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Kenya says university massacre mastermind killed in US drone strike in Somalia
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Afghanistan
Daesh, Taliban rise in east Afghanistan angers locals
[AA.TR] Afghans in the country's troubled eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province expressed their anger on Thursday about a surge in militancy they have witnessed in recent months.

Lying between the capital Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
and the restive Pakistain border, the province has seen an uptick in violence in recent months with a growing presence of fighters claiming to represent the Syria-based Death Eater group Daesh.

The new group's presence has sparked violent festivities with the Taliban and invited a campaign of U.S. drone strikes aimed at wiping it out.

Local elders gathered in the picturesque provincial capital Jalalabad and met with a delegation from the upper house of parliament, the Masharano Jirga, to send a unanimous message about their concerns to the central government in Kabul.

Abdul Basir Sabawoon, a local community elder, said it was a "war-like" situation in some of the border districts and that the government should be consulting local representatives about how to act.

Sabawoon criticized the senate delegation for "being confined to the Royal Palace and traveling in VIP convoys that give very little understanding about the realities."

While the parliamentary delegation's head Dr. Zalmay Zabuli claimed the security situation was not as bleak as portrayed in the press another member, Senator Lutfullah Baba, held the opposite view, claiming the security forces had lost control of several districts to Death Eaters.

"One day hard boyz cross over from Pakistain with Daesh flags and dictate terms over locals, the next day Talibs come from the same place and spread terror," Baba claimed, suggesting that the hard boyz sheltered across the border in Pakistain.

U.S. drone strikes in Nangarhar have killed more than 100 Taliban and Daesh hard boyz in the past week.

According to Afghanistan's intelligence agency the National Directorate for Security, the chief of Daesh in Afghanistan Hafiz Saeed
...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
Khan, his second-in-command and another big shot, the former Pak Taliban front man Shahidullah Shahid were all killed in the drone strikes.

Last week press freedom advocates Reporters Without Borders claimed that regions like Nangarhar and neighboring Badakshan were becoming "black holes" for information because hard boyz were threatening journalists.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Ghani Says Peace Talks to Start in Two Weeks
[Tolo News] Government officials announced on Thursday night that official peace talks with the Taliban will start on ‎July 30th.

Earlier in the day, President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
discussed the issue while visiting the families of victims of last week's deadly suicide kaboom in eastern Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
.

The suicide kaboom left at least 27 innocent civilians dead, including women and kiddies.

"Peace is the desire of all people," Ghani said, calling the recent talks held between Afghan government and Taliban representatives in Islamabad a great achievement. "We tried for 14 years to get peace negotiations started but we failed."

The Taliban are Afghans, not foreigners, Ghani told those gathered to here him speak on Thursday. "They should bring us their written concerns because there isn't any issue in the world that cannot be resolved by dialogue. This issue can't be concluded with war," he said.

According to the president, the next round of talks, which are expected to take on more of a negotiating tone, will begin within 15 days, after Eid-al-Fitr. While the last round took place in Islamabad, they next is planned to take place somewhere in China. The government in Beijing has been cited as a crucial source of pressure for getting Pakistain to urge the Taliban toward talks.

The Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), the body formed for the expressed purpose of building bridges of peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban, has said that all arrangements and preparations have been made for the upcoming talks. HPC officials have said that in this next round the Afghan government will ask the Taliban for a ceasefire.

"Efforts have been accelerated for the second round of talks, so that a clear peace agenda is prepared," HPC member Maulavi Shafiullah Shafi Nuristani said on Thursday. "We are also working to prepare the list of negotiators," he added.

According to Mohammad Natiqi, who was a member of the government's peace delegation in Islamabad, efforts have been made to solicit feedback from stakeholders in Afghan society on what priorities should be pursued in the negotiations. "The views of various segments of society that the president has consulted about peace have been gathered in the shape of a book," Natiqi told TOLOnews. "The recommendations of the government of Afghanistan will be enlisted from the same views in the peace negotiation talks."

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the number of government peace negotiators expected to participate in the next round of talks has yet to be finalized. On the other hand, it is rumored that the Taliban will attend the next round of talks with more negotiators than it did the first round.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Subsaharan
North Cameroon Bans Full Islamic Veil after Suicide Attacks
[AnNahar] A northern region of Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, which has suffered frequent attacks by the jihadist Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
group, has banned the use of the full Islamic veil, governor Bakari Midjiyawa said Thursday.

"The full veil is completely forbidden" in the Far North region, where two women suicide kaboomers who were wearing the covering killed 11 people on Sunday, Midjiyawa told AFP.

"We have asked... police to question any woman who wears the full veil," he added.

On Saturday, in another sign of Boko Haram's threat to regional security, a jacket wallah disguised as a woman in a full-face veil went kaboom! in Chad's capital N'Djamena, killing 15.

The full veil is banned in Moslem-majority Chad.

Midjiyawa admitted the northern Cameroon ban would not be enough to stop jihadists from committing atrocities.

"A terrorist can easily hide an explosive under a robe or in a jacket," he said, as he announced other bans including on tinted windows for vehicles and on cycle of violence traffic at night.

"The faceless myrmidons change strategy all the time, and we must adjust," Midjiyawa added.

Boko Haram's deadly insurgency has killed at least 15,000 people since 2009 and left more than 1.5 million homeless.

The group's recent upsurge in attacks on civilians comes after a four-nation coalition of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon pushed out the turbans from captured territory earlier this year.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Hamas' Mashal in rare visit to Saudi Arabia
[Ynet] Meetings between Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Saudi officials come just days after Iran's deal with the West and increasing fears of an ever-more influential Iran.

Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashal arrived for a rare visit with officials in 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...
late Wednesday night, suggesting that Riyahd seeks closer relations with the Gazoo-based organization in order to offset a feared increase of Iranian influence in the region.

Mashal's visit to the kingdom comes just two days after Western powers signed a deal with Iran over its nuclear deal that will eventually result in the lifting of all sanctions currently employed against the Ayatollahs.

Other Hamas officials will join Mashal in Saudi Arabia including Mashal's deputy Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook and Saleh al-Aarori, who resides in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and is considered in Israel to be responsible for building and maintaining Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank.

The visit is the first of its kind in three years and Israeli officials have consistently voiced concern that an Iran free of sanctions will increase funding for groups across the Middle East, like Hamas, that want to harm Israel.

Mashal has been a strong supporter of the Saudi-Egyptian alliance and he's made public Hamas' agreement with Saudi Arabia's police of bombing 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 ...
rebels in Iran who are funded and armed by Iran. Hamas' leadership is divided however, and many officials within the organization have shown open support for Saudi Arabia's Iranian opponent.

Most of Iran's supporters within Hamas come from the organizations military wing, which has often depended on Iranian financial and military support to rebuild their capabilities in the Gazoo Strip.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Interesting. Looking to end up on a winning side? Or is Mashal concerned about the Saudis and Israelis becoming BFFs, however temporary.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/17/2015 3:07 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
U.S. Presents Draft Iran Resolution to U.N.
[AnNahar] The United States Wednesday presented a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council asking it to endorse a historic deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program, diplomats said.

The draft text seeks formal U.N. approval for the hard-won, ground-breaking agreement reached in Vienna on Tuesday after 18 days of talks.

The resolution would also replace the existing framework of Security Council sanctions with the restrictions set out in the agreement hammered out over almost two years of negotiations, which came to a climax in Vienna.

Under the deal, hammered out by six world powers and Iran, a web of sanctions will be gradually lifted as Tehran takes steps to dismantle and mothball much of its nuclear program to ensure it cannot build a bomb.

A vote on the resolution could come as early as Monday or Tuesday, a diplomat said.

It should pass with little difficulty since the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the United States -- were among those countries which negotiated the Vienna accord.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  It helps Obama to bypass the US house and senate
Posted by: BernardZ || 07/17/2015 5:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I think the UN will accept Obama's surrender.
Posted by: airandee || 07/17/2015 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  trying to make it a fait accompli by teh UN before Congress votes on it. Senator Cruz sez he'll block State Dept funding and all nominations if this happens
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2015 13:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Iff Rising Iran wasn't OWG Globalist Amerika's BFF/BFRNF = Co-Superpower sibling before, IT IS NOW.

D ** NG IT, IRAN = TODAY VIENNA [+ Vienna's Brothels-Hookers], TOMMORROW MEMBERSHIP IN THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL!

WHY? BECUZ AS A "US-STYLE", "US-PAR", OWG CO-SUPERPOWER HOW CAN IRAN, ETAL N-O-T BE A MEMBER OF THE UNSC???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/17/2015 22:46 Comments || Top||

#5  How many members of the security council burst out laughing while reading the "agreement?"

I bet it is a real knee slapper in private even by the UN's pathetic standards.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 07/17/2015 22:49 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi government, U.N. agencies begin training women to farm
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Sounds like a racket to me, teaching people to farm where they invented farming.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Iraq closes border crossing with Jordan until further notice
[AlAhram] Iraq closed its border with Jordan until further notice, in part to deprive 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....
bandidos forces of Evil of taxes they impose on cargo trucks driving through their territory, a senior Iraqi military official said Thursday.

A Jordanian government official confirmed the closure of the Trebil crossing between Jordan and Iraq.

The closure dealt a new blow to Jordan's fragile economy which has suffered from the spillover of Islamic State land grabs in neighboring Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014. In the spring, Jordan closed its only trade crossing with Syria after Islamic bandidos forces of Evil seized the area from Syrian government forces.

In Iraq, the Islamic State group controls large areas between Trebil and the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, in the country's Anbar province. Earlier this week, Iraq launched a large-scale military offensive to try to dislodge the Islamic State group from Anbar.

Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, a front man for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Thursday that authorities have closed Trebil until further notice. Maan noted that the IS group has been imposing taxes on the goods crossing areas under its control. He said the crossing will reopen when the security situation improves.

Traffic on the Jordanian-Iraqi border had been disrupted even before the closure announcement.

Jordan, meanwhile, urged drivers not to head to the Iraqi border.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
How Israel took out a Syrian general in charge of Syria's nukes
In TFA is a reference to a top Russian GRU operative who turned up dead under "mysterious circumstances". I'd say the Syrians may have decided that Major-General Yuri Ivanov gave the Israelis the technical data they needed to pull off this operation.

Just my two kopeks.


In the summer of '08, Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman, who had been in charge of Syria's nuclear program, was shot at his seaside villa.

Besides the nuclear program, Suleiman also handled weapons transfers to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, which made him a target of special interest for Israel, which has specifically focused on the weapons interface between states and terrorist groups.

His killing was initially a mystery. The assassin(s) had managed to enter Syria, take out a top general and escape. The $80 million found in Suleiman's villa further clouded matters, but then which top Arab official doesn't have hidden stockpiles of money?

Now we supposedly know how it happened.
Posted by: badanov || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the Russians are supporting Iran, and Iran's supporting Syria (more or less), I don't get it...
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2015 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  The Israelis are blamed for everything from bad weather to King Nebuchadnezzar's gout. Running guns is dangerous business. Always has been.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2015 2:50 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israel Assassinated Assad Military Adviser near Tartus Port in 2008
[ALMANAR.LB] Evidence has emerged from leaked US signals intelligence intercepts that Israeli special forces were responsible for assassinating a senior Syrian military official who was a close adviser to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
Brig Gen Mahmoud Suleiman was rubbed out on a beach near the northern Syrian port of Tartus in August 2008. The Guardian reported at the time that the seaside murder was perpetrated by a sniper firing from a yacht moored offshore.

'Israel' has never commented publicly on suspicions that it was involved. But newly revealed secret US intelligence documents state as a fact that Israeli special forces killed the general.

The revelation comes from an internal National Security Agency document provided by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and cited by the Intercept, edited by Glenn Greenwald. It said that a top-secret entry in the NSA's internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, described the liquidation by "Israeli naval commandos" near Tartus as the "first known instance of 'Israel' targeting a legitimate (Syrian) government official".

The details of the liquidation were included in a "manhunting timeline" within the NSA's intelligence repository, the Intercept said on Wednesday.

The US embassy in Damascus reported at the time that 'Israel' was the most likely suspect, according to a secret cable released by WikiLeaks in 2010.

Suleiman was described by Syrian officials as dealing with defense and security issues in Assad's private office in Damascus. Israeli and Syrian opposition sources claimed he worked as "liaison" with Hezbollah.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
25[untagged]
9Islamic State
4Taliban
3Govt of Syria
2Govt of Iraq
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
2Boko Haram
2Govt of Pakistan
2Houthis
1Arab Spring
1al-Qaeda
1al-Shabaab
1Hamas
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Baloch Liberation Army
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Iran

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2015-07-17
  Kenya says university massacre mastermind killed in US drone strike in Somalia
Thu 2015-07-16
  LIVE UPDATES: 'Horrific' shooting at Chattanooga recruiting center, 5 reportedly shot
Wed 2015-07-15
  Two Islamic State leaders killed in Syria air strike: Observatory
Tue 2015-07-14
  Stalling Completed - Historic Iranian Agreement!
Mon 2015-07-13
  Daesh Fighters Flee to Mountains After Commanders Eliminated: Muslimyar
Sun 2015-07-12
  Key Member of Taliban Quetta Shura Held in Zabul
Sat 2015-07-11
  Syrian Army Targets ISIL, al-Nusra Gunmen, Kills Top Leaders in Hama, Damascus
Fri 2015-07-10
  Newest drone strikes kill 25 insurgents in Nangarhar
Thu 2015-07-09
  Syrian Army Establishes Control over Hasaka, near Palmyra
Wed 2015-07-08
  French Special Forces Kill Top Al-Qaida Militant in Mali
Tue 2015-07-07
  49 ISIS affiliates killed in Nangarhar drone strikes
Mon 2015-07-06
  Egyptian army kills 63 militants in North Sinai
Sun 2015-07-05
  At least 25 Nusra members dead in mosque blast in Syria's Idlib
Sat 2015-07-04
  Official: Drone kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Fri 2015-07-03
  Bangladesh police arrest 'top Qaeda militant'


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