[Tolo News] At least 40 Taliban myrmidons, including six foreign bad boys, were killed in a joint Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) operation in northern Kunduz province on Sunday, local officials said.
Twenty other holy warriors were maimed in the attack.
The operation was launched in Gor Tepa area in Kunduz city, Qala-e-Zal and Imam Sahib districts. Fighting is still underway between the ANSF and Taliban myrmidons, head of the Media Office of Police in Kunduz, Sohrab Samim said Sunday afternoon.
The fist clash took place in Gor Tepa in the city, the second clash happened in Qala-e-Zal and the third in Imam Sahib.
"The clash started yesterday and it is continuing. Afghan cops have also suffered casualties but no details as yet," Samim said, adding that special forces reinforcement from several provinces have arrived in the area to fight the myrmidons.
So far there are also civilian casualties, he added.
The six foreign snuffies who were killed in the attack come from the northwestern Faryab province, four of them were from Tajikistan and two were Chechens, according to officials.
The holy warriors have taken control of a number of police posts in Imam Sahib after the attack and the police force has been moved back, the officials said, adding that more troops have arrived in the city and the situation is expected to be brought under control soon.
Qala-e-Zal is one of the most insecure districts of the province. The clash comes after the Taliban on Friday announced the start to their spring offensive.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The acting police chief of Uruzgan, Gen. Gulaab Khan and a civilian were killed by a number of unknown gunnies on Saturday night, local officials said.
The incident took place about 11:00 pm local time in Trinkot, capital of the province while he was checking the police check posts in the city, a front man for the Provincial Governor's Office, Dost Mohamad Nayab said.
"The gunnies fled the area after the shooting," Nayab said, adding that "one of the employees of the criminal department at police headquarters has been placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! over the incident."
The investigation continues, he added.
No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the attack.
This comes after Uruzgan police chief, Matiullah Khan, was mysteriously killed about one and half months ago in Kabul. His body was found at the scene of a suicide kaboom in Police District (PD) six of capital city.
Gulaab Khan was appointed as the acting police chief after Matiullah Khan's death.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"You're #3#2 #1 now. Be alert"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2015 8:50 Comments ||
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[Ynet] 17 operatives from Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, the local Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... branch in the Sinai peninsula, were killed Sunday in an Arclight airstrike by the Egyptian military.
[AnNahar] 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... murderous Moslems attacked troops from Niger on an island base in Lake Chad, the government said Saturday, in a raid believed to have taken a heavy toll on the army.
"At dawn on April 25, fighters from the terrorist group Boko Haram riding motorized canoes attacked the island of Karamga, a position northwest of of the town of Bosso held by our defense and security forces," the ministry of defense said.
"Operations are ongoing with the support of partners to counter the ambitions of this terrorist group," the ministry added in a statement broadcast on television.
The ministry did not indicate if there were any casualties as a result of the raid.
An official from Diffa, the capital of the southeast, however warned the corpse count was "very heavy in the ranks of the Nigerien army," without providing further details.
State television reported that Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou had called a meeting of the national security council after the Islamists' attack.
Boko Haram snuffies have seized a strategic island in Lake Chad from Niger's army, killing "many" soldiers in the first attack in Niger for weeks, army sources said on Sunday.
Hundreds of armed fighters from the Islamic holy warrior group aboard motorised canoes attacked the island of Karamga at dawn on Saturday, army and government sources said. "There were many (Niger soldiers) dead on Saturday, considerably more than in the first attack," said one of the army sources, referring to a battle in February for control of the same island in which seven Niger soldiers died. A second army source confirmed that Niger soldiers had been killed in the fighting, adding that a counter-attack to clear the island of snuffies was still ongoing.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Let's see. Hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists stuck on an island. In the right hands, it seems like an opportunity to me.
#2
FYI BOKO HARAM has changed its name its now to be called either the "ISLAMIC STATE OF WEST AFRICA", andor the "ISLAMIC STATE'S WEST AFRICA PROVINCE" [aka "ISWAP"].
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n man locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! on suspicion of shooting dead two coppers and injuring two others in separate attacks in Riyadh was acting on instructions from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Syria, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
Mohammed Abdulrahman Abu Niyan, 23, has confessed to carrying out the shootings in March and April on behalf of Islamic State, after meeting a representative of the group in the Saudi capital, the ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
Islamic State last year called on followers in the kingdom to carry out attacks against the authorities, Western expatriates and members of the Shi'ite Moslem minority there instead of traveling to Syria or Iraq to join the group.
Abu Niyan recorded footage of the shooting on a mobile phone, the ministry said in its statement, and was preparing boom-mobiles for use in future attacks. He received cash and instructions from Islamic State, the statement said.
The ministry said it had offered a bounty of 1 million riyals ($266,666) for the capture of Nawaf bin Sharif Samir al-Onaizi, who it said had been Abu Niyan's accomplice and who had adopted a Moroccan accent and name to disguise his identity.
Abu Niyan was detained a week ago attempting to cross into Yemen, where an Islamic State group on Thursday released a video in which it demonstrated military training techniques.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] At least five air strikes hit military sites and an area near the presidential palace compound in the Yemeni capital Sanaa at dawn on Sunday while warships pounded an area near the port of the southern city of Aden, residents said.
The bombings were the first raids on Sanaa since a Saudi-led alliance said last week it was scaling back a campaign against Iranian-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias, which control Sanaa and have powerful allies in Yemen's factionalised armed forces.
"The kabooms were so big they shook the house, waking us and our kids up. Life has really become unbearable in this city," a Sanaa resident who gave his name as Jamal told Rooters.
Eyewitnesses in Aden said foreign warships pounded Houthi armed positions around the city's main commercial port and dockyard, the first time the port area has been shelled, residents said.
Aden residents reported heavy festivities between local armed militia and Houthi fighters backed up by army units, and sources in the militia said they were retaliating for the first time with tank and Katyusha rocket fire against the Houthi advance.
In the southern province of Dalea, the turbans said they had fought for hours to retake several rural districts with the help of Saudi-led air strikes, in fighting which left around 25 of the Houthi forces and six of their own men dead.
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04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The KSA + Coalition is seemingly ignoring Houthi + Iran demands for pre-conditions to be followed befdore any peace talks,
[Ynet] French police have detained three people in an investigation into an alleged plot to attack a church near Gay Paree, authorities said Sunday.
The three are suspected of possible links to Sid Ahmed Ghlam, the chief suspect in the thwarted attack. The investigation has revived security concerns in La Belle France, tense after deadly attacks on a kosher market and newspaper offices in January. Authorities say Ghlam, an Algerian computer science student, planned an attack on a church in Villejuif, south of Gay Paree, and is suspected in the killing of a woman nearby. He was tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! last week after apparently shooting himself by accident.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A bomb dropped by unknown suspect(s) on Saturday to target a Pakistain Railway workshop near Garhi Shahu did not explode luckily.
Approximately 5-kg kaboom was planted in a water cooler and the suspect threw it from the Garhi Shahu overhead bridge.
Quoting bomb disposable staff, initial police inquiries said the bomb did not explode luckily due to defect in its wiring. A number of officials were working in the workshop when the bomb was dropped.
A senior police official told Dawn the target of the alleged terrorist(s) was the Chinese locomotives stationed at the workshop and the Chinese engineers who occasionally visit there. No Chinese engineer or expert was present at the time when the suspect made the attempt.
The incident created panic among the railway employees who immediately vacated the workshop. A police contingent rushed to the spot and the workshop was closed down.
A search operation was also launched in and around the area when the police personnel were informed that the suspect who threw the bomb was on foot.
The bomb squad told the police that a bunch of nut bolts and ball bearings was found from the bomb.
The police official said intelligence reports had already alerted that the Chinese projects in Pakistain might be targeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Nine suspected faceless myrmidons were killed in fresh air strikes in Tirah valley of Khyber tribal region on Saturday.
An Inter-Services Public Relations statement said jets bombed hideouts of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and Lashkar-e-Islam ...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver.... in Kanu Gharaibi, Pathai, Baagh, Rajgal, Jhrandy and Nakai areas of Kukikhel ...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government... and Malakdin Khel.
The ISPR claimed that nine faceless myrmidons affiliated with the TTP and LI were killed in the air strikes and five of their hideouts destroyed.
LI front man Salahuddin Ayubi in a telephonic conversation with journalists rejected the ISPR's claim.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... security forces jugged Please don't kill me! 12 suspects during a house-to-house search in Ghundi area of Jamrud tehsil. Officials said the detainees were suspected of having links with some banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder
Sent it high into the blue
Hands of mullahs blasted the world a-sunder
How they lived allah only knew!
Souls of men dreaming of goats to conquer
Gave us wings, ever to soar!
With burkas before And sheep galore.
Nothing can stop the Paki Air Force!
[ALMANAR.LB] Three people were killed and 20 injured when a bomb planted on a cycle of violencewent kaboom! Sunday in Pakistain's restive southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , officials said.
The bomb went off in the town of Sibi 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of the picturesque provincial capital Quetta.
Senior police official Ghulam Ali Baluch, who gave the casualty toll, said two of the injured are at death's door.
"The bomb was planted in a cycle of violence. We are investigating the possible targets but we have not found any specific target yet," Baluch said.
Senior administration official Akbar Hussain Durrani confirmed the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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"Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to spinal injury sustained in the March air strike," Shaheen tweeted.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who last year declared himself caliph of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), was reportedly wounded in a US-led airstrike in March.
Martin Chulov at The Guardian, who last week broke the news of the airstrike, also says his sources tell him Baghdadi is still alive and being treated by doctors from Mosul.
Information on Baghdadi's reported injury and the airstrike that apparently caused it is still vague.
Two officials, one Western and one Iraqi, confirmed to The Guardian that the airstrike targeted multiple cars in the town of Baaj in northwestern Iraq on March 18, but the Pentagon said the airstrike was not aimed at a high-value target and that it had "no reason to believe it was Baghdadi."
Chulov reports that officials didn't know that Baghdadi was in one of the cars targeted in the airstrike. He was reportedly staying in that area of Iraq because he "knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there," a source who is aware of Baghdadi's non movements told The Guardian.
Baghdadi is reportedly recovering slowly but has not resumed day-to-day control of ISIS. A former physics teacher from Mosul, Abu Alaa Afri, was installed as ISIS' temporary leader while Baghdadi recovers, an Iraqi government adviser told Newsweek last week. You mean the Afri who ratted out Baghdadi, of course? ;-)
Newsweek describes Afri as a "rising star" within ISIS, and the Iraqi government adviser, Hisham al Hashimi, said Afri had become even more important than Baghdadi.
Afri will assume full leadership of ISIS if Baghdadi dies, Hashimi said.
Having a caliph with a background of religious education is important to ISIS, which has shaped its self-proclaimed caliphate around a strict interpretation of sharia law. The group recruits people to live in its territory by marketing it as an Islamic utopia.
Der Spiegel reported recently that early leaders of ISIS, many of whom are former Iraqi intelligence officers from the regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, decided to make Baghdadi caliph because he, as an "educated cleric," would "give the group a religious face."
Posted by: gorb ||
04/27/2015 14:43 ||
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#1
Al-Baghdadi's people have shown an aptitude for the kind of spinal surgery he needs.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2015 16:15 Comments ||
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#3
Hopefully the paralysis entails being completely unable to move his arms and legs but still fully able to feel that his crotch is itchy and his hemorrhoids are burning.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/27/2015 16:52 Comments ||
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#4
72 Buxom Virgins and paralyzed from the neck down...
[Rudaw] BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's army announced it was making progress in the battle against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... holy warriors in Anbar province Sunday even as it struggled to retake territory lost over the weekend and a string of bombings rocked the capital.
After driving holy warriors out of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit earlier this month, Iraqi forces have turned their attention to Anbar province, large parts of which have been under Islamic State control for more than a year. The see-saw conflict has seen both sides take and lose territory.
Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said on Iraqi television that the army has achieved "90 percent" of its objectives in the town of Garma, between Baghdad and the ISIS-held city of Fallujah. He added that an operation had been launched to retake the water control station on a canal lost over the weekend.
"Our bold military units in Anbar are still holding their positions," he said. "In the coming days, we will implement a well-organized plan to attack the enemy and drive it out of its positions seized in Anbar."
The attack on the water control station on the canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River late Friday was a setback for the Iraqi military, killing the general commanding the 1st Division and a dozen other officers and soldiers. Al-Obeidi said eight soldiers lost in the fighting had been recovered.
He also raised the corpse count for the number of soldiers killed in a triple car kaboom on the desert border crossing with Jordan to seven.
Militants in Baghdad also kept up the pressure on the Iraqi government with a string of bombing attacks in and around the capital that killed at least 18 people.
Medical officials confirmed the corpse count. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Car kabooms killed more than a dozen people and maimed over 50 others in Baghdad on Sunday, police said.
Four people were killed and 13 were maimed by an kaboom on Sayyid Ali Sultan street, while three others were killed and seven injured in another blast at a local market in the city center.
Separately, two people were killed and six were maimed when a bomb on a minibus went off in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of al-Husseiniya.
Earlier on Sunday, four non-combatants were killed and 13 were maimed by an kaboom in Hayy Al-A'amel neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, while another two died and 12 were hurt in a separate blast in the southern district of Mahmoudiya.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Malaysian police said Sunday that they have detained 12 men with suspected links to the Islamic state group who are believed to be plotting attacks on strategic government targets in the country.
National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the men, all Malaysians aged from 17 to 41, were detained during an operation this weekend.
Police also seized Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group flags and various items that could be used to make explosives, including ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, kerosene and wires, Khalid said in a statement.
"The plan by the cell members to launch attacks is in response to calls by IS leaders in Syria to attack secular Islamic countries deemed to be their enemies," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[Sun Star] At least three high-powered weapons and the unidentified corpse of a New People's Army member were recovered Sunday following an encounter between Philippine troops and the militants in Toril District, Davao City.
Military spokesperson Lieutenant Vergel Lacambra said they have yet to identify the body left by the communist militants after the encounter, which took place Sunday morning while the troops were patrolling the area.
Lacambra said, "The troops have been receiving reports about an armed men planning to extort in the area, thus the security patrol was alerted. The troops encountered around 30 communist rebels at Pamara. The firefight lasted for about 20 minutes."
A separate clash occurred between troops and NPA militants at Sitio Salagunting in Paquibato District, Davao City, on Saturday afternoon. No casualties were reported.
[Philippine Star] Philippine foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario yesterday before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) spoke about reports of the Islamic State threat to the Philippines through the Black Flag Movement in Mindanao. He said the IS threat to is real because of the Black Flag Movement's pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
According to a presentation by Rommel Banlaoi, director of the Center for Intelligence and National Security Studies, the IS has followers among the Abu Sayyaf, Rajah Solaiman Islamic Movement, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao or the Black Flag Movement.
The ASEAN is expected to come up with a Declaration on Global Movement of Moderates to curb Islamist extremism in the region.
[The Nation] Thai police have obtained arrest warrants for five suspects accused in the Central Festival car-bomb attack on Koh Samui earlier this month. The five men were identified as Asmin Katemmadee, Abdulloh Samae, Hakeem Dohloh, Ammar Waedaramae, and Muhammadyakee Samae. There are three other suspects, including a used-car dealer, already in military custody without being charged.
Royal Thai Police spokesman Lt-General Prawut Thawornsiri said that the five acquired a number of vehicles used in the bomb attack on the tourist island on the night of April 10.
#8
So he's either dead, or in alternate seriously or permanently crippled.
Presuming that he is still alive but indeed very seriously injured, + depending on what level of medical assistance he receives as per full-or-partial recovery, iff he's still the same as I remember ala many years ago I suspect he will work or dedicate himself towards some form of physical recovery AMAP ASAP.
The Al-Jazeera network reported on Sunday night that the Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes in the Qalamoun region along the Syrian-Lebanese border, targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers, a report that has yet to be verified.
However, according to the IDF, it was not behind the attack, which they estimate to have been part of the country's internal conflict.
#2
@Steve: check out Marx Bros. flic 'Day at the Races" and the racing tout skit. 'Get your tutsi frutsi ice cream'! Grouch ends up buying a dozen tout sheets top get all the codes for the winning horse from Harpo.
According to new reports on Monday, Israel did not conduct a series of airstrikes in Syria on Sunday night, as previously reported by Al-Arabiya and Al Jazeera.
According to the report, the explosions that landed between Syria and Lebanon were carried out by rebel forces belonging to the Nusra Front - an Al Qaeda branch operating in Syria.
According to the reports by Al-Arabiya and Al Jazeera, the attacks led to several casualties.
[ALMANAR.LB] The Lebanese army targeted in Saturday the terrorist groups in Arsal barrens, launching artillery and rocketry shells onto their positions. The Lebanese military had earlier struck the terrorists in the area of al-Zamrani in Arsal barrens.
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04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] At least 18 detainees were massacred by the Syrian military intelligence in the northwestern town Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province on Saturday, hours before the command of Syrian regime army and security units withdrew towards Latakia, activists and monitoring group said.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said Bashir al-Assad's military intelligence has killed 18 detainees in Jisr al-Shughour before they fled the town that seized by the conservative Islamic factions, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
According to reports from activists, the command of Syrian army and security units withdrew towards Latakia province in the early Saturday after fighters advanced in the neighbourhoods of the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian rebels on Saturday has made remarkable gains by taken control of northeastern town of Jisr al-Shughour on the enclaves of Latakia, Bashir al-Assad's hometown, as well by taking control of 5 villages in predominantly Alawite region of Sahl al-Ghab in the western countryside of Hama province.
The conservative Islamic factions, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front took control of al-Qahera, al-Ziyara, Tal Awsat, Tal Zajram and al-Mansoura.
Saturday gains in Idlib and Hama may haste the collapse of forces loyal to Assad as fear and panic hit high records amid the Alawite minority, activists said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian regime's air force on Sunday has killed more than 34 people in air strikes on Darkoush, an affiliated district to the town of Jisr al-Shughour northwestern Syria, which was captured on Saturday for the first time in the four-year conflict by a hardline Islamist alliance including al Qaeda.
In a brutal retaliation to the humiliating defeats inflected by Salafist tough guys in the last few days, Syrian jets carried out at least 20 air strikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and Darkoush on Sunday.
Field activists also reported that 18 detainees in Jisr al-Shughour were killed by Bashir al-Assad's military intelligence before they fled the town heading Latakia province.
The capture of the town of 50,000 people in Idlib province was the latest setback for government forces.
Last month the hardline Sunni Salafist tough guys seized Idlib city, the quiet provincial capital, after forming an alliance that includes Nusra, the Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... movement and Jund al-Aqsa, but not the rival Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group which controls large tracts of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamist alliance calls itself the Army of Fatah, a reference to the conquests that spread Islam across the Middle East from the 7th century.
The town of Jisr al-Shughour situated on the enclaves of Latakia, Bashir al-Assad's hometown, such a threat that has sparked anger among pro-Assad activists on the social media.
According to reports from activists, the command of Syrian army and security units withdrew towards Latakia province in the early Saturday after fighters advanced in the neighborhoods of the city.
In relevant development, rebels on Saturday took control of 5 villages in predominantly Alawite region of Sahl al-Ghab in the western countryside of Hama province.
Saturday gains in Idlib and Hama may haste the collapse of forces loyal to Assad as fear and panic hit high records amid the Alawite minority, activists said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The Army intelligence detained several Syrian nationals in the Bekaa region and seized a factory used for manufacturing bombs.
According to a statement issued by the army on Saturday, an army intelligence unit raided a bomb-making factory in the town of al-Marj in the west Bekaa, detaining four Syrian nationals.
The communique said that army confiscated in operation, which was carried out on Friday night, a large quantity of machines and material.
The factory is reportedly located near a Syrian encampment in the area.
The military said that detained suspects were referred to the competent authorities, along with the seized items.
An investigation was also launched.
The Lebanese security forces began implementing recently strict security measures and kicked off security plans across the country to reduce crime rate and clamp down on terrorists.
The Lebanese army has been carrying out large-scale raids and has managed to arrest scores of offenders.
Syrian government warplanes pounded the northwestern city of Jisr Al Shughur on Sunday, a day after its capture by Al Qaeda and its allies, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four air strikes hit the city, which had been one of regime’s last remaining strongholds in Idlib province. There was no immediate word on any casualties from the latest raids, but the Observatory said the death toll from several dozen air strikes on the city on Saturday had risen to 27.
“At least two civilians and 20 fighters were killed in the Saturday air strikes along with five others whose identities are not yet known,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. “The toll is expected to rise after the bombing continued overnight and into Sunday.”
Fighting between rebel forces and regime troops continued south of the city on Sunday, he added.
A rebel alliance including Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front seized Jisr Al Shughur on Saturday, less than a month after capturing the provincial capital Idlib city.
State media said government troops had redeployed outside the city “to avoid casualties among innocent civilians.”
That would be the first time the Syrian government has ever worried about civilian casualties. I suspect somehow that the statement is propaganda. Call me cynical...
“Army units carried out night raids against a number of military positions infiltrated by armed terrorist groups in the area surrounding Jisr Al Shughur,” the official SANA news agency reported.
It charged that “terrorist groups carried out a horrific massacre of more than 30 civilians, mostly women and children, after entering Jisr Al Shughur.” But it gave no further details of the alleged killings, and the Observatory said it had received no reports of any massacre of civilians.
Oh look! More government propaganda!
On Saturday, the Observatory said its sources had seen the bodies of at least 60 regime loyalists in the streets of Jisr Al Shughur after the battle for the city.
It said at least 23 prisoners had been summarily executed by government forces before their withdrawal. Al Nusra posted photographs on its official Twitter account of what it said were the bodies of the slain prisoners.
With the seizure of Jisr Al Shughur, regime forces hold just a few remaining parts of Idlib province, and analyst Thomas Pierret said the city’s capture marked a “turning point.”
“It’s the end of the loyalist counteroffensive that began in spring 2013,” said Pierret, a lecturer on contemporary Islam at the University of Edinburgh.
But he noted that while the regime is “in a position of weakness, that doesn’t mean it’s going to fall tomorrow.
“In 2012, the regime survived despite experiencing greater disasters.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2015 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.
[DAWN] Nine suspected 
"Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to spinal injury sustained in the March air strike," Shaheen tweeted.
[Sun Star] At least three high-powered weapons and the unidentified corpse of a New People's Army member were recovered Sunday following an encounter between Philippine troops and the militants in Toril District, Davao City.
