MPs in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Tuesday slammed the Afghan government for its war strategy on Helmand after Taliban fighters conducted a heavy offensive and inflicted a high casualty toll against embattled Afghan security forces.
Reports have surfaced that up to 60 Afghan security personnel have so far been killed in the past few days in fierce fighting in the province.
This has sparked outrage among Afghan lawmakers who believe that government's war strategy has failed in Helmand.
MPs also sharply criticized security forces and cabinet for not focusing on the security of Helmand.
It is said that some police force units have been under siege by the Taliban for several days.
Fierce fighting broke out in Helmand three days ago after the Taliban made a fresh offensive against the hard-pressed Afghan security forces in the region. Currently, security forces are battling the insurgents on multiple fronts in volatile districts of Nad-e-Ali, Gereshk, Marjah, Nahr-e-Saraj and Khanshin.
There are reports that up to 60 security personnel have been killed in the latest wave of fighting. It is also said that up to 10 check posts have collapsed to the Taliban.
Angered by government's poor war strategy in Helmand, meanwhile, a number of Helmand MPs have said that the bodies of fallen soldiers are still lying on the ground and that the Taliban hung some bodies in trees.
"Helmand is on the verge of collapse; 58 people were martyred during a single night; isn't it shameful? Isn't it a shame for the minister of defense, president, chief executive and minister of interior?" said Afghan senator Hashim Alokozai.
"An elderly man was killed alongside his family and soldiers and was then hung in a tree; is there anyone to consider this sacrifice, " MP Lalai Hamidzai said.
Helmand MPs have criticized the government and security institutions for not doing enough to improve the security situation in the volatile province.
There are reports that the commander of local police fought until he ran out of ammunition. He was then killed, along with his wife, seven children and some soldiers. But no aid reached them.
"We have undertaken comprehensive measures to retake control of several areas and fighting has started in some areas. We have taken necessary steps to recapture those areas which have collapsed," governor of Helmand Hayatollah Hayat said.
Helmand was once a key Taliban stronghold in the south and has been a major point of battle for insurgents. The Taliban recently overran large parts of Helmand, leaving government forces in district centers like Sangin and Marjah barely clinging on to a few official buildings.
[LATimes] A newly released Amnesty International report has found a “staggering” increase in the number of Afghans driven from their homes by the deepening unrest, political instability and economic stagnation in the country. The report, “My Children Will Die This Winter: Afghanistan’s Broken Promise to the Displaced,” concludes that the most neglected are not necessarily those who’ve made perilous trips seeking asylum in Europe, but those who’ve been uprooted and left to wander and seek shelter in their own country.
More than 1.2 million Afghans are now displaced – a twofold increase in three years. The report, made public late Monday, said that more than 118,000 have fled in the first four months of 2016 alone.
Though the 178,000 Afghans who have sought asylum in Europe over the last year and a half have received steady media attention, those who have sought refuge inside the country have gone largely unnoticed.
Nassim Majidi, director at Samuel Hall, a Kabul-based think tank, said the focus in Afghanistan should be on integrating the huge numbers of displaced people, rather than treating them as outsiders.
In other words, you want the Afghans to act like Americans. Hmm, that might be harder than you think...
“Those forced to flee their homes, by and large, lived in squalid conditions and were often housed in makeshift shelters with no protection from the hot summers and cold winters,” the report said of the nearly 1,000 people who are counted as newly displaced each day.
As opposed to most of the rest of the people who live in the countryside of Afghanistan, who are housed in ... squalid conditions with no protection from the hot summers and cold winters. Criminy, it's not as if the permanent residents of Afghanistan live in Mendocino. The displaced people may well live worse than they did before they were displaced. But you and I would be hard-pressed to notice the difference.
Those who live in makeshift camps that dot the nation’s urban centers have found themselves in a state of un-ending limbo.
Qand Agha, 32, has spent the last seven years in Kabul’s Chaman-e Babrak camp, which houses more than 700 other displaced families. The settlement -- defined by simple mud houses, open sewers and dirt roads -- stands in contrast to its glitzy neighbors.
Only a few hundred feet away lie symbols of Kabul’s wealth, brightly colored wedding halls -- complete with light-up replicas of the Eiffel Tower -- and a plastic surgery center offering $300 rhinoplasties.
Clearly the refugees would be better off if only they had rhinoplasties...
“We are the people who suffered through decades of bomb blasts and flying bullets, but now we are left here in this squalor with no hope for a future,” said Bismillah, another camp resident in his mid-40s.
The aid that once flowed to the city’s displaced populations has seemingly dried up in the last two years.
“Before [nonprofits] and businessmen would come with blankets, firewood and food assistance, but we haven’t seen anything in two years now,” said Qand Agha.
Ah-ha, the problem is identified! A lack of U.N. personnel! European apparatchiks! With white Toyota Land Cruisers! Seeking "domestic help"!
In the past, Qand Agha said, well-to-do Afghans would come by and hand out money or supplies. But not anymore.
“Now, even those people can’t find work to feed themselves, and those who have the money get on rickety boats to Europe.”
The lack of attention described by the Chaman-e Babrak residents comes despite the Afghan government’s endorsement of a new national policy in 2014, aimed at assisting the nation’s internally displaced people.
The Afghan government is full of ideas. It's the follow-through that's been a tad difficult...
Though that policy was envisioned as a comprehensive solution to the nation’s growing refugee problem, Amnesty said it has amounted to little more than a “broken promise” that has done little to address the needs of one of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable populations.
More broken promises from politicians? I'd best go lie down, I feel faint...
This lack of progress, said Amnesty, is the result of several intersecting issues that seemed to consume the nation in the last two years.
The plan was approved in the last days of the administration of former President Hamid Karzai. The 2014 presidential election that followed dragged on for more than 10 months and was plagued with accusations of widespread, government-assisted fraud.
Now you know where the aid money went...
The tensions within the national unity government grew worse when President Ashraf Ghani was forced to accept his election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, as his chief executive. And the economic downturn made matters worse.
For Qand Agha, the storm of negative developments left the nation’s displaced people to fend for themselves, often treated as second-class citizens.
“When our children go to school they are made fun of for being from the camps. Teachers and students mock them, saying: ‘You are dirty,’ ‘you don’t bathe,’ ‘you have no shoes.’”
Though his home in the eastern province of Laghman is only a two-hour drive
...in a white Toyota Land Cruiser...
from Kabul, Qand Agha said rising insecurity makes it impossible for his family, including four children, to return.
“Day or night, there is no relief from the violence. At night people hide in fear of airstrikes, during the day they are caught in the crossfire of the battles between the security forces and the Taliban.”
However, it’s not just the Taliban and foreign forces that pose a threat to the lives of Afghans.
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, thousands have been forced to flee their homes as a new group of fighters claiming to be allied with the Iraq and Syria-based Islamic State have made inroads. Displaced people in Nangarhar said even government officials who have gathered forces to take on these new fighters appear to have done little to help those living in tents and makeshift homes in Jalalabad -- the provincial capital -- and Kabul.
“People's expectations are for local integration. The political and development communities need to implement local integration options,” said Majidi.
The camps, Majidi said, have only further separated the displaced people from local populations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Ahram] Kenya is to send Somali refugees in the world's largest camp back to their war-torn country or third nations by November, the interior minister said Tuesday.
The sprawling Dadaab camp on the Kenya-Somalia border hosts some 350,000 refugees, the vast majority of whom fled Somalia's more than two-decade long conflict.
Kenya said earlier this month it would shut down the camp, and set up a team to explore how it could be achieved.
"I want to inform the world that the decision to close Dadaab camp is final," Interior Minister Joseph Ole Nkaissery said after receiving the team's report.
"We hope to close the camp latest by November this year."
Nkaissery said the report would be shared with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
"On our side, we will prepare security and ensure it is done in the most humane way," he added, noting the report was "very clear on the timelines" to ensure refugees left.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[IsraelTimes] Egypt will reportedly open its borders with the Gazoo Strip for four days starting Wednesday, allowing Paleostinians to enter and leave the isolated coastal strip ahead of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
Prediction: Ansar Bayt al Maqdis will stage a major attack no later than a week from Thursday. No doubt it would have been even bigger had the Israeli navy not stopped the latest fishing boat smuggling attempt.
The Rafah Border Crossing between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gazoo Strip will be open in both directions, the Paleostinian Ma’an News site reported Tuesday, citing the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run interior ministry in Gazoo.
The opening of the crossing is seen as a humanitarian gesture by Egypt ahead of the Muslim’s holy fasting month of Ramadan. According to the report, the opening is aimed at serving humanitarian and emergencies cases.
The move would be the second opening in as many months after Egypt shuttered the border for 85 days.
Both Israel and Egypt maintain a partial blockade on Gazoo. Israel says it restricts entry of certain materials into the territory to keep Hamas and other terror groups from being able to build weapons and cross-border tunnels.
Egypt has kept its border with Gazoo mostly sealed since Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007. The closure worsened after Egypt’s military ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, a Moslem Brüderbund member, in 2013. Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood.
Egypt claims that Hamas in Gazoo is helping Sinai jihadists, both by treating casualties from the battles in Sinai against the Egyptian army and in arms. Hamas is also affiliated with the Moslem Brüderbund, an Islamist movement that has been outlawed in Egypt.
Along the Israel-Gazoo border, tensions have flared in recent weeks as troops working to uncover attack tunnels reaching into Israeli territory have come under mortar fire, drawing Israeli reprisal attacks.
[An Nahar] The Polisario Front which demands the Western Sahara's independence from Morocco said its secretary general Mohammed Abdelaziz died on Tuesday "after a long illness," Algeria's APS news agency reported.
Abdelaziz, who was in his late 60s, had led the Algeria-backed Polisario since 1976 after the group was founded three years previously to struggle for independence for the former Spanish colony.
APS said he had been suffering from lung cancer, but the Polisario gave no further details on the circumstances of his death.
"This is a great loss for the Sahrawi people," Polisario official Mohammed Keddad told AFP.
"He sacrificed his life for the liberation of Western Sahara. He embodied the wisdom and a sincere and firm commitment to its liberation," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
[IsraelTimes] Citing Islamist radicalization, government withholds permission for the opening of a school in Amsterdam
Citing potential radicalization, the Dutch government prevented the opening of a Muslim school by a group whose former leader praised 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.... bully boyz and wished for Allah to drown Israel in a tsunami.
Education Ministry Undersecretary Sander Dekker on Monday said that the government is withholding funding and permits for SIO -- a Dutch-language acronym for "Association of Islamic studies" -- because its board is working against giving pupils real knowledge. It was the first time that the government cited Islamist radicalization in withholding its permission for the opening of a Muslim school, the Het Parool daily reported.
"Affording education and understanding is, in our society, an important mission for schools. There is no room in this framework for a school board whose actions contradict this mission," Dekker said in a statement about the decision not to grant SIO, which already runs a school in The Hague, permission to open another school in Amsterdam.
According to Het Parool, Dekker’s statement and decision are connected to remarks made by Abdoe Khoulani, a former secretary of SIO, who in 2014 praised the Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, on Facebook, said it was no worse than Israel and also wished for the destruction of Israel in a divine flood.
In June of that year, Khoulani wrote on Facebook: "Long live ISIS! If Allah wills it, we will go to Baghdad to reckon with the scum there." He was reacting to the refusal of authorities to allow a pro-ISIS demonstration in The Hague. Khoulani later apologized and resigned as secretary of SIO following the backlash that his statement generated.
But a month later, Khoulani wrote on Facebook: "May the Zionist settlement be washed away by Allah’s tsunami today rather than tomorrow." He also wrote that he hopes David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was "burning in hell."
Two months after the ISIS statement, SIO wrote the education ministry to say they do not share Khoulani’s view but the ministry had already initiated a probe for radicalization at SIO’s The Hague school, Het Parool reported. SIO refused to cooperate with the inspection, leading the ministry to say it cannot rule out radicalization by SIO. The government may revoke funding and permits for the Hague school, according to Het Parool.
SIO Chairman Soner Atasoy disputed this version of events. In a furious statement that is unusual for its harsh tone, he called Undersecretary Dekker "a pathological liar who can get lost," saying his school was ready to work with the ministry’s inspection team.
[IsraelTimes] A senior adviser to the European Court of Justice says a European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... business may legitimately prohibit an employee from wearing a Muslim headscarf on the job, provided the ban is based on a general company rule prohibiting visible political or religious symbols in the workplace, and not on prejudice against a particular religion.
Advocate General Juliane Kokott issued the opinion Tuesday after a Belgian court asked for clarification on what is prohibited by EU anti-discrimination laws.
In the Belgian case, Samira Achbita was fired as a receptionist by a security company after she insisted she should be allowed to work wearing an Islamic headscarf. She has lost her discrimination lawsuit in two Belgian courts and is now before the country’s Court of Cassation, which sought the EU court’s opinion.
[IsraelTimes] The US State Department is warning Americans visiting Europe this summer about the potential for terrorist attacks.
Tuesday’s travel alert says major sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants and shopping centers are possible targets.
La Belle France is hosting soccer’s European Championship and cycling’s Tour de La Belle France, while under an extended state of emergency. Two-and-a-half million visitors are expected in Krakow, Poland, for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day in late July.
The department is telling US citizens to be vigilant in public places or when using mass transportation. They also should be prepared for additional security screening and unexpected disruptions.
The warning expires August 31.
"Now we're covered if those dreadful tourists get caught up in something over there. Thank goodness it's not our job to warn about the 1,000 open terror cases the FBI is working here at home!"
[IsraelTimes] A Canadian man who stabbed soldiers at a recruiting center in Toronto in March has been formally charged with terrorism, federal police say.
Ayanie Hassan Ali,
... a copy of the police misspelling of his name -- it's actually Ayanle Hassan Ali...
27, faces attempted murder, assault and weapons charges "for the benefit of a terrorist group," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say in a statement.
Ali is alleged to have stabbed a soldier in the arm without provocation after entering a government building in mid-March. Police say he then sought to wound a second soldier before he was subdued.
The suspect was overheard saying at the scene of the attack, "Allah told me to do this, Allah told me to kill people," Toronto police chief Mark Saunders told news hounds the next day.
The number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States jumped to 1,037 during May - an increase of 130 percent over the previous month - but the proportion of Christians among them remains miniscule: two Christians (0.19 percent) compared to 1,035 Muslims.
May's figure of 1,037 Syrian refugees brings the total number since the beginning of 2016 to 2,099 - compared to 2,192 for the whole of 2015, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.
Earlier years since the Syrian civil war began saw much smaller numbers arriving - 20 in 2011 (dated from mid-March); 41 in 2012; 45 in 2013; and 249 in 2014.
Of the 2,099 Syrian refugees admitted so far this year, six (0.28 percent) are Christians, 2,043 (97.3 percent) are Sunni Muslims. The remaining 50 are 17 (0.8 percent) Shi'a, 30 (1.4 percent) other Muslims and 10 (0.47 percent) Yazidis.
Similar proportions are seen in the number of Syrian refugees having arrived in the U.S. since the start of fiscal year 2016: 2,773 in total, comprising 12 (0.4 percent) Christians, 2,703 (97.4 percent) Sunnis, 17 (0.6 percent) Shi'a, 30 (1.1 percent) other Muslims and 10 (0.3 percent) Yazidis.
And since the conflict erupted, of a total of 4,646 Syrian refugees admitted, 60 (1.3 percent) are Christians; 4,422 (95.1 percent) are Sunni Muslims. The remaining 163 include Shi'a, other Muslims, Zoroastrians, Baha'i, Jehovah's Witnesses, Yazidi, and refugees identified as "other religion" or as having "no religion."
Syrians of all faith and ethnic backgrounds have been fleeing their homeland, with almost five million now registered by the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR as "persons of concern."
They have done so to escape the violence and deprivation generally, or to get away specifically from ISIS, other jihadists rebel groups, or the Assad regime - which is itself a minority regime that has committed atrocities, including alleged war crimes, against majority Sunnis and others.
Although Syrians of all stripes have been affected, the number of Christians among those admitted into the U.S. - 1.3 percent - remains significantly smaller than the proportion of Christians in the total population when the war began - an estimated 10 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Last week, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said the very small proportion of Christians among Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. "has got to change." Profiling?
[WDAY] Mohammed Roble was weeks shy of his 11th birthday when the school bus he was riding plummeted about 30 feet as the bridge collapsed. He was injured, and a 2009 state court order says he was due to receive a lump sum of more than $65,000 on his 18th birthday. That was just weeks before federal prosecutors say he left the U.S.
Roble's name surfaced in federal court last week during the trial of three Minnesota men accused of conspiring 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 bridge collapse wasn't mentioned at trial, but The News Agency that Dare Not be Named made the connection using public records.
Based on 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reporting, we found that Mohammed Roble listed in court documents from a 2009 personal injury lawsuit.
A Mohammed Robel was mentioned as being in Syria during testimony in the 15 days of the federal terror trial.
The FBI informant Abdirahaman Bashir testified on May 19 that Roble had a lot of money because of the accident and insurance settlement.
Then we went back through our notes to find this mention.
We found that an audio recording was played in court.
It was taken in April of 2015.
Two of the defendants allegedly mentioned how Roble was paying for everyone’s weddings and buying cars in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pak foreign affairs adviser Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... has said that Afghanistan and Pakistain should not allow the use of their territory against each other.
During a meeting with the Afghan Ambassador Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Aziz expressed serious concerns over the US drone strikes in Pakistain, according to the local media reports.
The meeting between Aziz and Zakhilwal followed days after the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province of Pakistain.
The two sides reportedly discussed bilateral ties, the border situation the Afghan reconciliation process, and several matters of importance including the fate of Afghan grinding of the peace processor following the death of Mulla Mansour.
The remarks by Aziz to prevent the use of territory against each other comes as the Afghan officials have long been critizing Pakistain for allowing the Afghan Death Eater groups use its soil as a safe haven to plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan.
Both the Taliban group and the notorious Haqqani terrorist network leadership councils are believed to be based in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] QUETTA: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! former assistant director National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Ghulam Muhammad Bugti for suspected involvement in the issuance of identification papers to former Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mansour. Gee golly gosh shucks. You don't suppose Mullah Haibatullah has a secret identity in Pak, do you? Or Zawahiri?
Officials recovered a Pak identity card and passport under the alias Wali Muhammad from the site of the American drone strike which killed the Taliban chief earlier this month in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... . Mansour's ID card was renewed in 2012.
Ghulam Bugti, who retired in 2007, had played an important role in issuing an NIC to Mansour in 2002, FIA sources said.
Bugti has been shifted to FIA's regional office for interrogation. "The scope of investigation is being widened", an FIA officer who declined to be named told DawnNews.
Domicile issued in Killa Abdullah Mullah Mansour was issued a domicile from the province’s Killa Abdullah district in 1999. He had portrayed himself as Muhammad Wali, a resident of Chaman belonging to the Kakar tribe.
FIA obtained the copy of the domicile and have launched an inquiry against the then Deputy Commissioner (DC) Killa Abdullah Hafiz Mohammad Tahir. The DC is like to be arrested, sources in FIA told DawnNews.
Following the incident, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar ordered a probe to find out how identification documents had been granted to the former Taliban chief.
NADRA has also launched an investigation into nearly 2.5 million families across the country in the aftermath of the drone strike.
Earlier this week, FIA arrested former assistant commissioner Qila Abdullah Rafiq Tareen for verifying Mullah Akhtar Mansour's passport, in addition to three NADRA officials in Qila Abdullah and Quetta for issuing Mansour's NIC.
Former deputy commissioner Qila Abdullah Hafiz Muhammad Tahir is also being interrogated by the FIA in relation to the case of Mansour's ID documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia demands that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... withdraw its troops from Iraq, the RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.
"This (keeping troops in Iraq) is an absolutely unacceptable position," it cited Lavrov as saying. "In principle, I believe that what the Turks are doing deserves far greater public attention on the part of our Western partners."
A source from the Turkish military said on Tuesday that warplanes recently targeted a camp for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in northern Iraq, killing 14 of them.
The Turkish military has been carrying out regular air strikes against positions of the outlawed group in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, where it has camps near the Turkish border, after the collapse of ceasefire last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
The ties in question being the noose EU keeps trying to place around Israel's neck?
The European Union has warned Israel that its policy of demolishing illegal Palestinians homes -- including construction it has funded -- is harming ties between Israel and its 28-member states.
It issued it’s warning at a closed door meeting last week between EU officials in Israel and representatives from the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. Among those present were EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg Andersen and COGAT head Maj. Gen Yoav Mordechai. I only speak for myself, but, "Hey scrotes, shouldn't you worry about what'll happen to you when Europeans rise because you inflicted millions of Palestinian equivalents on them?".
[IsraelTimes] Injunction issued after authorities determine project for extra restrooms at complex does not have proper permits
The Jerusalem Municipality on Tuesday ordered a halt to illegal construction taking place outside of the fence surrounding Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount holy site.
The administrative order was issued after authorities determined the construction of additional restrooms at the complex has begun without the proper permits, a municipality statement said.
According to reports, the project was initiated by the Muslim Waqf -- the Jordanian trust that administers the site -- to accommodate the tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers expected to visit the compound during the upcoming Ramadan holiday.
Army Radio said the municipality has pledged to install portable toilets in the Temple Mount area for the month-long holiday. The bathrooms will be erected in coordination with Jordanian authorities, according to the report.
Last week, a Channel 10 report said the Israel Antiquities Authority had filed a lawsuit against the Waqf for building the bathrooms in an archaeological site within the Temple Mount complex.
The Antonia Fortress, which is believed to date from at least 31 BCE, sits atop the Western Wall tunnels sparking fears that sewage from the restroom will seep into the structures below, the report said.
The suit also includes IAA opposition to a Waqf plan to break through one of the walls on the Temple Mount itself.
Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the site of the first and second Jewish temples and home to Islam’s third-holiest shrine, has been at the heart of the months-long unrest and violence.
Clashes between Israeli security forces and Paleostinian rioters erupted last year at the compound amid fears that Israel was planning to change rules governing the site which allows Jews to visit the site but not pray there.
Israel has repeatedly denied such plans are in the works.
And they'll get on it just as soon as they finish their creme brulee
[ARA News] ALEPPO – Kurdish organisations called on the United Nations agencies to deliver humanitarian aid to the Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo, which has been for months under siege by Syrian Islamist rebels.
At least 150 civilians were killed and 1100 others were wounded in the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo under bombardment by Islamist rebels, led by the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the Islamic Movement of Aurar al-Sham.
“We are in urgent need for humanitarian aid, people are facing the danger of starvation. We suffer sharp shortage of basic supplies like food and medicines,” rights activist Ali al-Ahmed told ARA News in Aleppo.
“The United Nations must take action and save those civilians who have suffered the most under the barbaric military campaign by radical Islamists,” he said.
Al-Qaeda branch in Syria of Nusra Front, Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham and other Islamist factions have been constantly shelling the Kurdish district since February.
Sheikh Maqsoud has been besieged for months, while the Kurdish YPG forces have been trying to push Islamists back.
A spokesman for the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG)–that are in control of Sheikh Maqsoud–told ARA News that the bombardment on Sheikh Maqsoud has caused mass destruction of infrastructure, residential buildings and other facilities in the district.
Amnesty International has recently issued a report in regard with the developments in the Kurdish-populated district, saying: “Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life.”
According to local sources, there are 35,000-40,000 civilians are still living in Sheikh Maqsoud, where people suffer from the absence of many services as a result of the blockade imposed by Islamist rebel groups on their district.
Speaking to ARA News, Luqman Ismail, one of the stranded citizens in Sheikh Maqsoud, said that electricity outage continues for nearly three years because of the barbaric bombardment led by Islamist rebels on the main network of power outside the district.
“These groups are apparently punishing the people of Sheikh Maqsoud for their support to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are engaged in fighting with Islamist rebels around the city of Aleppo,” he said.
[An Nahar] Political official of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya ...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament... in the North and Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... Ihab Nafeaa submitted his resignation on Tuesday in protest to the outcome of the municipal elections in the northern city, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.
"Agreements and alliances were formed in the municipal elections in Tripoli which did not live up to the expectations of many in the city," said Nafeaa in a statement announcing his resignation.
"A leader can foresee from his position better than a normal person would, and he might be mistaken in his effort and has therefore to bear the responsibility of his decisions," he added.
He pointed to the outcome of the municipal elections in Tripoli, and said: "The results of the polls have shown that our choice was not a proper one. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya did not live up to the expectations of the people of Tripoli. I therefore shoulder the responsibility in front of my family and supporters of the Jamaa and I submitted my resignation."
Nafeaa's resignation came a day after Tripoli MP Robert Fadel submitted his resignation from parliament, protesting the surprising results of Sunday's elections in the northern city in which no Christian candidates managed to win seats on the municipal council.
A list backed by resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi achieved a stunning victory Sunday against a list backed by Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi, Jamaa Islamiya, al-Ahbash and the Arab Democratic Party.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Civilians fleeing an ISIS offensive in northwestern Syria have been prevented by Syrian Kurdish authorities from entering areas under their control in response to rebel shelling of a Kurdish-held area of Aleppo, the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said.
The civilians have been fleeing fighting between Syrian rebels and ISIS that advanced into the opposition-held town of Marea at the weekend, a significant advance by the gunnies against Turkish-backed bully boys.
The United Nations has expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about an estimated 8,000 Syrians trapped by fighting in northern Aleppo.
All the main parties to the Syrian war are fighting in the Aleppo area, and the Turkish-backed rebels who are battling ISIS north of the city have also been involved in hostilities with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which controls wide areas of territory to the west of Marea.
A situation update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 2,000 people had managed to evacuate Marea and nearby Sheikh Issa, which were encircled by ISIS on May 27.
"However, ars longa, vita brevis... an estimated 7,000 civilians still remain inside and unable to leave due to restrictions imposed by Kurdish authorities," it added, saying that was a Kurdish response to rebel shelling of Aleppo’s Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsoud area.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise began speaking in tongues... opposition authorities in the rebel-held town of Azaz near the Turkish border have issued a directive to not let in any more people fleeing ISIS-held areas.
The court that issued the order cited fears of infiltration by covert ISIS gunnies posing as internally displaced people (IDPs), after 8,000 IDPs arrived in Azaz, OCHA said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Al Ahram] 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.... bad boy group on Tuesday urged Muslims to destroy their satellite TV sets to prevent hostile channels "destroying their beliefs and polluting their ethics".
The ultra-hardline Sunni group issued its call as military pressure increased against it with offensives targeting its strongholds in Raqqa, Syria, and in Falluja, west of Baghdad.
"The enemies of Islam are waging a media war on the Islamic State that is no less dangerous than the military campaign," the group said in a video on its official Telegram account.
It did not say whether it would try to enforce its appeal in the territory under its control in Syria and Iraq.
It singled out religious channels funded by 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... and also showed the logos of al-Jazeera and Orient TV, a channel close to the Syrian opposition, as well as the Egyptian religious channel al-Nas.
The video ended with a scene showing people stamping on satellite dishes to destroy them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Well, if that's what ISIS fears, that's where we need to attack.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States jumped to 1,037 during May - an increase of 130 percent over the previous month - but the proportion of Christians among them remains miniscule: two Christians (0.19 percent) compared to 1,035 Muslims.
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
Najib Miqati
