Shible Noman, assistant commissioner (Ramna) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

In a release yesterday, Jamaat acting ameer Moqbul Ahmed condemned the detention of Tasneem Alam.

A few months ago, Tasneem was arrested on charge of an arson attack on a bus, but he came out of jail on bail.

Shamsunnahar Nizami, secretary of Islami Chhatri Sangstha, in another statement, blasted the government for detaining its female leaders and activists and demanded their immediate release.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Army smokes 5 bad guys
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
A total of five armed suspects were killed in an encounter with a Mexican Army unit in Tamaulipas state Sunday, according to Mexican news accounts.

A wire dispatch originating from El Universal news daily reported that the gunfight took place at around 1310 hrs in Ciudad Victoria near the intersection of calles José Sulaiman Chagnon and Pamoran.

Ciudad Victoria is the state capital of Tamaulipas.

The incident involved two civilian vehicles, one of them a 2012 Nissan Rogue SUV. Presumably, suspects in the second vehicle escaped the encounter. All five of the dead were inside the SUV. Soldiers also found five AR-15 rifles.

Two of the suspects were identified as Amado Gustavo Teran de la Fuente, 33, and Esau Shealtiel Cepeda Espinoza, 22. The other three were unidentified men in their 20s.
Posted by: badanov || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Four vaccination workers gunned down in Karachi
Four female Pakistani polio vaccination workers have been gunned down in Karachi. The victims were reportedly working with a UN-backed program to eradicate polio. The attacks took place in three separate locations in the city.

No group has taken responsibility for the shootings, but the Taliban has previously issued threats against the polio drive.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/18/2012 05:21 || Comments || Link || [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why are we bothering? They don't want it; quarantine their hellholes and let them stew in their own filth.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/18/2012 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  We impede the time honored process of natural selection at our own peril. Leave them to their well deserved misery.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2012 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Polio is infectious - very much so.

If the disease was wipespread in Pakland, visitors there (including US citizens of Pak ancestry, NGO visitors, diplomats, etc) might become infected, even if they are careful, and once infected they could be agents of further infection.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/18/2012 11:19 Comments || Top||

#4  An "infected diplomat".... the downside please ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||

#5  "Lord Garth" -- that's why I said to quarantine the place. They want disease? Let them revel in it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/18/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#6  The Paks should just close the pools during the summer.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/18/2012 16:03 Comments || Top||

#7  No wait!

The Paks should close the Gene Pools during the Summer. That's better, don't you think?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/18/2012 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  It's the fact they were female AND Vaccination workers. They just couldn't resist, like boys shooting at squirrels with BBguns.

Posted by: Charles || 12/18/2012 18:21 Comments || Top||

#9  RC

I thought you were advocating quarantining only the areas with obvious infection.

That wouldn't work because people infected don't show it.

you would have to quarantine the entire country which would be logistically impossible
Posted by: lord garth || 12/18/2012 20:12 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm pretty cool with restricted visitors and immigrants from Pakland. Next country up for a ban?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2012 21:16 Comments || Top||


Planted explosives damage telephone exchange in Kohat
[Dawn] Unidentified beturbanned goons blew up the building of PTCL exchange in Lachi town of Kohat district in the small hours of Sunday.

Police said that beturbanned goons planted explosives at the boundary wall of the telephone exchange building and blew it up. The blast damaged the boundary wall and the building. Nobody was injured in the kaboom, they said.

Police and the bomb disposal squad reached the spot soon after the incident and collected evidence. Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified terrorists.

In Nowshera, two CD shops were blown up in two separate blasts on the night between Saturday and Sunday.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Public Relations official, three policemen shot dead in Quetta
[Dawn] Unknown gunnies attacked the car of deputy director of the department of Public Relations on Monday near Liaquat park killing the official and three coppers, DawnNews reported.

The attackers sprayed the car of the Public relations department official with bullets killing one policeman on the spot.

The deputy director of the Public relations department, Khadim Hussain Noori, was critically injured and succumbed to his wounds while he was being shifted to a hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Car bomb kills 19 near government offices in Khyber Agency
[Times Of India.India Times] At least 19 people were killed and 74 injured when a powerful boom-mobile went kaboom! close to government offices in Jamrud town of Pakistain's northwestern Khyber tribal region on Monday. The kaboom follows a deadly Taliban assault on the airport 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.
over the weekend which left 15 people dead, 10 of them attackers, underlining the strength of Death Eaters in the country's restive tribal regions and adjoining areas.

Monday's car kaboom, according to officials, used an estimated 90 pounds of explosives. Intelligence officials said explosives were packed into a Suzuki Alto car and detonated through a remote device. Bloodied pieces of human flesh littered the blast scene, along with blood-stained clothes, school books, children's shoes and mangled metal. The blast destroyed at least 20 vehicles and 17 shops.

"Nineteen people were killed in the blast. Fourteen bodies were brought to this hospital while three people died of their wounds on way to hospital in Peshawar," said Dr Sameen Jan Shinwari at Khyber Agency's hospital in Jamrud.

"Four women were among those killed and they were all Afghans," Shinwari said. "At the moment we're not in a position to tell what exactly was the motive behind the attack," said Khyber region's top administrative official Mutahir Zeb. No one has grabbed credit for the attack, but security officials believe that a pro-government Zakakhel tribe could have been the target. Members of this tribe have been targeted by Taliban earlier as well.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
Wave of bomb attacks in Iraq kill 32, injure over 100
[Xinhua] A new wave of kabooms, including 10 boom-mobileings, targeted both Iraqi security forces and civilians across the country on Monday, killing a total of 32 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Such deadly attacks are seen as apparent attempts by bully boy groups to stir up sectarian strife among Iraqis to push the country to the brink of a civil war, amid persistent political divisions that have already paralyzed the country's government.

One of the attacks targeted a residential area inhabited by an ethnic Shiite minority named al-Shabak when a boom-mobile destroyed their village of Tahir-Awa, some 30 km east of djinn-infested Mosul, killing seven of them and wounding 14 others. Most of the victims are women and kiddies.

In a separate incident, two roadside kabooms detonated almost simultaneously in a nearby village without causing human casualty.

The Iraqi Shabak people are living in villages in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, particularly around the thriving provincial capital city of djinn-infested Mosul, some 400 km north of the country's capital Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
Meanwhile,
...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim swung his cue at Hurley's head...
five people were killed and 25 maimed in two boom-mobile kabooms at a residential area in the city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 200 north of Storied Baghdad.

Separately, three coppers, including an officer, were killed and three others maimed when gunnies attacked their patrol with a bomb and gunfire on a main road near the village of Albu-Slaibi close to the town of Dhuluiyah, some 90 km north of Storied Baghdad.

In a separate incident, a booby-trapped car went off near a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims and travelling south of the town of Dujail, some 60 km north of Storied Baghdad, wounding 14 Iranians, the source said.

The blast also destroyed nearby cars and killed two Iraqi civilians.

Elsewhere, gunnies attacked a police checkpoint and blew up a booby-trapped car in the city of Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province in north of Storied Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding four others.

In the Iraqi city of Samarra, some 120 km north of Storied Baghdad, another boom-mobile went off near a police checkpoint and maimed three civilians.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, mortar rounds landed on a residential area in the town of Rutba, some 375 km west of Storied Baghdad, killing two people and wounding six others.

Also in the province, a boom-mobile struck a police patrol in the town of Khaldiyah, some 80 km west of Storied Baghdad, killing two coppers and wounding three others, including an officer.

In Storied Baghdad, a boom-mobile detonated near Uqba Bin Nafie Square in the city's central district of Karrada, killing a civilian and wounding four others.

Near Storied Baghdad, three soldiers were maimed in a roadside kaboom near their patrol in the town of Tarmiyah, some 20 km north of the capital, while two coppers were maimed in a separate bomb kaboom near their patrol in the town of Madain, some 30 km south east of Storied Baghdad.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, gunnies attacked the house of a tribal leader late Sunday at a village near the town of Qara- Tabba, some 165 km north east of Storied Baghdad, and killed his son, grandson and a woman before they expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.

On Monday morning, the attacker returned and detonated three bombs at a funeral tent set up for the victims, killing three people and wounding 10 others.

Also in the province, three people were killed and 20 maimed Monday in eight bomb and gunfire attacks, including two boom-mobileings.

The attacks came after a series of kabooms struck the city of Kirkuk Sunday night, which killed at least 11 people and maimed some 50 others.

Observers said the attacks are part of an attempt by bully boy groups, including al-Qaeda krazed killer group, to show that they are capable of carrying out coordinated and high-profile attacks to undermine the Iraqi government's promise of providing security to Iraqis.

The attacks also reflect the bully boy groups' intention to stir up sectarian strife among Iraqis and raise fears that the country could be brought back to widespread violence, particularly as Iraq is trying to avoid the spillover of violence from the ongoing conflict in neighboring Syria.

Violence in Iraq has ebbed from its climax in 2006 and 2007, when sectarian conflicts pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, but tensions and sporadic shootings and bombings are still common across the country.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  A horrific, but rare, occurrence in America calls for a vast re-examination of the people's rights. Everyday festivities in a foreign land? Yawn, nothing to see here, just quaint tribal customs, move along now...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/18/2012 17:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Saddam kept them all in line with the Iraqi version of a Dynamic Conehead woodchipper. There has to be a 'middle of the rode' somewhere. I hope they find it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2012 17:14 Comments || Top||


Bombers, gunmen attack disputed Iraqi-Kurd areas 26 dead
Bombers and gunmen killed at least 26 people in attacks mostly in northern Iraqi towns and villages on Monday in the second consecutive day of violence in areas at the center of a bitter feud between Baghdad and autonomous Kurdistan.

The ethnically mixed "Disputed Territories" - the swathe of land marking Iraq from the area administered by Kurds in the north - have been a potential flashpoint for conflict since the buffer of the last American troops left a year ago.

Two blasts hit a Shi'ite district in Tuz Khurmato, killing at least five and wounding 24 and a truck bomb killed seven in a Shabak minority area near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of the capital, security and local officials said.

No armed group claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but the explosions came at a time of heightened tensions between the Arab-led central government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds over contested land and oil rights.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Two killed in Thai South as classes reopen
Two civil servants were killed and five others, including a female teacher, wounded in a fresh gun attack in Narathiwat province yesterday. The shootings came as most schools in the far South resumed classes after closing following deadly attacks on teachers last week.

Police were alerted to the latest shootings at 5:20 p.m. yesterday. The two dead victims were both officials from the Agricultural Extension Office in Sungai Padi district, and were shot in the back.

The seven victims were among 15 passengers traveling in a truck which regularly transports officials from their homes in Muang district to their workplaces in Sungai Padi.

The driver of the truck, said the attack occurred as they were returning to Muang district along a section of road flanked by rubber plantations. He said that when he realised they were being ambushed, he sped up to escape the attack and to rush the dead and wounded to a nearby hospital. At the scene of the ambush, police found more than 30 spent M16 shells and one magazine.

Meanwhile, most schools in the three southernmost provinces remained quiet as classes resumed yesterday. Few teachers and students turned up out of fear of further terrorist insurgent attacks.

About 1,200 schools in the far South called off classes on Thursday and Friday after five armed men stormed Ban Ba-ngo school in Pattani provinces and opened fire, killing the school director and a teacher on Tuesday last week.

A police source said one of the suspected attackers has been identified as Marudin Tahae, from Pattani's Panare district. Mr Marudin is believed to be a Runda Kumpulan Kecil commander. The source said he has been linked to many attacks in Pattani, and that an arrest warrant has been issued.

Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, yesterday called on Muslim terrorists insurgents in the far South to stop killing teachers. He said, "These attacks harm not only teachers and schools, but the Muslim students, their families, and the broader Muslim community the insurgents claim to represent."
Posted by: ryuge || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. Names Leb ex-Minister Samaha 'Global Terrorist'
[An Nahar] The United States on Monday named former information minister Michel Samaha a "specially designated global terrorist" for allegedly aiding the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
to launch attacks in Leb.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a statement saying that Samaha, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13441 which targets persons "undermining Lebanese illusory sovereignty, including those who are supporting attempts by the Assad regime to incite violence inside Leb", is now a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under E.O. 13224.

Samaha, was tossed in the clink
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
on August 9 by Lebanese authorities and accused of plotting to assassinate leaders and of transporting explosives into the country for such attacks, the U.S. Treasury said.

"The United States will continue to expose any attempts by the Assad regime to meddle in the affairs of its neighbors and further destabilize the region," said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.

"We will continue to work with our international partners to ensure that the illusory sovereignty of Leb is respected and upheld."
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria rebels launch assault on army in Hama: NGO
[Al Ahram] Rebel fighters on Monday launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama in some of the worst violence in the central province for months, a watchdog reported.

"Several rebel units began an all-out offensive against positions of the regular army in Hama province," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

"The festivities are the most violent in this province for months," he added.

Abdel Rahman said rebels were laying siege to army positions along an axis stretching from Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib further north to Mharde, in the western district of Hama province.

Syrian troops withdrew from several positions, including Sheikh Hadid, which rebels pounded with mortars and anti-tank rockets, he added.

A member of the military command of the main rebel Free Syrian Army said overnight that the battle to "liberate" Hama and its province had begun and issued a deadline of 1100 GMT Tuesday for soldiers to leave.

Colonel Kassem Saadeddin announced in a statement "the start of the liberation of the city of Hama and its province of the Assad gangs and the shabiha," in reference to troops and a militia of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
's regime.

"We have asked all the brigades and battalions to surround and take over all the military positions in the province and we give the soldiers until 1:00 pm on Tuesday (1100 GMT) to desert."

Hama is known as the site of an 1982 uprising which was crushed amid tens of thousands of deaths by President Assad's father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad. It also has been at the forefront of the 21-month conflict.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336065 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
[Reuters] Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Paleostinian refugee camp on Monday after fighting raged for days in the district on the southern edge of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
Light of the Alawites...
Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
powerbase, rebel and Paleostinian sources said.

The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Paleostinians, against Paleostinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril decamped two days ago, rebel sources said.

"All of the camp is under the control of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army," said a Paleostinian activist in Yarmouk. He said festivities had stopped and the remaining PFLP fighters retreated to join Assad's forces massed on the northern edge of the camp.
In a day or two we can take PFLP-GC off the list of terror orgs, since it won't exist anymore...
The battle in Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of Assad's capital, as rebels try to choke the power of the 47-year-old leader after a 21-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Government forces have used jets and artillery to try to dislodge the fighters but the violence has crept into the heart of the city and activists say rebels overran three army stations in a new offensive in the central province of Hama on Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336141 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Report: Blast In Hezbollah Weapons Cache In South Lebanon
[Ynet] The Arabic-language Sky News channel reported of a blast in a Hezbollah weapons depot in a border town in southern Leb. According to Lebanese reports, Hezbollah members blocked access to the area to prevent Lebanese army and UN forces from reaching the site.
The Jerusalem Post adds:
The big kaboom that on Monday rocked the southern Lebanese town of Tair Harfa was caused by an undetonated rocket that had been fired into Leb during the 2006 war with Hezbollah but did not detonate on impact, according to a Lebanese security official.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
UNIFIL front man Andrea Tenenti said UNIFIL soldiers in the area were still trying to ascertain the cause.
Possibly Israeli UAVs are up to their old tricks again, as well. Happy hunting, Avi!
On Oct. 3, three Hezbollah members were killed when an kaboom destroyed a weapons warehouse in the eastern Leb town of Nabi Sheet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Happy hunting, Avi!

Avivit---these UAVs are operated by gurls (cause female of the species...)
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/18/2012 2:57 Comments || Top||

#2  ghosties and ghoulies and things that go BOOM in the night.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/18/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Zionist Candygram...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/18/2012 15:04 Comments || Top||

#4  As long as it ain't the Zionist LandShark.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/18/2012 16:05 Comments || Top||

#5  You'll know the dreaded Zionist Landshark by the unique Red Laser coming out of it's eyes.
Posted by: Charles || 12/18/2012 18:24 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
9Arab Spring
6Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jundullah
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Taliban
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1TTP

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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
Tue 2012-12-04
  Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria

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