Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Kelly Lin (Taiwan) aka Chung Chun Lei in "Sparrow" aka May Cheung in "Mad Detective" aka Chin in "Fulltime Killer" aka Fong in "After This Our Exile" aka Mandy in "Written By" aka Yoshiko Wada in "The Tokyo Trial" aka Sam's Dead Girlfriend in "My Left Eye Sees Ghosts" aka Sue Wang in "Boarding Gate" aka Ling in "Triangle" (age 36)
"We can confirm that 13 International Security Assistance Force members have died," said a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
A US official confirmed that all 13 Nato service members were American troops.
Excluding helicopter crashes, it was the deadliest single incident for foreign troops since the war began in 2001.
It is the largest single-day US loss in Afghanistan since the August crash in Wardak province that killed 38 people, including 22 Navy Seals.
Lethal attacks are relatively rare in heavily guarded Kabul, compared with the south and east of Afghanistan, but the latest killings came less than two months after insurgents launched a 20-hour assault on the US embassy in Kabul.
#1
This calls for some retribution, a major hit on the Taliban where it hurts. Some place where they think they are safe, like in Quetta. A large building with a lot of Taliban in it suddenly goes pop.
A suicide bomber has targeted a convoy of foreign troops in the Afghan capital Kabul killing at least three civilians and a police officer. A NATO spokesman said some of its forces were also among the casualties but gave no further details. The attack happened in the Darulaman area, west of the city.
In a separate attack, NATO said two of its soldiers were gunned down by a man wearing Afghan military uniform in the southern part of the country. NATO said the gunman was killed but gave no further details.
The Taliban has admitted carrying out the Kabul attack.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a text message said, "A suicide car bomb attack was carried out on a bus of foreign forces in the Darulaman area of Kabul."
A reporter at the scene said the back of a NATO bus appeared to have been blown apart and was a charred shell. NATO helicopters were seen taking away casualties.
Witnesses said vehicles were still on fire at the site.Gulam Saki, an eyewitness, said, "It was a very strong bomb. Three civilians were killed - a man, a woman and one child - and two bodies are still under the vehicles."
[Dawn] The US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... coalition in Afghanistan says beturbanned goons attacked a convoy of Afghan and coalition troops in the east of the country, starting a fire fight that left about 30 of the attacking gun-hung tough guys dead. Oh, didn't that work out well?
The coalition says the joint force called for air support during the gunbattle Friday in Shinwar district of 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.
The coalition says initial reports indicate that about 30 gun-hung tough guys had been killed. It did not disclose other details or say whether any Afghan or coalition forces were killed or maimed.
International forces have concentrated on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan in recent years, but have shifted their focus to the east along the border with Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The man tossed in the calaboose for life on Friday after pleading guilty to grenade attacks in Nairobi is representative of a new breed of Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader... recruits Kenyan security agents are fighting in the war on terror.
The new conscripts
Not volunteers?
of the Somali-based thug group are mainly upcountry youth and recent converts to Islam, typical of Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, alias Mohamed Saif.
Bwire, whose mother said he was brought up in a strict Catholic family, was tossed in the calaboose for life on Friday after admitting that he was an Al-Shabaab member.
At the heart of Al-Shabaab bases in Somalia, the outfit has been nicknamed "Kenyan Mujahideen," while local police have described it as "a batch of misguided youth".
The new face is represented by young men from different Kenyan ethnic groups, Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere revealed after Monday's grenade kabooms that killed a man and injured 28 other people. (READ: Nairobi grenade attack injures 14)
It is a departure from the typical profile of an Al-Shabaab membership from Somalia and sympathisers from local Somalis.
It is also a marked difference from the youth from Mombasa and other coastal towns attracted to the jihadist ideology.
Bwire comes from Busia in Western Kenya and attended schools in Nairobi.
Other accused in the same attacks, Mr Omar Muchiri Athuman and Mr Stephen Macharia Mwangi, pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." and were remanded in jug.
An intelligence report seen by the Nation warned of the emerging terror trend last year after 76 people were killed in kabooms in Kampala.
"The groups are increasingly targeting individuals from local communities for recruitment, indoctrination, training and ultimately, executing acts of terrorism," reads part of the report.
It was corroborated by a report from the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
"Since 2009, the group has rapidly expanded its influence and membership to non-Somali Kenyan nationals who today constitute the largest and most structurally organised non-Somali group within Al-Shabaab," reads the UN report.
Mr Iteere confirmed: "We have many who fight alongside Al-Shabaab, not from the Somali community, but all parts of Kenya including Luhya, Kikuyu and Kambas. These are the people we are trailing at the moment.
"They come from all parts of Kenya." The intelligence report says that some of the new recruits are, however, having second thoughts.
The report cites one of the converts, who helped plan the Kampala bombings, but turned informant for Kenya security agents, complaining that planners who were Somali citizens "returned safely to their country while non-Somalis who did the dirty work were abandoned to face the law."
In the Kampala attacks, a jacket wallah identified as Kakasule was from Kakamega in Western province.
Others who were arraigned in court include Sheikh Idriss Magondu (Christopher Magondu) Habib Suleiman Njoroge and Yahya Suleiman Mbuthia.
They were incarcerated separately in Kawangware, Athi River and Tanzania following the Kampala bombings.
On December 3 last year, two men who were rubbed out after throwing a grenade at coppers at the Roysambu roundabout in Kasarani were linked to Al-Shabaab were Kikuyu and Kamba.
Leaders from Northern Kenya have repeatedly called on the government not to stigmatise Somalis in their onslaught on Al-Shabaab, saying they too have suffered from the militia group.
"This group is like the Mungiki in Kenya. Who have suffered more from the group? It is the Kikuyu.
"Al-Shabaab have been killing Kenyan Somalis in North Eastern Kenya and it goes unreported," says Wajir West MP Mohammed Affey.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenyan troops on Thursday killed nine Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader... fighters and injured several others in a fierce exchange of fire after they were ambushed by the gunnies in Southern Somalia.
The Kenyan troops were ambushed by an estimated 45 Al-Shabaab fighters as they moved from the town of Tabda to Beles Qooqani in central Jubaland to reinforce their compatriots.
"Today, at around 11.30am, Kenyan troops came under Al-Shabaab attack, which marks the first engagement with the militia force. Al-Shabaab strength at the time of attack is estimated at 45 orcs," said Kenya Defence Forces front man Major Emmanuel Chirchir in a statement.
Two Kenyan soldiers were maimed, one critically during the fire exchange and were airlifted to the Advanced Dressing Station in Garissa for treatment.
It was the first time the Kenyan troops were encountering resistance from the gunnies since they started Operation Linda Nchi 10 days ago.
"The attack was conducted as KDF was moving from Tabda to Beles Qooqani to reinforce the forward positions. Nine Al-Shabaab killed with others escaping with injuries. Two KDF troops injured, one critically. The soldiers have all been airlifted for medication," the statement said.
Earlier, Al-Shabaab caused a stir by reportedly asking for a truce and negotiations, a report later denied by government front man Alfred Mutua.
A cat among pigeons
In Parliament, Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka appeared to have thrown a cat among pigeons when he declared that the government is ready to negotiate with the Al-Shabaab for an end to the current military operation if the group renounces violence and stops its actions there.
He claimed Al-Shabaab has frequently been in touch with the government.
"The truth is the Al-Shaabab is frequently and constantly in touch with the Kenyan government...If the Al-Shaabab would like to discuss and engage with the Kenyan government, our channels are very open," said Mr Onyonka.
"If they don't renounce violence, the Kenyan government shall not discuss anything with them," he added.
His comments provoked a rare media comment from Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura who told the Nation that he "is not aware" of any negotiations between Kenya and Al-Shabaab.
"The government cannot negotiate with a terrorist group," he said.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... he said, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is sending a delegation for "bilateral talks to strengthen cooperation between the two countries", possibly a polite way of saying the two sides have agreed to sit down and hammer out a deal on the military operation.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has been sending mixed signals as to whether he supports the campaign against Al-Shabaab.
At the same time, Al-Shabaab was reported to have called on its supporters inside Kenya to stop throwing grenades and set off a major kaboom.
The terror group's fighters also crossed the border in Mandera and struck at Lafey. They are reported to have thrown a grenade that killed two Ministry of Education officials, a civic leader and their driver.
The truck was ferrying Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination papers.
North Eastern provincial commissioner James ole Seriani said Kenyan forces had crossed into Somalia in pursuit of the gunnies responsible for the morning attack.
"We will follow them to their hideout using all means at our disposal," the PC warned.
In Somalia, Maj Chirchir said Kenyan forces attacked the town of Anole from the air at dawn on Thursday.
The attack was aimed at destroying a camp used by the Al-Shabaab for logistics and training of fighters.
To the South, Kenyan forces were preparing to capture Burgavo, a key town used by the gunnies for charcoal and fish business, which accounts for the bulk of their revenues.
Maj Chirchir confirmed that the Kenyan troops had also captured Busar town and were advancing towards another Al-Shabaab controlled town, Burahache.
As the Kenyan troops intensified the war against the Al-Shabaab, the government reportedly took its diplomatic offensive to the UN Security Council, stating that it had permission from the Transitional Federal Government to conduct the military operation in the war-torn country.
Bar Kulan, a public radio station operating in Somalia, said Kenya's Ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, had written to the Security Council saying that the Kenya government had decided to take pre-emptive actions "in direct consultations and liaison with the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu" after an escalation of terrorist acts and incursions by Al-Shabaab orcs.
He attached last week's communiqué in which Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula and Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Hussein Arab Isse agreed "to undertake coordinated pre-emptive action and the pursuit of any armed elements that continue to threaten to attack both countries," the station reported.
The CNN had quoted an unnamed Kenya government official claiming that the gunnies had approached the government expressing a desire to negotiate.
But Dr Mutua, in a press briefing, disputed the reports and said that Kenya would not talk with the orcs.
"Al-Shabaab has not contacted Kenya in any way," said Dr Mutua.
He said Kenyan troops have enjoyed success since crossing the border into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab.
"They are running scared. I think they are busy running for their lives," Dr Mutua said. "They don't have time to talk."
Defence assistant minister Joseph Nkaissery also dismissed the reports. "There is nothing like that," he told the Nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] An Al-Shabaab training centre in Burgabo, a village deep within southern Somalia, was bombed and captured by Kenya's and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government forces. Burgabo has an estimated population of 300 people.
Hurrah! Go Kenya, go!
The Thursday evening operation came hours after the troops killed nine Al-Shabaab faceless myrmidons during an ambush at Anole in which two Kenyan soldiers were maimed.
Sources within the military and security agencies told the Nation that the number of casualties was not immediately established.
The training centre was bombed several times before ground troops moved in to secure the area and set up base, ready for onward march.
According to an anonymous source, Burgabo was the third Al-Shabaab training centre to have come under the forces air strikes.
Military front man, Maj Emmanuel Chirchir, told the Nation that the troops cleared Burgabo without any contact with the Al-Shabaab.
The faceless myrmidons had, on Thursday, ambushed Kenyan troops, but were repulsed in a counter-attack by the ground troops backed by jetfighters, killing the nine krazed killers.
Residents of a nearby Kudai Village said that blasts from the bombing raids could be heard as far away as Bajuni Islands of Mdoa, Koyama, Chovyae and Kanda Yuu, which are several kilometers away.
Two options
The arrival of Kenya troops in Burgabo is seen as a major step towards the intended capture of the port town of Kismayu. The forces have two options for Kismayu capture. They can take the mainland route from Kudai, Instanbul, Fuma, Mchoni or travel by road to Kudai village, cross the Bush-Bush channel and travel to Kismayu after passing the Bajuni Islands of Koyama-Chovyae-Kanda Yuu.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
momentum seems to be on their side
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2011 9:25 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Several thousand protesters in Cairo called on the ruling military on Friday to promptly transfer power to a civilian government and exclude old regime figures from politics.
The protesters in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February, chanted "down with the military" and called on the ruling generals to "return to the barracks."
The military assumed power after Mubarak's ouster on February 11, promising a transition to civilian rule within six months. It is headed by Mubarak's former defense minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Protesters at first hailed the military for not cracking down on the uprising after Mubarak called soldiers to the streets on January 28, following attacks on cop shoppes.
But its popularity has eroded amid accusations of rights abuses and suspicion that it is prolonging the transition, which it now says will be happen after presidential elections sometime next year.
Egypt will vote for a new parliament starting on November 28, but parties and activists who spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolt fear his supporters will enter parliament, either as independents or members of newly formed parties.
Activists have called for a law excluding corrupt politicians and they recently started an Internet campaign to expose past members of Mubarak's now dissolved party.
Mubarak himself is facing trial for allegedly ordering the killings of anti-regime protesters during the revolt. Several of his senior aides have already been imprisoned for corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Yemenis marched by the thousands on Friday demanding President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... be tried, as a woman was killed by a sniper and five other people were maimed, four critically, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... an officer in charge of an anti-terrorism unit in the main southern city of Aden was killed in a car blast that was blamed on al-Qaeda.
"O men who love peace in the world, Saleh must face justice," chanted a crowd of 10,000 people that amassed after Friday prayers in Sittin Street, near Change Square, which has become the epicenter of anti-regime demonstrations.
The opposition has been calling since January for the ouster of Saleh, whom they accuse of nepotism and corruption, but the strongman has refused to step down despite pressure from Gulf nations and the U.N. Security Council.
"No immunity, no protection, Saleh and his agents must be judged," demonstrators yelled, galvanized by a holy man who called on regime loyalists to "join their brothers in Change Square."
"We all need this revolution to stop the injustice of Yemen," he said.
The echo of kabooms coming from the direction of al-Hassaba, a neighbourhood in northern Sanaa, rang out in the central square, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
Gunfire exchanges, which began over night between rival tribal forces in al-Hassaba, continued intermittently on Friday, residents said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... pro-Saleh demonstrators gathered near the presidential palace and chanted their support for the embattled leader and for Yemeni-Saudi ties, paying tribute to the neighboring kingdom's late crown prince, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.
A sniper killed a woman as she walked with her husband along Hael Street, which separates areas controlled by forces loyal to the government from those held by dissident troops supporting the opposition, witnesses said.
The body of Kifaya al-Amudi, 28, was taken to a field hospital in Change Square, a medical official told AFP.
There were also anti-regime protests in Ibb and Hudeida, residents said.
In Taez, Yemen's second city, five people were maimed, four of them critically, when security forces opened fire against a funeral procession in a fiefdom of the opposition, witnesses said.
And in Aden, a suspected Qaeda attack killed an officer who led an anti-terrorism unit, a police officer told AFP.
"A device placed under the car of colonel Ali al-Hajji, head of Aden's anti-terrorism unit, went kaboom!, killing the officer and wounding two of his children," the source said.
The device went kaboom! as the officer drove through the al-Arish neighborhood, near the airport, according to the police officer, who blamed al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in January 2009 when Yemeni and Saudi branches of the cut-thoat network merged, has exploited the popular uprising against Saleh to reinforce its presence in Yemen's south and east.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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Two years before accused al-Qaeda supporter Tarek Mehanna's arrest, authorities conducted a clandestine search of his home, copying computer files and photographing jihadi propaganda, a state trooper testified yesterday.
Thomas Sarrouf, a trooper assigned to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, said he and other investigators carried out the search in August 2006, while the now 29-year-old Mehanna and his family were in Egypt.
Sarrouf, the government's first witness in Mehanna's trial, said investigators also photographed his address book and videos of "jihadist combat scenes" in Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq, as well as documents urging people to leave their studies and jobs to take up arms because "no amount of demonstrations, speeches and flag-burnings" would be enough to defeat the "Israeli barbarians."
Sounds a lot like a speech you might hear at Occupy Wall Street.
Defense attorney Janice Bassil called the 10- to 12-hour search a "sneak-and-peek" authorized by a secret intelligence court, and said that the appeal for jihadis was addressed to Pakistanis and that investigators had no proof Mehanna, an Egyptian-American, had read it.
[Dawn] The beheaded body of a volunteer of an anti-Taliban tribal lashkar was found in Bara while a Levies official and a civilian were maimed in a blast in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency on Thursday.
Officials said that snuffies belonging to Lashkar-i-Islam kidnapped a volunteer of Akkakhel tribal lashkar the other day. His beheaded body was found at a deserted place on Thursday morning, they added.
Two activists of Lashkar-i-Islam were killed on Wednesday when they clashed with the tribal lashkar in Akkakhel. Officials said that the beheading of the volunteer could be a result of Wednesday`s clash.
Also, two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... containers were destroyed in a blast in Torkham on Thursday evening, eyewitnesses said.
They said that the containers were parked in a parking lot near the border when an bomb fitted in one of them went off. Both the containers caught fire and were destroyed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last... a Levies official Hayatullah and a pedestrian identified as Siffatullah received injuries when an bomb went off near the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Landi Kotal on Thursday morning.
Political authorities started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified persons and started investigations. In another incident, a khasadar ...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India... wad killed in a road accident at Torkham border.
Officials said that Mualim Khan, a resident of Loe Shalman, was critically injured in the accident and later pegged out in a local hospital.
In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, unidentified persons hurled a hand grenade at a CNG station on Ring Road in the limits of Faqirabad cop shoppe on Thursday evening. A police official said that they did not have further details, however, the staff at the filling station remained unhurt in the attack.
Another source, quoting locals, said that two people riding a cycle of violence hurled the hand grenade at Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... CNG pump and decamped away. He said that police cordoned off the entire area and started checking of suspected vehicles.
In Lakki Marwat district, a house was partially damaged when an bomb, planted outside it, went off in Essakkhel village on Wednesday night.
The residents of the area said that the family of Umar Khan, the owner of the house and an official of Pakistain Post, remained unhurt. The kaboom damaged rooms and boundary wall of the house. No one has so far grabbed credit for the blast.
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10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A suicide kaboom targeted a police officer in northwest Pakistain on Friday, killing him and his driver on the outskirts of the garrison city of Nowshera, police said.
The jacket wallahwent kaboom!" alongside the officer's private car as his driver slowed down to approach a speed bump in Risalpur. The targeted officer was the local police official in charge of the suburb.
"It was a suicide attack, the police officer and his driver were killed," Israrullah Khan, a police brass hat told AFP by telephone from the scene.
"He was the target. It looks like the bomber was waiting for him," he added.
Two people, another police constable and a passer-by were maimed.
Mohammad Hussain, Nowshera police chief, confirmed the casualties.
Since 2007, more than 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistain in attacks blamed on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked networks.
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10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[One Pakistan] Bloody Karachi, South Range police Friday set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 30 accused and recovered arms and drugs from them. A police release said those incarcerated include 2 alleged killers, seven bandidos and 18 absconders and proclaimed offenders. Arrests were made during actions of 14 cop shoppes. Police recovered arms and drugs from them and began further probe.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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A Palestinian medical official says an explosion at a militant training camp in southern Gaza Strip has killed five men. "we found 5 noses, so we're assuming..."
The Israeli military says it carried out an air strike against the militants but wouldn't elaborate. "I can say no more"
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia says Saturday's explosion occurred inside a training site for militants from the Islamic Jihad group. He says 11 men were also wounded in the blast. pray for sepsis
Islamic Jihad is one of Gaza's militant groups that frequently fires rockets into southern Israel, prompting Israeli reprisal strikes.
The group says one of its field commanders was killed and vowed revenge in a text message sent to reporters. no tweetpic?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2011 09:16 ||
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#1
Sanctions On : Israel ! Stop : Hostilities : Reign : In : Israel : Air Force ! ALLAH O AKBAR
[An Nahar] A Syrian-American pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." in U.S. court Friday to charges he spied on anti-Assad protesters and handed recordings to Syrian intelligence in a bid to silence the opposition.
Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, was remanded to custody by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, who set a March 5 trial date.
A federal grand jury charged him early this month with six counts including spying in the United States and Syria on activists opposed to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Trampler of Homs... regime.
The Leesburg, Virginia man, clad in a green prison jumpsuit, did not speak during the 30-minute hearing just outside Washington, and his attorney entered the not guilty plea.
U.S. prosecutors argued that Soueid represented both a flight risk and a threat to the community, saying he had made threats of reprisals and detailing contacts with a U.S. informant and a Syrian handler in which Soueid allegedly discussed possible violence against dissidents.
After returning from a trip to Syria in July with a delegation that met with Assad, paid for by the Syrian embassy, Soueid allegedly told the U.S. informant there was a "Plan A" and a "Plan B."
Plan A was to continue to collect information against the dissidents, and Plan B was to take action against them, clearly implying the use of violence, according to prosecutors.
"The danger is real, and he does harbor that animosity," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick.
In a filing earlier this week, prosecutors alleged that Soueid had tried to obtain a fraudulent Venezuelan passport, made arrangements to gain access to an account from Peru, and had obtained a Syrian passport under a name different from any he had previously used.
Moreover, they argued that he had access to the Syrian regime at the highest levels and that an aunt in Gay Paree had previously sent him $200,000 to an account in the name of a used car dealership.
"He has every incentive in the world to leave. Not only does he have the incentive, he has the means," Fitzpatrick told the court.
Defense attorney Haytham Faraj disputed the government's account as based on the word of an informant in the government's pay, insisting that Soueid had a home and family in Virginia and no reason to flee.
"These are normal, benign, everyday conversations that the government is trying to make into something sinister," he said.
The judge questioned whether Soueid posed a threat to the community, but agreed he was a flight risk and ordered him jugged until trial.
Soueid was charged with conspiracy and acting as a Syrian government agent in the United States. He was also charged with two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
The Syrian embassy has vehemently denied the accusations, chalking them up to a "campaign of distortion and fabrications."
Soueid was said to have ordered individuals to make audio and video recordings of protests in both Syria and the United States, and of conversations with activists that he would then pass on to Syrian intelligence agents.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on the spying charges, 15 years for the firearms charge and 10 years for making false statements to federal Sherlocks.
His trial comes amid escalating tensions between 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... and Washington over the Syrian government's months-long bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
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10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A senior Lebanese security source told the BBC on Friday that members of Hizbullah had allegedly "kidnapped three Syrian nationals" in Beirut overnight Thursday.
"The kidnapped Syrians are the two brothers Yassine and Mustafa al-Sahn and Issa Saleh, who were kidnapped from their residence place in the Bir Hassan area in the Lebanese capital Beirut and taken to an unknown destination," the BBC's correspondent in Beirut quoted the source as saying.
The kidnap operation is part of the recent abductions of Syrian activists in Leb, the source added.
"A brother of the two abductees filed a report with the Internal Security Forces about the kidnap of his two brothers and the third person," the source said.
For its part, Voice of Leb Radio (100.3-100.5) reported that "members of a local party kidnapped three Syrians in Bir Hassan."
"When Syrian national Idriss al-Sahn, 30, returned overnight to his house in the Bir Hassan district, behind Al-Bashair radio station's building, his neighbors informed him that members of a local party in three black SUVs and a van had kidnapped his two brothers Mustafa, 24, and Yassine, 26, and their friend Issa al-Saleh, 26, taking them to an unknown destination," VOL said.
In an interview with MTV, Idriss said: "Hizbullah told us that they are not in its custody and my brothers are not politically active."
"I don't accuse the party of being behind the incident," he noted.
The TV network said the abductors did not use violence in the operation, adding that they had arrived at the scene in vehicles with no license plates.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Tsk, tsk, tsk: is that what a "Resistance to Zionist Occupation" does?
[An Nahar] At least 37 people were killed Friday as Syrian security forces opened fire, encircled mosques and carried out arrests in a bid to break up anti-regime protesters who are now calling for a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians and soldiers deserting the army, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said.
"Eight non-combatants were killed in various neighborhoods of Hama, 11 others in the city of Homs and one civilian was killed in Qusayr, in the region of Homs," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier on Friday in a statement.
Hama and Homs are at the frontline of the anti-regime protests that have rocked Syria since mid-March, when according to U.N. estimates more than 3,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in security crackdowns.
The army has been carrying out operations in Qusayr for several weeks, amid fighting there between troops and suspected army deserters, activists say.
"Despite the siege, the proliferation of checkpoints and the encirclement of mosques, people staged a mass demonstration in Kafr Nabl," a town in Idlib, near the border with Turkey, said the Observatory.
Demonstrators in the northwestern town marched "in support of besieged cities" and demanded "the imposition of a no-fly zone," the Britannia-based watchdog said, adding security forces also opened "heavy fire" and locked away "five people" there.
That call was echoed in the flashpoint central city of Homs, the focus of military raids in recent weeks, where demonstrators came out in "most of the city's neighborhoods," the Observatory said.
In the besieged neighborhood of Bab al-Sebaa, one person was killed by sniper fire outside the mosque of Marjeh and another civilian was rubbed out by a sniper in the same area while he was "standing on his balcony" at dawn, it added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... activists said "heavy gunfire" and "five kabooms" were heard in Qusayr, a restive town near the border with Leb, where security forces sought to break up demonstrators streaming out of several mosques.
"Six people were maimed in Qusayr, two critically" the Observatory said.
Bab al-Sebaa and Qusayr have both been focal points of deadly military sweeps.
In Hama, a city north of Homs, seven people were killed and "three others maimed" by security forces who opened fire to disperse protest.
Clashes were also reported in Hama between suspected army defectors and members of the regular army and the security forces.
Three demonstrators were also locked away in the coastal city of Banias.
Troops also raided the northwestern town of Kafruma, arresting 13 people, including one woman and her 12-year-old son, the same source said.
In Maaret al-Numan, also in Idlib, the funeral of a soldier who defected and was rubbed out on Thursday by security forces stationed at a checkpoint turned into a rally demanding the fall of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... regime.
To the east, in Deir al-Zour, security forces opened fire against demonstrators as they streamed out of mosques after midday Friday prayers, which are a lightning rod for weekly anti-regime protests across the country.
Pro-democracy activist networks spurring protests on the ground each week adopt a new rallying call along the central demand for the fall of the regime.
This week they called for rallies in favor of "a no-fly zone" over Syria in order to protect civilians from military action and to encourage soldiers to defect.
That call coincided with the end of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... 's mission in Libya which had a mandate to protect civilians and ultimately tipped the scales in favor of regular citizens turned fighters who ousted ex-strongman Moammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years... .
"We call on the international community to impose a no-fly zone so that the Syrian Free Army can function with greater freedom," said the Syrian Revolution 2011 on its Facebook page.
A defecting army officer who has taken refuge in Turkey, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, claimed in July to have established an opposition armed force called the "Syrian Free Army", but its strength and numbers are unknown.
On Thursday, China's special envoy for the Middle East Wu Sike reaffirmed his country's opposition to foreign interference in Syria, Syria's official news agency SANA said.
Wu, after holding talks in 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... with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, called for an "end to all acts of violence ... and to carry out reforms on the basis of dialogue and peaceful means."
Permanent U.N. Security council members Russia and China on October 4 vetoed a Western-proposed resolution threatening the Syrian leadership with "targeted measures" unless it halted the bloody repression.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
A "No Fly Zone?" Isn't the problem ground fire?
#3
If NATO intervenes, the Islamists could win. I'd be interested to see if Iraq actively assists Assad (since the Alawi faith is, arguably, an offshoot of the Shiite faith), given the national security implications of having an Sunni Islamist state next door firing up Sunni Al Qaeda-ists in Iraq.
Israel's perspective is more complex. Assad the Alawite stirs up trouble from time to time because he needs to boost his pan-Arab street cred and remind the Sunnis in Syria that he is simpatico with respect to their Jew-hatred. An Islamist government in Syria will stir up trouble with Israel because it believes Allah wills it.
#4
given the national security implications of having an Sunni Islamist state next door firing up Sunni Al Qaeda-ists in Iraq.
Except the Alawites _did_ fire up Sunni Al-Qaeda-ists in Iraq for about a seven year period and suffered zero repercussions in their relationship with Iraq as a result.
#5
Except the Alawites _did_ fire up Sunni Al-Qaeda-ists in Iraq for about a seven year period and suffered zero repercussions in their relationship with Iraq as a result.
That's my point exactly. Ultimately, to the rulers of Iraq, the Alawites are fellow Shiites. Yes, they off-loaded their Sunni vermin to Iraq, but a rich Uncle from across the Atlantic was happy to slaughter them in Iraq's behalf. Do Iraqi Shiites understand why Assad hates and fears the Sunnis in his country? Having lived under Saddam and been the target of numerous additional massacres under Turkish rule, I have no doubt they're cognizant of the threat from Sunnis.
#6
Ultimately, I suspect one of the reasons for the Iraqi Shiite insistence on a US troop departure is the desire to impose a quick and dirty solution to the terrorist problem - large scale massacres of Sunnis in retaliation for attacks on Shiites. It's a solution they can't impose until Uncle Sam is completely out of the picture.
#7
Ultimately, I suspect one of the reasons for the Iraqi Shiite insistence on a US troop departure is the desire to impose a quick and dirty solution to the terrorist problem - large scale massacres of Sunnis in retaliation for attacks on Shiites. It's a solution they can't impose until Uncle Sam is completely out of the picture.
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l-Shabaab
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Two years before accused al-Qaeda supporter Tarek Mehanna's arrest, authorities conducted a clandestine search of his home, copying computer files and photographing jihadi propaganda, a state trooper testified yesterday. 
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A Palestinian medical official says an explosion at a militant training camp in southern Gaza Strip has killed five men.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A senior Lebanese security source told the BBC on Friday that members of Hizbullah had allegedly "kidnapped three Syrian nationals" in Beirut overnight Thursday.
At least 37 people were killed Friday as Syrian security forces opened fire, encircled mosques and carried out arrests in a bid to break up anti-regime protesters who are now calling for a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians and soldiers deserting the army, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
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