[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The local officials in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... are saying that the cross-border shelling from the other side of Durand Line continue on this province as dozens of artillery shells landed in two district over a period of 24 hours.
Provincial police front man Faridullah Dehqan confirmed that more than 80 rounds of artillery shells landed on Nari and Dangam districts during the latest incursions that started on Tuesday.
He said the shelling did not result into the loss of lives but a house was damaged besides inflicting losses to the other properties.
The Ministry of Defense and the central government officials have not commented in this regard so far.
This comes as the Chief Executive of the Government of National Unity Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... on Saturday shared the issue of cross-border artillery shelling on eastern provinces of Afghanistan during his meeting with Pakistain’s National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua.
In his meeting with Janjua, Abdullah said new opportunities are also available for the betterment of relations between Afghanistan and Pakistain, emphasizing that the Pak government should take necessary steps to establish an environment of trust between the two nations.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan officials had said the border forces have been granted permission to respond to the artillery shelling from the other side of the Durand Line.
A front man for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) Gen. Dawlat Waziri has told RFE’s Afghanistan service that the border forces do not need a permission to respond to the incursions.
He said they (bordre forces) have already been granted persmission to act and respond to the artilley shelling in a similar manner.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Several bandidosmurderous Moslems were killed in the latest Arclight airstrikes conducted by the Afghan Air Force in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military said Wednesday that the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinities of Pashtun Kot and Andkhoi districts.
The source further added that the Afghan Air Force targeted the Lion of Islams’ hideouts using the MD-530 helicopters, leaving at least three dead and five others maimed.
According to the Shaheen Corps, several weapons, ammunition, and explosives belonging the bandidosmurderous Moslems were also destroyed.
In the meantime, the Afghan Air Force targeted the Taliban ...Arabic for students... hideouts in the vicinity of Pashtun Kot district, resulting into the killing of at least 24 Lion of Islams.
The Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Army said at least five bandidosmurderous Moslems were also maimed in the same airstrikes and two hideouts of the Taliban were destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] A major kaboom at an entrance of a sports stadium, packed with hundreds of Afghans, killed 14 people on Friday in the southern city of Lashkargah, officials said.
They could not immediately say what caused the blast, some suspected it was triggered by a boom-mobile.
Hundreds of locals had gathered to watch a wrestling match when the kaboom went off in the evening local time, officials and locals said.
A front man for Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... ’s governor, Omar Zwak said 14 people had bit the dust and over 40 were maimed.
"It was a heart-wrenching event, with people shouting and yelling as it took a while for the ambulance to arrive to the scene," Ahmad Shah an eyewitness said by phone from Lashkargah, the bustling provincial capital of Helmand, which is part of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s stronghold.
Images on several TV stations showed a giant flame and plume of smoke rising from outside the stadium where some local officials were amongst the onlookers, residents said.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack which came a day after the killing of 33 civilians in a suicide kaboom in Kabul where people celebrated Naw Rouz, the first day of the country’s new year.
Most of the victims in Kabul’s attack, claimed by ISIS, were Shias.
President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. in a statement condemned the attack, adding "terrorists" can deter Afghans from marking their religious and national events.
The attack in Lashkargah came just as Afghans elsewhere celebrated a rare historical flash news over the country’s cricket players winning a game abroad, allowing them to contest for the first time in an international cricket match set for next year.
"The violence is non-stop here. We can not even enjoy our victories and events," Fazl Ahmad a Kabul resident told the Arab News.
"How long do we have to suffer like this? What is the responsibility of the government and the foreign troops here?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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The article fails to note that the Rafah border crossing into Gaza was opened yesterday. Nor does it note whether the gate was closed prematurely in response to this attack. Perhaps there is no connection this time.
[AlAhram] Egypt’s Alexandria security director survived an liquidation attempt on Saturday that killed one policeman and injured four others in a bombing in central Alexandria that targeted the security director’s convoy, state TV reported.
The interior ministry said in a statement that an improvised bomb placed under a car detonated as the security director’s convoy was passing in El-Moaskar El-Romany Street.
Egypt’s prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek has ordered that the High State Security and Sidi Gaber prosecution inspect the scene and take statements from the injured.
The attack comes days before Egypt is set to hold the 2018 presidential elections, which will take place from Monday to Wednesday.
Egypt's interior ministry and army have been beefing up security nationwide ahead of the elections, where incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is facing the head of the Ghad Party Moussa Moustafa Moussa.
No group has so far grabbed credit for the Alexandria attack.
Saturday’s liquidation attempt is the first against a security official since end of 2016, which witnessed a number of attacks that included a failed liquidation attempt on a senior judicial official in September 2016, and the October 2016 liquidation of an army brigadier general who had previously served in North Sinai, where the army’s war against terrorism is concentrated.
It is also the first major attack in the Mediterranean city since the April 2017 bombing of St Mark's Cathedral, which killed 18 people during Palm Sunday celebrations.
[AlAhram] In his first interview with the press, Egyptian Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel-Ghafar announced that that from 2014 to 2017 Egyptian security forces tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! 19,108 terrorist elements with huge quantities of weapons and ammunitions.
In the interview with weekly al-Ahram al-Arabi magazine, Abdel-Ghafar also revealed that terrorist attacks notably reduced from 481 in 2014 to only 22 in 2017 in Egypt.
He also added that in the previous four years, the Egyptian security forces, in cooperation with other security services both domestic and abroad, managed to conduct preemptive security strikes that enabled them to destroy 992 terrorist hideouts and to confiscate 2322 different weapons as well hundreds of thousands of pieces of munitions.
The minister also added that the security forces were able to confiscate 1511 boom belts and bombs.
"We cannot depend solely on the security confrontation to terrorism, the responsibility goes to the state's institutions to raise the awareness of the citizens especially the youth to protect them from radicalism," the minister said in the interview.
Abdel-Ghafar also stressed that the ministry has not taken any exceptional procedures during the fight against terrorism.
"All procedures are done in accordance with the constitution and law as well human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... principles," he asserted.
Concerning undocumented immigration, Minister Abdel-Ghafer announced that a new department has been founded to fight human trafficking.
He also stated that from 2017 till today, 103 cases of undocumented immigration were foiled in Egypt as well 361 cases of illegal crossing of Egyptian borders, and 4419 non-legal migrants colonists have been arrested from different nationalities.
He also added the phenomenon of undocumented migration by sea from Egyptian shores has stopped thanks to a 2016 law that criminalized such activities with penalties ranging from a fine of EGP 200 all the way up to life imprisonment.
[DAILYPOST.NG] A top leader of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... sect has surrendered to Nigerian troops in the ongoing military operation in North east.
Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, Director Army Public Relations, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.
He said that the person who gave up is one of the Shekau’s Amirs in Malumri village under Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
"Mallam Ramat Alamin aged 47 and Shuwa by tribe was intercepted by troops of 22 Brigade Garrison deployed along road Dikwa ‐ Gulumba Gana", the statement read.
"Mallam Ramat said he came to Dikwa to surrender himself to the troops due to the fact that Boko Haram Terrorists group could no longer hold itself and they are presently in disarray with little or no logistics to carry out their nefarious attacks.
Oh? What was that little kidnap-and-return of the schoolgirls the other day, then? And why did they keep Leah, the only Christian, if they lack logistics?
"He disclosed that his personal weapon AK 47 rifle with Registration No: H3 2538, four AK 47 empty magazines and one cycle of violence were hidden behind Government Teachers College Dikwa while trying to enter the town to surrender.
"He also said that, many of the Death Eaters are willing to surrender due to hunger and lack of basic logistics but are scared of the consequences.
"It is good and courageous for him to surrendered and would be recommended for Government de-radicalization programme.
"He gave out some information and encouraged other Death Eaters to take a cue from him and surrender in order to ensure lasting peace and stability in the North Eastern part of Nigeria.
"It obvious that the fight against the snuffies is a decisive engagement as the Nigerian military is fully committed to the battle.
"This is paying great dividends as the snuffies could no longer take the heat.
"Operation Deep Punch 2 and other Operations have decimated and uprooted Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) from their stronghold in Sambisa forest," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Nearly two dozen Yemenis have said they were beaten, tortured and arbitrarily held by militias affiliated with the United Arab Emirates in southern Yemen, then dumped hundreds of kilometres away in areas rife with violence and warned to never return.
In a series of videos and documents sent to Al Jazeera, the civilians said they were rounded up and driven from the port city of Aden by the UAE-created Security Belt - a force set up in 2016 to police southern areas in the war-ravaged country - to active front lines in the provinces of Taiz and Sanaa.
One resident who was recently deported said the Security Belt harassed "northern" women and the elderly.
"We were attacked in our hotels [by the Security Belt] and they kicked us out. We couldn't find anywhere to stay," he said.
"There were a large number of us and we had a lot of money [invested in Aden], but they harassed us, and told us this is not your country.
"They forced us out and even took our medication."
Shops, restaurants and homes were all raided by the Security Belt, others reported, with hundreds of people tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and their assets seized.
"They gave us 24 hours to leave and said if we don't, we'll open fire at you," another man said. "They even killed one person in al-Mansoura [a district of Aden]."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[ARABNEWS] La Belle France’s interior minister confirmed the death of the hostage taker at the supermarket in Carcassonne. The man who killed at least three people in attacks in southern La Belle France was a 26-year old known for petty crimes and possession of drugs, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told news hounds, adding that he acted alone.
Collomb named the attacker as Redouane Lakdim and said he was from nearby Carcassonne, where the attacks started.
"He was known for petty crimes. We had monitored him and thought there was no radicalisation," Collomb said.
Emanuel Macron on a trip to Brussels said that his country is still facing high levels of terror threat. Macron confirmed that the terror attack has killed 3 and injured 16.
Police have jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! a woman connected to Lakdim, a French prosecutor said.
Earlier the police launched a raid on a supermarket in southern La Belle France after two people were killed in the attack and three were maimed by a gunman who was screaming "Allahu Akbar". The gunman then fired shots at the police and took hostages in a supermarket in southwestern La Belle France.
A source at the Interior Ministry said three had died. "It is a temporary assessment as it could unfortunately get worse. Three people are maimed, including one of them seriously," the source said.
The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to ISIS and that he has demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam - the prime surviving suspect in the ISIS attacks that killed 130 people in Gay Paree in 2015.
More than 240 people have been killed in La Belle France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or were inspired by, ISIS.
The man first shot at four coppers in the historic town of Carcassonne before barricading himself in the Super-U supermarket in Trebes, about 8 km (5 miles) to the east.
A police union official said the attacker had killed one person with bullet in the head in Carcassonne before the hostage-taking.
The French policeman shot by Redouane Lakdim after swapping himself for a hostage in the siege at a supermarket in southwest La Belle France is "fighting for his life," President Emmanuel Macron said.
"He saved lives and honored his colleagues and his country," Macron said in a televised address, adding that the officer was "very seriously maimed."
Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to the ISIS group, stormed the store and fired on shoppers and staff before taking them hostage.
"He is currently fighting for his life and all our thoughts go out to him and his family," Macron said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ARABNEWS] Ottoman Turkish authorities began rounding up 155 suspected followers of the holy manFethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... on Friday, police and media said.
Ankara accuses Gulen, who lives in the United States, of criminal masterminding a failed coup in July 2016, a claim he denies. Since the coup attempt, the authorities have placed in durance vile Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! thousands of his suspected followers and fired thousands more.
Friday’s roundup included warrants for 55 employees in 13 provinces of Isik Publications, a publishing company that printed Gulen’s books, Istanbul police said.
Warrants were also issued for 38 former coppers in six provinces who were accused of being members of Gulen’s purported network, the state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... Anadolu reported. Twenty-four were tossed into the calaboose, it said.
In addition, police targeted 62 executives of five labor unions in a third operation spread across seven provinces, Anadolu said. Thirty-eight were tossed into the calaboose, it said.
The labor unions were part of Aksiyon Is Confederation, an association of unions that was shut down over suspected links to the Gulen network.
In the 18 months through December 2017, nearly 160,000 people have been arrested and 152,000 civil servants sacked as part of a post-coup crackdown, according to a report published by the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... on Tuesday.
The UN urged The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to end its state of emergency, which was declared after the coup and has been extended six times. It accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings, collective punishment and torturing detainees.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the report was filled with unfounded allegations and compared the criticism to propaganda from Death Eater groups.
The crackdown has also been criticized by Turkey’s Western allies, who accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of using the failed putsch as a pretext to quash dissent. Turkey says the measures are necessary to combat threats to national security.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[ABC7news] Officials said a 51-year-old former Bay Area resident who drove a flaming minivan loaded with propane tanks and gasoline cans through the main gate at Travis AFB has been identified.
Authorities extracted a video from his cell phone and are analyzing it to try and see if it could help point to a motive. Sources wouldn't offer any details about the video.
During a presser Friday, officials said the driver had no known links to terrorism.
FBI agent Sean Ragan said Hafiz Kazi was found dead inside the Kia minivan Wednesday evening shortly after rolling slowly through the main gate of Travis Air Force Base and crashing.
Ragan said five propane tanks, three one-gallon size gas cans and several lighters were found in the van along with three phones and a gym bag with "personal effects."
Ragan said "we don't have any nexus to terrorism at this point," but Sherlocks haven't determined a motive.
"Why did this individual end up at the front gate of Travis Air Force Base on fire, that's something we want to know, and the public wants to know," Ragan said.
Ragan said Kazi lived throughout the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... Bay Area and has lived in the United States since 1993. He said Kazi is a native of India who was a permanent legal resident of the United States.
Ragan said they have been unable to find any of Kazi's family living in the United States. A family member in India has been notified of Kazi's death, Ragan said. He said Kazi appeared to work as a cab driver in the past, but that Sherlocks haven't determined if he was currently employed.
"There is no evidence of religious affiliation," Ragan said. "As of right now, we know of no other associates."
#2
Sure, sure. So evidently it is commonplace for California non-terrorist residents to drive around with five propane tanks, three gas cans (assuming full gas cans), and several lighters in their vehicles.
He got his wish and went out with a bang. Glad no one else got hurt.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region ‐ The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has announced the withdrawal of its fighters from Shingal, saying that the Yezidi population no longer faces a security threat and the Iraqi government is capable of providing security to the area.
The announcement follows on the heels of Ottoman Turkish threats to carry out a military operation against the PKK in Shingal and the group’s headquarters in the Qandil mountains of the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK deployed forces to Shingal in 2014 to help defend the Yezidis against the genocidal campaign of ISIS.
Since Yezidis have organized and can now run their own affairs and the Iraqi state has accepted the democratic wishes of the Yezidi people and is prepared to protect their security, "we took the decision to withdraw our guerrilla forces from Shingal," Kurdistan Communities Union, the PKK umbrella group, said in a statement on Friday.
The move has been welcomed by one of the largest Yezidi advocacy groups, Yazda.
"We express our gratitude to the Kurdish Force who volunteered to open a safe passage to rescue Yazidis in 2014 and held security for the past three years with great courage and dignity," stated Murad Ismael, executive director of Yazda, welcoming the withdrawal decision.
The next step is for the Iraq government to "recruit a sizable force from the locals, provide training and equipment, to deal with the challenging security situation in Sinjar," he said, using an alternative name for Shingal.
Baghdad, the international community, and aid agencies must all come together to support restoration of essential services, stability, and economic growth, he added, estimating that billions of dollars will be needed to revitalize the region.
Earlier this month, the Nineveh Provincial Council called on all gangs, including the PKK and the Hashd al-Shaabi, to withdraw from Shingal, stating that civilians had requested the administration return and resume services.
The PKK had refused repeated calls made by the Kurdistan Regional Government to withdraw from Shingal.
Yezidis have already begun fleeing Shingal, fearing an imminent Ottoman Turkish offensive, according to Vian Dakhil, the only Yezidi member of the Iraqi parliament. She called on the legislature to "commit" Baghdad to preventing such an operation.
Iraqi Foreign Minister said on Tuesday that they strongly reject any Ottoman Turkish attacks within its borders after he met with a delegation from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... Ankara has said they want to coordinate with Baghdad against the PKK in Iraq.
ISIS captured Shingal on August 3, 2014, committing genocide against the Yezidi population. The town was liberated in November 2015 by a coalition of Kurdish forces, including KRG Peshmerga and PKK fighters.
The Peshmerga withdrew from Shingal, a disputed area claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad, last October after military confrontations between the two sides following the Kurdish vote for independence.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi authorities have tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! a chemist linked with Paleostinian faction Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", on his way back from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... , a website close to the Paleostinian gang reported quoting his relatives.
Taha al-Jubouri was arrested upon his arrival to Baghdad International Airport, after he was surprisingly deported from Turkey, Quds Press reported.
According to the website, Iraqi intelligence agents interrogated Jubouri at a nearby prison facility.
Jubouri, 64, an Iraqi, was apprehended in Philippines’ capital Manila for entry documentation issues, after which he left to Istanbul in January, where he resided legally with his wife.
Iraqi authorities have yet to confirm the arrest.
In January, Philippines authorities said they arrested Jubouri who appeared to have been involved in the manufacturing of rockets fired by Hamas on Israel. The authorities said, however, his deportation was purely for visa issues.
Israel has regularly launched Arclight airstrikes on Hamas-controlled Gazoo Strip. Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of firing rockets targeting its settlements.
[BenarNews] Philippine soldiers have captured two Abu Sayyaf rebels who were a part of a faction involved in a bold cross-border abduction of foreign tourists from a Malaysian resort 18 years ago. The suspects, identified as Dani Suraidi and Amdak Jumah, went with troops willingly when they were picked up near the southern city of Zamboanga on Tuesday, regional police director Billy Beltran said.
Suraidi had a standing arrest warrant for kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom in connection with an Abu Sayyaf raid in 2000 on Sipadan, an island resort in Sabah, a state in eastern Malaysia. Beltran said, "We have been looking for him for so long. Suraidi belongs to the group of slain Abu Sayyaf senior leader Albader Parad who then led the abduction."
Beltran said Suraidi was a man trusted by another Abu Sayyaf leader, Alhabsy Misaya, who was killed by troops in a clash last year in Parang town on Jolo island.
Last week, another Abu Sayyaf militant allegedly involved in the Sipadan hostage crisis was killed during a police operation in Tabuan Lasa town, in nearby Basilan province. Mobin Kulin, alias Mulawin, was being arrested by authorities but violently resisted, provincial police commander Nickson Muksan said.
Posted by: ryuge ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[Bangkok Post] Police arrested a 21-year-old man from Hat Yai district in Pattani province for allegedly plotting bombings with four others in Bangkok in October 2016.
Police arrested Muhammad Sakariya Damung on a train at Hat Yai train station on Monday morning. He was heading for Pattani from Bangkok, CSD superintendent Pol Col Sompong Suwannawong said. Mr Muhammad Sakariya is believed to have been involved in bomb plots in Bangkok and nearby provinces on Oct 25-30, 2016. He was the bomb maker. Police also suspected him of involvement in many bombings in the southern border of Narathiwat.
Authorities foiled the conspirators by raiding their rooms in Bang Kapi district of Bangkok and Bang Sao Thong district of Samut Prakan.
Mr Muhammad Sakariya was charged with collaborating to posses illegal explosives and with illegal association.
Deputy police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said the arrest came after police caught Mubariah Kana and three others for their alleged involvement in the plot earlier. Police later sought arrest warrants for 14 more suspects.
At present, there are 17 suspects in this case, 14 of whom are already in custody. The three at large are Usman Jaengor, the leader, Wae-arong Jaeuma and Abdulnase Awae.
[AnNahar] Nearly 170,000 people have fled after a Ottoman Turkish-led assault on the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Afrin, the U.N. said Friday, pointing to the harrowing conditions faced by those displaced.
"The estimate now is 167,000 people have been displaced by hostilities in Afrin district," Jens Laerke, front man for the U.N. humanitarian agency, told news hounds in Geneva.
He said most of those who had left had gone to nearby Tal Rifaat.
The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile said it had deployed mobile medical clinics and health supplies to areas hosting those displaced from Afrin, warning that health services inside the city were also lacking.
"Children, women, and men have undertaken harrowing journeys to flee Afrin and need urgent health assistance. Our staff have met civilians who reported walking for 36 hours to reach safer areas," WHO's representative in Syria Elizabeth Hoff said in a statement.
Marixie Mercado, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children's agency, also said displaced people arriving at collective shelters in Nubul had described "running in the face of shelling, sleeping in the open, being separated from their families."
Ottoman Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin city from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia on Sunday.
Ankara began its offensive in January against the YPG, which it says is allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waging an insurgency against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... since 1984.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has put the number who have fled Afrin at 250,000, and says dozens of civilians have been killed in the fighting, in addition to around 1,500 Kurdish fighters.
According to Laerke, between 50,000 and 70,000 civilians are estimated to remain inside the city.
The health situation there is also difficult, the WHO said, pointing out that only one of four hospitals was currently functioning.
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03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Dozens of people, mostly women and kiddies, have been killed and 80 others injured after Syrian government forces bombed an underground shelter in Eastern Ghouta, according to rescuers and activists on the ground.
Sources on the ground and rescuers from the Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said on Friday that at least 37 victims burned to death after air raids carrying napalm gas hit the shelter in the town of Irbin.
"An air strike targeted one of the underground cellars in Irbin last night where between 117 to 125 people, mostly women and kiddies, were hiding," Izzet Moslemani, an activist in Eastern Ghouta, told Al Jazeera.
Abul Yusr, an activist and citizen journalist in Irbin told Al Jazeera that the corpse count was 45, and that the air raid had hit two shelters connected to one another by a corridor, leading to one becoming completely destroyed.
"The air strike entered through one shelter, where it went kaboom! and killed everyone in it. The fires spread through to the second shelter, which soon became totally engulfed in flames," Abul Yusr told Aljazeera.
"Some people managed to escape the fire in the second shelter, but their injuries are quite severe."
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03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Eastern Ghouta’s six-year rebel rule was in its dying moments Friday as fighters evacuated one of the Syrian enclave’s three remaining pockets and a deal was reached for another.
A blistering regime assault since February 18 on the last opposition bastion outside Damascus has splintered remaining rebel territory into three shrinking pockets, each held by different factions.
Damascus and its ally Moscow have implemented a "leave or die" strategy with deadly air strikes on the enclave.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2018 00:00 ||
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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 former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
[ARABNEWS] A major 
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
[ARABNEWS] 
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
The labor unions were part of Aksiyon Is Confederation, an association of unions that was shut down over suspected links to the Gulen network.
[BenarNews] Philippine soldiers have captured two Abu Sayyaf rebels who were a part of a faction involved in a bold cross-border abduction of foreign tourists from a Malaysian resort 18 years ago. The suspects, identified as Dani Suraidi and Amdak Jumah, went with troops willingly when they were picked up near the southern city of Zamboanga on Tuesday, regional police director Billy Beltran said.
[Bangkok Post] Police arrested a 21-year-old man from Hat Yai district in Pattani province for allegedly plotting bombings with four others in Bangkok in October 2016. 
