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Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Coleen Gray (age 90)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 10/23/2012 3:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Welcome back.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 10/23/2012 5:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks GB, she hardly looks a day over 30.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/23/2012 5:54 Comments || Top||

#4  GBUSMC!!!!

Welcome back!! The morning paper is worth reading again!! 8^)
Posted by: AlanC || 10/23/2012 8:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Welcome back GBUSMC and thanks!
Posted by: Jumbo Scourge of the Leprechauns4340 || 10/23/2012 8:59 Comments || Top||

#6  GolfBravo is BACK!!!!!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/23/2012 9:00 Comments || Top||

#7  My favorite site just became my favorite site again.
Posted by: Iblis || 10/23/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Bravo, GolfBravo!
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/23/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Yay!!!
It's a tough job GB does, and I thank him for it. Welcome back! :-)
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/23/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||

#10  Welcome back!
Posted by: IG-88 || 10/23/2012 12:50 Comments || Top||

#11  By popular demand...welcome back, GB.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/23/2012 15:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Just yesterday, was wondering where you were... I think the guys like you!
Posted by: Sherry || 10/23/2012 15:41 Comments || Top||

#13  Ditto all of the above.
Posted by: Dale || 10/23/2012 18:44 Comments || Top||

#14  Welcome back. We thought you'd been kidnapped by gypsies.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 19:44 Comments || Top||

#15  Yes, welcome back, GB!
Posted by: BA || 10/23/2012 19:49 Comments || Top||

#16  Welcome back GB. I hope you and yours are well.

Please remember that I hope to continue to rely on Rantburg as open source intel at work.
Posted by: rammer || 10/23/2012 19:49 Comments || Top||

#17  Welcome back, sir, you were missed...
Posted by: jay-dubya || 10/23/2012 19:56 Comments || Top||

#18  Yea! GB is back!
Posted by: Squinty Chaith8856 || 10/23/2012 20:06 Comments || Top||

#19  Woo Hoo

GB is baaaaack!
Posted by: Glinesh Craling7938 || 10/23/2012 21:30 Comments || Top||


--Tech & Moderator Notes
When submitting articles
When submitting articles, please double check to make sure you pasted the article's URL/web address in the Source box below the box in which you pasted the text. There has been a rash of unsourced articles submitted lately, and standard procedure is to delete from the hopper.

For the moderators,
trailing wife
Posted by: || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Gunmen Shoot Dead Helmand Tribal Elder
Why'd they shoot him if he was dead?
If he's worth shooting once...
[Tolo News] An Afghan tribal elder was rubbed out by gunnies while he was praying in a mosque in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province on Sunday night, local officials said.

Haji Abdul Samad, a powerful tribal elder in the Garm Ser district, was in the mosque when gunnies opened fire on him at about 08:30 PM, district governor Ayoub Omr said.

"Gunmen shot him while he was praying in a mosque. During the shooting he got serious injures and the foreign troops took him to an Isaf hospital in the compound for treatment. But he died," Omr said.

The elder's son Daoud Farhang is a member of provincial High Peace Council, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Why'd they shoot him if he was dead?

Better safe than sorry!
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/23/2012 0:42 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Darfur Peacekeepers Hit by Weapons 'Never Used before'
[An Nahar] A deadly attack on peacekeepers in Sudan involved weapons "never used before" and may have aimed to prevent them reaching an area where violence had been reported, the mission told AFP on Monday.

The ambush on Wednesday about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Hashaba North in North Darfur state killed one South African member of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
-U.N. Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and maimed three others.

"This criminal attack against a UNAMID convoy of 16 vehicles was carried out by person or persons unknown who have used arsenals of high-caliber weapons that were never used before," UNAMID spokeswoman Aicha Elbasri said in a written reply to AFP questions.

"This includes mortars, medium machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47 rifles and anti-tank guns."
Trickle down from Libya, or has the Sudanese government gone shopping?
She said an armored personnel carrier was hit several times by weapons fire.

The ambush occurred while a UNAMID convoy of military, police and civilian personnel was on its way to the Hashaba area, where the United States says more than 70 civilians died in September from fighting and aerial bombardments between rebels and Sudanese government forces.

"This well-prepared attack against (the) UNAMID verification mission could mean that it was deliberately carried out to prevent the mission from accessing Hashaba and assessing the situation following recent reports of violence in the area," Elbasri said.

"UNAMID continues to exploit ways and means to access Hashaba. It is planning for another verification mission to Hashaba in line with its mandate," which is to protect civilians, she said.

It was the second bushwhack this month of UNAMID peacekeepers. On October 2, four Nigerian members of the mission died in an ambush near El-Geneina in West Darfur.

The latest attack came on the day that a delegation of European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
ambassadors visited Darfur and 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...
to local officials about "the recent deterioration in security in some parts" of Sudan's far-west region, which is about the size of La Belle France.

Violence has eased since the early days of the nine-year-old war but various conflicts persist in Darfur: rebel-government festivities, inter-Arab and tribal fighting, as well as carjackings and other banditry.

Ethnic African rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.

In response, the government unleashed state-backed Janjaweed Arab militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide, followed by the deployment of UNAMID almost five years ago.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1  Darfur Peacekeepers Hit by Weapons 'Never Used before'

I was thinking French...

/cheapshot
Posted by: Frank G || 10/23/2012 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh Frank. That was just terrible.


Funny as hell but terrible. 8^)
Posted by: AlanC || 10/23/2012 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Never been fired, and only dropped once...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/23/2012 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  "This includes mortars, medium machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47 rifles and anti-tank guns."

Uh, how are the above high caliber weapons, exactly? I mean, really, you've never seen RPGs, AK-47s, etc in that neck of the woods? Man, you must not get out much.
Posted by: BA || 10/23/2012 19:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, really. They trade up their blunderbusses?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/23/2012 21:13 Comments || Top||


Bombings Continue to Rock Somalia's port city Kismayo
(Sh.M.Network)-- Witnesses say at least two bomb kabooms have rocked at early hours on Monday morning in the seaside strategic Somalia's southern city of Kismayo, the latest in series of attacks and kabooms in the city since Somali and Kenyan forces moved in.

Person or persons unknown hurled hand grenades into at the regional administration offices in the city, causing unconfirmed casualties. Kenyan troops from the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force and their Somali allies entered the former Islamist bastion early this month.

"It was a huge kaboom at the administration office, where Somali military commanders are locating," said resident who asked anonymity, although witnesses and government officials reported no casualties.

The Somali troops and Ras Kamboni militia commanded by former Islamist Ahmed Madobe, who switched from supporting the Shebab to fight alongside the AU, conducted operations over the blasts.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
[Dawn] Hundreds of jihadist fighters poured into Mali over the weekend to support the Islamists who have controlled the north for seven months, ahead of a threatened regional intervention to seize back power.
Tell the Marines (or whoever gets northern Mali) they've got a target rich environment!
Residents of the cities of Timbuktu and Gao, Malian security officials and Islamist commanders all confirmed on Sunday that there had been a huge influx of imported muscle over the past two days.

It comes as the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a regional bloc of 15 countries including Mali, prepares for military action in the north.

"In the Timbuktu region and around Gao, hundreds of jihadists, mostly Sudanese and Sahrawis, have arrived as reinforcements to face an offensive by Malian forces and their allies," a Malian security official said on condition of anonymity.

One resident of Timbuktu said "more than 150 Sudanese Islamists arrived in 48 hours".

"They are armed and explained that they had come to help their Moslem brothers against the infidels," he said.

A source close to a local aid group also said that many Sudanese had arrived but added there were also fighters from other countries.

Timbuktu is one of the main cities in northern Mali, which Islamist groups have controlled since overpowering a secular Tuareg rebellion that seized the area in March.

The desert city is now under the control of Ansar Dine, a group led by a former Tuareg rebel leader, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

'They want war, we'll give them war'

In Gao, further east, a similar influx of imported muscle was reported by residents.

Since Friday, Islamists have been arriving and reporting to the Islamic police of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), the Aqim offshoot that controls the city, said one resident.

He said he had seen around 10 pick-up trucks packed with armed fighters driving up to Mujao's main office in Gao.

The Islamist group itself confirmed it was receiving the support of foreigners as Ecowas was finalising its plans for a military intervention.

"They want war, we'll give them war. This is why our brothers are joining us from all over," Habib Ould Issouf, one of Mujao's top leaders in Gao, told AFP.

"They are coming from the camps of Tindouf in Algeria, from Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
, from Ivory Coast, from everywhere," he said.

Led by former colonial power La Belle France, the international community has urged Mali and its regional allies to speed up preparations for a military offensive.

Ecowas has a 3,000-strong force ready to deploy but its funding and exact make-up remain unclear.

Malian troops could start training immediately for their operation, La Belle France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television on Sunday.

La Belle France has offered logistical support but no troops on the ground.

On March 22, army officers toppled the government in protest at what they said was its failure to equip them to counter a burgeoning rebellion by Tuareg separatists and Islamists in the north.

But that only accelerated the uprising. The ensuing power vacuum in the capital Bamako allowed the rebel forces to quickly seize the north, virtually unopposed.

The Islamist forces quickly sidelined their former Tuareg allies and now control a territory in the north which is larger than La Belle France. In the south, the officers who led the coup handed over to an interim administration, but retain considerable influence.

Ansar Dine and Mujao have since implemented an extreme form of Islamic law in the north, amputating the hands and feet of thieves, stoning unwed couples and ordering women to wear full veils.

Western powers have expressed fears that al Qaeda and its affiliates could turn northern Mali into the same type of haven that Afghanistan was a decade ago.

Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore flew to Qatar on Sunday for a three-day visit. Some Malian media outlets have accused the oil-rich emirate of supporting the Islamists, but Doha has denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  job or jihad?
Posted by: Omerelet Spaique1766 || 10/23/2012 12:18 Comments || Top||

#2  job or jihad?

Isn't it wonderful when one is paid to get sent to Paradise, Omerelet Spaique1766?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/23/2012 17:36 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Fresh Explosion at Yemen Army Base Kills Three Troops
[Yemen Post] An kaboom rocked on Monday a military base in south Yemen killing three soldiers and leaving another three at death's door, the Yemeni official news agency Saba reported.

Saba quoted a security source in the port city of Aden as saying the kaboom occurred inside the engineer armament base which is located in the Dar Sad district.

"A technical problem was behind igniting and exploding mortars which were gathered from Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
province and stored inside a small room in the base," the official was quoted as saying.

The Yemeni army launched a US-backed offensive and drove Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons out of their strongholds in Abyan and Shabwa earlier this year.

Other soldiers were slightly maimed in the kaboom, which comes amid an effort by the power-sharing government to sort out Yemen's weapons and troops within the restructuring of the national forces.

The authorities rushed to the site and brought under control the fire which led to the kaboom and an investigation has already been launched, the source continued.

Few days ago, mortar kabooms rocked the first armored division in downtown the capital Sanaa that official reports said were blamed on mistakes while troops were on training.

The division of the Yemeni army continues since early last year when key military units defected to the popular uprising that ousted the former 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...
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


India-Pakistan
Blast in Nowshera district; two injured
[Dawn] Two people were reported injured in a blast that took place on the Swabi road in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
's Nowshera district on Monday, DawnNews reported.

The bomb was planted on a stationary cycle of violence in the district's Jehangira area.

The bomb went kaboom! soon after a convoy of KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti crossed the site.

The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Police said it appeared that the bomb was planted to target the chief minister's convoy.

One kilogram of kaboom was used in the blast, police sources said, adding that suspect individuals were also locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
from the area.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


ASWJ, MQM men among four shot dead
[Dawn] Four men, including two activists, were bumped off in the city on Sunday.

Police said an activist of the Ahl-e-Sunaat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) was rubbed out in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Sunday evening.

They said that Maulana Kamaluddin, 30, was walking home in Zia ul Haq Colony within the remit of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal cop shoppe when gunnies riding a cycle of violence shot up him and rode away.

"The victim was going home when he was targeted near a CNG Station," said Gulshan SHO Rana Haseeb.

A senior police officer described the killing as part of the ongoing sectarian strife in the city.

The victim was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival. A large number of ASWJ workers also reached the JPMC.

ASWJ front man Maulana Akbar Faroorqui confirmed that the victim was a party worker.

Following the incident, tension gripped Zia ul Haq Colony.

Earlier on Friday, three workers of the ASWJ were bumped off at the junction of the Abul Hasan Ispahani Road and University Road within the remit of the Mobina Town cop shoppe.

MQM man killed

An activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
was bumped off in North Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Sunday.

Police said the incident took place in North Bloody Karachi's Sector 5-J within the remit of the Bilal Colony cop shoppe.

Faheem alias Imran, 28, was sitting close to the Masjid-e-Talha when assailants walked up to him, pulled out a pistol, fired at him and escaped.

The police said the assailants must have parked their two-wheeler near the scene of crime to make their escape.

The victim suffered multiple bullet wounds and was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he died during treatment. "Although his father, Mohammad Aslam, is the principal of a seminary affiliated with the Masjid-e-Talha, the victim had recently joined the MQM," New Bloody Karachi SP Syed Salman Hussain said.

He was a worker of the Unit 140-B of the MQM's organizational structure, police said.

Tension gripped the locality and all commercial activities were closed when the news of the killing of the MQM man reached the area.

Young man
bumped off

A young man was rubbed out in Landhi on Sunday.

Police said that gunnies riding a cycle of violence targeted 25-year-old Amir Khan near Bagah-e-Korangi Road within the remit of the Awami
Colony cop shoppe and rode away.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.

The victim suffered a gunshot wound in the head. He was a resident of Korangi's Sector 36-B.

The police said that personal enmity was a probable motive for his killing.

Bullet-riddled body found

The decomposed body of an unidentified man was found near the Superhighway on Sunday, police said

They said it appeared that the body had lain at a desolate place in Janjaal Goth within the remit of the Gulshan-e-Maymar cop shoppe for the last four to five days.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The police said that the victim was apparently shot at the scene since some spent bullet casings were found there.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Thai army chief calls for help as violence continues in the south
Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha is calling on government agencies to help security forces win support from the people in the far South. Gen Prayuth's plea followed the latest spate of violence in the far South over the weekend resulting in the deaths of at least two soldiers and injuries to more than 10 people, including a nine-year-old girl.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday expressed concern over the latest wave of southern violence and ordered all agencies involved to monitor the situation closely.

National police chief Adul Saengsingkaew yesterday arrived at the southern border police operations center to follow up on the attacks in Narathiwat province over the weekend. Pol Gen Adul said he ordered police officers to step up efforts to investigate and track down the attackers and bring them to justice.

Navy chief Adm Surasak Rounroengrom said yesterday the navy promoted the two officers attached to the navy's marine corps, who were killed in a bomb blast in Bacho district Saturday. Petty Officer 1st Class Nadi Champawan was promoted to a commander and his family will receive more than 2.4 million baht in compensation while Petty Officer 1st Class Issarawut Polsak was promoted to a lieutenant commander and his family will receive about 2.1 million baht in compensation.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said during his visit to Egypt yesterday that Egypt's top Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb had condemned the violence in the southern provinces.

The violence continued yesterday in Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.

In Pattani's Muang district, Somchai Homklinchan, a gardener at a local hospital, was riding a motorcycle to work. He was followed by two assailants on another motorcycle until a pillion-riding gunman shot him. The man was taken to a nearby hospital where he died.

In Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district, Sukanya Permsap, the owner of a grocery, was gunned down in his shop. Soldiers and police were at the scene when terrorists militants hiding nearby detonated an explosion by radio signal. There were no casualties.

Security officers found Sukanya's body in the shop after the blast. She had been shot in the head. A bomb crater marred the shop. Debris was strewn about the shop including remnants from the homemade bomb. A pistol and a spent bullet case were also found.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency

#1 


General (Ret.) Sonthi Boonyaratglin (Thai: สนธิ บุญยรัตกลิน, RTGS: Sonthi Bunyaratkalin) is the muslim rat who is the effective dictator of Thailand, hiding behing the Royal buffoons...Buddhists are slowly exterminated and will be treated like the vile muslim scum intend to treat the Jews.

Sonthi comically threatened to go to war against Singapore over the satellites Singapore had purchased from Thailand...

Like all muslim led armies, Thai military is only brave against unarmed demonstrators...Sonthi have evacuated the south of Thailand to let islamic terrorists massacre the Buddhist civilians...
Posted by: Woozle Bucket2311 || 10/23/2012 21:47 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Army Carrying Out Security Plan in Beirut to Detain Gunmen, Restore Order
[An Nahar] The army carried out raids in Beirut's Tariq al-Jadeedah neighborhood on Monday to restore order and detain gunnies on the streets while heavy gunfire was reported in the area.

According to the National News Agency, the army was carrying out patrols and raids in various areas in Tariq al-Jadeedah and nearby areas, including Qasqas, Barbir, Corniche al-Mazraa and Cola.

Voice of Leb radio (93.3) reported that the army exchanged fire with gunnies in the area.

Later on Monday, the Army Command's Orientation Directorate issued a statement saying a Paleostinian gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with army troops.

"At noon, Paleostinian nationals Ahmed and Abed Qwaider opened fire from light assault rifles at an army patrol in the Qasqas area, prompting the patrol's members to shoot back, which left Ahmed dead after he succumed to his wounds," the statement said.

"The Army Command reiterates what it had mentioned in its previous statement that its military units will deal firmly and forcefully with anyone who tampers with the security of citizens or attacks army troops, whatever their affiliation might be," it added.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


'Slim' Hope of Truce as Fighting Rages on Syria Battlefields
[An Nahar] Hopes of a truce being implemented in war-torn Syria during this week's Mohammedan Eid holidays are "slim," the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
said on Monday, as rebels and troops engaged in fierce festivities in Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
and on northern battlefields.

But the United Nations
...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least...
held on to the hope that the two warring sides will observe a truce during the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday which begins on Friday, saying it had plans to assemble a peacekeeping force if a ceasefire takes hold.

"We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved," U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said in New York.

He warned, however, that the plans would need the approval of the 15-nation Security Council which has been divided on the 19-month conflict.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he contacted political opposition leaders inside and outside Syria and gangs in the country and "found them to be very favorable" to the idea of a truce.

But Arab League deputy secretary general Ahmed Ben Helli dashed those hopes.

"Unfortunately, hope for implementing the truce during Eid al-Adha is slim so far," he told Agence La Belle France Presse on the sidelines of the World Energy Forum in Dubai.

"The signs, both on the ground and by the government... do not point to the presence of any real will" to implement a truce.

In Damascus, two bombs went kaboom! on Monday evening after a day of pitched battles between troops and rebels on the edge of the capital, in the northern city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
and in the northwestern rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 84 people, including 22 civilians, were killed across the country, adding to a toll of more than 34,000 people killed since the anti-regime revolt erupted in March last year.

Brahimi said a temporary truce could be the first step to a more permanent peace, and has called on "every Syrian" to embrace a truce.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
met Brahimi on Sunday and said he was "open to any sincere efforts seeking to find a political solution to the crisis based on respecting Syria's illusory sovereignty and rejecting any foreign interference."

As they met a kaboom on Bab Touma, the main Christian quarter of Damascus, killed 13 people.

Assad's ruling party's mouthpiece, Al-Baath newspaper, said this was the rebel response to Brahimi's appeal for a truce.

Rights watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International condemned Sunday's bombing and urged "all sides" in the conflict "to avoid attacks which indiscriminately kill and injure civilians."

But there was no sign of a let-up in the violence.

The Observatory said festivities erupted on Monday morning when troops tried to storm the rebel-controlled town of Harasta on the northeastern fringes of Damascus.

Later it reported two bombings in northern Damascus. One went kaboom! under the car of a retired security officer and maimed one person while the other blew up outside a military intelligence building but caused only material damage.

Soldiers and rebels fought fierce festivities near Maaret al-Numan, which rebels seized on October 9, and around an army base in nearby Wadi Daif, said the watchdog.

The festivities were the fiercest yet around the Wadi Daif base, which rebels have besieged for nearly two weeks, it said.

Maaret al-Numan lies along the Aleppo-Damascus highway which serves as a key army supply route.

Fierce machineshootouts also erupted near Aleppo's ancient Umayyad Mosque, as troops fended off rebel attacks on checkpoints, said a military source, adding: "Until now we have kept them at bay, but this is a large attack."

Brahimi has warned that the 19-month Syria conflict could spill over and set the region ablaze if no solution is found.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Set the region ablaze? You mean that Moslems will be ripping and gutting other Moslems all over the place? I never had much faith in "Give Peace a Chance". When has that ever worked or made a dime? I mean seriously.

I have to pause and ask myself why is Moslems biting Moslems such a bad idea? Its sounds like a win win to me. Neither side is our friend in any case. We do have too many Moslems and if they kill EACH OTHER, pass the mayonnaise.

Or is it that our big corporations are worried about the Oil ? Not to worry, there is a lot of that to be had. There is ALWAYS something to sell to both sides. Like guns and ammunition. Just enough to keep it all going..and going,,and going. Lots of money in guns and ammunition. Probably cheaper than building them schools and roads too. They give us their money and we give them the guns to keep going to the bloody end. Attacking mosques on Ramadan doesn't slow THEM down. yay team ! Hummahumma

And if one side wins so what, they will soon split into factions themselves and start on themselves by Tuesday. We aren't around much in Iraq and they are still blowing up cars there, and as soon as we leave Afghanistan they will shoot their mother and deface their sisters anyway. Maybe they will step up Heroin shipments to Iran besides.

Pakistan? So many opportunities. I wouldn't be against selling poison gas to Pakistan. They do have a stockpile of atomics, of course, and we need to give India the means to "defend"itself.More business there surely.

I say we build a Disneyland in Qatar and expand the liquor industry in Saudi. Drugs...how many drugs do we have for their sons and daughters? Bullets are for the peasants to use. We want daddy's little innocents in their hijab and kaffiyehs. Don't tell me it isn't a market.

The Arab social order will be beyond even salvaging by the "extremists" if its all rotten at the core and totally unusable. You can buy a mullah here and there. It doesn't take all that much. What's to recruit them, Mahmud?
Line the bottles up at the bar and open the door.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 10/23/2012 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Threater, I think your comment should be archived as a "classic"!!!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/23/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I have a General Dynamics recruiter's phone number I MUST pass to you Threater! :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/23/2012 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  A true Capitalist solution to the problem of people who refuse to stop killing themselves. I like it.
Posted by: Charles || 10/23/2012 13:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, but hold the mayonnaise. Just put a little bit of salt on my popcorn, thank you very much.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/23/2012 14:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Man that does have certain classic cadence.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/23/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||

#7  No. We do not sell to both sides to increase the killing. If they want to go to Perdition in Syria or elsewhere we needn't stop them, but even when the key parties are about equally evil there is no need to be seen making things worse.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/23/2012 17:48 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-10-23
  Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
Mon 2012-10-22
  Men 'planned mass suicide attack'
Sun 2012-10-21
  Nigeria military nabs Bokoboy at senator's home
Sat 2012-10-20
  Leb: Wissam al-Hasan Assassinated in Beirut Bomb Blast
Fri 2012-10-19
  144 Dead as Syria Jets Blast Maaret al-Numan and Suicide Bomber Hits near Interior Ministry
Thu 2012-10-18
  Iranian-American Pleads Guilty to Plot to Kill Saudi Envoy to U.S.
Wed 2012-10-17
  ROPer arrested for attempting to blow up Federal Reserve Bank in NYC
Tue 2012-10-16
  Pak President Admits Creating Terrorist Groups
Mon 2012-10-15
  Gunmen kill 20 at mosque in northern Nigeria
Sun 2012-10-14
  Israel AF kills head of Al-Q affiliate in Gaza
Sat 2012-10-13
  96 Dead, Including 41 Troops
Fri 2012-10-12
  US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Thu 2012-10-11
  US embassy security chief gunned down in Yemen
Wed 2012-10-10
  Turkey Intercepts Syrian Civilian Plane
Tue 2012-10-09
  Taliban bravely shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace

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